Friday 7/25- During the day while I was working, Ramie decided to start working on getting the new AC for our dry room ready to install, as if he hadn’t already had a busy enough week (if you haven't already, go read last week's blog to hear all about that). What does it take to prepare to install this new AC unit? There was currently no power where there needed to be power, so he would have to run a new circuit and new wires to the location that the unit would be mounted. The AC needs 240 volts to power it, and the closest power available is a regular 120 volt electrical outlet on the same wall, basically right below where the AC will be mounted. This means that we will have to pull entirely new wires from the panel to that outlet box, and install a new box for those new wires up the wall to where the unit will be mounted.
This should be easy, right? Just cut a hole straight above the existing outlet, use the fish tape to pull new wires between the studs, and connect them all up. Nope, it just wasn’t going to prove that easy for him (as is our typical luck!) The builder put cross bracing in the walls. Since we have metal studs and framing, Ramie is able to use a magnet to find the studs and mark the places that he would have to cut. Instead of something simple like we just described, Ramie would have to cut the wall completely open from the outside so he could access those cross braces and cut holes in them in order to run the new wires from that existing outlet up through the wall. Fortunately, it was a straight line up the studs, what should be an easy cut. But, what that also means is that at the end, he would have to re-finish that outside wall and cover up the hole and cuts that he just made. The reason that we’re doing this from outside of the house instead of inside is because this is all happening in our dry room, which is essentially a large walk-in closet. It is full of our stuff and there are shelves and things attached to the wall right where this cut would have to be made. Additionally, do you know how dusty ALL of our stuff would get if we tried to leave it in place while he was doing this work!? No one is going to want to clean that up! The cut and the work would be identical whether he did it from inside the dry room or outside where all of that mess doesn’t matter, so there was a very easy obvious answer here.
The only little thing, though, is that from the outside he didn’t know exactly where that existing outlet was or how high he wanted the unit mounted, so the first thing he did to make sure he was cutting in the right place was to drill through the wall from the inside at the outlet to pinpoint that location, and then did the same thing for where we expected the AC unit would be. With these two holes marking the beginning and ending locations, he went outside and marked the lines he would have to cut using a straight edge to connect the holes. Then he got to work cutting the wall open.
He was very careful with this cut because when he was done with this wiring, the plan was to use the same piece that he removed to close the hole back up. In theory it should fit perfectly, he would just screw it back to the wall and only have a very small seam to patch, smooth, and repaint. Since the walls are all cement board, the outside finish of our house is just covered with a thin coat of concrete, similar to how you would cover sheet-rock with mud; there is no siding or anything like you're used to in the US.
Obviously, just like with all of our prior electrical work, he couldn’t shut down the power to the whole house to do the final wiring back to the panel while I was working, but you better believe it that as soon as I was done with work he turned off the power and recruited me to help him run that last piece of wire that went from the panel to the dry room. Again, this should be easy, right?! Of course not! It’s always our luck that things like this always take longer than expected.
Fortunately, after struggling for more hours than we anticipated, we finished up with just enough time to get cleaned up a little bit, change, and head to Mosaic for dinner and drinks with Val & Marshall. They are early-birds like we are, so it’s always nice that it’s not a late night when we hang out with these guys. We were home early enough to play with Skye and relax for a little while before it was time to go to bed.
Saturday 7/26- As I’ve mentioned before, the local Facebook pages are where we got most of our Costa Rica news. There aren’t newspapers or a lot of other places to advertise, so local businesses, restaurants, etc. advertise on 5 or 6 Facebook pages that we are part of.
Recently I’ve been seeing postings from a new outlet store in town with things that they are selling. Just like many of the outlet stores that we’ve been to down here, they end up with quite a wide range of items including furniture, clothing, household items, and all sorts of random odds and ends. Since the store was here in town and very close, we decided to swing by just to see what they had, whether it was anything interesting or that we might be interested in, and more or less to find out if it will be worth our time to pay attention to them in the future.
When we arrived one of the first things that we saw was a bin of Target items that had a whole bunch of what appeared to be clearance toiletries, some of which even still had Target clearance stickers on them. Everything in this bin was marked at 2mil colones (about $4) each, which seemed like a very good deal, especially for down here. What did I do? I cleaned them out of all of the items that I was even remotely interested in! Inside the store was very small with a few different “rooms” divided into different types of items. One room was all clothes, another was small appliances, and odds and ends, and the third was the furniture, and shelves of odds and ends. There were more target clearance items like small kitchen appliances, clothing, and decorations, as well as things that you could tell were Amazon items, probably returns. We spent about an hour in this very small store that was packed full of goodies. I think that this is my new favorite store!
When we got home I was so excited I had to look up many of the items that we purchased to see how much they were “regular price” at Target, and I am pleased to say that I got a very good deal, as a lot of these items are about $10 regular price, with a few of them being about $20! I then texted my sister about this whole thing and she replied “Costa Rica has really changed you!”… yep, I guess it has!! Who would have thought I would be so excited about clearance Target toiletries.
🤣🤣🤣
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| The haul! |
Earlier this week Tracy texted us saying that she needed some human interaction and that she wanted to hang out with us, so we invited her over to the house to hang out and have dinner. Time always goes by quickly when we hang out and it was almost 11pm by the time we finished up and she headed home. Boy, It’s been a LONG time since we stayed up this late, it’s probably going to take me a few days to recover from this late night!! Hanging out with friends is always fun, though, so no regrets. 😉
Sunday 7/27- After a late-night last night, it was a lazy day around the house catching up with chores and online shopping to put together a PriceSmart order. PriceSmart is a club store kind of like Costco, and you can actually find a lot of different things that you’d see at Costco, even some Kirkland brand items. The prices at PriceSmart are often better than similar items here in town or even in San Isidro, and of course there are plenty of things that they sell you can’t even find otherwise. There aren’t any PriceSmart stores near us, I think I’ve heard that the closest one is actually down in Panama, but there are several up in the San Jose area. If you’ve been following us for a while, you know how we feel about driving in the city, and that it’s a 3.5-4 hour drive on a good day, so there is zero reason for us to have a membership there. However, there are people who will shop for you & deliver to Uvita for a fee. We use a company (who is actually also one of the shuttle drivers that we stay in contact with for guest trips from the airport to Uvita) who charges 20% of the cost of the order. Yes, this adds to the price, but it works out for us because it’s still often less expensive than buying in town and is another nice supplement to add variety to our grocery shopping experience. PriceSmart is one of the very few stores in Costa Rica that has a good online shopping website, so we will go through their hundreds of pages of items, make a list of what we want to order, and usually have it delivered to Uvita within the same week. Is it worth it? Totally!! I mean, this really is as close to online shopping and home delivery that we have down here since there is no Amazon or InstaCart!
Monday 7/28- While Tracy was here on Saturday it rained pretty hard. So hard, in fact, that the pool actually began overflowing. This has never happened before and is quite strange because there is an overflow pipe that is supposed to prevent this, That night, though, as we were watching it just seemed like it couldn’t keep up. It's a good thing we were awake and outside so late, as this could have turned out terribly had we not noticed it!
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| Well this isn't good! |
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| There are two pipes in this picture. One is the downspout and the other is the pool/shower drain. |
After the physical labor of digging in the yard, Ramie also spent time on the phone and computer coordinating transportation for Taylor & Dylan for when they come to visit in August, as well as helped coordinate the logistics for Dylan’s parents and the group that would be coming down with them during that overlapping timeframe.
Tuesday 7/29- Today Ramie had his alarm set for 2:30am, but this time it was not for a turtle walk. Today it was for work. Randall had a moving job that he needed help with, but the thing is, it was up in San Jose. The person they were moving had enough stuff that they needed a semi truck and trailer to haul it all, so Ramie & Randall would catch a ride in the semi. They were leaving at 3am so they could get to the house in San Jose before they stopped truck traffic in the city (yeah, I guess that’s a thing here, there are only certain hours of the day that certain types of trucks can drive in the city). Ramie got to sit in the passenger seat for about the first 20 minutes of this 4 hour drive, when they stopped to pick up Manuel, another guy that would be helping with this job today, and then Ramie and Randall got to sit in the only other place to sit in the semi cab: on the bed of the sleeper, for the rest of the ride.
They arrived in the neighborhood with plenty of time to spare, as they couldn’t start working at the house until about 8am, so they pulled over on the side of the road and had breakfast out of the back of the semi trailer. What was for breakfast? Bread and butter! It was actually very filling and a good base to start the day.
The house was located in a gated community and they were escorted by security guards from the gate to the house. They very soon realized that these streets in the community were definitely not designed to accommodate a semi truck and a 53’ long trailer, but the driver did a great job of getting around trees, house overhangs, and all of the other obstacles they (could have) ran into. Finally, it was time to get to work. Piece by piece, they moved the entire contents of this house to the trailer where Ramie and Randall built pallets (in the trailer) and stacked everything. Hopefully by doing it right now, they would only had to build these pallets once, and not have to redo it later at the shop. It was close to 1pm by the time they had finished packing, and they still had the 4 hour drive home.
Since they had not eaten since breakfast, they stopped at a small soda for a late lunch before continuing their drive home. Once again, Ramie got to share the bed in the sleeper as their seats for the whole ride back.
Once they got back to the warehouse, they had to unload the trailer, as the driver had another job he needed it for later. Unloading it went much quicker since everything was pretty much on pallets and could be handled by the forklifts; there was very little hand unloading, which was very helpful. Ramie got home around 7pm, showered, sat down for a few minutes and then went straight to bed.
Thursday 7/31- Ramie, being the high-demand guy that he his, had another job today. Stuart, one of the neighbors from the casita we rented when we first moved here, has a new house in Ojochal (pronounced Oh-ho-chal), and the first job was to repair a toilet there. This job went fairly quickly, and its been a long time since he really got to talk to them, so they visited for a little while before heading to their old house, which they were in the process of selling, for one final repair to fix a toilet there too. That job went just as quickly and Ramie headed back toward home.
On his way down the mountain, and since he was driving by, he stopped at Randall’s warehouse to pick up Hunter. We offered to watch him for the next few days while Randall and Jessica would be out of town.
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| Yay, I have a friend to play with! |
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| He is so big, but a super sweet dog. He scares the hell out of people with both his look and his bark, but if they only knew the truth..... Shhhhhh....He is a big baby! |
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| After a tiring day of playing! |
The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of July rainfall total was 14.64 inches
Friday 8/1- One of the long-term renters in one of the houses that Ramie manages moved out earlier this week, and in order to get it ready for a new renter, obviously Ramie had to make sure that it was cleaned out and cleaned up. Ramie went to the house the day after the former renter left and found that there was a lot of “stuff” left behind. He isn’t really sure what was in the house when this last renter moved in, as often houses come furnished and with some things in them. There’s also a good possibility that the prior renters had left things behind and that the prior owner of these houses didn’t take it out.
Clearly, someone would have to go through all of this and determine what needed to be kept and what needed to be trashed, and this would be up to us. Today after I was finished working, we went through everything that was left behind to make those decisions and to get the house ready for the cleaners to come. Boy did that house need a deep clean! There was a lot of random garbage left behind and the house was quite musty and moldy. We separated things into “keep” and “garbage” piles so the cleaners would know what to wash and what to throw away, and left it at that. Ramie’s property management agreement is that he will make decisions for the house, but the labor of cleaning up would be hired out to the cleaners!
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| . Ramie had a turtle walk this morning and captured this sunrise from Playa Hermosa |
Sunday 8/3- Even after not going anywhere or doing anything special yesterday, Ramie was a little bit hung over. Yes, chore day also involved some day drinking. While he just sat around and tried to shake that feeling, I pulled out the sewing machine and finished the new cushion covers for the patio furniture.
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| They look so much better and this fabric should last so much longer |
Monday 8/4- Today the A/C installer came to our house to finish the project that Ramie started at the beginning of this blog. He and Ramie worked together to get the new system installed in our dry room. It took them a couple of hours to mount it, connect the new wiring to the unit, and then get it up and running. Now we will wait and see how well this does compared to the old dehumidifier we had been using. Now, after having this for a while, I will say, its very odd walking into a room that is significantly cooler than the rest of the house, as that never happens here (unless we have guests using the AC in their room).
Tuesday 8/5- Ramie received notice yesterday that the solar parts that Karen and Dennis had to ship in from the US had arrived. All that was left to do was to connect the rest of their wiring, but because of the way it had to be wired, the setup needed these have special fuses splitters that weren’t available locally. This morning he gathered his stuff and left the house around 8am, chatted with them briefly and headed up to the roof. It only took him around an hour to finish the terminations, check the voltages to make sure they were within specs, and then switch the remaining panels online. Once he finished the job, he chatted for some more and headed home to work in our yard, hopefully before it got too hot out.
Wednesday 8/6- Today we would be saying goodbye and closing a small chapter in our life. You see, years ago when we came here on vacation we stayed at Mike and Eva’s Airbnb a few times and quickly became good friends with them; you’ve read about Mike and this house before if you've been reading our blogs for a while.
Well, Mike is here in Costa Rica this time because they made the decision to sell the house after owning it for more than 10 years. Mike was here on his own at the moment (he has other friends coming in later this week), to go through the house to take out all of their personal belongings and clean it out for the new owners. Mike invited us up to the house for one last dinner to exchange stories about all the good times we have had there. Pasta was on the menu, and Ramie made a pan of his famous coffee cake.
Mike almost called it off because of the possibility of rain, but we decided that we would go regardless, and we are glad we did! The clouds cleared off and we were blessed with one last beautiful sunset from the deck of their house. Even though the house won’t be the connection any longer, there will always be a connection with Mike and Eva!
My birthday wishes are very simple and almost always the same: a massage and not having to cook dinner, and today that was exactly the plan. At noon, Yendry, the same lady that has been giving me my birthday massages every year since I started getting them, came over for our massages.
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| Skye had to keep an eye on her... or she just can't ever let dad out of her sight |
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| What are you doing to my people? |
Now, for the 2nd part of my birthday wish- going out for dinner. I was having trouble deciding where I wanted to go and spent the time after my massage trying to figure that out. I was craving good french fries and didn’t have a place in particular that I wanted to go to, so I asked on Facebook for recommendations, but just wasn’t impressed by any of the places that were recommended. I then abandoned the fries idea and instead opted for a place that was still a bit of a mystery to us. One of the butcher shops in town has a restaurant where you can either order off their menu or pick a cut of meat from their butcher case and they will cook it up for you for a small additional charge. One of the things that intrigued me about this place is that they advertise as farm-to-table and don’t use any seed oils, which is very rare for restaurants. Even though I couldn’t find their menu online like I often try to do when trying a new restaurant, I was excited to give this place a try! I did see, though, that they have limited hours during this time of year and they close at 6, so being the early birds that we are, we went at 4.
In addition to just being early birds, we know that the parking situation in this area is not ideal, so we wanted to get there before the evening rush in this part of town started. We were surprised by the place when we got there and got inside, it turns out that it truly is right in the same space as the butcher shop and it’s not a very restaurant-y atmosphere at all. There were maybe 5 or 6 small tables, kind of the style you’d put on your patio, inside and you order at the counter like you would at a fast-food place. They don’t have a bar and I’m guessing that they don’t have a lot of people who dine-in, but take it to go instead.
Everything on their menu sounded really good, and they had a long list of iced coffees and smoothies that sounded equally delicious. We finally settled on a couple of burgers, some chicharonnes, and drinks, all of which Ramie and I agreed to share so that we could try multiple things. They also brought out a sample of their chicken vegetable soup, or as Ramie generally calls it “chicky water soup”. Man, their food and drinks are delicious!! Their fries were not what I was craving, but were still very good, and their burgers…wow! I will be back for these and to try other things on their menu! I was definitely not disappointed by my choice for birthday dinner!
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| The "restaurant" counter is in the background on the right, and the meat counter is just out of the frame off to the left. |
While we were waiting for our food to be prepared we also looked through all of the items on the shelves and in their coolers, because it turns out that they also have their own homemade and seasoned butters, cheeses, and other dairy products, bone broth, and all kinds of the delicious animal-product offerings, Those of you who know me well know that even with my somewhat limited diet, aside from the dairy products, these are all the types of things that I can have without guilt or side effects. They were a little bit pricey, but since it’s all made here, free of preservatives and not mass produced, it is something that people will often happily splurge for.
It didn’t take us long to get and eat our dinner, and we were in and out in about 45 minutes. Since there was no bar at the restaurant and we were very close to the Whale Tail brewery, we made a stop there for a couple of drinks as well. We each had a couple, and wouldn’t you know it, it was just as the sun was setting, about 6:00, as we got home. We had our play time with Skye, watched an episode of a TV show on Netflix, and went to bed at our normal time. I know I’m not old enough for my AARP card yet, but I feel like this was a very geriatric day… but I loved it!! It was the perfect birthday afternoon/evening for me.
Pura Vida!
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