Opening soon!

I've been receiving an e-mail a week or so from Nico, updating me on progress on the hostel, just haven't had a lot of time to put it up here.

We've secured the existing house for another year and we're in the process of renovating it - changing the kitchena dn bathroom to suit more people.

Here are a few excerpts from e-mails from nico regarding everything:

"the new bathroom is about half done, building it with bricks, me and enrique are doing it together, without builders to see how we go, trying to keep the total cost below 1000 pesos, this includes making a door into the house and closing up the kitchen with a door into the house as well."

"bought a fridge, bike and double mattress at an auction, a good price for all. also bought the ford falcon and paid for the land"

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"steadily getting on witht he bathroom, have bought all the plumbing bits, about to finish the roof, walls are almost done, then its the concrete floor and finishing it off at the end, still don't know what we are going to use for hot water cant find those instant hot shower heads anywhere...
the falcon is going well, you have to get an international drivers license before you get here.
cleaned up the place the other day after finishing off the kitchen, also planted a new lawn, should be ready in a few weeks. So just gotta find some cheap single beds and sheets and finish the bathroom, then we can start having people in.

"doing the bulldozing on friday for the new place, the drive is not nearly good enough to get trucks ect up there yet. then will start with the foundations there in a week or two once this place is done"

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"So another week gone, the bathroom is coming along, but been busy sorting out the top property for the bulldozer, one we tried to get could not get up our drive!!"

"got a builder to do the main house, still waiting for his quote, he suggests we do it in wood rather than bricks it almost half the price, quicker and better insulation summer and winter"

"I strill have to buy a few more single beds and sheets and complete the bathroom then we can start having people over, at the moment when enrique rides he finishes at the hostel for a beer, so people can see the place."

"I have a guitar and hammocks"

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"kitchen is done, built 4 lockers, and lawn is growing well, but bathroom is still not done, the owner of the place came around and said he wanted to change a few things for the bathroom, so waitung for him to supply some tiles and stuff.... so looking like about a week away still,
but have got lots of beds now, so can take people if they really want to.
also been busy with the builder we are gonna use, checking out options on the build... if we do it in brick or stone its gonna take more time, cost more in materials and difficult to insulate, so looked at some houses he had done before using a wooden structure rather than bricks, all the houses in patagonia are built like this, good insulation, cold and hot, qucker to build and cheaper in materials.... also looks cool, see pics attached for the idea of how the walls will look.
still gonna build that stone kitchen and i will build the bedrooms at the back, that should neot come to more than about 3000 pesos or so."

"redid the drive as cars were not able to get up there, the bulldozer was 450 pesos for 2.5 hours, it looks much better now, we can start getting sand and cement and wood up there and start the building!!!"

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The other good news is that Nico's friend is now only arriving on the 30th of November, which means we have a full ten days to do a handover of everything rather than the three hours we had before she changed her plans.

We're also in the process of setting up an official website for the hostel and Enrique's horse Riding business. I will post the URL here when it is ready.