There are many, many, many things that I never considered when I would day dream about the ‘pride of ownership’ and owning our own place. I simply wanted to surf, work and not pay someone else’s mortgage in doing so. Those three things helped direct us to the Caribbean and Rincon (all though there isn’t much surf here in the summer months).
Now that the pride of ownership has worn off a little, I am realizing that ‘maintenance cost of ownership’ is what the Real Estate Agents don’t tell you about. The biggest maintenance project we have, which is ongoing, is our yard. We have it sectioned off (in our heads) and certain areas get more priority than the others. For example, the right hillside to stream area is going to be fenced off for the Mini Donkeys. Therefore, we aren’t mowing the grass in there…so it is 10ft tall after 3 months of no-love.
The front yard is probably getting the most attention. It had been excavated so many times during construction that it had nothing living on it at all and is filled with rocky veins.
A few days ago, Summer and I decided to plant a Beach Grape that Mark gave us up at the top of the driveway. After about 4 swings into the rocky dirt, I heard a familiar sound. The pick (which I swung) hit some sort of PVC which echoed up under the ground in both directions for about 40ft and then began to spew water everywhere. Wow, finding a water source to dig a well was going to easier than I thought! No, just kidding. I hit the main water pipe running from the city water up the hill down to our house.
Here is the hole I dug around the pipe getting it ready for repair. Do you remember me busting the septic pipe just a couple of months ago?
Our plan has always been to put a spigot at the top of the hill so we wouldn’t have to drag 125ft of house all around the yard every time we want to water something. The hole in the water main is a little lower than we were planning on putting the spigot, but since the pipe is exposed and the hole is already dug, we are going to make the best of a bad situation and add a spigot. Heck, we probably couldn’t have hit that pipe if we tried to put the spicket any where else. Stay tuned for the finished product!
FYI: Spigot is not spelled spickat
Most of the pipes around here are laying on the ground which we thought was odd. When we moved here the grass was tall and Jeff mowed over (and broke) the neighbors metal water pipe. Then he backed the truck up and off our driveway breaking the white pvc water pipe. Then he mowed Amparos pipe again. Yup. We are trying to clean up down at the bottom of the driveway where there are 4 or so copper pipes (2 functioning, 2 or more not) going on the property line but on our side of the cut for about 40 feet. I pull a grass clump and the pipe shifts…we are planting a nice hedge there to hide the stuff and hope nothing springs a leak as we are working! Again… we know the feeling! katrina
Don’t forget about this Uvas del Mar (Sea Grape) plant, no matter the pipe! It has such a tasty fruit - a bit sour, but that’s why it so enlives the smoothies here since most tropical fruit is soo sweet, sweet, sweet.
Yes, discovering the maintenance cost of ownership can be a rude awakening. Once upon a time I had a very handy and practical spouse, who took care of it so effortlessly, I did not even noticed it. Then he died and the neighbors in my cul-de-sac in Texas took pity on me and divided the chores among themselves. One mowed the grass (it grows as fast in Texas as it does here, just not all year round), another was trimming the trees in my oak grove, the third one was helping with house repairs, parts replacement etc. At first I did not even notice their efforts (talk about absentminded professorial types with their heads in clouds, lol), but once I did (the guys, who did the work kept mums, but their wifes told me how much time their spouses spent helping me and I not even grateful enough to say thanks — how could I? I had no idea…) I lasted less thana few months in that dependency of good will… got rid of the house… and never bought another. Renting comes with a minimum of mainenance and maximum movability…
Katrina - Yep, you feel our pain then. I was wondering why our pipes were being layed so shallow, but whenever we ask, we always get the same response: “That’s just the way we do it in Puerto Rico”. Ha
Minerva - I’ll make sure that the sea grape gets in the ground today (Next to the new spigot, so it gets lots of runoff water
). A house and land is so much more maintenance then you think. There is no way Stefan or I could do this by ourselves. As a matter of fact we are thinking about hiring two people to help out. Luckly for the internet, when we break stuff, we can always find a solution to fix it. Stefan had never touched a plumbing tool before we moved to Puerto Rico, so its funny to see how quickly you learn to fix something when you HAVE to!
Summer - Our water line is copper and enough below the surface that we don’t do more than knick it (besides the back up pvc white pipe episode). It actually follows the driveway so we know where it is. It is the neighbor’s whose pipe meanders along the fence line with a little bit in our lawn. Now we know where it is too. Its funny to see pipe in the middle of nowhere travelling alongside the road. I guess it is easy to see leaks that way!
As for land maintenance? We just can’t do it all. We have to leave some wild now that logs and rocks and vines are in a better situation. Weedwacker broke today and we are screwed - Sears will fix it (under warranty) and we’ll have it back in 6 WEEKS. A lot can happen in that amount of time. We have to get a better one. katrina
I would venture a guess why your pipes were laid so shallow: it might have to do with absence of freezing in PR and the builder’s cost cutting. In Sweden around Stockholm the freeze gets to about 1 meter deep, thus by buiding codes you have to put pipes lower than that, even if it means blasting through 30 meters of a granite down to thse 1.2 m and upsetting the water balance of the site. In Texas it was a lot less, but still some depth was required due to occassional possibility of a freeze. In PR - no freeze, no requirements to dig the pipes. I see them sticking out here or there in my Aguada landlord’s yard. But I am just guessing and the guess might be a tad to logical for PR.