So, We're Buying a Bar

We are happy to announce that we have found a great house!  We have put our offer in and it was accepted.  We are in the closing stage of the process so it's just paperwork.  We are super excited about the location we found.  It's just in the area we wanted to be in, it's a decent size because many Tico houses are built smaller so bigger is a good thing.  It has an open floor plan for the kitchen and Livingroom area - something I have always wanted.  There is great outdoor spaces and room for both Eduardo and I to have our own workshops. To top it all off, it's an amazing price. It needs some work done to it, but for the price we are paying we expect it to.  Ok, yes, it was bar and the bathroom is outside but we will get to that...  Let me introduce you to the area and the actual house. 

The area we are moving into is in the Providence of Alajuela, County of San Carlos, City of Chachagua - lots of fun Spanish words! In my opinion it's absolutely the most lovely area of Costa Rica.  So let me just toss out some fun facts and fancy pictures I stole from Google.

Arenal Volcano

Lets talk about the elephant in the room, or in this case the volcano 10 miles away.  Arenal is known as the breathing mountain because it's the most active volcano in Costa Rica in the last 60 years.  The reason it hasn't been active longer is because prior to 1968 it was well on it's way to be dormant.  In 1968 it woke up on a grand toddler scale and blew its top off.  That eruption took out three villages, 87 people, and covered 10 miles around the area in lava, ash, and rock and affected a total of 150 square miles around the eruption area. While the scale was not as grand, it killed more people than the Mount Saint Helens eruption.  Because the eruption blew on the west side of the volcano the city to the east was renamed La Fortuna, or the fortunate because it escaped all damage.  Since it's temper tantrum in 1968, Arenal has erupted about 35 times, but unlike a toddler, the more it erupts the better it is because it's releasing it's pressure and it avoids a build up in pressure causing it to blow its top big time.  It has been somewhat quiet for the last 10 years. I, of course, am hoping for a small but impressive eruption soon because there is that part in all of us that just wants to watch the world burn.....well maybe only on a small scale, in an unpopulated area, and after proper warning. Ok, so my idea of watching the world burn is greatly reduced then what it was in my 20's because who wants to clean up after that, really?!

Lake Arenal and Bosque Eterno d Los Ninos

About 30 minutes away from our new house is Lake Arenal, the largest lake in Costa Rica.  This lake started much smaller but was enlarged, two small towns were moved, and it is now one of the major sources for electricity in Costa Rica. The lake butts up against Bosque Eterno de Los Ninos, a untouched natural rain forest on federal land.  There is one small town on the lake, but most of the shoreline is natural and beautiful.  The nature preserve holds some amazing wildlife and landscapes. There are many trails cut into this area where you can see rivers, waterfalls, lush plant life, and some of those frogs you shouldn't lick.  This area has a lot of eco tourism activities for a good reason  

Hot Springs and Rivers 

I love baths. I don't mean that as a mild statement.  Hot or cold baths are the perfect way to fight just about any type of weather.  I can soak in a bathtub for an hour every night and be perfectly happy. One of the things I am not overjoyed with living in Costa Rica is the lack of bathtubs. Ticos just don't take baths. While I am still not getting a bathtub, I am getting hot springs and rivers and since we are so close to natural sources it's crystal clear water.  About 30 minutes away is the hot spring that comes out of the volcano.  There are a number of fancy hotels and spas in the area that take advantage of the hot spring river, and then there is the natural river that runs through the area. While the natural spring is not overly warm, we are living in a tropical country and no one really needs that.  

Along with the hot springs, there are a number of rivers closer to the property.  There is one close to La Fortuna that has a natural swimming hole deep enough for divers.  Also, at the end of the road for our property there is the Rio Chachagua, a smaller river good for taking shallow dips in.  So thankful even without a bathtub there is all types of water close by.  That, and of course we are still only two hours away from the ocean.  

Natural Hot Spring 

Swimming hole by La Fortuna

Rio Chachagua at the end of our road

New Neighborhood

The town of Chachagua is a lovely little town with all the local amenities that we are wanting with butcher shops, small groceries stores, bakeries, local soda eateries, hardware stores, church, and everything we need for daily life.  We will still need to go into La Fortuna for weekly shopping and back to the central valley at least once a month for Price Smart (think Costco) and other specialty needs.  While it's more traveling than we currently experience for all of our shopping, have no problem with being outside of the central valley area and only needing to visit monthly.  Below are maps showing you where in the country we will be.  

The general area is northwest of San Jose and the Central Valley

Here is the general county where Chachagua is in comparison to La Fortuna, the closest medium sized town that's about half an hour away. 

The house is about 5ish miles away from the town of Chachagua.

Here is the actual house.  You can see the Chachagua river at the end of the road that runs along side of our property.  

The Casa Exterior

The house we are buying was once a traditional Costa Rician style house that was built around the 80s.  The age is typical for houses around here.  Houses here built during that time period are either not around any more or built solidly enough they will last through the apocalypses.  About 10 years ago the family who owns most of the properties in that "block" of the country decided to sell that part to someone who wanted to use the house for a bar.  They added onto the original building and ran a bar out of the building for about 5 years.  While it's not necessary to say since were buying the building, that didn't work as well as they were intending. So, the property was up for sale for a great price because it's a bar in the middle of no where.  

The houses bones are sturdy and while we do need to make some changes and upgrades, those changes pretty much fall into the cosmetic area.  Some of those items are a bit more extensive than painting but still just cosmetic.  Since the cost of the house is defiantly on the lower end of our budget, we have the financial room to basically do what we need and want and still be within our house budge.  Below are pictures of the house and the changes we intend to make.  

I didn't get a good shot of the entire front of the house for reasons unknow to me. But the house sits a good distance away from the road at the back of the property.  It needs a really good power washing and painting. One of the first things we are doing prior to moving is have a roofing company redesign the roof line and install a new roof.  Because of the different roof heights it will most likely need to be an asymmetrical design.  When the newer portion was added on to the left the ceiling and roof were built higher and tied it into the original portion in the oddest fashion.  There is an actual outside/inside gutter that runs down that portion of the house that just isn't going to work for us.  Gutter running through the middle of a house is actually not an unusual thing here for some odd reason. There are also limited gutters on the roof where they are needed that has caused the humidity along the house line that needs washed, treated, and painted.  

This is the beautiful French style doors that are on the front and back door of the house.  They are lovely and can be opened to allow airflow through the entire house.  The windows bars are a beautiful style on most windows even through you can't see them well through the icky old screens we need to replace around the entire house. The front porch area just needs cleaned, new window screens, and wrought iron security around the half wall in the front.  While the area is safe, petty theft is definitely an issue here so security bars enclosing outdoor living spaces is common.   

This is the covered back porch area that is right off the driveway I was standing on while taking the picture.  Its a great space and outside living spaces in Costa Rica are great because they extend what are traditionally smaller houses and the weather allows their use year round.  We are going to enclose this area with wrought iron from the cement shelf around back porch to the outdoor bathroom. 

One of the only things that caused us to pause for a moment was the fact the bathroom was not actually attached to the house.  Now, don't think outhouse.  The bathroom is fully plumed but added to the exterior when the house was converted to a bar. It's a decent size area since it has both a men's and women's side with two stall areas in both side. I didn't get any interior pictures since most of this area is going to be gutted and reworked into a normal bathroom on one side and a laundry and storage area on the other side.  While I still agree that an outdoor bathroom is not ideal there are three interior doors that go to that area that are, at most, 20 feet away from the bathroom with the closest next to the bedroom for midnight potty parties. This entire outside area is going to be enclosed by a wall from the front corner around and behind the bathroom until it's tied into the iron fencing around the back porch.  It will be a nice area for the pets that gives us a good area for laundry lines and to plant a small garden area and a couple fruit trees.  The whole front of the property is open with larger older trees.  It needs the landscaping cleaned up but there is a giant mango tree that monkeys love.  

The Innards

This is the view of the interior area from the front corner next to the door.  We are going to pull down the ceiling, the wood surrounding the raised area and the small half wall section next to the bar. The main area will be the living room and kitchen.  We will removing about half the bar because the two of us do not need 8 bar stools. We have ample room on the right for our Livingroom and I plan on putting a small reading nook in the raised area.

The boarded up window on the back is a pass through area we will remove the boards to restore it into a traditional window.  We are planning on putting barn doors over the entry to the back area where our bedroom and both Eduardo and my shop areas will be.  Eduardo made a great pair for the last house we had so it should look excellent when he is done.    

Same room from other side.  The flooring is a decent shade of boring so it will go with whatever we want.  The windows you are seeing that are boarded up is actually a passthrough for the front porch.  We are going to remove the boards and just leave this area screened in.  There are more iron panels that are covered with the same design as the other windows.  Because it was a bar the electric has been updated and ran throughout the entire ceiling for lighting.  While we are replacing the ceiling it's good that there are wires run through for lighting, ceiling fans, and of course our disco ball (kidding, but I'm pretty sure I could make that work.)  

Outside of the ceiling work, we are going to cut the bar down around the area my teal cut is sitting. We will have some floor damage where the bar and half wall once were but I have some fun ideas for those areas.  We have decided on paint colors yet but it sure isn't staying white.  

I haven't decided yet what I am going to do with the bottom part of the bar yet but I'm thinking either aged corrugated roofing panels or some kind of treated pallet wood.  Either way it will be awesome once I add new fabric to the barstools.   

The long wall behind the bar will be brick and where our stove, fridge, and pantry shelving will go. 

I didn't get a good picture showing the way straight back along the back kitchen wall.  The bar will be cut down to the area where the dividing portion under the bar is.  We will have basically from the sink to the wall with the boarded window in the front. We are going to sand and skim coat cement over the tiles.  They are in perfect condition but I just don't like them and their color with the floor color limits what colors I can use. We haven't decided how we are going to use the space under the countertop yet but have been playing with the idea of roll out utility shelving we can use for kitchen storage.  That idea would give us storage and the ability to get into areas under the shelving and keep it clean.  Keeping areas clean here is important because there are lots of crawling things.  

That is the area of the original house we are keeping for out kitchen and living areas.  I love the area since it's open and also has seating right across the kitchen area for eating and doing other needed items without having to have a kitchen table.  It will also sit 5 and that would be good for when we have people visit.  

This area is the newer addition of the hosue that was once used as the commercial kitchen and storage.  The larger area you are looking at across from the interior doorway will be our bedroom area. Barn doors will be added to the kitchen side of the doorway. The half wall you are seeing will be knocked down and a full wall will be put in that area leaving the door that will lead to the two studio areas.

The view from the other side of the bedroom shows the half wall and doorway.  Directly behind me is another exterior door leading to the back porch area next to the bathroom.  You can see the water lines attached to the wall where the commercial sink once was.  It's a decent size room for our bed and two standing closets.  We haven't decided what we are doing with the ceiling in this area.  It's an odd shape but can be managed as it or it can be lowered to meet the other ceiling line on the right side.  The area isn't exciting but it will work as a bedroom. 

The room Eduardo is standing in will be enclosed where the half wall is and will have either my studio or Eduardo's shop.  Both that room and the one behind it are around the same size of 8x11 and either would work for either of us.  I do prefer the back room so I'm currently trying to sell him on the middle room by enticing him the ease of working both inside and outside on projects that need more space.  I don't know if he is picking up what I'm laying down but I still have time to consider other selling points.  

While needing a god cleaning, this is the back area for shop/studio. The open section in the ceiling is where the gutter runs through the ceiling and will be removed when we rework the roof line.  Nothing to exciting in this area but their is a large covered window to the right and the windows around the ceiling line you can't see.  Once the roof is replaced it will take care of the water entry problem since that comes from some small holes in the roof.  

Well that is where we currently are.  We have closed on the sale of our land and our offer was accepted for the house.  We are just waiting on the new property survey to be processed through the government that will take as long as it takes then we can close on this location.  Looking at a timeline for moving around middle to late summer after the 4 items we need to do before moving are taken care of.  Those items are the roof, ceiling, security bars and wall, as well as the bathroom because we like to shower. The rest of the items on the list can be accomplished once we are living there starting with kitchen by cutting the bar down and doing the fun wall treatments. Of course is happens after we clean the place within an inch of it's life.