Progress Report
Octubre 23-28, 2006 // CONSTRUCTION LOG #107
Contact phone numbers
Internet Phone:
New York: 315-279-6711
Toronto: 416-907-5758 // 416-461-2203
Costa Rica:
Cell: 506-305-3965
Land: 506-282-4142 Ext. 101
NOTE: the New York and Toronto numbers are "local calls" for people in the area codes; calls from outside the area code will be billed at the normal rate from the caller's area code to either the "315" or the "416" area code.
NOTE: NOW THAT THIS DEVELOPMENT IS ESSENTIALLY FINISHED, THE LOG WILL FOCUS MORE ON THE RIO ORO DEVELOPMENT. IT WILL BE INFORMATIVE TO THOSE PLANNING ON BUILDING, THOSE LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO PURCHASE OR TO LEASE, AND FOR THOSE WONDERING WHAT EXPATS DO IN COSTA RICA AND THE LIFESTYLE OF TWO ORDINARY PEOPLE.
CONSTRUCTION
Weather: mostly sunny with the odd overcast and mist—very unusual for October.
Unit 102: The owner moves in on Tuesday. If the workers have dragged out the finishing as long they could. It is 6 wk. behind what should have been the finish date. I fired the granite company and hired another company to finish the work—Monday. The painters lost the color code and threw out the cans with the formulae on it. The granite counter at the kitchen was stained. This has been a frustrating finishing.
Unit 109: done and fantastic! The owner arrived from Chicago just to see it. He is super ecstatic and if that weren’t enough, the unit is leased.
Irrigation system: no progress.
Satellite TV system: one of our resident owners may have found a solution to our re-occurring problem—a programmable black box available in N. Am. His seems to be working fine. If it continues, we’ll be getting more.
The new house—Unit 126: An overwhelming majority of the owners voted to convert the building. The conversion is well underway. It should be done in about three weeks.
Water system: We put in a particulate filter and a chlorination system in place.
Misc: Still lots of little things to keep us going full bore – converting the building to a house required that we finish off shelving the three unsold lockers and storing on-going mtnc. supplies in them. Cleaning up bits and pieces in the large rancho which has always been used as storage and not as a social area for which it was designed is still a work in progress but should be completed next week. We have some little bugs with big jaws and huge appetites eating the palm thatch. We are spraying insecticide to kill them and then we’ll clean up and furnish it a bit.
We’ve now had time to gather operational costs and to sort through the unusual transitional phase. It appears that the budget put together by me was fairly accurate although further analysis is required—it might be a case of luck or of good forecasting—personally I would rather it be the latter but if the former, there still won’t be any rude surprises for the owners. This is still a task in progress. The turnover meeting where the board of directors will be elected has been set for Dec. 15. That is the date Paul and I are now working towards.
Rio Oro Development
We’ve continued clearing the land and the stream.. We have at least another week’s work to do on it. The soil samples were collected and the report should be ready in a week to 10 days. We have to get better security there. Someone stole the electrical panel and returned the next night for the service panel. We’re working on what will be the most cost effective system security.
On of our investors is trying to figure out how to put a financing package together to make it easier for N. Am. to purchase. He is in the marketing, entertainment, and construction business so he’s a perfect fit.
OUR LIVES
The 109 owner was here and I used some of the time to get to know him better. He’s a happy, cheerful guy who’s enthusiastic about life and a pleasure to be around. A client of one of our investors and a friend of hers was also here and they took some attention. A resident owner’s brother whom I had met a year ago arrived and the owner arrived a few days later.—it was nice getting re-acquainted. Tuesday, a friend arrives for a week’s visit.
Lita is still in the Philippines with her family. The parrot is still alive and has chosen to remain in a tree for the past 24 hrs. When he/she/it gets hungry enough, he’ll jump on the stick and into his cage where he has food—in the meantime, there is a hungry cat (not Hugo) lurking under the tree.
Brian, Lita, Hugo and irreverent Vicka, the pigeon toed parrot.
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