This is the fifth part about the (slow) conversion of the land I bought in Guatemala and my new life here, you can read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Part 4 and Part 5 if you missed them.
Please also check my guest post on Young Adult Money called Kill your debt faster: how to make extra money while working a full time job.
Petanque field & beach!
This week has been more relaxing than last week, mainly because I refused to work. I was really fed up with living in dust, my hands were burning from painting with lime (very corrosive) so I spent most of the days hiding from my BF who is hyperactive and wants to put me to work every chance he gets. We went to town for a big grocery shop I hope will last until after Christmas, there is still a full lamb in the deep freezer and we may buy a turkey for Christmas too. The freezer is repaired, still haven’t heard from the company to see if they will cover their faulty equipment.
The excavation is finished, you can now see what will be the room, and a separation for the bathroom and walk in closet. Hopefully the bathroom will be partly open to an interior garden, and feel like showering outside.
Footprint of the new room with lake view
The new room will have stone walls and the workers spent a couple of days digging for stones in our neighbor’s land, which is not really how things should be done but the land is empty and the guys didn’t feel like carrying big stones from further away. If the owner complains, it will have to be to our contractor, who obviously charges us the price of bringing legit stones with a pickup truck. Slightly annoying both for financial and ethical reasons (should I confess that money hurts more?) and that is just the beginning.
Petanque field at sunset, the perfect time to play
With all the excavated earth being thrown to the beach, the Petanque (French bowls game) field is progressing nicely. We are trying to avoid sending the earth to the lake or the beach will get muddy, we could put it on the neighbor’s land to fill the holes from the stones, but that is another step too far…
We now live in a White House! We did all the lime coat painting, inside and out.
White house
Lime is what the Mayans used but they say it may have been why they extinguished, because they used too much wood to burn the lime and were left without a forest to provide food.
From behind you can even see the lake through the roof!
See through roof and lake
The kitchen was painted white as well
white kitchen
A bit less colorful but you can spot and kill insects right away.
The bathroom is ready and functional with a new door so that both rooms can access it
Bathroom with new door
And this is the new room, a small room with two single beds for guests, we put the door and the mosquito nets, it was also painted and cleaned, now we are ready to host!
guest room with nets
And finally my bedroom now has a door and a wall so I don’t have to worry about workers coming in and out of the rest of the house.
Main room with new wall on the left
The main room will be rented as a Bed and Breakfast when our room is finished. The whole house could be rented as a whole to a family of four, or we could put a door leading to the bedrooms allowing us to rent the rooms and use the kitchen.
This week I am alone at home and have the handyman for myself. That sounded so wrong. I mean he is off the excavation and will be able to prepare a garden for me to sow seeds at the back of the house. Then I am putting it on a last deep cleaning mission. We said ”this is the last deep cleaning” about 50 times and I would rather pay him to do yet another round.
Plus we need to find him some work or we would have to fire him and since we bought him a motorcycle that he is paying back with work, he needs the job. We tried to give him some extra work so he could make extra money, like the 2 weeks excavation during which he made double his monthly salary, but he is now refusing hard missions and says he wants to be back on a monthly salary. He deserves a full post.
It’s looking amazing! Any idea what the rent usually goes for on a place like that?
It depends greatly. Francis Ford Coppola owns a luxury hotel nearby and rents for over $250 a night. Another friend is one mile down and has a clean basic but nice hotel at $50 per night. I was thinking around $35 per night with breakfast for two, since you don’t have real hotel facilities and rooms are simple, but the private beach access and kitchen use add up to the price a bit. For the full house rented privately to a family of 4 maybe $100 a night, as I couldn’t use my kitchen and would have to stay in the new room or go somewhere for a few days.
Yay, the guest room is finished! So when is the first available date for a visit from an Aussie tourist?
If the world doesn’t end, around new year! I don’t know it this is a legend but I heard kids born in a plane get free lifetime flights 🙂
Wow, the pictures are continuing to look simply amazing. It’s neat to see different things come to fruition. I may be sending my brother your way as I know he’ll always be up for another visit to Guatemala. I am a bit envious of what the weather looks like. It got down to 5 degrees last night with some pretty strong winds.
Brrr feeling chilly just reading that! I am getting so used to the heat that just a few degrees below normal temperatures and I put a sweater on. Winter weather would make me sick for sure.
Place looks fantastic. I am definitely going to look you up if we head that way. Great work.
Thank you Miss T, it is rewarding when people enjoy it as well.
Wow! This is outstanding. Very inspirational! Keep up the great work.
Thank you Jamie!
It’ll be nice to get some rental money coming in! I love how the worker doesn’t want any hard tasks any longer and wants to go back to a hourly rate. lol. Go figure.
Well now that he enjoys his motorcycle it is painful to pay for it… He’s the star of tomorrow’s post!
Everything is coming together quite nicely. Love the look of the house with all the fresh white paint. Hope things go well with your garden.
The herbs are growing nicely, I love to watch the progress. Let’s just hope the hens don’t eat them..
This is starting to look really good, Pauline. I am with you on taking the week off (and hiding) – in fact, I have already told John that ‘the productive masses of our household may revolt’; in other words, I will follow your example next week.
Let’s unite! I wish life was less hectic and we wouldn’t have to wait for the burnout to stop.
Looks freaking awesome!! Think of the value you are adding to the property too!! 🙂
I am, but it’s kind of like blogging, you don’t want to count the hours you put in!
Ah, glad to know the US isn’t the only place where workers want full pay but less work!
Go figure, now that his pay is lower he actually did a great day today… Hope it lasts.
Looks amazing! Add me to the queue of people waiting to rent that room when its finished 🙂
Thank you! I hope many tourists will feel the same!
Looks soamazing! Glad you were able to hide and recover for a week 🙂 Will you decorate for Christmas?
I am not sure. Christmas under the sun feels weird to have the usual decorations, but if I find a good idea for the palm trees I will!
I think you are going to have a million clients lined up just from your progression stories. I think people will be excited to see it in person. Keep em coming!
How exciting for you. I really love the idea of the indoor garden near the shower. Sounds like you’re creating a paradise down there for yourself.
That’s the goal! But much work ahead..
Wow, looks great. That is some fantastic progress 🙂
Thank you Mandy! Can’t wait for it to be all over.
“This week I am alone at home and have the handyman for myself.” – LOL! Yikes…
Your place looks bright and relaxing. Are those cracks I see in your bedroom by the roof?
I can’t believe how fast your “little house in Guatemala” has been moving along. It seems just like yesterday you blogging about making your way out there.
what an eye you have for details! yes, there is a big crack but it is not an earthquake one, it is just the last layer of concrete that is cracking, I forgot to ask the builder to fix it. That wall is 12 years old and needs a good renovation.
Looking at your photos, I feel even colder now. It’s only 15 degrees outside right now.
Pretty cool that you are going to turn that spare room into a bed and breakfast.
Yes, I am hoping to rent those two when the new room is built.
I love how simple your house looks, yet it also seems so practical. The white walls are gorgeous, and that spare room looks so homey.
Well done 🙂
oops… just sent you that last update’s link… too early to reply to comments! Yes it is all simple and I don’t need more. I am happy with the transformation because the initial idea was to live temporarily in it then tear it down and instead we were able to convert it, so that is a rewarding achievement.
“This week I am alone at home and have the handyman for myself. That sounded so wrong.” Haha
The place is looking great! Let me know when my wife and I can book our vacation for 2014 🙂
I certainly hope those works won’t take until 2014!
Loving it, as always. Glad to see things are coming along! Your house looks lovely. The white sure looks clean and bright, I hope that it succeeds in discouraging the bugs!
Thank you Anne! It seems to be doing quite a good job, the quantity of insects have drastically decreased.
That looks so pretty! My friend is headed to Guatemala next week — just in time for the “end of days”!
I certainly hope I didn’t do all this for nothing!
Hi there, You’ve done an excellent job. I’ll certainly digg it and
personally recommend to my friends. I am sure they’ll be benefited from this website.