Casita Chuparosa

We visited Casita Chuparosa over the May Day holiday and subsequent week-end, and paid the final portion of the new construction costs. We were somewhat surprised by the amount of work left to be done. For one thing, we understood the agreement to include the floor tiles — but only the shower stall and kitchen counter-tops were tiled. The new cement work is slightly rough and needs to be smoothed to match the old walls. The electric wiring was placed inside the walls as agreed, but the choice of location and number of outlets, light fixtures and switches was rather poor.

Still, we are delighted that the house is now ‘livable’ at least, with indoor plumbing and plenty of light from the large windows. No screens on those windows yet (we had mentioned that, but like the floor tiles it was not in the itemized contract). Our big mistake was relying on the architect to include everything we discussed in the contract. There were almost fifty items listed in the contract — it is hard to see what is missing when presented with such a list.

They did some things that were not in the contract, but we had agreed to, such as filling in the gaps under the roofing. Other things were not in the contract and we hadn’t even thought to discuss, such as a cement floor in the small outdoor service patio area, which they did. Other things that we just assumed would be part of the job were not done because they weren’t listed — like a step under the new door, which is about 18 inches above the ground level. And don’t toilets usually come with seats? We also assumed there would be a base-layer of paint over the new work — but no, it’s not in the contract.

So there is a lot to be done yet, but we are certainly making progress! Here are photos of the new bathroom, viewed from inside and out. The black thing on the roof is a water storage tank. They left a kit that comes with that and has a float to automatically turn on-and-off the water flow — but they didn’t install it! The bathroom is quite large, the photo just shows one side, the other side has space for washer-dryer and large cabinets for storage.

Here is a view of the new kitchen, with its great view of the garden. The tile is very nice, and the shelves are cement. There are spaces for the stove and refrigerator with a small shelf between, where the water garrafon goes. There is plug for the refrigerator and one plug over the counter for everything else electric in the kitchen. The stove area has a connection to the LP gas tank (which is outside in the service patio, and also powers the hot water heater).

Below is the outside front view, showing our beautiful stone wall. The driveway gate is of palm-wood and iron, and has a small entry door. There is a matching small door to the service patio to the right that doesn’t show in this image. They have promised to move the left-over construction materials inside the gate, so we can use them in the landscaping.

And here is the back view. Notice that all the windows are plain rectangles, rather than the nice eyebrow shape we were promised — the architect told us that they could not use the eyebrow windows because they would have to cut steel reinforcement rods in the cement, which would structurally weaken the walls too much (and who are we to doubt it?)

So we are done with the construction phase. The finishing phase will be somewhat more extensive than we expected, but that is life.