Week three... Roof, Cistern...

Its been a very productive week! Monday saw all of the debris and trash from the roof taken away, I have never seen the place so clear! But that did not last for long as we decided while we were doing the roof we would get some guys in to start work on the cistern. Now being as the water service is so unreliable in the area I made the decision to make a huge cistern. The target is 5500 gallons but we will see...

I agreed on a fee for the cistern charged per cubic meter and the guys got going. These guys are machines! They worked 9 hours solid the first day hardly taking a break and after 4 days the hole is looking good. They get paid for the job so it does not really bother me how long they take but they are not hanging around.

Now the problem I had again was that I have to get rid of all the earth thats been dug up. First of all I thought they can just pile it in on of the front rooms and I will worry about it later but they filled the room up in two days so had to get the guy in again to start hauling it all out. 12 journeys so far and still counting...

So the cistern is well under way which is good as I didn’t plan on starting that until the roof and floor had been completed but it doesn’t get in our way so we just let them get on with it. The roof is going well and we are about to start on the first floor. We managed to get all the beams up which was a killer as it has been so hot. Last week we had just put four up but this week we have finished all of the wood work for the roof and I have to say it looks pretty good from inside. I haven’t painted them - that will wait until I decorate the place.  

I have to say I am quite impressed with the guys. Every other person that looked at the place and gave me quotes said that scaffolding would have to be built or a crane would be needed to set the beams in place but we managed to get them all up between the five of us - 23 in all! i am glad as its a lot safer now all the wood work is up.

It will take about two weeks to finish the roof, the walls need to built up around the wooden beams and then they can start laying the bricks followed by cement. I will take an extra guy on for that so I have four working on it. That means they can work in teams of two; on mixing the cement down below and the other setting the bricks on the roof. While this is happening me and Rudolfo will start on the floor. I purchased all the wood this week for the floor boards and we also need to replace half of the beams downstairs which I didn’t budget for but it has to be done. I decided to move some of them so one side of the downstairs has the original caoba beams and one side has the new beams. I am hoping the floor does not take as long as the roof and ideally it will be finished around the same time.

We would be a little further ahead right now but we are heading into rainy season and although it has been crazily hot a couple of the afternoons we had torrential down pours! Obviously no roof work was done in that. This is why I am desperate to get this roof finished so if it does rain the guys can be getting on with other jobs inside.

Unfortunately we are short on bricks for the roof - you can see these from inside as they are a base for the cement which means I will have to buy about another 1500 to finish the roof which puts a bit of a dent in my budget but with old houses you have to expect that things will come up.

On the paper work side of things I was celebrating as my permits finally got granted... hold on I hear you say... but you have been working for three weeks... it is all explained in the previous post...

One of the things I have found I have to be really careful with is making sure the front door is locked at all times. People in the street will literally just walk in! Its been tougher this week as we have had to keep the door open for the truck to remove all of the earth and trash - again people will just walk in and start looking around, and when I ask them what they are doing they act like I have smacked them in the face with a shovel! 

At the start of the week I had one guy walk straight in whilst the earth was being removed and said he was from Ayuntamiento (town hall) - I was expecting someone to come around and check for permits at some point but this guy was just a fraud. When I asked to see his ID he just opened his wallet which had a picture of Danillo (the president) in it. Then he preceded to ask for gas money - Rodolfo walked him to the door and got rid of him. Seriously some people think you must be stupid.

I did actually have an official visit form Patrimonio (UNESCO) to check my permits (a day after they were granted :-) ) he was very nice, showed him the permits - all he wanted to check was the cistern that we were digging to make sure there was nothing of historical importance in the hole. It was a very quick visit, very polite and he didn’t ask for any money! Which was great.

So it has been an action packed week with a lot of progress. I am really happy with how it is going - after the 8 months of waiting for permits I was actually starting to think that this would never happen. So stay tuned for next week.

Permit Process

Ok, after getting my permits I have decided to write up a walkthrough for other people if they are ever as crazy as me to undertake a project like this. There are five main steps:

1. Get complete plans drawn up for the property. 
2. Get permission from Patrimonio Monumental
3. Get permission from Patrimonio Cultural
4. Get permission from Ayuntamiento
5. Submit permits and plans to Obras Publicas

It seems simple - just 5 easy steps you might be thinking - but then you have to remember that you are in the Dominican Republic. Now before I go through the steps I just want to say that all the advice I received from locals was just to close the doors and do the work and skip the permit process. I have to say I was tempted but due to the size of the project I was to undertake I did not think I would get away with it. Plus I wanted to try and do everything by the book, I didn't want people coming to me for bribes and payoffs every few weeks.

Now its well known that in the Dominican Republic its all about who you know or how much money you have when it comes to getting things done. The one refreshing surprise was that during the whole process not one person asked for money to expedite the process. I have to say I wish they did as I would have paid it to get them earlier but looking back at things I am glad the way it worked out.

Step 1 - Plans

So it all started when I purchased the property at the end of September 2012. The first thing that I needed to do was to get plans drawn up. Easy you may think but one thing from I have learnt from this whole process is that architects and engineers here are expensive. My rule is from now on is that if some turns up in a new pick up truck then I say thank you very much but I don’t want a quote from them!

I am guessing its because I am not from here that people think I am rich... and stupid... I have to admit - I am neither. It gets old very fast especially when getting quotes but I have to say you learn from experience and I realize how naive I was at the start of this project.

My first quote was for $20,000 USD, yep not pesos dollars... I almost had a heart attack as I could not understand how it could be that expensive to draw up plans. I mean it is a big ish property with 450 sqm of land and around 600 of construction but there was no way I could afford that.

So I went down a cheaper route and a couple of my wife's friends were newly qualified architects and did it for a 10th of the price. Apart from the roof and floors we were keeping everything pretty much the same structural wise so it took them 10 days to draw them all up. We got the architectural, structural, elevational, plumbing and electrical drawn up along with the photos of the property and location. You do not actually need the electrical and plumbing plans for the permits but we got them just in case.

So by the time we actually got the plans drew up it was getting close to December - so almost two months past by which was a delay that I did not plan for. But at least we had all the plans. We had two sets of plans printed.

Total time taken: 2 months

Cost: Around $2500 USD with printing

Step 2 - Patrimonio Monumental

Now I have to say this was the easiest step of the process and by far the quickest. I have nothing but praise for them. They are located on Calle Hostos in the Colonial Zone and I had spoken to them on numerous occasions even before I bought the property. The first thing you need to do is go and and ask for an information sheet, it is important as you need to get the plans printed in a specific size and colored folders. I had heard horror stories that people have waited for over a year for permits at this stage so I wanted to be as prepared as possible. 

The first thing you need to do is ask them to visit the house and complete a survey. This is free and was completed in a few days after requesting. 

We handed the plans in with a cover letter to the director and they said they would be in touch. Five days later I received a call... I was thinking what did I forget to hand in... but no, I could not believe it they had granted the permission! Five days! 

Total time taken: 8 days

Cost: $0

Step 3 - Patrimonio Cultural

Patrimonio have a different branch that you also need to go through so the same day that we received the permission from Monumental we headed straight over to their office on Calle Merino, again in the Zona Colonial.

I wish I could say they were as organized... we went in and asked them what we have to do... they said you have to write a covering letter along with the plans and the permission from Monumental. 

So the same day we handed everything in and they said it should be a few days. I remember thinking this is far to easy... and unfortunately it was. We had visited on numerous occasions and we kept on getting told tomorrow. This went on until christmas when at that point we started going in every day. They tell you to call to check the progress but the only way you can get them to work is if you actually go in and pester them.

So they finally sent a guy with us to go for another survey of the property... This was a joke as when we were there the guy did not have a clue what he was meant to do - he pulled out a tape measure and wrote down a few random measurements and left. About a week later after a few more visits they finally sat down with us to discuss the plans. The engineer put in the plans that we would use steel beams for the roof and floor cover by wood moldings. They told us that this is not allowed and we have to use wood. I found this hard to take as lots of places in the colonial zone use this technique but when we pointed this out they would not budge. I even told him to look up - the Colonial building that their office was in had steel beams! 

We spoke to the engineer that did our plan and he said he would change it to wood but told us to ignore what they say and go to Ayuntamiento. I wish I never followed his advice as he was wrong. You have to get the permission from both Patrimonios before you go to Ayuntamiento - his advice cost us about a month in time.

Eventually we got the permits but it took its time. You really have to be on their backs everyday to get the permits else your plans will just sit on there shelves and not get touched.

Total time taken: 2 months

Cost: $0

Step 4 - Ayuntamiento

Now even though we had a bit of a delay in Patrimonio Cultural they were always polite - unorganized, but polite. Ayuntamiento is the government side of the permit process and it shows!

I have never been in a such unhelpful office. Its obvious that the people working there do not really care about their work. We went in and asked what the process is for getting the permits and to be honest they didn't really know. First of all they said just gives us the plans which we did and they said they would call us in a week... no phone call. So we kept on going in and every time they said we needed one more document. In total we went back and forward 9 times just to give them documents. Eventually we had to say we were not leaving unless they give us a list of every document and plan we need to apply for the permits. It was at this point they found a list and gave it to us. 

Again they said they will call us. One week, two weeks, three weeks past and nothing so we headed in to see what the progress was. The plans were still sitting in the receptions filing cabinet. 

After about 6 weeks they moved on to one of the architects desks in the office next door. This was when the fun began, we would go in and they would say next week every time! It was getting tiring as they said to call but yet again if you call you will be waiting forever as they just tell you to call next week every time.

So I adopted a new approach and started to go in to the office almost every day. The architect hated me - probably because every time I went in I interrupted him on the internet.

I actually felt like it was something personal as they did not want to even look at the plans. It was another month until they finally opened up the plans and started to look. They are very good at excuses and always try and say something is missing. You really need to be on top of everything and just keep up the pressure - everyone knew me in the surrounding offices as I was in there so often - at least three times a week - every week!

This is where you have to pay a few fews but not a lot - and its all payable in the same building - in total there was three payments required for the permits - RD$4000 which is around $100 USD. 

Eventually I think they just got fed up of me going in and pestering them and they said the permits have been agreed and the director needs to sign them... that took another month!

I was so excited when the director signed them as I thought we could start work... but nope they said before we can start they had to pass the plans on to Tasacion - which is the tax department. I am very glad my property is in the colonial zone as the properties are tax free in the area. If not we would have had to pay a 5% of restoration cost in tax! 

This was the point that I actually said screw them and started work, as they said the director had signed them and I was just waiting for the tax clearance. They had messed me around so much over the past 4 months it is unbelievable. Luckily the permits came through three weeks after I started work but I have to say Ayuntamiento are pretty much useless. Its not even the time that it all took that annoyed me, it was the attitude of the employees and the amount of lies to your face. I would have lost it if I was told ‘tomorrow’ one more time.

Total time taken: 4 months

Total cost: $100 USD

Step 5 - Obras Publicas

The next step is Obras Publicas... which is where I have deposited the plans but I have not completed it yet. However you can start work as soon as you get the go ahead from Ayuntamiento. I will update this when this step is complete.

All in all it only really took six months for the permits - I say only as although it felt like forever I have heard that some people wait a lot longer! Anyway I know this is a pretty boring post but hopefully it will help someone at some point... Anyone that is going to do this needs a lot of patience and perseverance, but it is all worth it in the end.

Week two of the roof...

So week two of putting on the new roof... It has been going well, but very slow at times. Most of the time has been spent cleaning up all the debris from the roof and floor. I did not realize how much there was until we actually had to get rid of it all. It has taken about 4 days and 15 truck loads full but we are almost there. I would say one more day and it will all be gone. 

So the three guys have spent most of their time bagging up all the ruble and cleaning the bricks from the roof - not fun jobs at all but they needed to be done. It is a bit of a pain as big trucks are not allowed to enter the Colonial Zone so I have a local with a truck taking it out. I have so much caoba from the roof beams I have already started planning what I can use it for.

The bricks that the guys are cleaning were the ones we saved from the original roof, its a big job cleaning them all (around 2500) but I want to keep them for two reasons; one, I  want the roof to look as original as possible and the bricks are probably hundreds of years old so they have a good antique look to them and second of all is the cost, as I found out yesterday bricks are not cheap here. So it works out cheaper to get the guys to clean the old ones up. 

Its been an up and down week on the downside we have had a couple of rainy days which really holds you up as no work can be done, its typical, as soon as I take of the roof it rains - hasn’t rained like this for months but we will battle on through it. I have also learnt a lesson not to buy cheap tools - definitely a false economy, I bought a angle grinder 4 days ago, it was a heavy duty one but a Chinese own brand one, yep you guessed it three days later the thing breaks, no warranty! I will get it repaired but decided I would bite the bullet and get a Dewalt one, expensive but a lot better quality. That was an extra unexpected cost but I am sure there will be a few more.

One the good side the property does not look like a bomb has hit it anymore. We are almost clear of all the debris and Rudolfo has been hard at work making the beams. We have enough for one side of the roof - so just 12 more to go! He will be seeing beams in his sleep!

So I was all excited about moving on with the roof but then we had a little problem to solve... How do we get the beams up on the roof. Now I am 200 pounds and these things weigh a lot more than me. We tried to get them up on to the back balcony first but we got one up and it almost killed us to do so and that was only half way up.

I have to say Rudolfo is very clever, he built ramps and different levels so we could get them up the side of the house. Luckily next doors property is empty so he built a wooden structure on top of their roof so we can lift the beam in stages. 

So it was the end of the week (they are starting to go buy very quickly). We have about 6 beams up and I nailed the slats on today so we have a secure footing up on the roof. 

So next week I am hoping to have all the beams and slates up ready for building up the walls and placing the bricks ready to pour the cement on top of the roof. Thats if the rain holds off... 

I also need to go and buy all the wood for the floor on Monday which I am not looking forward to as it is so expensive. We have to the get the treated wood as I don’t want it to get eaten by termites. My time scales are all messed up but I am hoping roof and floor are done in three more weeks as I need to get moving on the other areas.

Week 1 - The roof

It was a strange feeling going in to start work on the house, I was almost kind of nervous - it felt like the first day when you get a new job. So the first day was spent getting organized, the workers are going to live in on the property while they are working there for a bit of extra security so I set them up with a couple of old mattresses and a gas stove so they could get comfortable. 

Then it was up to the roof, the colonial roofs are made up of wooden beams and slats, then a layer of bricks, cement and another layer of bricks. We needed to save as many of the bricks as possible so we can clean them up and reuse them, so it was a hammer and chisel job! 

We had purchased all the wood to be delivered that day for the new beams and slats for the roof. Now the beams in the roof at the moment are solid Caoba - a really heavy and expensive wood. The roof beams were in a bad state and had to come down, its a shame as there is no way I can afford to use Caoba to make the new beams, however I am using wood as I want to keep the place as original as possible. 

The bad part about doing the project this way is that I needed to buy most of the tools, luckily last time I was in the states I picked up some power tools so did not have to buy that many. The biggest purchase was the generator, due to the electricity supply being terrible we need to be able to work when the power is out. 

So whilst Rudolfo started on making the beams for the roof me and the 3 other workers got up on the roof and started dismantling. It has been blisteringly hot here lately and it was hot, sweaty and dusty work. 

The roof had a lot of holes and was actually pretty easy to dismantle. This is what the first 4 days consisted of. We pilled up all of the bricks that could be saved on the back roof and dropped the rest of the debris down to the bottom.

One thing I did not take in to account was the amount of trash! I was beginning to think that my 3 week time scale for the roof was a little bit optimistic... 

When we actually had the beams down I was a little bit sad as the wood was still solid apart from a foot either end that went in to the wall which was rotten. I would have loved to of kept them up but they were too dangerous to stay up. I am hoping most of the 1st floor beams can be saved as they are not in such bad condition. Although a few of the beams cracked when we were taking the roof beams down which was a shame. 

  The problem is that they are just so heavy, I want to keep them as its good wood, I am thinking of using them for supports over the doors and maybe even making a few coffee tables. 

One of them blocked the door and took the guys about 3 hours to cut through the thing, thinking I might have to purchase a chainsaw to get rid of them. So the roof is off including beams and so are the floor boards. Not bad for the first week, but I honestly think the next is going to be a slow one progress wise. It looks like a tip at the moment, so now it is clean up time. We have about a third of the beams made so I am hoping by the end of the week we have half of the beams up and the rest of them made and waiting to go up.

All systems go!

Ok at some point in the future I will post a ‘how to’ page with a walkthrough of how to get permits for a property in the Colonial Zone here but more importantly is that I have actually started work! 

I wont lie I was beginning to lose hope with the project, not just the fact the permit process is a joke but I have been getting quotes over the last couple of months and they have been coming in higher than the price of the property. I am under no illusions of the scale of the task ahead but I have been going through quotes for the last week non stop and there are huge differences in material costs and labour costs. 

I hate to think its because I am a ‘gringo’ over here but I have proof in black and white ink! I actually think some of the builders must have thought I was stupid and would not read the quote. For example one of the builders had in their quote RD$1,4million pesos for electrical wire! I know the house needs rewiring but come on... thats around $34,000 USD! If that wasn’t enough of a shock the quotes were all over place, the highest was RD$4,000,000 more than the lowest. 

To be honest me and Katherine my wife were a bit shell shocked with these quotes, we even discussed trying to sell the house as even the lowest price was almost double our budget for renovations. It took us a few days to mull it over and a lot of phone calls back home for advice on what to do. We had two options sell the place (which takes a long time here) or go for it. Obviously we decided to go for it, there is no way I am going back to England as to be honest if we sold up that probably would be the outcome.

No the problem we have was how are we going to make this happen? With half the budget of the quotes we have received we needed to get creative. No sooner had I started thinking I found an Austrian engineer that had been living over here for the last 10 years (message me if you want his details). His name is Rudolfo and he was really enthusiastic when he came around to see the place an was straight up on the roof checking it out. It was the first time I had been on the roof, to be honest there wasn’t much point before as I knew when I bought the place it needed replacing. 

This is actually going to be my job, I will work along with Rodolfo all through the renovation project so I am really excited to get started.
I have decided to split the project up in to sections... first and foremost is the roof and floor. So I took Rudolfo on to do this part with me and with a view to do more after. I have a very strict budget - this is where it helps to be organized... I took the average price of all the other quotes for each section of the house i.e roof, floors, walls, electrics, plumbing and so on. It works out that I need to be able to complete each area at 47% of the quoted price to be able to complete the project.

Crazy some might say? over ambitious? or maybe I am just stupid? either way we will find out by the end of this project. Now I know that unexpected costs come up, even more so with a 400 - 500 year old house but even so I have been to suppliers and I think it can be done. 

 
So I took on Rudolfo straight away, I love a straight talker and he seems very genuine. He also took on three Haitian workers to help us. So there are 5 of us in total. Also just to give us that little bit more of a challenge I have set us a target of three weeks to replace the roof and a week to replace the 1st floor. Other companies said 6 weeks but this is going to be my home as well as our business and we want to get a move on, especially when it has been 8 months since we bought the place.

I was lucky with finding Rudolfo as he had just finished a project and could start straight away. So after a day of planning we set a start date for the next day. Exciting (and nervous) times ahead.