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Salty Craig
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2014 19:22
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Seth
Hey there. It sounds to me like your life is nearly perfect. You single? My wife wouldn't like that much rambling around. I admire your hard work and respect for the locals. It is much cheaper to own property in poorer areas and I have discovered that it's much better to blend in than flaunt any money around. I like your place very much. I wouldn't have done the siding that way but otherwise, looks great!!!
Salty Craig
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Seth
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2014 13:11
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Quoting: Salty Craig Seth Hey there. It sounds to me like your life is nearly perfect. You single? My wife wouldn't like that much rambling around. I admire your hard work and respect for the locals. It is much cheaper to own property in poorer areas and I have discovered that it's much better to blend in than flaunt any money around. I like your place very much. I wouldn't have done the siding that way but otherwise, looks great!!!
Thanks Salty Craig! I do have a Costa Rican girlfriend who plays the cello and loves spending time in nature as I do. Being apart for 5 months isn't the easiest thing in the world but we're able to talk whenever we like via Skype during that time so it's really just something we have to accept and choose to live with - and to be honest I enjoy being away for a while and having the chance to really miss her. Makes the sweet times sweeter.
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Seth
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# Posted: 19 May 2015 21:56
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Back in Alaska now - finished up putting in the second floor, stairs, balcony, etc at my place in Costa Rica over the last few months. Lots of fun!!
The tongue and groove guayaquil for the second floor was nice and dry when I returned in February and I got to work right away fitting it together and nailing it down - broke quite a few drill bits making pilot holes in that wood - it is super, super hard wood! I found a great local guy, a friend of a friend, to help me out sanding boards downstairs while I fit and nailed them upstairs - and he wouldn't accept more than $2.44/hr... not too shabby and he worked twice as hard and ten times better than the numbskulls helping me last year.
After that we built the L-shaped staircase - no more going up and down on a rickety ladder made of 2x4s... what a relief.
Next up we hauled the wood for the balcony uphill to my place using Pancho's ox team - gotta love doing things the oldschool way once in a while.
Starting the second floor.
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After a couple layers of polyurethane varnish.
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Staircase done and dusted in a day and a half.
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Hauling wood for the balcony.
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Seth
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# Posted: 19 May 2015 22:07
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Two friends and I built the wraparound balcony around two sides of the house over the course of a week - lots of laughter, joking around, and the satisfaction of seeing great progress each day while swallow-tailed kites swirled around in the sky above us. Now I've got resident birds like Green Honeycreepers, Scarlet-Thighed Dacnis, as well as North American migrants like Wilson's Warblers and Swainson's Thrushes just a few feet in front of my face as I sip a cup of coffee each morning.
In addition to the birdwatching potential the balcony also provides me with another couple meters of roof on those two sides of the house, where the rain and wind tend to come from during the rainy season. So it gives me more protection there, plus I ended up making some 'curtains' of black plastic mesh that I can lower and secure during the storms to stop the horizontal rain from getting to the wall.
But I still wanted to protect the wood even more, and seeing how the rain had whipped the varnish off on much of the outside I ended up buying a bunch of gallons of some thick elastic paint - waterproof and thick as glue, and painting the house a reddish brown, or 'cafe' as it's called on the paint cans. The paint also sealed up many cracks and splits in the wood and I'm hoping that elasticity comes in handy as the wood expands and contracts with changing weather. I'm keeping the inside of the house with a clear finish on the wood so I can still enjoy looking at it indoors. I found that when I'm outside I'm always looking at the view, the jungle, and the wildlife anyway.
All in all it was a super productive and fun winter down there and I can't wait to get back in October and concentrate more on gardening and chicken-keeping!
Thanks for checking it out.
birdwatching balcony
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finished house.
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ColdFlame
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# Posted: 20 May 2015 11:59
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You're living my dream, Seth. I love your place. I've never been to CR, but my wife and I have been talking about it extensively. We would attempt something similar to what you're doing - away from tourists, off-grid ideally (maybe not with electricity being so cheap), grow our own food, etc...
Anyway - your place is gorgeous. Congrats on the ongoing project! Subscribing to this thread. 
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Seth
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# Posted: 21 May 2015 12:45
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Quoting: ColdFlame You're living my dream, Seth. I love your place. I've never been to CR, but my wife and I have been talking about it extensively. We would attempt something similar to what you're doing - away from tourists, off-grid ideally (maybe not with electricity being so cheap), grow our own food, etc...
Thanks very much - Let me know if you'd ever like to come down and see what it's like!
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TranquilMan
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# Posted: 24 May 2015 22:46
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Hey Seth,
I'm envious. We just spent 22 days in Costa Rica and loved the climate, the country and especially the people. They abolished their army in 1948 and such a peaceful safe country. We were in Quepos and Samara on the Pacific Coast and inland near La Fortuna. Where are you located? Nice adventure for you.
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ColdFlame
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# Posted: 24 May 2015 22:57
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Quoting: Seth Thanks very much - Let me know if you'd ever like to come down and see what it's like!
I appreciate that very much, Seth. Thank you for the offer. My brother and sister in law just purchased a place (no idea where) in CR, but it is near to the coast, and in a very Americanized (Canadianized?) community. Not my style at all, but I'm sure we'll be heading down there to check it out at some point given that accommodations will be next to free. At least it would give us a base camp to explore from to discover the real CR.
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Seth
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# Posted: 25 May 2015 16:49
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Quoting: ColdFlame in a very Americanized (Canadianized?) community. Not my style at all, but I'm sure we'll be heading down there to check it out at some point given that accommodations will be next to free. At least it would give us a base camp to explore from to discover the real CR.
That's the tricky part. I only came to know my area by being invited to work on a migratory bird research project there years back - otherwise I never would have found out about it. I'd say look for dirt roads and ask where they go and get on buses to places unknown and who knows what you might find. Good luck!
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Seth
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# Posted: 25 May 2015 16:50
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Quoting: TranquilMan Hey Seth, I'm envious. We just spent 22 days in Costa Rica and loved the climate, the country and especially the people. They abolished their army in 1948 and such a peaceful safe country. We were in Quepos and Samara on the Pacific Coast and inland near La Fortuna. Where are you located? Nice adventure for you.
Glad to hear you had a nice trip to CR. I'm actually only about 15 miles or so from La Fortuna as the crow flies, but on a completely different road system to the south.
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Arias90
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# Posted: 19 Apr 2020 20:37
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Hi Seth, I hope all is well with you. I’d like to build a small cabin close to San Carlos. I thought why not reach out to you and see if you’d be interested in building it. I’m not wealthy either, but we can discuss prices. If you are not interested maybe you can help me get information of people who can build it for a reasonable price. Thank you
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