Day 15 – uh oh! Friday 13th!

I didn't know it was Friday the 13th until just now.

We had a really good day today for the first time since Sunday or so.

REALLY good day!

The majority of our house walls are up, I feel very good about our builder doing things on time and paying attention to details, and we got our car back, even our neighbors aren't home tonight so we even have at least a few hours of peace and quiet.

Jon came up to look at our building materials and process today and I said "I can't wait to get up and enjoy the peace and quiet here" and he said "You're for sure going to have that!" And I said "I sure hope so! For me that's what having this land is all about. I want to get up in the morning and enjoy the birds and monkeys and just relax here on my porch..."

This morning we walked up to the farm and watched them put up some walls and then Jon came up as mentioned above, and he gave us a ride back when the workers stopped to eat lunch (around 10am!).

He said he was going into town later and could give us a ride and I said "great!" and that's how it went.

The mechanic called us around 1pm to tell us the car was ready and that we could come pick it up any time.

Jon went into town around 2pm and we tagged along and got the car, bought some groceries... Then Jorge called and said he wanted to talk to us and we went up to the building site. He told us his ideas which were really good and we agreed - but only hope this isn't the way he gets a lot more money out of us which we don't have... We will sort that out soon but for now he is saying that it won't cost "much more" to do what he suggests. His ideas are very good though and we WANT to do what he suggests - it's just a matter of whether or not or how we can afford it.

So after that we came back home and a big BONUS awaited us: The Tico neighbors are not home and it's QUIET for a change! I have reflected many times since moving here, "If the Tico family was not next door, this would be a GREAT place to rent!" It's on the edge of Jon's coffee farm but it's in the forest area of it and there's a creek just down from us and the ONLY thing wrong with it is the Tico neighbors. Not that they're Ticos, you understand: just that they are a family with kids and there is constantly family noise coming from their house: kids crying and yelling, loud tv, talking, etc.

If it wasn't for their being right across the driveway from us, this would be an absolutely great location to live!

Anyway, as it is, it's okay some of the time and the rest of the time I put on my music loud enough to mostly drown them out.

Oh and we had a visitor when we got home. Unwelcome though he was it didn't ruin our day, it was just surprising. As we entered the house we saw a lizard crawling on the wall over by the refrigerator! It was about 7" long I'd say, and it was moving so fast we didn't get a good look at it. We went looking for it to try to get it out of the house and it jumped up on the refri, startling us both! But then it disappeared again and after awhile we gave up and realized we'd just have to have a lizard in our house. Hopefully it's "just a gecko" though I'm not so sure...

Bottom line: This has been a great day, seeing our house walls up and talking to Jorge (the builder) about making our design even better, and having our car back... Joanie and I are both feeling good today!
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Interjection:

We've been buying stuff we need like plastic and glass containers to put stuff in like cheese, chips, bread, herbs, etc. A rug for the door, towels, and so on.

We're looking for 2 portable lawn chairs. All this stuff is a challenge as it's not readily available in San Ramon. For example we've found 2 types of lawn chairs but neither are the folding strap aluminum chairs we want. And maybe those kind don't even exist here in Costa Rica. They seem NOT to exist here in San Ramon...

Now we have to look at stainless steel sinks, faucets, washers, refrigerators, beds and so on. We already started and have found that a decent normal refri costs around $500-600, by far the most expensive of the above appliances.

We finally realized the best way to go is probably to buy from a used store or someone who's moving out of Costa Rica. So we are now dedicated to look on craigslist every day and start looking for the above stuff - except for the mattresses which we'll almost for sure buy new - unless we happen to find a clean family who has a good deal on high quality ones.

Refris and washers are about 30-50% more here, the same as cars.