Legitimately bending the truth
Let’s be realistic for a moment: to lie is to be human. From our earliest days of playing in the sand, we tell stories with partial or metaphorical truths. In the case of building a house, we need to tell…
The excitement of boundary pins
You might be saying to yourself, “Yes! Please tell me all about the time when the government surveyors came to mark your land for boundary pins! Please!!!” Ok ok, I know it’s thrilling. The drama of getting four red marks…
Stepping forward & sideways
With any building project, or during the process of any lasting endeavor, there will always be a variety of bumps in the road. In our minds we’d like things to progress smoothly. We make predictions based on an internalized _flow_…
Eating in Bali: Warungs are the Thing
Given the relatively small size of the island of Bali, there’s an extraordinary variety of eating establishments here. And it seems that new places are popping up daily, if not weekly. This is a huge bonus for visitors, and even…
Scooters own Bali (and Asia)
If you plan to see much of Bali, you have two choices: rent a car, or rent a scooter. Bicycles don’t quite work on the main roads as scooters own both the edges of the roads and even some sidewalks.…
A tag team for building and site design
Yesterday was a bit of a marathon meeting, as our architectural team called in their government permit expert and, in the end, it was decided that it’s best to re-design for two levels (instead of the current three levels) and…
Preparing for boundary walls
Creating a partition between your land and the neighbors is accomplished typically with concrete-block walls. A foundation is dug and river rocks are mixed with cement to: create a stable base for wall construction, and secondly to keep the limestone…
Building Permit Snafu
The architectural design for the retreat involves two levels for the residential part of the structure and three levels for the guest units. Turns out that the type of building permit I’m required to get is a Pondak Wisata, which…
Interviewing “land agents”
The building permit process can be a field of landmines if you’re not careful. You can think of it as the wonder of visiting the motor vehicle bureau, minus the wonder and multiplied by a multitude of procedures. Everything from…
Meeting Agung from the Pererenan Banjar
The team leader of the road crew that built our access road was helpful in setting up a meeting with the local Banjar. As mentioned previously the Banjar is the community group that runs things at the local level. They…
Getting to know the building trade
This is Bali, Indonesia. The building trade is a different ballgame than what I’m used to. In the USA any individual can claim to be an owner/builder and get a building permit. Here, I need to hire a “land agent”…
Building the Private Access Road
Even though the final ownership document was not even close to being done, we decided to go ahead with the road. Having to fight the brush and mosquitos each time we wanted to show people the property didn’t sound like…