The project begins

Photo from 1973

So now we own the property the fun really begins. I am lucky to know someone that is an architect with her own company who has been very helpful with her advice. Now her company doesn't do projects this small with our budget but she put us in touch with another architect originally from Mexico who really wants the chance to work on a colonial property and can work with our budget. He also speaks English which is a massive help whilst I’m learning Spanish. My Spanish classes start next month at Apec University which I m both nervous and excited about. You may ask how I could of spent a year in Central and South America and in total another year in Dominican Republic without picking up the language. I dont know...  I could blame it on the English educational system as languages is not a priority back there but the truth is I needed motivation to do so - now I have the motivation I needed. I have the basics, I can understand what a conversation is about, I can read pretty well but its the conversational part that I just cant grasp - languages was never one of my strong points. But hey, I m putting it right now. 

So we met up with the architect to discuss where we go from here. Unfortunately as we have no plans for the property they need to be drawn up from scratch. So Rodolfo (our architect) is drawing up the plans as I speak - hopefully we should have them in a weeks time. We got a pretty good deal on getting the plans drawn up - the property is pretty huge so its about a three day job, it would normally just take two but you have to take a couple of points into consideration: The second floor of the main building is totally rotten, you really have to watch your step or you can end up downstairs before you know it. Also, our caretaker has about seven pit bulls in the garden - not quite sure how we are going to move them yet as they are not tame.

So next steps: Me and Jose went to Patrimonio as we have to get a soil sample and archeological survey but until we have the plans drawn up these cannot be arranged. It would help us a lot if we could get a copy of the plans but Patrimonio, Catastral and Obras Publicas already drew a blank. However a friend informed us that there is another branch of Patrimonio that also have plans for properties in the Colonial Zone, so off we went again.

Rodolfo measuring up

The office is called ‘Secretaria de Estado de Cultura’ in the Zona Colonial. They were very helpful and we did find some information on the house. It has a black and white picture from back in 1973 which was when someone decided to renovate the house. It has some brief floor plans and some information on the condition of the house back then. Basically this place has just been left to deteriorate over the past 40 years. But considering it is over 400 years old thats dip in the ocean. We got shown through to another room with plans everywhere - I wont say a bad word against them as the architect spent over an hour looking through every single plan he had - the place was crying out for a bit of organization.

So once we have the plans we can apply for the permits. I have been told that it takes two months from start to finish when applying for permits (thats if everything goes to plan - we are in Dominican republic which will be a tall order). So we are getting everything in place now. It looks like we have lots of time but I know it will sneak up on us if we are not organized - and its not like we will be sitting around waiting while the permits are being applied for. I have a website to build, business plan to update and a lot more...

Success!

My upgrade

So there we were back to square one. The disappointment and stress of losing the last house was tough. At the time it like we had just wasted 5 months but I like to think of it as experience gained. It only made me stronger and more determined to find a property.
It was a busy time for us and my trusty Pajero started not to be so trustworthy. Now my Pajero was a 13 year old car so its obvious that we will need to spend money on it from time to time however the amounts of times it went in to get so called fixed was starting to become a joke. Lets just say I am not the biggest fan of Dominican mechanics - it reminds me of being in Vietnam - they do just enough to get the car running again rather than fixing the issue properly in the first place. A couple of times we took the car in and they actually made the problem worse! So after three breakdowns in a week consisting of the alternator, starter motor and an electrical problem that decided to cut all power from the car when you needed it the most ie at dark on when it stars raining on the motorway and your wipers stop working - I decided it had to go. The problem was what to get next... we didn't have a lot of money to get anything really decent - although I was happy to get anything that used less gas. All the Toyotas and Hondas are crazy prices but reliable, European cars are expensive for parts and cars from the USA are not the most economical.

My friend Jose told me he was thinking of selling his Jeep Grand Cherokee... a 4.0 liter petrol V6 - however he had owned it from new and it was low mileage and in great condition. There was not much else around that we saw so we decided to buy that from him and I have to say is an awesome car - the only problem is I cry every time I put gas in it. The gas price at the moment is around $6.20 a gallon which is crazy - did not learn my lesson!

Presidente and empandas with Fabio

Never to let a bad experience put us off we went on the search again. this time far less successful - we quickly realized that with our budget there was not a lot around that we could afford in the Colonial Zone. We were on first name basis with most of the realtors in that area and had called practically every house with a for sale sign - I can honestly say I have walked every single street in the Colonial Zone - multiple times!  

We were starting to get a bit down as what was becoming clear was that maybe we could not afford the type of property that we needed. So rather than give up we decided to broaden our search; not in area but in condition of the building. I do like a good project so on one of our many treks around the zone myself and Jose stumbled upon this old man living in a huge but derelict old house. He had a well known family name and had been left a lot of property in the Colonial Zone. About 15 years ago he had a stroke in the middle of fixing them up so all the properties were up for sale. So armed with a list of his properties we started looking; all of which needed a lot of work.

Parque Colon

We looked at one that was 450sqm and within our price range and laughed, not giving it a second thought as we left. I remember laughing with Jose saying it was huge but far to much work - someone would be crazy to buy that place. 

So the hunt went on and our search looked to be doomed, until one time me and Jose were sitting in the Zone talking over a few Presidentes (something that we do a lot thinking about it) and decided that we should take another look at the house. So we went down again and it was just as bad as we remember, needed new floors, new roof and pretty much everything else. So it looked like we would have to do some research into renovating a property in the Colonial Zone.

The Colonial Zone is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which limits you to what you can do with the properties, so we went to Patrimonio to see what we have to do to get permits for renovation. To my surprise they were really helpful and went around that week to take photos and survey the property. It turns out that it is over 400 years old, one of the first built in the Colonial Zone. They said it shouldn't be a problem as we were just restoring the property rather than making structural changes. It took us a couple of weeks to do a check on the title and to try and figure out how much the renovations would cost. To do this we needed plans of the buildings which the owner did not have. Not wanting to spend money to get new plans drawn up on a property I did not own we went on the search. Research showed us that there are a few places that could have plans: Patrimonio, Catastral and Obras Publicas. Unfortunately no plans were found - which put us in a situation of not knowing an accurate cost for renovations. That said the price left us a little room for maneuver so we we decided to put in an offer.

Chicarron

Now the owner was a bit crazy, myself and Jose were discussing the price with him when all of a sudden he picked up a jug an started to pee in it... yep you heard right, pulled it out and started peeing, no warning nothing. We didn't really know where to look, suddenly the roof of his building became very interesting. This happened a few times over our next couple of visits but through preserving we eventually we agreed on a price. We were eager to complete as we were heading back to America for a few months of work but the owner started to drag his heals - I was starting to get a little nervous. We had agreed on a date so I made the plans to have the funds in place. The day before the completion we were running around trying to get things sorted and thought we would call to confirm the time to meet at the bank. We got no response so decided to visit him; the response was he cant speak to us right now so maybe we can complete next week... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! I was so mad at the time - how could this guy pull out like that a day before. At that point I was so deflated that I had all but given up. Thats two properties that have fallen through, maybe this was just not meant to be... 

After that experience we headed off to America for a few months and were deciding what to do. That property was still in my head all summer, so much so that when we got back we decided to pay the owner another visit to see why he had pulled out a few months back. Apparently he felt the price was to low and the timing was bad as it was an election year. Not many people like doing business before elections here as a lot can change.

Me removing the for sale sign

Even though my pride was telling me to walk away as he had messed us around earlier in the year I really felt that this place had potential. We eventually came to an agreement to buy, but it was so up and down, one day it looked like it was going to happen but the next day something would come up and the deal looked dead. One of the sticking points was that he had a friend living in there running a small business that needed two months before he could leave and I really didn't want to buy a property with a tenant - the law protects the tenant here not the owner. In the end we signed a contract that he would leave in two months and in the mean time he would look after the property to ensure we have no squatters.

So Tuesday 11th September 2012 we are in the bank and ready to sign the contract to buy the property. I did not know what to feel - one part of me was excited, another part was nervous thinking this is a huge project and another part of me was just waiting for something to go wrong - I was a nervous wreck but to my (and Katherine's) relief the deal was completed, we now own a property in the Zona Colonial! It is a huge project but I cannot wait to get stuck in! Please see some of the pictures below:

Rear patio

What a mess!

Upstairs

A worried Jose

Downstairs

A lot of clearing to be done

Upstairs floor 

View from the rear

A huge sigh of relief was given by ourselves and our families. I didn't really know what to do with myself, all this time was just spent waiting for this to happen and then it finally completed. Shit, now I really have to improve my Spanish! I am very fortunate to have met some awesome friends over here and have a great family that have helped no end. So this is where the story begins, I know there is going to be blood, sweat and tears in the upcoming months as it is a mammoth project to undertake but I am really excited. I am going to document the transformation from start to finish over the coming months so please check back form time to time.

The search... job, house, business...

Our wedding photo shoot

You hear about it a lot; a foreigner comes to a exotic land wants to open a bar on the beach and live the rest of his life in the sun - Some make it... some do not.. You just have to look on various forums and will find people asking questions about moving to Dominican Republic without ever having been here - or worse having been here on a 2 week all inclusive holiday and thinking life is like that here 24/7. They say the only way  to leave the Dominican Republic with a $1million is to come here with $2million! Now unfortunately I do not have that luxury so I have to start from the bottom up. 

Here is my story... So here is me with Katherine my wife living in the Dominican Republic - Katherine was born here and has lived here her whole life so the decision was where do we want to live? Here? The United Kingdom? Or somewhere totally different? Of course the choice was here, I could not imagine going back the UK now and Katherine is not keen on living there although she is desperate to visit which hopefully will be soon. 

So whats the first step when moving to a new country? Start making money... ok so me with my very poor spanish skills went looking for an English speaking job. It sounded like mission impossible at first but to my surprise I found one straight away. Ok not a CEO of a company but a job in a call center will do me while we decide what we are going to do with our lives. The call center was quite a distance from where we were living with Katherine's mum so I decided to use some of the last of my savings to buy a car. Something which I quickly found out was not cheap - to buy or run! I wanted something big as the drivers are pretty crazy over here so managed to find a Mitsubishi Pajero TD. I did take public cars for a while to work but if I was to allow myself one luxury living here the car was it - a lot more convenient than taking 3 public cars each way to work everyday.

The Pajero

Now working in a call center is actually almost four times the minimum wage over here which sounds good, but its not... So when my gas bill was half of my wage the first month I thought it might not have been the cleverest move to buy a big car, but hey you live and you learn (sometimes not - remember this quote later on). It was actually quite good fun working there and I met some cool people; one, Jose, who turned out to be my best friend here and has been so much help in my new venture.

I didn't last that long working at the call center as it was not something I wanted to do long term, so myself and Katherine decided to go back to the United States to work for the summer to top up the funds as we had our wedding to pay for at Christmas. 

Whilst in the states we were constantly trying to think of business ideas that would work over here. I look back now and laugh at some of the ideas we had and I am not afraid to share them (well some of them). We thought why not open a beauty salon and liquor store. These are two very popular businesses in the Dominican Republic . So the thinking was that if Dominicans are opening them they must make money right? No... well... yes, of course they make money but the problem is there are so many of them around. Even if we were successful I am not sure it would be enough of an income to make the investment worth while. I am sure there are some millionaires out there that have made there money from these businesses here that would disagree with me but it was just my perception. 

Plaza de Espana

The biggest thing that killed that idea was the rent... people that think the Dominican Republic is cheap just because you can get a cheap beer are wrong. This is probably of the more expensive countries I have been to on my travels. If you want a half decent location you are looking at very high rent.

So after looking for a couple of months at places to rent we decided that the salon and liquor store idea was not for us. Rent really can be crazy prices - if you want a good location with some room you can be looking at $2000 + a month. We visited a few other ideas but nothing really came to fruition - yes the standard beach bar did even cross my mind! Until one day we were walking around the Colonial Zone and saw a colonial building for sale and it got us thinking. Now we had an idea what we wanted so we started looking for properties that suited to our needs. Now property is not cheap in the Colonial Zone but there were some places in our price range so we spent a couple of months walking around and found a place that we really liked and was in budget. 

It was the biggest property we had seen for the money - it was just under 350sqm which was not a bad size plot in the Colonial Zone. A lot of the properties have either been split into two over the years or turned into apartments so it was a good find. 

Now in Dominican Republic not many people have mortgages, most Dominicans either pay cash, or pay off a loan as quick as they can on a property - I found out why... to borrow Dominican Pesos is at an 18% interest rate, yes 18%.... I could not believe it. You can borrow dollars around 8% but even then in my eyes its still to high. I am a firm believer in buying over renting.  

Our first offer

I can say from experience that it is tough trying to buy a house in the Dominican Republic - you need a lot of patience. The problem is Dominicans will put a property up for sale almost twice its actual value. People say its a buyers market but I have to disagree. A lot of the owners are in no rush to sell, its like waiting to win the lottery for them... if someone comes along and pays them what they are asking thats great - if not they just seem happy to wait. Its almost like property has three values here:

1: The government appraised value - which is miles below market value, they don't really move with the times.

2: The market value - what it is actually worth in todays market.

3: The owners valuation - which is the most interesting... No, just because five generations of your family lived there does not mean its worth $1million and no I m not stupid.

Our wedding day

Now back to the first house we liked, just after our wedding we put an offer in and it was accepted. We paid a deposit and the owner rented us the property until the completion of the deal. It was such a great feeling to move into our first place together - along with one of our wedding presents; Linda. Linda is a parrot - I have always wanted a parrot and one of Katherines aunties had two so very kindly gave us her.  She is crazy and I love her to bits and we have been through a lot together already. 

One of the first days we got her we were sitting in our house with the balcony door open and she was gone! Straight out the window! I was gutted, there was no trace to be seen. However one morning (after sulking for a couple of days) I heard squawking across the street... woop woop it was her! Only problem was she was up a tree in someones back garden. Luckily this tree was not that big. So there I go at 8am in the morning knocking on doors trying to find which property has the garden with the tree.

Now Linda was born in captivity so she has not got the skills to live in the wild. So she is up this tree, starving and making one hell of a noise. I look back and laugh as the owner of the house opened their door and saw me, speaking one word Spanish trying to explain that my parrot is in their tree. So there I am with a big stick trying to get Linda out of the tree when something scares her and she takes flight again... and out of all the trees in the Colonial Zone (which there isnt that many) she choses the biggest one around. At this point I thought I lost her for good as I couldnt even see her and she flew right to the top.

Linda

Later that day my friend Jose came around and I filled him in on the story. He is very proactive and told me to get off my ass and climb that tree, I thought he was joking at first... So back down we go knocking on doors trying to find the owner of the property with this big tree in. The owner didnt really want to let us in but Jose has a way with words and before we knew it we were in the back garden. Now this was a big tree and I am not the biggest fan of heights but you gotta do what you gotta do! So up at the top of this tree that was swaying quite a lot I see Linda. Squawking away. Now this was the first few days of having her so she was not that tame and I had only managed once previously to get her on my hand. It took about 5 minutes of her biting me but she eventually grabbed hold of my T shirt and clung on whilst I climbed down - battered, bruised and bleeding. It was all worth it however. I have had Linda for about 10 months now and she is a part of the family.

So there we go, living in what we thought to soon to be our house in the Colonial Zone. The completion date was a couple of weeks away and all looked good. However things soon turned bad. It turned out that the owner had been trying to sell it to another party at the same time even though we had signed a contract and given her a deposit. I cannot go into it all on this blog but even though we had a contract and completion date we had to back out of the sale. We were very lucky and managed to get our deposit back, even if it was a few months later.

Now if anyone reads this I have one piece of advice... NEVER pay a deposit for a property here. If it means you lose the house it doesn't matter - only exchange money when you have the title in your hand, it would have saved us a very stressful few months wondering if we were going to get our deposit back. Speaking about titles, it is imperative that you get the title checked out by a responsible lawyer, I forgot the statistic but apparently the Dominican Republic has twice as many titles going around then there is actually land. So always do you research, we are lucky that Katherine's dad is a lawyer which has come in very handy.\

A day out at a waterfall

Living in the Dominican Republic

Hello and welcome to my new blog. The purpose? It has a couple... one is telling the story of how I came to live in the Dominican Republic and what it is like living here and the other is my new project - the renovation of a colonial property in the Zona Colonial, Santo Domingo. It is an exciting project for me for my new business venture. I plan on documenting it all from start to finish - processes, plans, emotions and all. There has already been twists and turns and a lot of stress but it is all part of the experience.  

Santo Domingo - A mix of new and old

Before I go into greater detail on the project itself I thought it would be best to give a bit of background on myself and what it is like to live in the Dominican Republic from my perspective. Ok, so who am I? My name is Chris, I left the United Kingdom back in May 2009 on a backpacking trip around the world and I have to say it seems like a lifetime ago… I worked at the University of Bath first of all as a Bars Manager then I moved into marketing there and graduated in 2008 with a BA (hons) in Business Management. So how did I end up in the Dominican Republic? Well if you want to know the full story of my backpacking trip you can read my previous blog: www.chrislinehamstravels.travellerspoint.com

I had always wanted to see more of the world and experience different cultures from around the age of 20 but actually taking the step and leaving is easier said than done, hence taking me until 2009 to actually leave the United Kingdom. It was 2008 when I actually stopped and asked myself are you going to be one of these people that just say they are going to do something or are you actually going to do it. Things always came up to put a spanner in the works; money (obviously), University, friends... but the two things that were stopping me were:

Myself and my beautiful wife Katherine

1: Laziness - Its always ‘tomorrow’ especially when it comes to saving and you want the latest Iphone or laptop. 

2: Fear - Now this is not fear of the unknown or the dangers you may encounter. This is fear of change. To actually step out of your comfort zone quit your job and just leave is tough, the modern day life locks you into staying put - theres phone contracts, mortgages, loan payments to name a few. Its normal to feel like this; steady job and income, home, luxuries - it is hard to give up. But once it is was done I got this strange feeling... freedom. 

In my head I had planned a route that would take about two and half years – so not a cheap trip. It did take a lot of sacrifices and 7 day weeks – I think I only had something like 6 days off in 6 months, but eventually I set my date to go… May 2009. So after backpacking around 25 countries - 3 and a half years later I am sitting here in Santo Domingo married to my gorgeous wife Katherine documenting my next adventure.

I get asked a lot of the time what it is like to live here. Obviously I love it so it will be a biased opinion, but I will still give it… Until I decided to move here permanently I had visited the country around 5 times probably staying a total of 4 months. I was staying with Katherine's family in Santo Domingo near the Malecon. The first time I came it was a bit of a culture shock as it was the start of my travels but you get used to it very quickly.  

A public car

Santo Domingo is a very busy city, with a population of around 3 million it can get very hectic but that said there is so much to do. It is a city that is a mix of new and old cultures. There are so many different things to experience - not all touristy. Public transport for example is an experience on its own there are buses however public cars are better for short distances… now a public car, they say a picture describes a thousand words – so here you go: 

Now my first ride was an experience, they carry 6 people plus the driver, that’s 4 in the back and two in the passenger seat usually in a very old, beat up Toyota. Colmados also an experience, Colmados are basically a small corner shop but they are a hub of life. Dominican men will sit outside with a Presidente and play Dominos until the early hours of the morning. Colmados have motos out delivering constantly, the best thing is they will deliver anything, if you want one beer, they will deliver it. To me this was a total novelty at first...”I can get a single beer delivered to my house???”

Liquor stores are another staple of Dominican life. Now due to the weather being hot all year around people drink outside of the liquor stores. You buy a bottle of local rum between a few of your friends ask for some cups with ice and there you go, a very cheap and enjoyable night out. 

Presidente - The nations favorite

Now I am not saying I immerse myself totally in the local life – my Spanish is terrible but is slowly getting better and I will be taking Spanish lessons soon, I don’t live in a Barrio and I do enjoy the luxuries like having a car but I could not be happier here.

Its not always an easy life over here, it can be difficult and very frustrating at times. Corruption is always present and there is no getting away from it, I cannot tell you how many times I get pulled over driving because I am a ‘gringo’ - no other reason other than they want money – which they don’t get from me. I can see where it comes from though, what do the government expect when you pay the police the minimum wage which is not enough to live on, especially in the city? Where do you think they are going to top up their earnings from?

Traffic and driving is a major problem in the capital – there are so many cars on the streets that it can take hours to get across the city in rush hour. They have just built a metro which is aimed to take some of the pressure off the roads but I haven’t seen that working yet. Now when it comes to driving all I can say it is crazy, but you get used to it, cars are all over the place, coming from every direction but strangely enough it kind of works.

The main questions I get asked from friends about living here are:

Is it dangerous? 

Now this one is usually the first to come up. As people will have seen a holiday program whilst sitting at home and heard a horror story about someone being shot, robbed or conned. My answer... Its about as dangerous as where you are sitting right now. Crimes happen all over the world and its all about being sensible and having common sense. Will you get robbed if you are wearing your gold Rolex and have your DSLR camera hanging around your neck whilst walking through a poor neighborhood?  Maybe – maybe not– but ask yourself the same question about your country? Ok there might be higher levels of petty theft and muggings but being sensible can help lower that risk.

Delivering water

I have been to some poor countries on my travels around the world and I have never been robbed or had any real problems. Ok, a lot of it was probably down to luck but I like to think its down to common sense. Why carry more cash than you need? Just be aware of your surroundings. 

It must be really cheap to live there…

In one word… No. Island life is not cheap at all, especially if you want luxury items as in a car, flatscreen TV, etc. Everything has to be imported and the customs charges here are huge. Gas is about $6.20 a gallon at present, a liter of Presidente (local beer) is just under $3 and an average mobile phone tariff is about $25 a month. Ok you might be saying to yourself that doesn’t sound that bad from where you come from but to put this in to perspective the minimum wage over here is less than $7000 DOP – about $180 US dollars a month. 

That said it is possible to live cheap over here – buy rice, plantains, sugarcane, rum and anything else they manufacture here then its pretty cheap. My favorite thing to do is go down to a park in the Zona Colonial with a bottle of rum and a few friends - A night out for about $5 - I cannot complain.

Lifes a beach...

You must be on the beach everyday...

Living in Santo Domingo? unfortunately not. Santo Domingo has one public beach that reopened a few months back however it is not very clean and I definitely would not recommend swimming there due to the pollution in the water. The closest beaches to the Capital is Boca Chica and Juan Dolio which are about 40 minutes away from the city. 

Boca Chica is hectic with more of a local crowd and Juan Dolio has a much more quiet and relaxed vibe. The country is not that big so some amazing beaches such as Bahia de las Aguilas, Bavaro, Bayahibe, La Romana, Cabarete and Samana are not to far away.

At the end of the day who said living in paradise was easy?  But all joking aside I would recommend a visit to the Dominican Republic to anyone. My family came out at Christmas for my wedding in Juan Dolio and they had nothing but good things to say. Dominicans are really happy people and this country has so much to offer. People usually head to the beach areas but if you want to see a bit of culture I would definitely recommend Santo Domingo whilst in the Dominican Republic.