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All Text & Photos Copyright Suzie Hammond;
Author: "I Don't Know Where I Want to Be-But it's Not Here" (Easily Find Your Ideal Relocation Destination) http://www.goodwriter.info
Blog: 'Uprooting' The Unwinding of Unusual Tales of Relocation-- small adventures all over the world
FaceBook: Resources for relocation issues
House we rented just outside Santiago
Fresh empty living room awaiting our goodies
Are we completely mad?
Deciding to build a house in a country where we have little understanding of the language and laws does not appear to be the hallmark of sane individuals. So we ask ourselves this question on a pretty regular basis.
The short answer to the above question of course is that 'no' we don't have all our marbles or we wouldn't be engaged in such a risky pursuit. We used to be considered just a little eccentric by friends and family now several of them feel that an intervention may be needed. (To be fair though several also feel that we may just have the bull by the tail and that the ride, though bumpy, may take us far.)
We have lived in several parts of the US and a number of other countries during our adult lives and we enjoyed them all. Carl is a music composer, conductor and teacher. Suzie, your author here is a writer, teacher and artist. Altho we are both in our 60's at this point it would take you no effort to see in our eyes the leftover baby boomers who rabble roused and protested their way through the 1970's'.
A little of our history may help you understand how we think.
When we decided to move to Chile we had a lovely home in San Diego California, completely paid off, rented out and making us a tidy income that covered most living expenses. But our professional property manager overlooked paying our fire insurance premium and guess what? Yep, the place burnt to the ground. We discovered after the fact that the real estate board keeps records of complaints against their members and that normal people like us can access them. Turns out this person, James Burrell, San Diego County property Management, for any of you in the area who want to know, had several complaints against him previously. I suggest that anyone who has property they want to rent out check this resource before hiring a manager. (I had gotten the impression that there might be such a set of records but that is was like doctors and lawyers where they are kept under lock and key and not available to the public.)
Anyway, we sued him, of course, only to discover the b__stard had put everything of value out of reach. Obviously those earlier complaints had taught him a thing or two. So we settled for less than 1/3 of what we had paid for the house many years ago. And since it had been bought long before prices had gone sky high we basically be got less than a full jar of peanut butter in recompense for the avoidable disaster.
So now what to do?
Except for the unbelievable situation with the rental agent the rest of our experiment with South American living was a success. Santiago Chile is excellent for us. Very first world in many ways with all modern conveniences, safe banking, larger middle class than the US and Europe, and great food.
At the moment if you shop carefully the prices for life’s necessities are lower than most ‘first world’ counterparts. But I hasten to add that Chile would not be considered cheap to live in. We can survive with a much better lifestyle than we could afford elsewhere yet we can still talk to our grown kids every few days on Skype, eat out often while sucking back liters of fabulous wine, and have first world health care at a fraction of US prices. Add the fact that there are plenty of projects to keep us busy in our fields of expertise and life is pretty satisfying.
After a bit of trial and error we got our immigration sorted out and found a house to rent we liked in our new country. During this time I alternately studied and neglected my Spanish lessons.
The above photo shows our rental- a 4 bedroom house on a nice sized lot in a quiet communa (suburb) for roughly $800 month plus utilities. We are 15 minutes from the middle of the center of town by car and an hour if we take the bus and subway, which are very cheap (about $1US) and a block away. Unlike the massive bustling metro area it is so quiet here that the dogs often sleep in the street and grumble when a car comes by to disturb them.
Now since this is a blog about us building a house let me mention a few items about our rental that also apply to most other houses here; a bedroom means that you can get a bed, a nightstand and a small armoire for clothes storage and little else in the room. While the master bedroom and one other have small closets built in the other two bedrooms do not. This is fine for the two of us who want a studio each- one for Carl’s music and one for my art pursuits. These rooms are considerably smaller than usual for Canadians/Americans/Australians.
Also, since the cooking is often done by your live-in maid here, the kitchens are very basic and small. (Translate that to read 'primitive' if you like.) OTOH you get a dining room of quite respectable proportions as family meals with 12 people are very common and an important part of life here. Ours currently houses a grand piano and postage stamp table as living rooms are a lot smaller.
I don’t have a live in maid like many people here. I can afford to have a lovely young lady ‘Kelly’ come in and clean and scrub everything once a week though. We don’t know how long we will have her as we're encouraging her through nursing school so she can have a better career. Luckily for me she has a trustworthy relative ready to take over her job so I don't have to soil my rapidly softening calluses. Most houses here have a 'maid's quarters' attached to the kitchen. We turned ours into an ad hoc pantry with shelves and plastic containers. The room is really the size of a closet in most spoiled western countries. This way we got a more workable set of rooms for us.
Over the last four years our lives have filled with things we enjoy and opportunities we never dreamed of. After we settled our lawsuit last year we decided to take our hard fought little nest egg from the US and put it into real estate here.
So there you have the first installment in our house building abroad journey. There will be many parts to follow as it spins its way towards both our fantasy and whatever the reality of our new home will be. Stay Tuned.
All Text & Photos Copyright Suzie Hammond
The Hammonds Build a House Overseas
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