My Beautiful Life on the Hill

I live up on the hill in Playa Carrillo, Costa Rica. This has given me the most beautiful life I never thought was possible. I’m living abroad and loving my retirement dream life. Gardening is a grand hobby of mine. So imagine my excitement to get the opportunity to design the landscape myself. All of it! And choose my favorite plants from the local garden shops. A variety of banana, mango, papaya, guava, citrus, and guanabana trees fill my gardens.

My neighbor, Andy, convinced me to start a new hobby, beekeeping. I have two bee boxes that house the Mariola bees. This small, non-agressive bee, produces the most delicious and expensive honey in Costa Rica. My first-year harvest produced an amazing (9) 1.5 ounce jars. My friends Ellen and Mark were here to join and taste the delicious flavor. I spend my days swimming, working in the gardens, hiking, reading, and getting together with friends.

Bought a Toyota Truck

I bought myself a brand new 2024 Toyota Hilux truck, manual, 6-speed, diesel fuel truck. I just love it! My sporty, air-conditioned truck gives me the freedom to drive anywhere I want to go around Costa Rica. A friend bought my Honda Pioneer and he is quite happy to be driving it on his small farm now.

A Year of Hosting Family and Friends

Many friends and family have traveled here to enjoy my new place. My most special guest? My sister, Michelle, who promised me that she would make the long journey here when I finished the house. Her husband, Jonathan, and my nephew, Wynston, were all here to celebrate Christmas and New Years together. Jonathan and Wynston traveled to Rio Celeste, which gave Michelle and I ten days together. It was an absolute blast!

All Post-Build Projects Completed

It’s typical for the homeowner to work on their house for one more year after the builder finishes. My neighbor, Bob, prepared me for this next step. He said the builder might be done but you’re not done. It’s going to take another year to get everything right.

Recommendations

It’s important to use your new appliances and air conditioning units. Also, check the pool equipment. There is a one-year warranty through the builder. If your home is completed during the dry season, you must live in it during the entire rainy season. This will help you chase leaks and resolve the problems.

Rainy Season Surprises

I had never experienced this amount of rainfall in my life. The rain would start to pour and pound on my metal roof. I would walk through every room in my house. My goal was checking the ceilings, windows, and doors for water. I felt relieved because in the beginning of the rainy season there were no leaks. Then the rainstorms became more intense with fierce winds whipping the house. Water was now running down the walls from the highest pitch of the ceilings in multiple rooms.

I ran for towels to soak up the pools of water forming. Multiple hurricane-like storms brought sideways blowing winds. Water was cascading down the interior glass walls like a waterfall. It was pooling on the floor below. My friend, Maggie, just happened to be visiting me. She was here to experience first-hand the water pouring down the glass walls. We worked together to soak up the water with all the towels we found in the house. We made several videos capturing the indoor waterfalls and sent them off to the architect and builder. The builder returned the next day to assess the situation. He got up on the roof. The builder announced to us that there was absolutely no silicone applied around any of the upper windows. He spent three hours adding silicone. Problem resolved.

Rainy Season Puts Gutters and Downspouts to the Test

The rainy season put my new gutters and downspouts to the test. My builder installed the downspouts. They were too small to handle the amount of rainwater. It was running down from the expansive roof. The water was cascading over the gutters and creating a small lake right next to my house. I was out in the rainstorms sweeping gallons of water away from my house. There was just too much water coming down too fast. As hard as I swept, I couldn’t keep the lake from moving into my house.

Additionally, I had another architect/builder construct a carport for my vehicle. It was located within two meters of my house. There were no gutters or downspouts on the carport. The rainwater pouring off the roof of the carport was forming small lakes around it. These lakes then turned into rivers, all flowing directly into my house. My son, Zachary, and his wife, Samantha, were here visiting during a whopper July thunderstorm. Zachary asked for a shovel. We both went out in the rain. He started digging a swale for the water to gather. This helped move the water away from the house and off the slope of the lot. His efforts redirected the water at the back of the house away from my home.

Roberto to the Rescue

Rainstorm after rainstorm confirmed that I needed a better solution to redirect all the rainwater away from my house. I decided to ask my friends to recommend a really great, skilled worker to tackle the rainwater challenges I faced. Roberto came to my rescue. He added the biggest, round downspouts possible to the house. He also added gutters and big, round downspouts to the carport. Additionally, he installed three French drains. These drains take the water away from my home. They lead out to the slope of the property.

There were still leaks in the bedrooms, laundry room, and kitchen. The silicone added to the upper windows didn’t resolve the leaks. Roberto climbed up on a ladder and discovered that the builder never added flashing to the roof. It wasn’t cheap, but worth the money to resolve the water leaks..

Problems resolved.

Air Conditioning is A Must

I need air conditioning to sleep comfortably here. After only a month of usage, my new Carrier Split AC unit in my bedroom stopped blowing cool air. I got right on the phone and called Jose who installed the new AC units. Jose was concerned for my sake. He wanted the problem to be resolved within the unit itself. After Jose checked the wall unit inside and the fan outside, he had that look on his face. I knew what that meant. The problem was not in the units. Instead, it was the freon line underneath the concrete patio outside my bedroom. My builder arrived and brought a jackhammer.

Not the New Concrete!

My heart sunk knowing that my new concrete slabs were going to be jackhammered to pieces. Was the leak found in the first concrete slab? No. Was it found in the second slab? No. Was it found in the third slab? Yes. What did the AC technician discover? My builder used “4” soldered sections to piece the copper freon line together. Not one which is standard. So the AC technician replaced the “4” soldered pieces together with one long, copper freon line. Just like magic, my AC unit was blowing cool air again. The AC technician left. Now, I’m staring at what looks like blown up slabs of concrete.

What to do now? The builder said he would patch all the areas that were jackhammered. The cement patchwork looked horrible. This was my new house and the patched up cement areas would always be noticeable. I asked my builder for another solution. He suggested a skim coat to go on top of the concrete slabs. He came out and experimented with one concrete slab. I gave him a thumbs up to continue on the remaining concrete slabs. We decided to apply a skim coat on all the concrete pavement. It was not just for the areas blown up with the jackhammer.

Experience Matters

Does he send his most experienced and skilled worker? No. He sends a young and inexperienced worker. Nice young man, he worked hard, but it was his first time ever applying a skim coat of cement. Right after completion, the concrete pavement around my house looked pretty good. Then the rains came, rain and more rain. The skim coat was starting to bubble and blister on many of the pavement slabs. It was coming off in big chunks exposing the concrete below. The long rainy season left the concrete covered in mildew and algae.

My builder was never going to come back and correct the problem with the concrete. The job was going to be expensive. It was worth it to message Roberto to return and resolve the problem again. It took four days of hard work. They used six gallons of $80 a gallon of solvent-based, solid color, concrete sealer. Now the pavement around my house looks really beautiful.

Problems resolved.

My Beautiful Life on the Hill

Life isn’t easy here but I love it! Costa Rica is a beautiful country, with a peaceful vibe, gorgeous beaches, slow pace of living, and friendly people. I’ve adapted to those planned black-out days with no electricity from 8-5 pm. I have a Plan B for days with no water and no internet. If the cleaner ants come marching in and invade my home, I just take off for a couple of hours. Finally, the road up to my place is always a fun, bumpy ride. But that bumpy road takes me up to my peaceful and beautiful life up on the hill.

Launching New Website

Check out my new website. https://landtolifecr.com/ It features the inspiring stories of people who came to Costa Rica. They, just like me, built a house. Each story will feature their valuable insights, recommendations, successes and challenges faced during the construction process.

Until next time…

James 1:17 – “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”