We Broke Ground
We broke ground on our own lot and anticipate being able to move in by September!!!
This has been a long process by American terms but not very long by Mexican terms (by the time we move in we will have been here over one year). Prior to leaving the States we had a one dimensional drawing and an idea of what we wanted. We began obtaining referrals on local contractors and getting bids on what we wanted back in September, 2008. Soon after this we learned that our 'drawing' was confusing as we received bids that were $60,000 different in price (even though we had photographs of similar construction ideas). PJ then began to teach himself Google Sketchup in an attempt to clarify in three dimension what we wanted.
In late December, early January, the depressed state of the U.S. economy finally made its way down here which resulted in already built home prices coming down and construction labor costs reducing. We then sought revised bids from the few contractors we wanted to retain from the first batch and the overall bid price did reduce some. Some contractors were eliminated either because they didn't want to reduce their price (we are all rich Americans after all, aren't we?), didn't respond to our bid request, or we received confirmed bad comments on them.
At this point we decided to reconfigure our design. Construction and buying property down here is a topic of conversation at most get togethers and everyone has something to say about one builder or another. At one of these gatherings a builder was recommended who had been recommended to us at the beginning of our search. At that time, we were not able to obtain a phone number for this builder nor were we able to locate his office (we were told it was next to a restaurant but not exactly where and in going there we were not able to see anything resembling an office). We now were given a phone number. After hearing how honest this builder was, how he had built homes here over the last 30 years and there are not any problems with these homes, and how he is an excellent builder, we had to contact him.
We met with him, viewed some of his work, asked a ton of questions, and were very impressed. After receiving his initial bid we again re-designed what we wanted as there is an old adage "do not put more money into property in Mexico that you are not willing to walk away from" and his bid was above Shelly's comfort limit. Upon receiving his revised bid we immediately signed a contract, paid a deposit, and construction began the very next day.
Our lot had to be cleared of vegetation (the photo below is of our lot from one of the corner markers),
a chalk outline of our buildings was made, 
the septic and cistern holes were dug, 
and a temporary fence is being installed for protection of our contractor's materials that will be stored on our lot.
Pitahaya cactus are a protected species here so the lone cactus in front remains for this reason. We will probably relocate it somewhere else on our property later on or plant a replacement.
We will post monthly progress and photo blogs so keep checking back.
This has been a long process by American terms but not very long by Mexican terms (by the time we move in we will have been here over one year). Prior to leaving the States we had a one dimensional drawing and an idea of what we wanted. We began obtaining referrals on local contractors and getting bids on what we wanted back in September, 2008. Soon after this we learned that our 'drawing' was confusing as we received bids that were $60,000 different in price (even though we had photographs of similar construction ideas). PJ then began to teach himself Google Sketchup in an attempt to clarify in three dimension what we wanted.
In late December, early January, the depressed state of the U.S. economy finally made its way down here which resulted in already built home prices coming down and construction labor costs reducing. We then sought revised bids from the few contractors we wanted to retain from the first batch and the overall bid price did reduce some. Some contractors were eliminated either because they didn't want to reduce their price (we are all rich Americans after all, aren't we?), didn't respond to our bid request, or we received confirmed bad comments on them.
At this point we decided to reconfigure our design. Construction and buying property down here is a topic of conversation at most get togethers and everyone has something to say about one builder or another. At one of these gatherings a builder was recommended who had been recommended to us at the beginning of our search. At that time, we were not able to obtain a phone number for this builder nor were we able to locate his office (we were told it was next to a restaurant but not exactly where and in going there we were not able to see anything resembling an office). We now were given a phone number. After hearing how honest this builder was, how he had built homes here over the last 30 years and there are not any problems with these homes, and how he is an excellent builder, we had to contact him.
We met with him, viewed some of his work, asked a ton of questions, and were very impressed. After receiving his initial bid we again re-designed what we wanted as there is an old adage "do not put more money into property in Mexico that you are not willing to walk away from" and his bid was above Shelly's comfort limit. Upon receiving his revised bid we immediately signed a contract, paid a deposit, and construction began the very next day.
Our lot had to be cleared of vegetation (the photo below is of our lot from one of the corner markers),
a chalk outline of our buildings was made, 
the septic and cistern holes were dug, 
and a temporary fence is being installed for protection of our contractor's materials that will be stored on our lot.
Pitahaya cactus are a protected species here so the lone cactus in front remains for this reason. We will probably relocate it somewhere else on our property later on or plant a replacement.
We will post monthly progress and photo blogs so keep checking back.
Comments
Post a Comment