We're BAY-UCK!

Hola! Yup, we're bay-uck in lush, green Costa Rica. What's bay-uck? It's a lot like DAYUM which I had to Google recently to find out is southern for DAMN. This is a quick trip of just 2 weeks to do some paperwork with our wonderful lawyer, Yalta, open a bank account, and finalize the interior layout of the casa. Sounds simple, eh? HA! (or JA! since we're in CR)

But first, let's re-cap how we made the trip. When we researched our flights, we found that we could fly DIRECT from Toronto to Liberia for significantly less than we could fly from the US (and those would not be direct). Since Heather would be joining us, we decided to drive to her place and all fly from Toronto. Plus, we wouldn't have to coordinate our flights' arrivals by flying together.

We picked up Heather, visited with her Mom for a short while, and met Joe and Diana in Port Perry for dinner on our way to the airport. We stayed overnight at a 'park & stay hotel' and flew to CR the next morning. We arrived over 30 minutes early, found all our luggage, picked up our car, and hit Mimi's in Cañas for lunch.

OK, so now we're at Heather's casa. That evening things got 'interesting', to say the least! We learned from Kevin (our friend and contractor) that the land that surrounds our casa was recently surveyed, and that our property lines may not be what we thought we bought. (And I don't mean that we got MORE than we thought LOL!) We also learned that an Argentinian was purchasing the surrounding parcel (hence the survey).

Here in CR, parcels of land are usually separated by barbed wire fences with natural fence posts made of madera negra (a very hard wood tree). It makes a pretty border because the posts usually re-sprout and become small trees again.

The fence around our property makes logical sense - it surrounds the small 'plateau' above the surrounding land which drops off steeply down to a creek called Rio San Luis. The sloping land around us seems like a good area for horses and cows but not for a building, at least that's what we thought. The 'Argie' has carved out a flat area from the hill upon which he will presumably build. The good news is he won't interfere with our view (unless he builds a 3 story casa!). Here's a temporary fence the Argie made to block his "driveway" down to the area he flattened. You can see our casa way to the left.

But the other news is that, depending on which 'plano' one refers to, either we own the entire plateau we thought we bought, or our septic system is partially off our land, or our casa is partially off our land. A plano is a surveyor drawing that is officially filed with the Registro and represents a plot of real estate. Here's a plano showing our lot in the center with multiple borders drawn.

We immediately contacted Yalta who immediately contacted a surveyor. They both came over one morning to check things out. Long story short, Yalta is working on filing a new plano with the Registro and we're back to the reno after a few days of unexpected heartburn. It looks like the worst case is we could eventually have to move our septic system to the other side of the casa. As long we we have that option if it becomes necessary, we're good to continue.

But wait, there's more...

Heather decided that, since the surveyor was here and had more time, she might as well have her property line verified. He started the physical survey that day (Friday) and then he and Yalta headed back to Tilaran. Late that afternoon, Heather got a call from Yalta that she needed to go to her office immediately (!). Yalta had searched the Registro for Heather's plano and found that the plano to carve her lot out of the large surrounding finca (farm) had not been finalized. Depending on one's perspective, Heather is either the finca de madre, meaning she owns the entire finca, or hmmmmm.....

Apparently this kind of stuff happens all the time here in CR, land of 'Pura Vida!' (which I'm learning means 'Anything Goes!'). Regardless, it's all good and Yalta has job security! So...

Hernan and Henry are finishing up the cemento board to fully enclose the casa under the new techo and they are applying a skim coat of 'reparo' (stucco?) and then priming it white. After that they have a bit more demolition to finish, including removing the old tile floor. It's odd that the floor has different levels (even though it's a one-story casa). They will have to apply concreto here and there to level it off. Here's the front - mostly done except repair to the porch ceiling that the roofers stepped through.

Here's the back, not done. 

We met with Kevin to mark (with spray paint), room by room, the location of every wall, door, and window so that, as our budget allows, he can have the guys start the rough re-construction. That will probably go on all this year into 2020. It will be very exciting to come back and see it!

Here's some of the rough interior awaiting more demolition. You can see cement board over the doors and windows in the old framing.

While we marked each room we were sensitive to three fledglings that obviously had JUST left the nest that is in the casa. One chick looked absolutely frozen sitting high on top of the wall not too far from the nest. Another chick was hopping around on the floor so Heather gently herded it around so we could work room by room without frightening it. The momma bird continued to bring food to the nest, so we assume the 3rd chick hadn't taken the leap. We are pretty sure they are clay-colored robins, the national bird of CR. You would think that as self-proclaimed birders we would be sure of this identification, but it's surprisingly difficult for me to id a bird so much closer than usual and inside the house. Here's the momma coming with food.

Stay tuned for 'Always Something!'... PURA VIDA!