Costa Rica Blogging: Building a Cabin in the Hills of Costa Rica

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Building a Cabin in the Hills of Costa Rica

We recently purchased 3000 square meters of land in the hills of Esparza, Costa Rica. The cost to was approximately $32,000 U.S. dollars. Now we'd like to build a few small cabin homes on this land that will hopefully eventually be rented out to people coming from the capital of Costa Rica in San Jose to spend time at the Pacific beaches out in our area.

Two weeks ago we attended the Home Expo Convention Show in San Jose and met a really nice Costa Rican architect that builds cabins and wood homes. We have subsequently decided to do business with him because he, unlike any other builder we spoke to, was willing to come down and meet our budget. We want to complete the first little cabin with no more than the $16,000 that we were able to borrow from the bank. It's a small cabin, of course, that will probably only sleep 2 adults and perhaps 2 kids comfortably, but could no doubt house a group of young travellers who don't have any real need for privacy. The cabin is pictured below.

Small Cabin We Will Be Building in the Hills of Costa Rica

The neighborhood where this land is located is called "Juanilama" and most of the land in these hills belongs to a former farm laborer who worked for a very rich landowner for many years slowly buying up this land from his boss. There are areas in this community that offer stunning views of the surrounding hills, the port town of Puntarenas, and the beaches of the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Lots being sold with these particularly gorgeous views will cost a whole lot more than what we paid for ours, of course. The large house, in the last picture below, was built by an American named "Jimmy" and is one of the homes that comes with these spectacular views. The rumor is the house and land cost him less than $200,000 U.S. dollars. Great price compared to what you'd pay in the U.S. for this, but still way out of our budget for now!;)