New Home Building Project in Baja California, Mexico

[BajaGringo]

Thought I would share some photos from our beach house construction project. The first step in the process was deciding where we would want to build / live. We knew we wanted be on the Pacific side of Baja, just steps to the beach but quickly realized that to narrow it down we would need to be a lot more specific so we made a list. It looked something like this:

1. Clean / blue water
2. Minimum 10 miles off any paved road
3. Maximum 30 miles off any paved road
4. NOT listed on any tourist map
5. NOT been reviewed on any travel guide
6. NOT being pushed by 100 real estate agents
7. Blend of rocky and sandy beaches
8. Tide pools
9. Undisturbed marine life (starfish / sea urchins / etc)
10. Backdrop topography (hills/mountains/etc)
11. Good fishing
12. Good diving
13. Mild, year round weather
14. More than 3 hours from the US border
15. Less than 6 hours from US border

It was pretty easy to map out a section of Pacific coastline that would fit that criteria and we began our search at Erendira, which we thought would be about as far north as we would consider. It was nice but we didn't feel that "click". We kept moving south, looking at the San Antonio del Mar area by Colonet, Camalu and then we hit San Quintin. A friend took us around the Bay area which was nice and seeing fishing charters coming in at El Molino full of fish definitely caught my attention. We then made a trip out to the beach to an area called Lomas de San Martin. It fronts San Martin Island and is just north of an old fishing village called La Chorera.

We immediately fell in love with the view, the beach and the tranquility of the place. Closing our eyes and crossing our fingers we staked our claim...

[BajaGringo]

Now that we knew where we wanted to build, the next step was to come up with a design. We wanted 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and everything on one floor. Having lived the last ten years in homes with multiple floors we came to the conclusion that we ended up spending 90% + of our waking hours on one floor of the house so it just seemed to make sense to try and build a one story this time around. Besides, we had plenty of room on our lot to make it work. After several weeks of playing with some designs we came up with what would be our new home. We figured that we could build it in two stages with the second bedroom/bath/laundry and work shop in phase two.

[BajaGringo]

Now that we had a design, we needed someone to build it. Did a lot of asking around and we kept hearing a name being mentioned - "Esquival Chavez". We met a few days later and the chemistry just seemed right.

Jack Smith had his Mr. Gomez, from his best selling book "God and Mr. Gomez".

Our new place now had its "maestro" to lead our new "obra"...

Chava!

[BajaGringo]

The footings are poured...

[BajaGringo]

We used 8" block for the first rows as it could support the floor better and we wanted the house elevated a bit...

[BajaGringo]

The floor is poured and now the real shape of the house is beginning to take shape...

[BajaGringo]

The view out our future bedroom window...

[BajaGringo]

Now all the doors and windows are taking their place. Conduit everywhere for electrical, satellite, internet, phones, sound, and on and on. I think I drove Chava crazy with the wiring side of the house...

[BajaGringo]

We were going to wait to start on phase two of the house but Chava convinced us we would be better off getting the "obra negra" at least done on that so the "dala" at the top could tie the entire house together.

And like Mr. Gomez, Chava seems to win most of these battles...

[mexliving]

thanks for allowing us to see your project as you go..... very nice.....