Victor,
Thank you for your interest and inquiry.

Yes we do! In fact most of our clients come to us from the coastal areas especially in three particular hot spots. Our first two homes are going to Uvita and Plantanillo for example with the next two being done in Playa Grande and we actually have 3 people from the Quepos area in the process of considering our system. Actually location has little relevance for us. We enter a home site kind of like a swat team just employing tools instead of guns, when your turn in our construction schedule comes to pass. We then build a typical home of this size in 60 – 90 days due to the efficiency of our system and a good crew that I have Canadianized as much as possible and continue to work at. Time is of the essence in producing economical yet excellent homes. Time is money is a very valid saying to put it mildly yet one that is mostly ignored by the industry here. Bare with me as I explain this simply so here is my dose of reality for you as the consumer that few will discuss openly with you. If I only built 2 houses a year (which is fast by most standards here) YOU end up paying at least half of all my overhead costs as well as contributing half of our required income. Hence my hands are rather tied in just what kind of a deal I can economically offer you or anyone with this limited productivity. Alternatively if I build 6 homes a year then I only need to get 1/6 the amount of money from you to maintain our business and life. To make this situation even worse for most consumers it actually comes to pass that a typical very slow built home using the normal Tico methods takes three to six times as long while actually producing a massively inferior home. Yes the normal formula in life is that it takes longer to do a good/great job than a crappy one which to a point is generally true. However if your methods are flawed, inferior materials are used and a general lack of use of and knowledge of good tools this age old formula goes right out the window. Slow can indeed produce excessively bad results. Here is two very recent real examples that demonstrate this reality is a far site from my over active imagination.

Eg. #1 I am currently wrapping up one of my rescue missions in Ciudad Colon that started construction in May 2011 yet I took over a building that resembled a mine field of horrific materials and even worse workmanship. Just to add insult to injury 60% of the budget spent by the owner is nowhere to be found it just disappeared in a puff of smoke of obscene theft and incompetency. Two years and a ton of money gave the owners only a shell of a building.

#2 I inspected back in August a home in Puerto Viejo that was then 14 months under construction and might be done by this Christmas yet it has massive blunders that have cost the owner a fortune and delivered embarrassing unrepairable results that are like a shape knife in the eye. My overwhelming experience here, as demonstrated in my book in great clarity, is that the typical Tico home is way more expensive than it needs to be yet is fundamentally one flawed and crappy home with poor longevity and even worse maintenance bills. All of this is a self fulfilling prophecy if you adhere to building science that is a good fifty years outdated in the real modern world of construction. No I am not even remotely attempting to be polite just relay the facts as I see in the clear evidence. Recently one competitor told me he thought I should not bash competitors. Well first off those who behave as I have described are not my competitors and secondly as I told him, would you prefer I send them Christmas cards instead of calling a spade a spade?

As per the size you mention all of our clients are actually looking for smaller homes with walls along with lots of outdoor living space. In fact no McMansions are even in the cue or have been requested by anyone! Most of what we have designed for clients is in the 100 to 150 m2 range. Hence we do indeed both understand what you are looking for hence we design small yet efficient homes that live well.

So that is a long answer to your simple questions however I generally find the details are helpful for you to decide what direction would best suit your personal situation.

Regards,

Trevor Chilton

Jeff,
It was indeed a pleasure talking to you today.
Thank you for your appreciation for the extent of our information to help consumers make better decisions.
I look forward to meeting with you and discussing the process and the design stage.

Regards,

Trevor

Gary,
Thanks for your questions and visit.

Our glu-lams are custom made for us here and we also export those to Panama or any project we are supplying to.

Please bare with me as I explain in detail a recent occurrence so that you understand our thought process in how to build with quality when using hardwoods. Importing softwoods is in general quite insane on the whole. To me it is what I liken to bringing a two day old sandwich with you to a banquet at the Marriot.

There is tons of plantation hardwoods here of which we know exactly how they stand up versus imported that often don’t. Add to that the fact that these woods are also green thinking as well as responsible, efficient resource management with a negative footprint since one cubic meter of wood consumes a ton of CO2 in the process of growing.

Just this past week I inspected a deck in a $400,000 home near Gracia in Plantation Estates where 10 years ago they installed a pine deck. That is now a total disaster of destruction (you will fall through it if you don’t step in the right place). It is a testament to bad methods, bad material and bad finish all adding up to a pretty predictable result. As I try to demonstrate to the new kids on the block like yourself, through my book and jobsite inspections looking at new homes when you come here means nothing, zilch, squat. You have to go into old homes and see how the story has played out. Then and only then do you know if it is a good home or often in Costa Rica a piece of high maintenance low functioning piece of crap for lack of better description. They did something that I have always found to be an offensive assault on the eyes by face screwing (or nailing) deck boards down to the joists. Well this is nothing but butt ugly and proof that the installer is either a clueless or lazy idiot as well as the architect or engineer who oversaw such sheer stupidity is equally or even more so guilty. Now when you do this in the tropics with our rainfall this deck had hundreds of perforations into the wood giving rain, air and rot and open invitation to go to work as it most predictable has done. Then failing to finish and protect it from getting water logged, in any way only put more fuel on the fire. This is right up there in function and logic to that of a screen door on a submarine. In this case and quite predictably the rot has extended down into the whole joist structure as well.

Interestingly someone had the brilliant idea to suggest to the owner to import new pine in from the US at a cost of $4,500 for 400 ft2. As I told Richard two wrongs seldom make one right not to mention bad results at a sky high price to boot. Comparatively using Teak this material bill is roughly in the neighbourhood of $2,000 or $1,400 in Acacia. The other simple fact is our local plantation grown hardwoods like Acacia and Teak give much more impressive cosmetic/style results than any crap pine could begin to do in a million years. Also when maintained properly they will last for many years. However most people have no idea how to maintain outdoor wood here as there is but few products that actual work in our brutal climate. Yes the climate may be agreeable to people but putting wood and typical urethane in heavy rain and sky high UV concentrations is a disaster that only takes 6 months to unfold. The other insanity to importing softwoods here is you are adding a carbon footprint in the long distance transport of such while paying dearly for such. That to me adds up to but one thing INSANITY! I will be providing before and after shots of this job to demonstrate the massive difference between the two methods when one does it right.

Back on track with your questions, our first two homes are in the container now getting cleared at customs, will both be going in down south at Uvita and Plantanillo which are both close to Dominical. Certainly when you are here you can arrange a visit to see in the real when you arrive in April. From Atenas that is a 2 1/4 hour drive so you can certainly do it as a day trip or stick around and enjoy the south country some while there.

Meanwhile we always start with clients with a skype conference call so that we can get acquainted and to understand what your goals and expectations happen to be as well as design generalities so that we can direct you in the most appropriate course of action.

Regards,

Trevor Chilton