February 01, 2005
Mmmmm, beachy
It is done.
Just over a year ago, my wife and I took a crazy gamble and bought a 1/4 acre lot near our favorite beach in Rincon, Puerto Rico. Crazy because we live 9 hours away, by jet. Crazy because I knew nothing about house construction, or contracting, or PR zoning law, or PR permitting, or anything.
It took us a few months to settle on a design for a beachhouse. We spoke with architects, bought design books extolling the virtues of exotically expensive architecture, spoke to numerous architects, and adjusted our expectations. We wanted fancy minimalist, settled for practical. Life is about compromise :)
After reaching our decision, I flew down to PR, and in 3 days found an excellent general contractor, excellent engineer, met with lawyers, salesmen, lined up the construction permits, bought the materials, everything.
We enlisted our family's help too - they drove by frequently, keeping an eye on things. My father-in-law took lots of pics; I looked forward to his envelopes stuffed with pictures like a kid waits for christmas.
Over the months, I made frequent calls, smoothing out supply problems, calling attention to minor issues I noted in the pictures, lining up side issues (like getting the A/C in place).
And now, eight months after construction started, it has finally all come together. The house is done.
There is still a lot of work left to do (landscaping, driveway and sidewalk, fences, furniture, appliances... we're even planning to buy a car), but that all seems trivial relative to what has come before.
I'd like to thank all those who helped us pull this off: Fernando, Vanessa, Jose, Cuca, Tony Aviles (the contractor), Nelson Bonet (the engineer), Freddie, Chere, Reggie (for dicking with *ewww* windows to get me pictures) and the fine people at Casas Miliangie's Client Services, which put up with a guy from CA trying to pick tiles over the phone.
Yay!
Posted by carlosmorales at February 1, 2005 12:03 PM | TrackBack
congratulations. it is beautiful.
Posted by: elenamary at February 1, 2005 07:26 PMBTW the best beach time I had in PR was in el Rincon http://pix.alexi.us/gallery/album35/p0012191
Posted by: elenamary at February 1, 2005 07:30 PMCongrats on your house!! It looks like you and your family will have wonderful memories there.
Posted by: mariaposatomica at February 6, 2005 11:42 AMI live in Puerto Rico and me and my fiance are looking for a house. We have an acre of land in the east coast of Puerto Rico and I was planning on getting a house from Miliangie. But cost is an issue since, well, this is my first home. I was wondering if you'd be so kind to give me an estimate on the cost of model, cost of construction, cost of permits and cost of arquitect or other costs you had to endure before making this a reality.
I was looking in the internet about this questions and i found your site, and guess what? thats the same house me and my fiance fancied. SO i thought id ask u a few questions about it, if you dont mind. You dont have to give me much specifics, just estimates. They are asking 63 tousand dollars for building materials and plans. But some people told me id had to spend over 70 grand to build and 20 grand on permits. Id like to have good knowledge about this since i only can afford around 150 to 160 grand for this home, considering i have already the acre of land.
Thank you for your audience. If it wasnt any trouble plz email me at alfressj4@hotmail.com