Macrame for Iron Men!

Once they have finished the digging - the filling in the holes and trenches starts.

Miles of rebar, woven into 'towers' and 'mattresses'

Then all that iron goes into the holes and troughs

And then you fill it all up with cement!

From the Ground Up

There is no basement in the house, but there certainly is a foundation. 

Many deep footings to hold the building in place (remember this is earthquake country and we are on the side of a mountain), and trenches to act as the base of all the walls.  All dug by hand. 

And as you can see, it has been raining

They have finished this maze and are ready to start building.

GO!!!!!!!

Permits arrived today!  We are off and building!!

On Your Marks, Get Set ...

We seem to still be waiting for the magical GO! of the permits.

The work on the site is continuing, so the holes are being dug and foundation trenches carved out.

They are even 'bending the re-bar' and making forms in anticipation of construction.   The word is - Any Day Now!!

Hopefully this is a great headstart for when the starter's pistol sounds!

Ojochal in Toronto

The neighbours came by for dinner last night - the neighbours from Ojochal that is.

Keith and Karen are in Toronto.  Their 3 month absence from Costa Rica, a chance to catch up with family and friends here, and of course - shopping!!.

A great evening with discussion of changes both here and there - gossip and business - your typical Saturday evening with friends, food and wine.

It was great spending time together.

It was also very interesting as the parts of our life begin to come closer and dreams become more real - oh enough of the 'navel gazing' - back to work!!

I Really Dig It!!

And so they dig!  Holes and more holes.

Many many holes - guess that is good, otherwise we might go surfing down the mountainside!

Footings and trenching are underway

The workers buildings have expanded

Looks like a real construction site!!

Thanks again to Karen for the pic.

Home Sweet Home

For all of you who have been waiting and wondering - here it is!  Home Sweet Home!

Well, not quite! 

We have anxiously been awaiting news house construction has started.  While that sounds momentus, with visions of earth movers and excatators, things in Costa Rica are a little different.

The work is largely manual and the crews work from sun up (5:30 am) to sun down (5:30 pm).  And most of the workers live outside the local area (largely San Jose and surrounding areas).  So, they live on site, making the 5 hour trek home on weekends.  This will be home to the crew for the next 10 months. 

The foundation is not a traditional North American foundation - no basements here.  They will manually dig a series of foundation holes (about 15 ft deep).  These footings and a concrete pad form the foundation.  It appears the footing holes have started (top right of photo).

Thanks to our friend Karen for being a 'nosey neighbour' and keeping us up to date.  She also sent this great photo of another new neighbour.

We hear the booming call of the Howler Monkey every morning, but this fellow and his 5 family members have taken to the tree just outside Karen's house.