I arrived in San José, Costa Rica - "my new home", on the 7th November 2010..this time around I am here to stay.
The start of a new life.
If you have not read the previous posts, please do.
After two and one half years of planning, thinking, wondering, daring, more planning and then some planning, I am home.
The way I arranged my life before proved to be quite good, and for that reason I started the "new life" on the same principles...
mistake one....
Sit back, relax with a michelada...think...why did you decide to change...the new life calls for a different approach, a different way of thinking, and I really like this.
The first 4 weeks after arrival were absorbed by doing the mediocre "musts" like residence application, buy wheels,
and of course, buy a house, the one I found on the internet proved to be just perfect (with a LOT of help from Shirlene)
Shir went to see the place before I arrived and did all the checking and negotiation with the then owners. What a magic
wife I have!, I cannot think how I would have managed without the help from Shir.
Driving west from San José the road winds down a little escarpment to Santa Ana which has a lovely village atmosphere, and is also quite warmer than SJ. The house is situated in Pozos de Santa Ana which could be described as a "suburb" of Santa Ana.
It is a rather typical "Tico" house - referring to the building style, and is in a very good condition overall. The only disaster area for me was the kitchen...revamp?? I don't think so, try a complete re-do!
I started work on the house with the help of Shir's brother Pedro to prepare firstly the kitchen and then the rest. The new kitchen wil be fitted by Muebles La Robert, a nearby local business on the 12th of Jan. so I have to be ready before then.
It is both exciting and daunting to put everything together, like finding the appliances we want, fittings needed for the re-vamp and even simple stuff like basic tools needed (my stuff from SA will only arrive in a month or two) in a strange place where you don't know the shops and suppliers, and have to do everything in Spanish.
Today the kitchen was finished and ready for installation. I have been taking photos as the work progressed and am posting the kitchen work apart from the rest of the house. The house album will follow soon!
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