Progress Report

January 16-21, 2006 // CONSTRUCTION LOG #67

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.

Pictures: 121 / 122 / 123 / 120 / 117

The Story: Murphy was in top form this week!!!

CONSTRUCTION

Weather: Normally beautiful with strong winds.

Units 121, 122, and 123:

121: Substantial advancement of this unit. All interior partitions have been erected and interior boarding is 50% finished. Exterior boarding is also finished and mostly covered with the first base coat. Exterior moldings and some interior moldings have been started.

122: See "Murphy Is Alive and Well"

The wooden terrace trusses have been stained. All exterior moldings have been installed and the area on the ground floor terrace for the washer/dryer and storage area have been framed. Terrace floor tile installation has started.

123: Skylight has been installed and the roof is ready for finishing. Most of the taping has been finished and it's ready for painting.

Note: The high level work-gutters, downspouts, soffits, and facias as well as roofs were the focus of much activity this week. That work is now largely done. Clean up around the buildings is virtually complete. Window installation remains only on 121. Units 117-120. 117 and 118 have been advanced substantially. 117 kitchen is installed and 118 kitchen is nearly finished. Granite for both house bathrooms has been installed so now we can proceed to order the tempered glass doors with designs (normally 15 days turn around). Baseboards and interior moldings installed. Ready for paint.

119 and 120: They are coming along but not as fast; we are focusing elsewhere. The interior walls of 120 have been finished ready for paint and the exterior terrace wall has been stuccoed.

Units 101 and 102: The design is finalized and application will proceed this coming week. It may not make that much difference as I'm not sure we have a place to move to.

Electrical System Upgrade: Last week I wrote: "The transformer suddenly showed up and was spotted but no one has been on-site to hook it up." Again no none has shown up this week to work but I did hear a tale of woe (or a tall tale) from the subcontractor which, if I had believed him, might have made me cry. I didn't cry, however, as all his woes occurred two months after he was suppose to have been finished with this work. He wants a chance to show me he really is a man of his word. I told him he's got a long trip ahead of him for that to occur. He promised to make good, Do I believe this?.not at all! He says that on Monday he will begin and will be finished the following week. Yea, right-and I've got 6 fingers on each hand and three feet..

This is really holding up the completion of a number of other things. It's become a major stumbling block and when I'm in a better bargaining position, I'll exercise my trump card - a $50 reduction per day for each and every day he's late as per the contract, which is now about three months. Guess who owes who money?

Roadway: some progress has been made. It is suppose to be completed by the end of next week. I'm not holding my breath but a little progress is being made.

Misc.: The modifications to 103 are done and it is re-occupied.

Lockers: we haven't yet started construction. Houses are our main concern now.

Murphy is Alive and Well

If anyone ever wonders (and who would) that Murphy's "laws" no longer apply, just visit a construction site:

#1: A plastic cap to a pressurized water line blew off on the 2nd. floor (It's always the top floor when this happens, never the bottom) and before anyone noticed, water had rained down through the floor to the drywall ceiling on the ground floor. It's been drying now for three days and is about ready to be patched back.

#2: For some reason only????? knows, the electrician wired a normal 110 V outlet with 220 V in the master bedroom of 115. It wasn't labeled (why?) it wasn't color coded (why?), the plug style was not differentiated (why?), it wasn't disconnected at the electrical box (why?)... and the new tenant plugged in his MONSTER wall to wall TV and fried it!!! (Actually, the maker of the TV designed a front end fuse to take care of power surges or idiots in our case...) replacement of the fuse and we were back in business with a badly bruised electrician, and well he should have been.

#3: In hooking up the phones for 106, some wires seemed to have gotten crossed-all types of funny (actually, not so funny) things have been happening and not happening.

Have we made any progress? Yes, but it certainly hasn't been smooth sailing that's for sure.

Schedule for Completion

Unit 118 — January 31
Unit 117 — February 7
Unit 122 — February 14
Unit 123 — February 21

Units 119, 120, and 121 will also be getting done but we haven't set specific dates

Marketing:

The offer for 112 which was under discussion as of last writing, died. It was a case of an incompetent RE agent who is reported to have been going through some personal problems (no wonder), an arrogant and ignorant lawyer who was very important in his own mind, and possibly language ability —Spanish, English, Italian... It's unfortunate but it happens some times.

The 115 client's furniture did arrive on Wednesday of this week. He's nearly unpacked. We fried but repaired his TV.

Next Project

I've now walked the entire land four times and looked at it from many angles. After my third walk, I was ready to walk away from it. The owner had pathways cut so I could explore the property lines and access hard to reach areas. My conclusion is that it is a tough build and there are fewer good view lots than I had hoped for. Having said that, I determined that about 2/3rds of the land actually has a higher density zoning than the upper part which is new information. This allows more flexibility in site layout and type of housing we can build. It will also allow us more flexibility in pricing. I am to receive a proposal for a soil study to determine soil stability (in case of earth quakes and slides), soil compaction, and soil percolation. If the soil is suitable for building we will then proceed to tie up the land and continue our due diligence which will include amongst other things, a confirmation of lot lines and topographical map will be made

The land has a possible advantage of having a municipal street on two sides and several small streams which can be used for rain water run off and for landscaping and possible irrigation water. I'll be discussing this land with my partner on his return Jan. 25. In the meantime, we will continue our due diligence. I have a draft offer ready for review if it seems appropriate after my partner and I discuss it and after we get more information about it.

We've compared the views of those lots with views to another piece of property and found them to be much superior. In addition, the land is more sheltered from the trade winds which, at this time of year, can be quite strong.

The most important remaining question following soil analysis, will be water availability. Here we differentiate —possibly— between potable water and irrigation grade water. This needs further study.

OUR LIVES

Our Victoria BC friend is having so much fun here he has decided not to go to Granada. Lita has him driving her around for my surprise birthday. I have him busy translating. If he thought he would be sitting by the pool (which he didn't and doesn't like particularly) he was dead wrong. In fact, the longer he's here, the more work I can find for him.

One of Lita parakeets died. Why? Who knows. She grieved all one night, had the gardener bury it in the morning, and went out and bought three more. At least they are quieter and less mean than the parrot.

If I could avoid tomorrow and whatever Lita has planned, I would - but that's not the case so I'll just have to pretend to enjoy the fuss.

Brian, Lita, Hugo and irreverent Vicka, the pigeon toed parrot.

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