Construction History
We bought the property in 2012 as an empty lot. We started the construction in 2013 and finished in 2015. Here you will see from start to finish the entire construction history.
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Now we are starting to get more things ready to be finished. The front gates have been ordered and is being custom made as of this week and will be installed very shortly. This will mean the parking area in front of the building will look much nicer and be easy and secure for our guest to use. The pictures of the front of the building are to be the before pics , soon we will have much nicer picture of the front. The painting of the walls in the back yard is almost done and we will post more pics as soon as it is finished. Gardens are starting to be prepared for planting all the tropical plants you can imagine but they require many truck loads of good top soil that's not always easy to find here. Over the next few weeks we hope to have most of the dirt we need to finish all the gardens along the walls and have much more planted.
Update #28 May 1, 2015
These past months we have had slow but steady progress towards the completion of this project. We are very excited to have one fully functioning suite finished, it still needs some more furniture and decorations but it's great to see all the hard work come together and look amazing. We are pleased to have a fantastic hot water on demand system installed that will provide our guests with unlimited hot water for both washrooms and kitchen for each individual suite. The system has been tested thoroughly and gives an amazing shower experience. Air conditioning is also installed in both bedrooms that is remote controlled and very quiet. The grass is growing great with lots of special care but now we have our gardens along the walls to start on. There is still lots of painting to be done over the coming months but so far the colour we have on the walls looks very tropical .
Update #27 January 27, 2015
It's a new year and we have great news, the progress has resumed and things are looking fantastic. We have the tile workers in now and starting to lay down the tiles in one suite. All of the colours of the interiors and exterior have been chosen and two full suites have been fully painted. Work on the exterior is starting this week as well as the gardens and lawn. We are very happy to have things moving again in the right direction and hope to have a few of the suites ready to enjoy very soon. We will be adding more photos as we start the final phases of the construction.
Update #26 October 1, 2014
It has been a long 6 months since any progress but I am happy to say that we are slowly getting back on track. Unfortunately this delay has moved our opening date further back, but we are filled with hope once again as we slowly get this beautiful gem ready for the world to see. So far we have primed the walls, installed doors and windows in one unit that i have been living in for about a month. This has given me the chance to really feel how great this space and location really is. We are not back at full speed yet, but little by little over the coming months we hope to get many of the finishing details done and be able to give everyone a better idea of when we can have our first guests come and enjoy. We appreciate everyone who has been along with us on this journey and will have more frequent updates and lots more pictures to share.
Update #25 April 27, 2014
We have finally completed the pool,walkways and outdoor shower area. The pool has turned out fantastic and we couldn't be happier with it. There have been some ups and downs over the last 6 weeks that has slowed the construction to a crawl. We have been hit with some hefty government fees that were not in the budget especially at this stage of the build. We will continue to move along over the coming months to finish the units and be ready to open as soon as we can.
Update #24 March 3, 2014
Throughout the month of February we have been installing the pool. It started as a big dirty hole in the ground and has turned out to look amazing. The final stage is tiling and it's about to start this week, then it will be ready to fill with water and start the pumps by the end of this week or the beginning of next. In case anyone was curious, the pools interior dimensions are roughly 15 x 30 feet. We finally have our electricity hooked up now and it was a long wait to have it all set up. Small finishing touches is all the building needs now to be complete, The windows and doors will be coming very soon and we have been testing some colours of paint. The painting will be another project starting very soon. The back yard gardens will start to take shape over the coming weeks so check back for lots more pictures coming very soon.
Update #23 January 30, 2014
The past weeks we have been finishing all the plaster on the outside walls of the building and the privacy walls. They have turned out very nicely and now only need paint to be finished. The inside of the suites are in the stage that the kitchen and bathroom counters are being poured in cement and re-bar, then covered with nice tile to finish them off. We have been working on getting our electricity connected for 6 months but we are told it will be hooked up in the next week or so. All of the wiring and plumbing inside the building is nearly complete and we are ready to start painting the ceilings and walls of the units within the next week or so. The weather has been a lot more co-operative to us this last few weeks and looks to be nice for next month. There will be many finishing details that we will be doing in the coming weeks as well as more updates.
Update #22 December 26, 2013
This past month has been more rainy than expected but we have been finishing the final layer on all the interior rooms and now we have moved on to the outside of the building. Finishing the individual suites was a long and tedious task but now we can focus on getting the pool ready and install the tile and bathroom fixtures. After that we will be starting to paint the interior rooms. We expect that the outer side of the building will be completed quickly and then we can start on all the finishing details.
Update # 21 November 11, 2013
The cistern was completed shortly after the last update and the work has been focussed on preparing and pouring the ground level floors. We have had lots of rain throughout the last few weeks and that has slowed some of the work down. The floors are now ready for tile and the walls ready for paint but we have to parge the outside of the building first, this will be starting to happen shortly while the last two second level units are being completed. The pool and back area have been slowed down to a crawl because of the weather but we hope to have that project started very shortly. As for an opening date, we still are trying to gauge how much more time it will require. We will do our very best to keep everyone up to date on the dates as soon as possible.
Update # 20 October 23, 2013
The past weeks have been focussed on digging out and forming the fresh water cistern and completing the roof railing and stair well house. Other tasks such as the remaining parge and plumbing have been advancing very well. We hope to announce the opening date within the next few weeks as we see how much time it will take to finish off each unit and the pool. The cistern is for our fresh water source and is connected to the city water source from the street. The reason it 's very important for us to have this at the hotel is because the town water pressure is very low, sometimes down to a trickle for long periods of the day. This large cistern will ensure that our guests never notice a city water interruption. There will also be 3 large water tanks on the roof that are fed from the cistern on the ground level to ensure a good consistent water pressure for all suites. The small structure on the roof is to protect the stairway from the rain and wind. Now that we are getting close to the finishings stage, we will be doing more frequent updates to the website content and stay tuned for upcoming giveaways and how you can get in on the action.
Update # 19 October 1, 2013
In the past 3 weeks we have had the roof poured and the finishing stages of the interior walls are being done on the first level. The plumbers and electricians have been hard at work routing all the conduit throughout the walls as the building was constructed so we have nice smooth walls. Its very common in mexico to chip out the walls after they are up and set the electrical and plumbing in after to only repair the wall, something everyone can see after. We have fantastic crews doing amazing work that we are very proud of.
Update # 18 September 9, 2013
This past week has given us some more heavy rain to deal with. It was not nearly as bad as the flooding we had earlier in the build but we were much better prepared this time. The hole for the pool was six feet deep with water but it has now been emptied to start work on the framework for the swimming pool. The second floor roof blocks and beams are almost completed and there has been good progress on the parging of the lower rooms.
Update # 17 August 29, 2013
The Second floor walls are up now and we have the roof beams and blocks delivered to start the roof for the second level. This next level is more difficult because the roof beams are either 4.5 metres or 6.5 metres long and they are very heavy. The workers are using ropes and pulleys to hoist them up but it's still hard work. We are now in the middle of the rainy season, the pictures may not show it but large systems move in and out throughout the day, when this happens the workers have started putting the finishing layer on the walls inside the bottom level rooms. There will be more frequent updates as we are getting closer to the structure going up and other parts of the website will be enhanced with more pictures and information.
Update # 16 August 12, 2013
We are now working on the second level at a very good rate of speed.The weather has been good to us so far throughout this project, other than one week of full rain early in the build. The blocks are going up a lot faster than the first level because of a nice flat surface to work with now, so things have been moving along much better. We expect to have all the walls up and floor beams in place and be ready to pour the next level within the next two weeks..
Update # 15 July 30, 2013
The past few weeks have been getting the first floor and stairs ready to pour with concrete. All of the conduit and plumbing is put down under the layer of concrete, so that crew has been hard at work getting it all perfect. We also had our water and sewer connected last week. It took months to get through the paperwork just for that but it's done now. The next steps are to start putting the block up for the second level and form the columns, which should not be nearly as time consuming as the first level. There is also a short video I took when the concrete was being poured. You can find it in the videos section.
Update # 14 July 16, 2013
We have finally reached the stage that the first level is all walled up completely and the roof beams are being installed as well as the roofing bricks. We could use a guy like Marvin Cole to lift those beams in place for us but maybe the next project. The pool and garden area has been nearly filled and are looking great. A top layer of good dirt is the last thing to fill in back there and then we can start the grass and smaller plants. The plumbing and electrical is being installed at the same time as we are building and the progress they are making is fantastic. We would like to thank everyone who has been watching the progress of this wonderful project and we will be announcing a big giveaway very soon and thanks again for everyones support.
Update # 13 July 2, 2013
These last weeks have been going at very steady pace. More of the first level has been completed and the forms for our arched balconies have been poured with concrete. Our palm trees have been planted and are settling in nicely. The remainder of the lot that isn't being built on is being filled in to raise the level to prevent flooding and so far we have managed to fill in much of the back garden and pool area.
Update # 12 June 18, 2013
After cleaning up from the week before, we decided to expedite the trucks of fill to start to raise the backyard as planned. We have had over 15 dump trucks of fill and are just getting started, we will need many more to get the job done. All of the fill is coming from a big resort hotel being torn down on the island. Some of it is chunks of broken cement and roof tiles and we have had quite a few loads of good dirt which is hard to come by on the island. Our mature coconut palm trees were delivered and it was quite a bit of labour to get them in place, but after they settle in they will be spectacular.
Update # 11 June 08, 2013
It was a wet week for us here in Cozumel. We had 4 days of heavy tropical rain, and with that comes lots of flooding. It's something we are all prepared to deal with but it's never fun to clean up after this. It took almost a full week after the rain stopped to pump out all of the water, so we lost almost a week of work towards the building while we cleaned up. The water was 2 to 4 feet in the entire back yard and over a foot deep along the side of the building, this turned out to be a lot of water.
Update # 10 May 31, 2013
These last few weeks have been very busy, we saw our first bricks being laid down. First we had the casing laid on top of the foundational walls and then it was treated with a tar coating for moisture. We also had the natural well drained and cleaned, as you can see its quite large and deep. Now the natural spring water running into it is nice and clear. After the first bricks were down it went at a quick pace for the remainder of the week.
Update # 9 May 18, 2013
The progress has switched to laying down the rebar along the bottom of all the walls, this is formed in concrete and and then the first brick layer is started on top of that. The rebar is all cut and wired together all by hand, and each square piece of steel is formed by one person in a jig at the building site. Everything done up to this point here is very labour intensive and with the simplest of tools.
Update # 8 May 10, 2013
This week was about getting the rebar columns and footings made and set with concrete. It requires a lot of box columns to make up the structural supports for the weight of the building. When most were standing, we had a concrete truck come in and fill all the footings and vertical supports. The photos show how deep most of the foundational walls are and just how much concrete was needed to fill them in.
Update # 7 May 3, 2013
May 3rd marks the day of the holy cross. This day is celebrated by the masons to bless the work site. Most crews fasten a cross brightly decorated with paper flowers and streamers onto the uppermost section of the building, continuing the tradition that began with the building of churches by the Spanish in the 1500's. Work ends at noon, when the patron, the owner of the project begins the next phase of the festival with tequila toasts, known as copitas. He toasts the success of the project and the health and happiness of the crew. The owner also sponsors a comida (midday meal).
Update # 6 April 30, 2013
These last 2 weeks have been very productive. A large amount of the foundational walls have been built and things are really looking different now. The breaks in the walls you see in the pictures are for intersecting walls or columns. At this stage now, we can really see things moving in the right direction and I can't say enough about how hard everyone works all day in full sun and soaring temperatures.
Update # 5 April 18, 2013
We have now been excavating all the foundational walls and the pool over the last 2 weeks. It has been tough work to dig through a lot of solid rock and debris to get down to the harder layers to start to build the foundation on. We did rent a machine and driver to deal with some of the last really tough work and to dig out the deep end of the pool. The pool needed to be dug out of solid rock that we have now reused for starting the foundation walls. Normally one would have to pay for that fresh broken rock but we seemed to have it in abundance. We are now about to start the actual building next week and have had a porta potty brought in for the site.
Update # 4 April 05, 2013
This week is the first phase of the building process. It was a long wait to get all permits and licenses just to be able to break ground, but now we have finally started. The first structure that is being built is called a bodega and it will store all materials and tools for the build. The pictures below are of that structure and some of the foundational walls marked out for excavation. We will be excavating the pool and walls within the next week or two.
Update # 3 February 11, 2013
We are happy to announce the architectural plans and permits are just being finished and the building process will be started by the end of the month. We have a privacy wall erected along the front to keep the building site safe and secure. The plans are looking very good and we are very happy with the progress to date. The next steps will to be start the foundation of the building and we will be documenting the entire process for all to see.
Update # 2 January 08, 2013
We have broken ground and are starting to prepare the land for building. Clearing the lot was a huge job and the Mexican men here did a fantastic job, much faster than expected. We have several mature coconut trees on the way to be replanted in the back garden and pool area. They will provide beautiful shade and also produce fresh coconuts for all our guests. More updates to come as it slowly takes shape.
Update # 1 September 15, 2012
The land has a true cenote well, privacy walls and is located on a very quiet street less than 1km from the ocean and downtown. The lot is surrounded by large trees for shade in the back garden area and it's situated perfectly for the pool area to get maximum sun throughout the day while having lots of areas of shade. The building will be started in December 2012 and we will be posting updates often.
