Sunday, May 07, 2006

PROGRESS!!

My wife just returned from Honduras this weekend. She went there so she could monitor how things were going with the construction, and to make changes if necessary before things get too far along. We both feel a little nervous building our dream home by remote control.

I was really pleased hearing of the progress!

She took a lot of pictures, so as soon as we can figure out how to download them to this blog, we will.

One thing she did do which I believe will save us substantial money over the course of the construction, was she hired an engineer to oversee our builder. Every two weeks, the builder presents a bill for the last two week's work, all the labor, etc. We have no way of knowing whether the bill is acurate and actually reflects the job being done or not, ie. whether he is overcharging. Our new supervising engineer will visit the site every two weeks and measure the amount of construction since the last bill and compare it to make sure the cost is reasonable and accurate.

My wife's cousin just built a home and his bank required a supervising engineer as one of the terms of the loan. We are using the same lady that he used. We feel she is quite reliable as she is normally contracted through a bank. As it turns out, this is quite a common practice in Honduras so don't be embarrassed about it.