It’s been over three months since we started, and two full months since the construction work began on our new room. Now, the new room is almost finished. It looks a bit like a cave, which is kind of cool, and it’s designed to keep out most of the heat through its single, slightly polarized window. This window, which is 3×2 meters with sliding doors, also offers privacy from our neighbors.
From our neighbor’s land, you can see that one wall of the room also serves as the perimeter wall. Our plan for the top of this new room has evolved from just extending our panoramic garden to creating a full terrace. This terrace will include a barbecue (which will also heat a sauna in the bathroom below), a fully equipped kitchen, and a lounge area.
The kitchen on the terrace will have an open workspace to pass dishes, plus a fridge and a sink. We’re even considering moving our main kitchen up there, although with no doors, we might get uninvited guests like animals at night.
Although this terrace area will cost a bit more, we should still stay under a $10K budget for the entire project. We’ve managed to keep costs down significantly by recycling wooden pillars from our 90 acres of land. A worker we hired polished these pillars, and we used them to reinforce the room’s roof, build a covered area over the terrace, and even make an incredibly sturdy table. This table is so heavy that it takes more than two people to move it and will come with matching benches. We spent about $30 on the worker’s salary to make the table, which would likely sell for at least $400 here.
This table can comfortably seat 10 people, and up to 12 if needed, along with the matching benches. Our carpenter is also working on a low L-shaped seating area with a coffee table, which offers the best view from the terrace.
Inside the room, we’ve built the bed using stone and concrete. We just need to buy a mattress. It may not be the prettiest bed yet, but once it’s painted and polished, it will be more attractive. Plus, there’s no need to clean under it. There’s also storage and shelving all around the room, using the same concrete layer to keep dust and pests at bay.
The bathroom is almost done too. The shower floor is made from smooth rocks from the beach and concrete, so it’s not slippery. A skylight provides natural light, and we’ve ordered the door. Our next project is to build a small room adjacent to the house for a guardian or maid and construct a wall to separate the service area from the rest of the garden.
As for the 90 acres development, progress is slower. Our young architect seems overwhelmed and possibly under-quoted us, as he’s delegating most of the work. Initially, he said he needed a week on-site with GPS to map the ground levels, but his team refused to walk through the tall grass. A farmer’s cattle couldn’t eat it down enough, so we ended up burning it, which wasn’t eco-friendly but necessary.
We’re hoping the team will return this week to complete their mapping. Once we have the map, we can plan the plots and streets and start selling them. Our new room could even serve as a showroom for people interested in building similar stone houses, and we might help them find reliable workers.
Despite the high overall cost, it’s impressive that our new room came in under $10K, especially given that there’s about 600 square feet downstairs and the same amount of terrace space. Using materials from our land and cheap labor helped keep costs low.
For the larger development, we’re contemplating selling small plots at low prices to local workers to fund ongoing work. Another idea is to partially pay our working team with land, as their work will increase its value, giving them positive equity quickly.
On a sad note, Mrs. Goose passed away. She was likely injured, perhaps by a thrown stone or our fighting rooster. We found her lifeless in the lake, with Mr. Goose heartbroken and making quite a scene. We quickly replaced her with a new lady goose, though geese are monogamous, so it might take time for him to bond with the new arrival. Interestingly, just before she died, Mrs. Goose laid an egg, which is quite large and rare since geese don’t lay frequently. Now, we need the new goose to sit on it.
Our family of chicks has grown from five to seven. They’re all healthy and strong, though they sleep in our bathroom because their mum gets jealous of another hatching hen and disrupts her nest.
That’s it for now! Have a great week!