Remember Plan B?

Well, I do. I think about it all the time. Plan B is the house that is going up on the hill. The one with the view. The elegant, serene, open, airy one. The one with doors. Its easy to forget when your forarms are still diced up from banigng away at metal roofs 20 odd feet from the jungle floor.

Guillermo did not forget about Plan B, and he has been tirelessly contacting construction teams. Well, its possible that he finally broke the case. We found a construction team that gave us a bid of 187k to build Plan B. I am ecstatic to get it in the right neighborhood. Its still a little higher than I would like, but its close. The second round of rebidding to the original three contractors returned only a bid of 260k. Thats a savings of a college education. Good Lord.

so -I have contacted Sam Baugh of Costa Rica Mortgage SA. He was recommended to me by Bram Shook of Centruy 21 in Nosara. I was impressed by Bram's professionalism when I met him in Nosara. He was introduced to me by a friend, someone who works with Bram. He told me, by way of recommendation, that Bram was the best Real estate agent in Nosara. He is well researched, straight forward, candid, and confident. Anyway, in a discussion with Bram, we talked about my property in the hills and my plans, and he gave me the card and recommendation of Sam Baugh. Now, its my policy on this blog to not post contact information of these people until I can recommend their services or tell you what I think. But, I talked with Sam today. He called me the day after I emailed him from his vacation. We discussed lending rates.

He tells me that I can borrow up to 80 percent of the value of my land plus the projected value of the house in a new construction loan. Rates are at 8.7 for a 25 year fixed rate, lower for adjustables. There are costs, like percentages for processing, a lender fee and legal fees, equal to roughly 3.5% the value of the loan. I am investigating the sanguinity of working with a loan, since I have been working hard at getting together the capital. I am sending this informtion to Ari Stonehill, my wonderful financial advisor at Bullfinch Associates in Needham MA. (Seriously, if you ever need a financial advisor, at least interview Ari. He has been great- seamlesly directing my investing to support my personal, idiosyncractic goals. He has bailed me out of messes and gotten me great rates with financial services. He is a great blend of conservative and creative. )

While I am doing this, Guillermo is sending the plans to one more contractor. We are going to get the lowest bid, then discuss preferences of teams.

Exciting news, and a big thanks to DatumZero.

that wasn´t so bad. I hung the door on the bodega yesterday, rather quickly. Then I built a 20 foot scaffold and climbed up the front wall to seal the teak. That was precarious. The teak oil, strangely, had coagulated. I added mineral spirits, but it was nasty looking.

I built a ladder to the roof, and cut the metal with a machete and a hammer, Nica style. Then I over hung the roof, and added a plank over the exposed Melina to protect it from the raid. Cut myself up pretty badly in the process. Another, dont try this at home.

I slept in the house last night, for the first time. I tied up my hammack and slept until the howler monkeys woke me. Actually, I just went back to sleep, so tired I was, until about 7:30, when I went for my good morning surf.

I am so dark right now from all this work in the sun. I look like I did as a kid. Its great though, and the work is easy after a month off. I am going to try to build the front door today, and to return items to the ferreteria, and then finally to install the locks, and staple the plastic over windows. I better get going.