This old house Amazonian style

[jim king]

As I have retired we no longer have a need for the large house where we live now.  We decided to buy a fixer upper that will be easy up keep .  It is about 1600 SF of living space.

The cost of construction will be a bit over $14,000 not including furniture.   As you will see we still dont have new doors but withinn a few days they will all be be done and we will be living there by Dec. 1.   If you can imagine there has been no dry wood in town .   When my wife first saw this little beuaty  she didn´t go back for 6 weeks.

I will post progress shots every day for 4 or 5 days if I cannot post them all in one post.
Hope you enjoy , it has been fun.  The first photos are after we started improving it.

The first photo is from the back yard looking to the master BR and Patio
The second photo is the same view
The third photo is from the Kitchen looking into the LR
The fourth photo is from the LR looking into the Kitchen

[pigman]

I don't understand why you would call the house a fixer upper. It looks perfect the way it is now. ;) ;D

[fishpharmer]

JK , wow! that house has alot of potential.  Are open air style homes very common? ;)

seriously, are all the pets yours? 

I look forward to seeing the progress.

[jim king]

fishpharmer:  Yes the animals belong to my wife.  She has a rescue center and normally has a couple of hundred .  Anything from dogs and cats to monkeys and parrots.

Here are some photos of the general construction.  The most expensive were the tile floor , fiberglass and asphalt  roof ,  kitchen cabinets and rafters.  It doesnt look like it but there are 23 sheets of 3/4 inch plywood ($26 a sheet) and over 5000 bf of KD  lumber at $350 per M.

The doors and windows are all made on site as well as the kitchen and rafters.  The cement is mixed on the ground with shovels.  Walls are stuccoed with cement and sand.

The first photo is the start of the kitchen cabinets
The second two are part of the carpentry
The fourth is electrical
The fifth is the wood working area in the kitchen

[fishpharmer]

Wow again.  That's the same place?  It really looks great.  Nice lumber too.  Is the lumber from your sawmill?

Its gonna be crowded with all those pets. ;)

[Bibbyman]

Looks a lot less rustic..!

I guess you have a roof over the house now.  I suspect you get a bit of rain down there don't you?  ???

[jim king]

Here are some shots from the kitchen to the LR.

[jim king]

Here are some photos of the just about finished product.  The furniture is from the rubber boom era about 100 years ago.  The Spanish Cedar and Mahogany was shipped to Europe and the finished furniture came back.   It was a lot of cleaning, restoring and finishing.

[jim king]

The lumber is from our old mill but now there is little or no lumber in town as the forestry laws are a mess for the time being.  The wood people have virtually all gone into cocaine production as the enviornmentalists dont bother with that business.

As for rain we do get a lot.  Not unusual to get a foot in one night.

This photo is of the tired and retired boss man.

The details will be done in the next 10 days and we will be living there.  It was a lot of fun and the wife now approves.  It is hard to beleive how much wood work there is in a cement house.

[Bibbyman]

You probably never need heating but what about AC?

[Magicman]

Nice job.......VERY nice.......

[WildDog]

Well done Jim, I kinda liked the old original rustic doors, you have some nice antiques.

[Tom]

The only thing that really concerns me about your new house is the word "retirement" that you used.  Peru needs Forestry Advocates who have some common sense.  It sounds to me like you have been one of a rare breed.  Does Retire mean Quit? 

[jim king]

Bibbyman:  We for sure do not need heat, most days it is 90 degrees and 90 % humidity.  The house is quite fresh inside as the ceiling is 12 feet up and the roof is designed to create a good upward draft keeping constant air movement in the house.  We will be putting in a split system air conditioner in the bedroom.  I like it as cold as possible to sleep.

Wilddog/Magicman:  I told my wife that as she likes antiques we should fix the doors.  She did not go for it.
The antiques are getting harder to find here but a few years ago it was fashonable to get new chrome and glass furniture.  That was when my wife collected everything.  The refurbishing was the real work.

Tom:  I guess retirement is a play on words.  Retirement means a change in how you spend your time more than anything .  What it means to me is that I can now do what I want and not have the responsibility of payrolls , taxes and whatever.  I want to spend more time working with the local authorities and others developing new markets, creating jobs and in general improving the wood industry.   Thye world needs to know that the people here need to eat and to do that they need work.

This year the wood industry is way down and thousands of rural people out of desperation have switched to cocaine and subsistance farming.  Due to this switch there is very little logging cutting a tree here and there but a strong movement to clear cutting for cocaine and subsistance farming.  There will be deforestation for the next year or so because there is no income from logging.

Strange how things are many times the opposite of what is being preached out there.  I will certainly do my best to keep shagging the do gooder organizations around and try to keep them a little bit honest.