Building Casa Guaradobarranco » Nicaragua Vacation Guide

Chosing an Architect

Apr 102010

Roy got all the approvals from the development management for the lot change. Now I just have to wait for the change to happen in the lot and in the official land registry.

I’m now faced with choosing an architect for the project. I really believe that I should use a local architect. I contemplate using an Israeli one, because it would be easier to communicate with him, but I think that employing a Nicaraguan architect has several significant advantages:

Intimate knowledge of the local building standard – what materials and techniques are used in Nicaragua and which a re rare or require a knowhow that simply isn’t there.
Ability to access the lot and get a first hand impression of the building site – I want the house to be part of it’s surroundings and not look like a “hump” that was placed there.
Much simpler ability to communicate with the builder and monitor the construction process – which means higher chance to reduce errors and problem during construction.
Cost. A Nicaraguan architect’s fees are few dollars per sq meter, which is significantly lower than the fees in Israel or the US, but I believe an even more significant cost saving stems from the previous 3 bullets. Using a foreign architect would open a possibility for two many mistakes on these issues that would end up costing a lot.

Both Roy and Marc noted that for a simple enough design I can create a rough plan myself and than hire a cheap architect just to create the actual building plans. That would lower the cost even more, but considering that the cost of the architect isn’t too high, and since I want to ensure that whoever sees the house really likes it I prefer to hire a professional architect.

Roy is gathering some names for me and promise to email me their portfolio in the coming days.

The Lot Grows!

Mar 302010

I just got some great news from Roy. He and Alan, the local engineer of the Development, went to see the lot to figure out where exactly to make the “cut” that will provide the best area to built on. As you can see in a previous post, they too realized that lot is about 7 meters from the road most of the horizontal build-able area sits between the lot and the road. So now Roy informed me that they agreed to move the lot markers 3.5 meters (11 feet) to towards the road, thus increasing the lot size, and, more importantly, increase the area I can build on!

I check with Roy about the process of updating the lot in the Nicaraguan land Registry and he says that it’s a straight forward procedure that costs 300$.

Draft Floorplan 2

Mar 292010

I’m playing around some more with the design to get a better feel for the size and possibilities.

In the following sketch the floor plan is not so different from the first draft. The southern part of the house (to the left) has three rooms and space for two bathrooms and two walk-in closets. The northern part has two large spaces, with the entry door located between them. One can be used for the kitchen while the other is large enough to host a master bedroom and a master walk-in closet.

The entry way opens into a public area under a Palapa roof. this section faces the ocean to the west (top of the image) and slightly to the south.

Floorplan sketch C – March 28 – 27-Aug-2010

The total area is about 170 square meters. Almost 70 meters are the external walk way and public area. It’s a bit smaller than I budgeted so I feel good about being able to use more size. Unfortunately the lot shape seem to be the restricting element right now, as only part of it can be comfortably built upon. Maybe I can come up with a different layout that will use the space better.

Here is how it can look in 3D when viewed from the cliff and the sea towards the East and how it can possibly look from further south. Each of the southern rooms has a door leading towards the western walk way. Each room should also have large windows towards the west, but I’m still not sure what size to make them.

I have to admit that I’m enjoying this process to much. When a “real” architect will come on board I’m sure he will have his own ideas. On the other hand playing around with my own designs gives me a better feeling about the different possibilities, sizes and layouts that can be used.

A good example for this is the western windows of the southern rooms, missing in the above sketches. If I make them too small, the view towards the ocean will be lost, but if I make them too large than it would spoil any sense of privacy in the rooms, since anyone walking on the walk way will be able to look into the rooms. It’s a good example of a design conflict that would have to be resolved somehow.

Lot cut rendering – we’re in a tight spot…

Mar 282010

I’ve took the contour data that Roy sent me and used a 3D modeling application to make a horizontal “cut” at different heights.

Here is rendering of the lot’s shape, with a cut I’ve made showing leveled ground. The view is from the south west towards north east, and the sun is setting down on the west. The orange “polls” are markers of the lot corners, and the four square “stones” placed on the cut are there to get a feeling of the actual space that can be used for the hose.

Lot cut March 27

It’s obvious that there is not a lot of wiggle room, and at least some of the house would have to build towards the south where the ground slowly slops down. It’s a pity that a large area of the leveled ground is outside of the lot, in the area between the lot and the road.

Soil Sample Results Are In!

Mar 272010

Two days ago Roy sent me the results of the Soil Test. These are critical to ensure that no special footings are need – which can significantly increase the cost of the construction. The soil results are compiled in cryptic Spanish engineer lingo. I used the fateful google translator and was able to translate most of the document but couldn’t really figure out the bottom line.

Today Roy met with the engineer that compiled the test and he said that the soil is of”excellent strength and that independent footings would suffice”. All this is dependent on the design being a bit skinny and made of a single level, which was my original intent anyway. I’m very relieved to hear this.

Draft Floorplan 1

Mar 262010

I’m starting to play around with different designs for the house. The lot sits on a cliff that faces the Pacific Ocean to the west, and I wan to ensure that most of the house faces that direction. Creating a north-south formation has an additional benefit of exposing a smaller footprint to the south, which should keep the house from warming too much.

I create a sketch with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathroom, a kitchen and a wide lounge. The ocean lies at the upper part of sketch (west). The slope of the cliff is turned a bit towards the south on it’s northern part, so I create a main area on the north (right) that faces slightly to the south. On the right is the main bedroom (a queen size bed is, in white, is added for scale) and space for bathroom, walk in closet and a possible additional small room. To the left is the kitchen area with an added utility room. Between them is the entry door the house that opens in to the wide rounded lounge. I assume it’s mostly floored, while the farther area (in brown) may be decked with wood. The lounge would have a Palapa roof above it for shade.

Floorplan 1 sketch A – March 26

Floorplan 1 sketch A – March 26 – 27-Aug-2010

The other part of the house is the simple north-south section that has three rooms a bathroom (on the leftmost part) and a shared bathroom (in light blue).All rooms open towards the west and share a connecting passage that leads to the lounge area. It’s not really a corridor as it’s completely open – just a wooden deck and

I have no idea how these two sections are connected, and whether it’s even possible, but I don’t want to get in to these details. The space in between might be used as a car park, or closed with walls.

A major reason for me to sketch this is to get a better feeling of the total size I can build, and how many rooms and at what size I can fit in. In this sketch the total area is about 170 meters, including the about 40 meters of wooden deck. It shows me that I can fit a reasonable amount of decant size rooms, and a comfortable lounge in my 200 meters limit.

It’s a very rough sketch, and I’m sure there are tons of things I don’t think about, but I’m more confident now that that it makes sense.

Here is a rough sketch of how it can look in 3D:

Plan 1 3D sketch

The triangular thing above the lounge should be a Palapa – the local type of thatched roof made of dried palm leaves. Here is a photo of a palapa roof I took on one of the islands in Lake Nicaragua:

Lake Nicaragua – 17-Feb-2010

Topographer’s contour map arrvied

Mar 082010

I just received the topography contour map from Roy. Now I have an autocad representation of the lot 3D shape. In the image you can see the general shape of the lot, the contour lines, some trees on the loot (in green). The north is to the right, so the upper part is the west, where the Pacific Ocean rests. The numbers are height points in meters.

Topo map, M25, March 8

It’s hard to see through all of the numbers, but you can see the the lot slopes down towards the west, while the eastern part is relatively flat (the contour lines are farther apart from each other). Each line is exactly half a meter lower or higher than the lines next to it.

I’m a bit surprised when I see the height points are around 100 meters (~ 330 feet) above see level, and ask Roy whether the scaling is wrong, and maybe it’s 100 feet and not meters.

Another thing visible in the contour is the road that travels from north to south few meters east of the lot.

Cost of Building

Feb 202010

I discuss what kind of a house I can build on M25 with Marc, and other people. A rough guideline number for building cost is 85$ per square meter. This number is a rough estimate for a house build at high quality with good finishes and modern appliances. The number can move anywhere between 75$ and 100$ depending on the soil of the ground, level of finishes etc’. When calculating the number it’s reasonable to multiply this number with the total area, regardless if it’s enclosed (air conditioned) area or open area such as the lounge that has no walls. Considering the build-able part of the lot, and what most people are looking for when they get to the development, it seems that I should plan for a house around 2,000 square feet. From his experience Marc says that it should provide for a reasonable 3bedroom, two bathroom house.

One of the things the development offers is a building services program. The program basically means that the development provides an on-site point person to manage the complete process of the build. For some percentages of the cost of building, they will help in all of the design process, finding the right local construction company, monitoring the daily progress of the construction etc. It’s clear to me that without it there is no way I could build this house from afar.

Building Services Program

I meet with Roy, from the Building Services Program, and we discuss the different options of construction over the lot, and the estimated cost. Roy says that it’s very important to get soil samples of the ground to ensure that the lot sits on solid rock, like most of the development lots, and also to create a topography map to get a better idea of the of how we want to level the ground.

Basically, there are two options for ground leveling, cutting down the higher points down, of feeling up the lower areas up. Roy, as all others before him, claims that in Nicaragua feeling is very expensive while cutting is cheap. Even more so, since the development just purchased a lot of mechanical equipment so they can do all of the road maintenance themselves, now they have the needed equipment on hand right at the development. They might do the leveling themselves, for a small fee, so the construction company will be able to start working on leveled ground.

Some Calculations

Using a a small excel file I take from Marc I make a calculation of the project cost. Here are the items I have and some info about each cost:

Cost of the land – varies
Legal costs of land purchase – lawyer fees and mandatory taxes – about 4% of land cost
construction cost – $65 to $110 per sq feet
Architect – roughly $2 to $4 per sq feet
Land leveling – can be part of the construction, but in my case it might be a separate payment to the developer.
Topography map and Soil test – not mandatory, but worth doing – around $1500
Building permit – another $1000
Appliances – good quality (usually US made) – around $2,500
Infinity pool – depends on size – $15,000 was the thumb number I got
Building Services Program – usually costs about 10% of the project

To this I add the financing fees and try to figure out whether it’s a project I want to go for.

Setting Plans

Feb 202010

I’m starting to think about my options to invest in the Rancho Santana development.

My initial motive to arrive to Rancho Santana came from a personal believe regarding the terrible economic state that the US and the rest of the modern world face. I believe Central and South Americas as well as the far east will improve financially while the “modern” world will suffer under the weight of it’s debt.

Buying a condominium seems a bit more expensive than I planned, but the ability to rent it is a plus. Buying a lot can be a good investment over time, but the lot I’m interested in, M-25 on the cliff above the Pacific, is also not that cheap.
The developer offers a financing plan that provides a loan for the purchase of a lot or the cost of building a house. I’m starting to think about the possibility to buy the lot and building a house on it.

The lot is one of the last available ocean front lots in the development, and their is only one house that is built to sell on Rancho Santana. If I’ll build it I will have the only house available on the market, and it would be on a prime lot with amazing views to the Pacific Ocean.

M-25 and M-27 are the last lots available on the Alta Vista area. Originally there were 22 lots for sale on the cliff, but they were all sold. Than the developer added 5 more lots on the cliff towards the south, and three of them already been sold. Now the developer adds three more lots in the area – bigger but they are a bit behind the first 27 lots, so they don’t enjoy the “ocean front” title, and the exceptional views that comes with it. M-25 is smaller than M-27 and most of it is have a significant drop towards the ocean so there is a limited area to build on.

The next time I’m on the lot with Marc we discuss what kind of a house can be built there. Marc says that a 2,000 sq feet house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms should be a good size to sell or rent. He draws a rough diagram on the ground – the area that can accommodate the house stretches from north to south so Marc draws the rooms in that direction pointing out that this way all of them can share the views to the west. This would provide a great view to the ocean and since Nicaragua is close to the equator the sun sets around the same place throughout the year.

When I try to figure out where is the connecting corridor between the rooms, Marc says that I can let all the rooms open towards a corridor to to west. It will have a roof above it but no walls, so nothing will block the views to the west. It takes me few seconds to wrap my mind around the idea, but I begin to realize that since were in a tropical area, there is never a cold season, so the houses can be much more open to the elements. I recall that in the house I’m staying in I walked through the entry door and actually found myself “outside” – in a lounge that has no walls. Most houses in Rancho Santana has pools, and I realize that an infinity pool would have an amazing effect on the cliff.

We walk around the lot to figure out how big the house can be. Marc and Alan, the engineer of the development who joined us for the tour, agree that since the lots sits high above the road we might be able to cut the lot in height, thus providing us more place to build. It seems that the lot is wide enough for the rooms but the external corridor might have to be cantilevered over the cliff.

Here is a picture of the lot from the road. The lot starts higher than the road and than drops toward the ocean. We are thinking of cutting the lot down to the height of the road, about the place below where we parked the car.