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Greetings all! This looks to be a very useful forum. I have trolled through the construction progress threads and found a great deal of useful and practical information.
My wife and I are trying to be proactive about planning a low budget retirement, which is still (regretably) a few years away.
We live on an island in Washington State, and spend summers running a charter boat in Alaska. We have a chronic vitamin D deficiency and are hoping an at least seasonal home in Baja will help.
Looking for land in the San Quintin area where we can build a home, perhaps even a small "friends and family" village of clustered homes.
We spent 20 years building custom homes among our local islands, and are comfortable with remote location construction.
Thank you all for providing this forum.

Welcome Islander...

Have you spent much time here in the San Quintin area scoping things out???

No. I am doing long distance research concerning land costs, utilities, permitting, etc. I hope to make a first trip down this winter, perhaps renting a house for a couple of weeks. I have spent time in Cabo, the East Cape and Todos Santos, and far prefer Todos to the others, but am concerned about that area being too warm in the summer.
My wife and I both grew up (or got older at least) in North San Diego County, but got crowded out about 30 years ago.
SQ looks like San Diego about 50 years ago, which is very appealing to us.

Would you mind living off-grid???

No problems being off grid. I have been figuring on using solar electric and water heating (with propane back up). I am assuming that any well near the beach is going to need a de-sal system, and that will need enough power that I'm balancing the costs of building new electric lines vs solar. For one or two homes it looks like solar is the clear winner, for more than 5, it's about a wash. Not sure of the cost of utility company power down there, but I know the cost of batteries and panels.
Location and price trumps cheap utilities for me, and I can certainly live without an overhead power line in my view!
I am a fan of sustainability, not because of a philosophy, but because I'm cheap!

Dang BG....you might have to buy that property between you & the water sooner rather than later!

Welcome Islander....which island? Vashon? Mercer? Whidbey? You might have noticed that construction materials & techniques are a tad bit different south of the border.

Thank you for the welcome, Longlegs!

We're on San Juan Island, about 80 miles North of Seattle.
I am aware that many of my building technique knowledge from the NW and SoCal won't be appropriate in Baja, and that's cool with me.

I'm strongly leaning toward the system you used on your latest home. The insulating qualities of the foam/concrete hybrid looks good. One concern though, is that I know that carpenter ants LOVE foam, any insight about how termites feel about it?

Special thanks to you and BajaGringo for photo documenting your building projects. Very helpful!!

My building experience is hands on, from excavation through finish carpentry, tile, electrical and plumbing. At the end I was more into estimating, billing, and chasing down missing workers and subs. I finally got tired of being a combination accountant and counselor in a troubled youth home!!

We've spent the last 7 years running a 78 year old charter boat in SE Alaska. The best cubicle ever!

Originally Posted by Islander

One concern though, is that I know that carpenter ants LOVE foam, any insight about how termites feel about it?

OhOh.....New can of worms has just been opened. Don't know if Carpenter Ants are native to the area, but Termites sure are. I've never seen the Termite issue with foam raised here or on other sites.

Welcome to the board, Islander. Keed your generator handy. We're all too old for those nasty handsaws.

Thank you Dennis. I agree about being too old, just not clear on what for?

From growing up in San Diego I know that termites are a problem there, but I never saw a carpenter ant until moving to the Northwest.

The ants don't eat the foam, they build nests in it. The problem is that at the end of the day, the foam is chewed up and shoved out of the way to make room for the ant colony. At this point it doesn't matter much to the home owner that the foam wasn't eaten, it just matters that it has been replaced by ants!

I think that there are a growing number of foam/concrete structures being built, and many of them have been around for a while now. Seems like if there was a potential problem someone wold have noted it by now. I just wondered if anyone had a problem, or had heard of one, in the BC area?

Sorry about bringing a worm can to our first date!

Originally Posted by Islander

No problems being off grid. I have been figuring on using solar electric and water heating (with propane back up). I am assuming that any well near the beach is going to need a de-sal system, and that will need enough power that I'm balancing the costs of building new electric lines vs solar. For one or two homes it looks like solar is the clear winner, for more than 5, it's about a wash. Not sure of the cost of utility company power down there, but I know the cost of batteries and panels.
Location and price trumps cheap utilities for me, and I can certainly live without an overhead power line in my view!
I am a fan of sustainability, not because of a philosophy, but because I'm cheap!

I don't know about de-sal but most people in SQ use a "Rotoplas" tank. I would definately look at BajaGringos area in SQ. There you are treated to some magnificent views of the Pacific and a magestic view of San Martin Island, not to mention some beautiful sunsets.

Oh oh!! Termites & carpenter ants attracted to foam??

One creature at a time....termites first since that's what I've had the most personal experience with. My first place was built by an architect/builder. He gets full credit for my deciding to act as my own contractor on my two subsequent places! At the time of my first construction, I was totally green to construction, not to mention I was green to the many unique pitfalls of building here. He didn't do any soil prep whatsoever. Consequently, casa #1 had termites tunneling out of the floors, under & behind wood cabinetry, in through grout lines, walls, electrical outlets, window openings! I was in that casa for 5 years & would use an insulin needle to inject pure undiluted termite concentrate into the beginning of the tunnel every time I saw one. Once I'd injected the concentrate in, no termites ever came back in that particular area. As I was moving out, I discovered a LOT of tunnels which had been hidden behind things in closets & cupboards. All were treated. As were the wooden front door & frame.

During construction for casa #2, I had the footing & foundation trenches sprayed throughout construction & sprayed after they were poured, as well as being coated with a tar-based waterproofing material, which also prevents natural salt in the soil from eating the concrete. I lived in that casa a full two years & the only termites were in the wooden front door & frame.

What both casa #1 & #2 had in common was that they were both built on beachfront property....i.e., the soil had a higher moisture content year-round.

Casa #3 sits higher on a hill where the soil is much dryer, but I also had the soil sprayed throughout trenching & construction, as well as all the footing & foundation trenches being lined with heavy black plastic in addition to painting on the tar-based waterproofing material. I've been in casa #3 since February 2008 & have found nary a termite tunnel inside or out. For obvious reasons, front door & frame are metal....which brings it's own unique problems....namely rust!

Now ants are a different story....each & every casa has had multiple types & sizes of ants....mostly the tiny ones attracted to human & pet food areas. Casa #3 however....the foam casa....has had the typical small ants, as well as larger infestations of various types of ants combined....i.e., various types & sizes of ants co-mingled & traveling in a pack together! One of that group was a winged type that I never saw actually fly, only crawling. I also had one infestation of a HUGE BLACK type of ant in my chimney & migrating into the casa. One spraying of the chimney & that was the last I saw of those monsters! Except for those huge monsters....they were fully an inch in length....in the chimney, I wouldn't say the ants have been any worse in the foam casa versus the block construction. And I've been able to keep them at bay by using a combination of spraying the exterior perimeter of the house & using ant powder along thresholds. I initially did have a lot of ants coming into the casa via electrical hoses for both outlets & ceiling light fixtures. Once I bought a can of spray foam, to seal the wire hose entrances, they've stopped coming in via that route.

My bottom line is that I honestly can't tell you whether ants are more attracted to the foam....or whether I've just had normal & ever-present ant activity. I also have zero knowledge of the most prevalent critters you need to plan for in the SQ area.

I gotta tell ya that I fully expect to be having nightmares now about ants eating my casa from the inside out! Gee, thanks Islander!

I have been considering a desal system but want to up my power system a bit first. Right now I have a little over 2kW output in solar panels plus the wind turbines. I want to add another kW of solar and am looking at a 1500w wind turbine right now to add to the system.

Until then we pay nacho to truck us in water at 800 pesos a pop.

As far as termites go, are you looking to do all wood construction? We installed a pitched wood roof and pre-treated it all (a couple of times) before installing.

I haven't seen any signs of termite damage at my neighbors places around here, some which are all wood and over 30 years old.

I can tell from BG's construction photos that he is in a beautiful place! I am looking in the area a few miles north of the SQ Bay entrance, my sense is that BG is a bit further north?

I think that the "Rotoplas" tanks are a brand name, not a treatment system? I'm not sure what folks in diffrent areas are using as a water source, I think that many use rain catchment and supplement with trucked in water as needed? (Obviosly I'm guessing on this, a little help?!)

I am planning on separate gray and black water systems, with gray water being filtered and used for landscape irrigation, and the black water through a septic tank/drain field.

I am hoping to avoid being dependant on trucked-in water, so it's either a huge cistern to hold rain water or a de-sal. Again, I am making an assumption that a well near the beach is likely to produce salt or brackish water.

Should I move this conversation to another location? Anybody?

I am located in an area just north of La Chorera. Do you have any coordinates of the area you are looking at? As far as your construction questions, you might want to start a new topic thread here:

Buy, Rent or Build? - TalkBaja.com - Baja Mexico Travel, Living and Retirement

Just click on New Thread and ask your questions. That helps to keep the forum organized for others like you who might come later and looking to find answers to questions. So start your thread there and we'll have your whole place built before you even leave Washington...