Another view from sale lots outside of Santiago, Chile

And then one night on our evening walk….

We met a couple in the street just one block over. As is our way we stopped and introduced ourselves and started a chat. They are Abel and Maria and wanted to buy a house in the neighborhood too. Like us they had looked at the new houses the builder had just begun a few blocks away and like us had determined that the size and quality were not so great for the price.

I should mention our beef with the local construction styles I guess. Chileans, like the rest of the world, have many idiosyncratic cultural habits. One, which we love, is that they demand a strict compliance to the very highest building standards against earthquakes. The country is on the edge of the Pacific rim plate that is pushing the Andes ever higher. These standards are why in 2008 when a magnitude 10 quake hit offshore and vigorously and continously shook thousands of miles of the country all major cities and most structures were still standing. The loss of life mainly stemmed from the resultant tsunami in one of the southern regions. We were here for that one. We were thousands of miles from the epicenter and let me just mention that the ground under our yard where we stood liquefied. It literally felt as though you were trying to stand on Jello that hadn’t set properly and it was being beaten with an electric mixer set on high. You couldn’t stay upright, you had to lay down and hope you didn’t get swallowed up by the earth.

Santiago lost a few buildings but all the major condominiums not only stayed up but after inspection most proved damage free except for cosmetic cracks in plaster. So the structural standards are excellent against a variety of disasters. But the habit of chopping up interior space into very small rooms and the reliance on a great deal of melamine for cheap cabinetry rather than building in a closet were two habits that most commercial builders have that make their houses unusable for us. So we had sadly decided that the houses being built for a maximum of profit and a seeming minimum of livability would not suit us.

Abel and Maria told us there in the dusky evening light that they had just discovered that the real estate company had 2 final sections of land left that they were going to release for private development. A few days ago 13 lots along the street where we were standing had been opened up for sale and they’d bought one that day.

Carl and I were so excited we could hardly sleep! We went to the developers office the next day and asked what was available and how much. The price was, not surprisingly, more than we wanted to pay and we had no idea what building costs were really like. We had discussed this as best we could with Abel and Maria but with our lack of specific terminology we weren’t sure we had workable ideas and numbers.

The helpful agent said we could put our name on a lot and we’d have time to get together a deposit and then more time to get the monies to actually buy the lot. It took us about a ¼ second meeting of the eyes to decide ‘yes’ on that proposal. Most of the rest of the day was spent tramping all over the lots that were still for sale. Momentous decisions had to be made.

Above you see two photos of the views from these lots on a cold wintery day. You can see why we love this area. Add nice neighbors and proximity to the city and it is perfect for us. We had a few weeks to make up our minds further but in fact a number of the properties had already been fully taken so we needed to make up our minds about a whole lot of things fairly quickly to get what we wanted. Or could we even afford the lot and the construction of a dog house on our mini budget? A house fire and an agent who doesn't pay insurances will leave you with threads of hope and little else.

So the next thoughts were all about which lot and was this even a good idea? I’d chosen property before from the point of view of possible resale but this time we had to choose from the point of putting a house on it and looking around at neighbors and the view everyday. Carl was very helpful; “What ever you want is fine with me.” seemed to be his new zen mantra. I almost bit my tongue in frustration. OK, so my brain had to go to work.

Knowing what I loved in our last house and what I had loathed in a number of houses throughout the years I made a list.

1. Want a great view, no bad smells, no toxic wastes, no traffic noises,etc

All the lots had the 'view' item in spades at the moment as nothing was built on any of them. A year from now who knew ? Everyone would build what they wanted and we'd have no control over what part of our view they might block.

Having lived in the nieghborhood for several years we knew that it didn't have any of the nasty issues. After all that's why we wanted to buy there in the first place.

2. Easy building block as it’s cheaper

All these lots are on a vertical hill and miserable to build on in seemingly equal amounts, so not much to decide there either.

3. A great space to garden in.

Well when you start with freshly cut and compacted dirtmade into terraces there is not much but potential.

Then I ran out of steam as the next items were all about the house itself. I had never had the luxury of choosing a lot with myself in mind.

Then there were the crux of the issue; was building even a good idea?

We walked some more and talked to some other neighbors who were building nearby. They quoted us some lovely sounding figures that meant we would not be completely broke before we finished the project. We had little to work with if you recall. (Part 1 Are we Mad?)

Since this area had about 6 houses being built at that moment we managed to walk by them all routinely and eventually talked to every one of the new owners as well as the workers. Gathering the data was a good exercise as each of the owners told us proudly about the deals they had managed and the ways they’d come out with way less than promised for way more than originally quoted. Some things don’t change the world over apparently.

In the end we felt that we could do this and not go completley broke. Even if we didn’t build just owning the land seemed like a good idea as we were well aware of the area’s price rises and Chile did very well during the last economic downturn. They have natural resources everyone is going to want for the foreseeable future. This is the national capital and so people are still moving here in droves for the better jobs. So the plus side of the ledger seemed to befalling like dominos to the ‘buy it’ side.

So we did. Well we tried to…………..

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

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