Overseas construction blog part 9: Finish work is on the agenda
This is the ninth of a series of posts in which David Steckler shares his experiences of building a vacation home at Hacienda Iguana resort on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast. Here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth,seventh and eighth.The goal of this candid construction blog is to reduce the anxiety levels of people who have real estate in Nicaragua and plan to build, but are afraid of making mistakes along the way.
Finish work is on the agenda
As we plan our next visit to Nicaragua we’ve been making many decisions about wall paint, tile, decorative murals, bathroom vessels and wood finish. We decided to complete the front part of our side patio with a tile and Zoysia mix, similar to the example below, helping to make our gated entrance into the Casita more inviting. The back patio overlooking the “Colorado River” is nearly finished with cut natural stone placed right up to the pool’s edge as seen in the background of this photo.
The white metal roof and blanket insulation has been installed and now the finish carpenters are busy putting up mahogany tongue and groove wood paneling, which has been treated with a termite repellent and sealer.
An important topic that should always be addressed is water quality. Our future home is along the pacific and typical of the aquifers near the coast the water is extremely hard, which causes scaling in all your plumbing fixtures and solar water heaters. My go to guy for anything to do with water quality issues and solar energy systems is Jim Ryan at Aguasolutions. As Jim explained to me on Skype from Costa Rica, even with a deep well and a chlorination system in place the water at your faucet will still be hard, but may also contain coliform.
The dramatic wet and dry seasons here in Nicaragua cause the clay-like soil to shift, which in turn strains the underground water lines and may over time open them up to ground water contaminants. So Jim has been directed to design a low maintenance, environmentally sound system that will not only condition/soften our water, without adding chemicals (sodium chloride) or wasting re-charge water, but that will also remove all pathogens as well. We can kiss 5 gallon bottled water containers good bye!
The Alluver doors and windows have arrived from the manufacturer and will be installed next week.
Category : Blog &Overseas construction in Nicaragua
