Kitchen entrance

ramp to dining area installed

all in a days work

A four hour power outage and a drizzle of rain put us back some but a glorious afternoon helped us catch up. The dining area ceiling sheets is now painted a lovely "Cloudless Sky" blue, kitchen ceiling is painted white, the deck is oiled and the beginnings of the walkway to kitchen and bathrooms is taking form.

onwards & upwards

The ceiling beams are raised above the dining deck and are ready for the roof to be put on. Door and window hardware are in and the water is connected to the bar area. The weather is gorgeous as we are entering the best two months of the whole year and tourism is holding up pretty good in these economic times. American Airlines just announced it will add a fourth flight from its Miami hub to Costa Rica come Feb 11. Demand is up

crunch time

Only three weeks left till the pre opening party.

Kitchen

Today I felt like a kid at Christmas opening a heavily package shipment containing our new stove, grill, freezer, refrigerator, plates and glasses.

Windows installed

support beams for dining area

dining area

Tuesday

Great progress today . The carpenters showed up today and one set of windows are in for the office. The materials arrived and about half the beams for the dining area roof are up already.

monday

Today building materials as well as the wood for the deck being delayed sadly keeping todays construction advances minimal. The good news is that tomorrow it should all arrive and we can pull full force ahead with a full work crew on hand.

north view

A taste of Costa Ricas Caribbean coast

http://www.examiner.com/x-17315-Tampa-World-Travel-Examiner~y2009m8d1-A-taste-of-Costa-Ricas-Caribbean-coast

decking

All efforts are now on building the outdoors decking for the bar, lounge and dining area.

San Jose

Today we spent the day successfully shopping for additional restaurant equipment in the capital San Jose. The kitchen can now count on lighting, a refrigerator, a freezer, exhaust for the stove and a couple of prep tables. I am almost ready to start cooking

beachfront

Before the opening the ficus (our eco friendly construction fence) will be removed and the front will be replanted with other lower foliage to preserve the beach view and to the right the wooden entrance structure with the irongate will be located. (below)

finally

All of our stone gaviones are done. Done. Finally. Also we finished the lower deck closest to the ocean including the stairs. Now the terrace is raised 60cm above ground providing an excellent view over mainstreet and the beach.This ties the whole place together and people can now easily visualize the final result. A backhoe leveled mounds of dirt and sand in the back of the property so the place looks even larger and much cleaner after construction. Our backgate for deliveries got installed. The guy that was supposed to install the bathroom doors today stood us up so instead I went by swanky Cameleon hotel picking up empty Champagne bottles from Diego, the GM, and our friends, Claudine and Regis, at Beach Hut gave us tons of empty wine bottles that we will craft into lighting installations.

The bar wall is ready

color of stone

Puerto Viejo named to list of “Top 10 Cheap Beach Vacations” Worldwide

http://away.com/features/top-ten-cheap-beach-vacations-1.html?utm_source=onsite&utm_medium=promo&utm_campaign=mostpopular

Getting there

In the spirit of using local materials and incorporating the unique aspects of our area we contacted Carolina, a paintor and art historian, that works with the indians living in the surrounding mountains in helping preserve and promote their ancient crafts handed down for generations. She was delighted to hear we wanted to give them our support and said she would let us know how long it would take them to produce our breadbaskets, lampshades, serving plates and so on. Some of the indiginious live a several day walk inside the almost impenetrable jungle so it will take some time to get an answer. But thats ok.

We decided on using handmade placemats that are weaved by using recycled the plastic banana bags that unfortunately ends up either in the ocean where it often is mistaken for food by seaturtles that die when ingesting the plastic or in enormous floating underwater mountains of seatrash. In the best case scenario they end up in landfills. The group of local women that perform the very laborous and time consuming task of producing these placemats and bags do an incredible job with amazing results. I can't wait to have the first order.

We also got the power company to move what best can be described as a small forest of wire anchors that were splattered all over one corner of the property impeding our use of the space. Now they left only two right by the property line and we are happy.

The barback made of solid stone is going up and will reach 4 meters (12 feet) of the ground. Its looking very dramatic and we have a steady stream of locals stopping by checking out the progress. Everybody is super positive which is great

Visitors Guide to Costa Rica

Caribbean, Clean and Untainted Rivers - Naturally Costa Rica - The visitor's guide to Costa Rica

Oy vey

I shouldn't have mentioned the sizzling sun. It rained, no poured, for more then 12 hours non stop yesterday. But our crew did show up, if a little late, this morning and by noon the sun was out full force again. Now its raining again of course but who cares. Its perfect for chilling out at the house.

We will start building the wood deck on the lower part closest to the ocean after the weekend. This week was pretty good. We were only stood up by the AyA (watermeter)guy, the A/C guy and two truckloads of stones. Not bad. Not worse then Miami. More things got solved. We received the internet, a quote that was acceptable from the carpenter for our doors and windows, the dishwashing area got mapped out, we ordered some custom kitchen ecquipment and everybody has shown up to work this whole week. This is great.

A beautiful thing happened today. A falcon landed on the site and feasted on crabs seemingly unbothered by us being just a few feet away. I was a little worried about our two baby sloths lounging in the tree above and could be a possible prey for a falcon. But it was too busy catching crabs instead. What a relief. Now we are back at the house cooking a delicious dinner and having wine with good friends relaxing while the rain drizzles outside and the crickets sing. So cozy

stone works

We have been working on the stone walls that borders the terrace of KOKi beach club this week. The river stones has to be placed one by one in the metal cages which not only is hard physical work in the sizzling sun but also very time consuming. It really is a science but after several improvements of the work process we were able to speed it up without compromising but rather improving the appearance of the stone filled cages . The most challenging phase will be the bar that has four cages stacked on top of eachother to a height of 4 meters. The trick is to get the stones up there.

We are waiting for the doors and windows to be priced out by a local carpenter that came highly recommended and seemed confident enough to take on the daunting task presented.

the sunlight comes thru while still providing shade

moving along

The tiles are up in the kitchen and the office walls are sanded. Next step is to get the doorframes in place followed by the custom made doors and windows. Once installed we will recieve the kitchen equipment and the buildings are done. We are now promptly putting our attention towards starting building the foundation for the outdoor seating area and bar.
Its sunday again and that means relaxing with a pitcher of sangria. Ahh..this is Caribbean living.

The shadow play from the trees and beams onto the structure is amazing in the early morning sun. We ceremoniously witnessed the first tile being carefully placed on the kitchen floor by a seasoned professional from Home Creek this morning. We also, after brief bickering, decided on color scheme after flipping thru countless palettes. The first brush strokes are applied to the beams proving our choice to be the correct one. Its looking good. A gateway has been added to the model for a more dramatic statement for the entrance to frame the traditional irongate.

Shop till you drop

So now the floors are poured, the plaster is up, drainage almost done, the brake boxes and electric installed, the tiles are up in the bathrooms looking gorgeous and the crew has now moved on to the kitchen.

That means time for some fun shopping for us. We took a trip to the capital, San Jose, where we went looking for kitchen and restaurant supplies. This week a truckload is coming with a sparkling new gas stove, tons of plates, glasses, utensils and an array of kitchen stuff.

Exhausted but determined we moved on to the local artisan market which luckily resulted in finding some beautiful indigineous fabrics in vibrant colours for pillows and chairs. Filled with a satisfactory sense of accomplishment and the car packed to the rim we headed back to the beach.

Costa Rica - Puerto Viejo

Topping off

Finally the roof is up and the walls are smooth just in time to receive a car filled with city building inspectors armed with notepads and tape measures exuding surprising efficiency. We passed, of course, with flying colors and according to permits down to the last centimeter. Alles gut. Gracias. Au revoir.
Now with the roof in place we can move onto windows and doors before pouring the floors. We have been so lucky with the weather cooperating and making everything move along in good pace. We couldn't wish for more.

perspectives

The sequence of pictures below help us envision the project as it all comes to life. Starting with a photo taken from the actual entry area on site we can see the two buildings just beyond the two trees. Next the crude massing model helped us understand the forms and space. Finally the 3D sketch helped us see the site from the same angle and others.

photo from the entrance

the crude cardboard model

the 3D sketch

flying beams

the roof is sailing along the beams are up and two of the roofing sheets have been placed.  the building really looks quite dramatic along the main street and has become THE topic of conversation within town.

one of the locals

seems our local resident is back just moved trees!  we thought she had left... but being a sloth and only being able to move in slow motion we didn't think she'd go far and we were right she just switched trees, which still feels like a grand adventure for a sloth.

Electric is connected, water is connected and internet & phone is coming this or next week. Progress is unstoppable. In keeping with our "green" concept of reusing, recapturing, recycling and salvaging we repurposed an out of use gate we picked up cheaply in BriBri, a neighboring town, and took back to the house. Our metall worker, Reinell, is now pouring himself into making it look like new. It will be perfect in the back of the property for the delivery entrance. A local farmer happily sold us an enormous turn of the century sugar kettle that was historically used to process sugarcane juice into sugar. Its new life will be as the focal point at the entrance of KOKI beach.

Stephen, our creative mind, is now busy on his mac making a 3D model in addition to the physical model that is already decorating our temporary office in our living room while Jorge, of course, is busy with doing his usual Public Relations.

Koki Beach Club

Finally after more then three years we are finally putting the shovel to the ground on our commercial lot in town. The location is perfect as you can't miss it as you drive thru town and it really begs for something to happen. And now the day has come.
We decided on using found objects, reclaimed wood, recycled local materials and the natural shade of a couple large trees to provide a relaxing spot on the main drag of town overlooking the beach. The bar, for example, is made of local riverstones held in large steel baskets commonly used for land retention and road construction. The main dining area is found on a raised terrace surrounding the large trees that provide a cool shade and a gentle breeze from the ocean. You have a view of the Caribbean sea from all corners of the space which is really nice.
The terrace itself is constructed from a rare redish colored hardwood that was salvaged from a fallen tree in the area.
The tables and chairs are made from the wood of an old abandoned house that stood on one of our other properties (see photo). We dismantled the house piece by piece and used the walls to make chairs and the tables are the old windows and doors. It really gives the furniture patina and tells a story. The structural beams from the house are used in the support of the terrace deck. The old tin roof now gives shelter to our nightwatch. We even salvaged an old wooden love seat left in the old shack to be refinished and put to use again in the restaurant.

We are hoping to be open by September in order to be in good shape by the time the world renowned Jaques Favre regatta arrives in November ( http://www.jacques-vabre.com/en/s03_news/s03p02_detail_actu.php?news=1223&back_mode=accueil ) bringing some 1000 contestants and collaborators from 13 countries on 62 competing crafts, 62 support vessels and some 350 journalists to our corner of Costa Rica. They have previously sailed to Brazil and Colombia along the old coffee routes but for the next four competitions their destination is Costa Rica. An opportunity that can't be missed and another reason to celebrate.

We started construction only two weeks ago on the kitchen and office - which are being topped off this week- an incredible speed for a caribbean beach town. We drove to the port city of Puerto Limon friday to get some tiles at El Mundo de la Ceramica (world of tiles) and found the tile for the kitchen and bathrooms. They had every tacky tile you have ever seen in the world and of course with the perfect boarder to boot! Yes, here is where you find what will not sell anywhere else. Well after the salesman showed us the "BEST" we wondered through every stack and pile and found some pretty interesting stuff, for the floors some large tiles that look like concrete and the kitchen walls a off white with satin finish and for the bathroom walls a tile that kinda looks like bamboo streaks in a very light off green tint, it all came together pretty nice and we all felt content driving back knowing that we accomplished all that we set out to do in only one trip. Ask anybody and they will tell you that rarely happens around here.

Sunday we took the day off and enjoyed Sangrias all day long. Ahh this is what Caribbean living is all about.

topping off

the office ready to be topped off this week!

Costa Rica's lesser-known Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo

Costa Rica's lesser-known Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo