TalkBaja.com » Baja Mexico Forums » Building your Baja dream home

When you say it is approved and not funded, is there a chance it could never get funded? Just curious.

That is always a possibility which is why we are looking at the alternatives. Getting involved with the process as I have now you find that it is more political than simply bureaucratic. Luckily I have some really good contacts in that arena and so I have been using that to our advantage. I will be hosting a nice BBQ next month down on the beach with all the trimmings, lots of booze, live music and pretty girls doing all the serving. The key political players are all invited.

I have learned the rules of the game quite quickly...

Oh you are smart! Pretty soon we will be calling you Pancho Gringo!

You know what they say about "When in Rome..."

So when are we going to be seeing some pics? You can't just bait us like that and then not produce?

Will be taking some more pictures next week. Decided to wait things out for a few days up here in Rosarito. With all this flu epidemic craziness going on it just seemed like a good idea to hang low for the time being.

I am anxious to see what they have done as well...

Hi,
Care to share information on your costs of materials, labor costs, architectural cost, land cost, living square footage, ceiling height, airconditioning and related sq ft per ton, etc.? Do you have plumbed water, if not, what do you do for water? Where do you get your propane from? Do you have access to electricity or do you have to have generators? Where do you do your food shopping? Are you going to put a plastic tank for water on top of your roof or are you going to use a neumatic pump to push the water to your faucets? How do you protect your on-site construction materials from theft over night during the construction process? Do your construction workers live close by or do you have to pay for their room and board locally? How many laborers are working on the job? Is your contractor a licensed constractor or an "abanil"? How do you handle the payroll reporting (if any) and payroll tax remittances (if any) or are you paying a sum certain to your contractor (abanil) and he is "taking care of all that"? Does your contractor/abanil give you a "factura"?

Thanks

That is a looooong question with a very complicated answer. Being the horse trader that I am, part of the construction has been paid in dollars, a lot in pesos at varying exchange rates and I have traded services for some as well. I also picked up some really nice stuff off Craigslist that has brought the cost down as well.

Come on, BajaGringo, you can do better than that.

Give me some details on the questions that I asked you. The content of my questions to you are specific, extremely pertinent and relevant, to the point, and are of absolute consequence when planning to engage in a project to build in the Baja. The reason that I asked those questions was not out of voyeurism, but out of curiosity of the facts concerning building your own place in northern pacific Baja. I am familiar with building in Baja Sur on the east coast, but not at all familiar with the specifics of building in the more convenient vicinity of San Quintin.

There are two broad ways to do things in life. 1. the formal, impractical and expensive way 2.the "real" way things can get done effectively and economically. The latter approach is the "real" way to do things in Mexico. I need some details.

You are taking the time to create this website and to monitor this website. I look foreward to participating in your website as I want your website to be a success. Give me a little bit of your time here as I know there are many that can benefit from your on point answers.

Thanks in advance, BajaGringo.

Mitch....
Your question was a mile long and would require an answer of equal length. BajaGringo is a busy man and I doubt he has time to write a manual on "Building in Baja" just because you think he owes you one.
You say you know all about building in the south so at least you know something about building below the border. Your question should be answered in a nice cantina over a bucket of cold beers. Not here.

I for one would never consider answering such demanding/pushy questions about my personal expenses and finances to a friend and certainly not to an internet stranger.

BajaGringo is under no obligation to divulge his personal life to any of us just because we use his web site.

I suppose I could sit down and work up an answer to all your questions in detail but I doubt there would be a lot of relevance there. I am trading some services for some of the materials and labor and I picked up a lot of stuff off places like Craigslist and others. I drew up my own plans in Autocad have been my own construction supervisor. I suppose if I were to do this project with an architect and pay him to supervise the project, pay retail for all the building materials and market prices for the labor this place would probably end up running me somewhere in the range of $70-80,000.

I suspect that my net out of pocket will be about half of that, with some very nice features and upgrades. Without understanding how that figure is reached with all the side deals that have been made would probably not be of a whole lot of value to someone wanting to use this as a yardstick.

My main intention of sharing the story in this thread was to show the differences in building a typical place down here vs. NOB. Many have asked me and I thought it would be worthwhile.

WoW........I can't believe you gave up that much info. I thought the questions were ill-put if not inapropriate. I'm thinking Mitch just wanted to flex his muscles. It would be fun to talk about all of our construction storys. How about yours, Mitch.........

The thread is "BajaGringo construction report in San Quintin", they seemed like interesting questions to me. I've often wondered about how others have handled the workers pay issue myself.

Ken


Is Mitch in the doghouse and I don't know it?

Originally Posted by MitchMan

Hi,
Care to share information on your costs of materials, labor costs, architectural cost, land cost, living square footage, ceiling height, airconditioning and related sq ft per ton, etc.? Do you have plumbed water, if not, what do you do for water? Where do you get your propane from? Do you have access to electricity or do you have to have generators? Where do you do your food shopping? Are you going to put a plastic tank for water on top of your roof or are you going to use a neumatic pump to push the water to your faucets? How do you protect your on-site construction materials from theft over night during the construction process? Do your construction workers live close by or do you have to pay for their room and board locally? How many laborers are working on the job? Is your contractor a licensed constractor or an "abanil"? How do you handle the payroll reporting (if any) and payroll tax remittances (if any) or are you paying a sum certain to your contractor (abanil) and he is "taking care of all that"? Does your contractor/abanil give you a "factura"?

Thanks

I think BajaGringo has answered very politely and I am sure it is none of our business how much he spent. Get out of his finances. Be friendlier and less pushy too.

OK, I see Mitch is in fact in the dog house. I recind my comment, in an effort to keep this a more warm and friendly place.

Over and out,


Ken

It's not that I was so much offended by the questions as it just seems like it was 50 questions all at once. OK, a few did seem a bit too personal as far as info to be sharing on a public forum but there you go...

Even though my costs are probably somewhat different than what others might experience because of the way I was able to put this together, I have become quite familiar in the process of what is involved and what it does cost to build in a region similar to where I am at. And it it does vary based on location, quite a bit at times.

If you want to ask me a specific question about something, feel free to ask and I will be happy to answer as best as possible based on my experience and this project. I am not going to write a complete how-to manual as it would be impossible to do and its relevance questionable to other projects / areas because of so many variables out there.

Can I be any more vague than that???

I think that you, Senior BajaGringo have answered may questions and have helped many people over the time that you have been a Baja-er, IMO or should I say IMHO I think if we have specific questions such as how much or something inappropriate to broadcast on the open forum we should email you and then you can decide if you wish to put it in a thread. I think that you do a bang-up job with this forum and on other forums I have seen you post on. Thanks for the job you do.

Oh yeah, your new house is gonna be lovely!

OK, here we go.

Dennis, the question that I posed was not "a mile long" nor, in my opinion, was it too long for a forum. I have seen much, much longer posts. You have too. In fact, BajaGringo's posts here contain 24 photos (btw, BajaGringo, the photos you took were really pretty good, well framed and the exposure mostly right on) and each of the photos were annotated (and I enjoyed looking them and reading every single annotation). My question was only 9 lines long. While we all have freedom of speach and we are all entitled to our respective opinions, whether or not BajaGringo has enough time to answer my questions is not for you to assert, it's more "appropriate" for BajaGringo to make that assertion. What is "inappropriate" (to quote you) is for you to speak for someone else as BajaGringo is able to speak for himself.

Dennis, I have no agenda and I am not flexing muscle. You are wrong about that. My intent was to gain first hand quality knowledge of current expenses and administration of building a vacation house in the San Quintin area. Anyone interested in doing that would benefit immensely from that kind of information. The question started out "Care to share INFORMATION ON YOUR COSTS...", not the same thing as asking "What exactly did you spend on your costs ...". BTW, I would be happy and enthusiastic to discuss my own building experienes, with details, anytime.

Expat, there were no questions at all concerning BajaGringo's personal expenses nor personal finances nor his personal life, as you put it. The question for BajaGringo's material costs would be satisfactorily answered by responding with a reasonable estimate per sq ft of living space construction based on his actual costs; the same for labor costs per sq ft of living space construction. That would not reveal anything personal at all. That kind of information would be extremely helpful in planning one's own similar effort. I am sure that many thousands of dollars are lost by Americans trying to build in Baja because they are naive about actual costs. I agree with you that neither BajaGringo nor anyone else is under any obligation to divulge his/her "personal life". The question was expressly limited to the construction project, not personal income, not personal relationships, nor personal health, nor personal problems, nor personal finances, nor his personal life, as you put it. I think, Expat, it would serve you to be more of a careful reader.

Tripledigitken (cool name), don't be bullied by Dennis or Expat. Your initial post expressed an appreciation for the questions and for the answers to those questions. You, as well as I, recognize the importance of the issue of the payment to workers in the Baja. Payroll taxes are approximately 42%. Your curiosity is appropriate, your interest in knowing founded, asking pertinent questions on the construction project makes sense, especially when BajaGringo put up 24 annotated photos and his floor plan.

ELINVESTI8, read the above, especially my response to Expat. That response, in large part, applies to you. Your comment, "Get out of his finances" is inappropriate, unwarranted, reveals an inaccurate assessment of the questions that I asked, and certainly could be considered very "unfriendly" and "pushy". Again, ELINVESTI8, The question started out "Care to share INFORMATION ON YOUR COSTS...", not the same thing as asking "What exactly did you spend on your costs ...".

BajaGringo, thank you for your follow up answer, your tact, and graciousness. I will be honest, I do want more details. But that is up to you, AND ONLY YOU. You can respectfully decline, your prerogative, and in like kind, I can ask. I believe I have been professional in this response, not rude nor impertinent. You have to admit, this is a public platform and when someone volunteers information, questions directly, yet limited to the information may follow.