Dirt and Dust

Moving into a new house is exciting. We have been blessed way beyond we could imagine. Jonathan, our son-in-law designed a comfortable, smart house for living in a cloud forest. The house is more beautiful than I could have dreamed cradled high up on the mountain side with an amazing view of the river valley and volcano. Believe me, I (Dan) am like a kid on Christmas morning excited to see what beautiful sky scrape God has painted for us each day.

One little drawback is we were living in a partially completed house. We moved when the two bedrooms and bathrooms were done. We had to wait an extra two weeks before we had hot water in the showers. We washed our plates in the laundry room or outside. One hassle with moving in early was dealing with the dust and dirt of daily construction. The worst was the highly refined dust from sanding the fibrolit (dry-wall). Slowly and surely more and more work has been accomplished. Kitchen cabinets were delivered, kitchen sinks installed (what a happy day that was), additional doors and windows made, extra bedroom/office completed and the cupola sealed and varnished.

Other niceties were when the railing around the house was finished. The dogs could no longer play and tramp mud over the covered porch. Additional stairs were built up to the patio, and we put down sod that has really helped with the mud.

Construction is almost complete. All the little details are slowly being completed. We have made little corrections like adding more downspouts to keep up with the heavy down pours that are common. Our prayer is this house will be a place of peace, joy and God be glorified in our house.

Living while under construction

Here, Lori is trying to keep our one room free of dust.

Before we had cabinets and a kitchen sink.

The railing keeps the dogs out of the house. AMEN!

Moving In--Real Soon

We hope to be moving in our new house sometime next week. It has been an interesting two weeks. Giovanny, our builder has started work on another house and he has turned the house over to his assistant. The transition has gone very well.

Tatto and his crew, Fernando and Llillo

Our new team has scrambled to get all the doors and sliding doors in place so the house will be secure. They have worked hard getting the Master Bedroom and Dustin's room completed so we have a place to sleep. We might not get paint on the walls but at least all the sanding and dusty work will be done.

We have the front sliding door on our house

There is water and the gutters up. Gutters are important since rainy season has already started. Half of our kitchen cabinets should be in place in a week or two. There are a ton of small details to take care but that is ok. Just like learning a new language, growing roots in a foreign country and moving into a new house, everything occurs poco a poco (little by little).

One of Dustin's windows. Everything was made here on the property

Lori designed our bathroom with a little help from Judith

Our good friend Michelle,
(the gardner was back again this year)
helped put in a couple of gardens.
Thanks Michelle!!!

As you can imagine, we are truly blessed and excited to move into our house.
(visitors are welcome)

Escape to the Other Side of the Volcano

We all need to get away at times, and Lori and I finally found some time to celebrate our upcoming anniversary. Our anniversary is not until the end of this month but with building a house and everything else going on, getting away is not easy.

We wanted to find a place different than our environment here without driving 4-6 hours to get to the beach. On our travels from San Jose to Paso Marcos we found an alternate route in which we escape the slow trucks and traffic. This route is high above the traffic and we enjoy the cool mountain air. We figured we could find a place to stay in one of those villages.


View of the Volcano from our hotel.

We found a place called Volcan Turrialba Lodge. It is 3 miles from the Volcano and 7 miles from the closest out of the way village called Pastora. Sounds great dosen't! This place was very reasonably priced and we had the place to ourselves (no other guests) except for the 1500 sheep and cattle on the nearby fields. The other cool thing about this place is that it was actually very cool. Volcan Turrialba Lodge sits around 8700 compared to 2000 feet above sea level by the Pacuare River.



Wonderful view of sunset

The reason why I called this article the other side of the volcano is because we can view the Turrialba volcano from our house on clear days. We live about 20 miles from the volcano as the crow flies. I felt like a little kid thrilled with excitment viewing something only seen in the news or magazines. We also got to see and smell first hand the volano's destructive nature, understand the different climates and geo systems in this amazing country.

We enjoyed the diverse terain during our 4 hour hike




The burnt side of the volcano where the
wind blows the dangerous smoke



Morning sun trying to penetrate
through the volcano's smoke

Clouds sweeping in underneath
the plume from the volcano.

Lori and I were very thankful for the time to get away and reflect on all that God has done in our lives.

Stop and Drop (Infrastructural Issues)

While driving to Turrialba two weeks ago we were following this dump truck up the hill. We always give trucks much space since our diesel engine needs momemtum to ensure it makes it up the hill without stalling. As we were gaining on the dump truck he suddenly stops and starts to drop his load.

To our surprise a scraper comes

over the top to spread out the dirt.

Roads are something I did not think much about when living in the states except when it came to traffic patterns or construction. Here in rural Costa Rica there are not many options but one road in and one road out. We rely on these roads to buy grociers, supplies, and housing materials.

After last years rainy season, our roads were in pretty bad shape. We were reduced to a crawl in many places while still inflicting heavy wear and tear on our cars. Well a couple of weeks ago, we were extremely blessed to see help was on its way.

The road to Paso Marcos still needs some major help

The road received a little TLC

We live one hour from Turrialba, our closest city to buy the things of daily life. Half of the ride is on paved roads, the half hour on mountainous dirt roads. Our issues are on these dirt roads. During rainy season, washouts and landslides are common.

This road was getting a little narrow

and being eroded from underneath

This is the same road as the picture

above but with a bit of a makeover.

To add to the difficulty of our road situation, we live on the other side the Pacuare River and the bridge will not permit heavy machinery to cross the river. The solution was to build a road through the river so the dump trucks would have access to the other side of the river.

Dump truck crossing the Pacuare River

The famous "Singing Bridge"

of Bajo Pacaure

Prayer Request: The road to Paso Marcos is not a federal road and repairs have not been made to this road. What a blessing to have this road repaired, our vehicles take a beating on these roads every time we leave home.

Second Prayer Request: The government of Costa Rica is suppose to replace this bridge. Pray the funds and materials are released and actually go to rebuilding this bridge. A new bridge would help all the communities that live on the other side of the river.