If I Had a Hammer
Beginning the Construction
We closed the hotel late in July 2018 for the major rebuild/remodel of the hotel.
We had a huge list of projects planned and only about 5 ½ months to complete them as we needed to reopen the hotel at the start of the next high season.
The scope of this massively over-ambitious rebuilding plan included:
Demolish main pool and construct new pool
Demolish second common area pool
Demolish common area hot tub and construct new hot tub
Construct two new luxury suites
Construct roof-top green terrace
Construct new common area terrace
Gut and renovate fitness room
Demolish bar and restaurant and construct new bar and restaurant
Gut and renovate restaurant kitchen
Gut and renovate common area guest bathroom
Construct new owner’s apartment above restaurant
Demolish three old suites that were damaged by the Perfect Storm
Construct new guest parking lot
Gut and renovate three bathrooms in 3-bedroom villa
Build an organic garden with multiple raised garden boxes (built by Mark’s brother, Don, and the world’s greatest bartender, Vianney!)
Were we crazy? Innocently over-optimistic? Probably both!
While we were building the crane, we had already begun the demolition of the common area, the old pool, the old suites, and anything else in the way. Now it was time to start rebuilding.
Cordero’s construction team would be doing most of these projects, but our staff would be working independently on some of the other things.
The Workers
Our town was little, and although there were some construction laborers nearby, there weren’t enough for our job. Cordero hired a team of about 20 Costa Rican workers for our job. Since they lived about 3 hours away by car, it obviously wasn’t feasible for them to drive home every night and return in the morning. It’s typical in Costa Rica for a big construction job for the workers to live on-site during the project. Yes, that’s what I said. On-site.
Where, you ask? They built themselves a compound on a flat part of our property. And by compound, I might say ‘shack’. It was homemade and rustic.
They used giant bamboo “logs” to erect the frame of the compound that held up the corrugated metal roof and walls. They hung incandescent light bulbs from the ceiling. They made 20 bunkbeds out of wood, a grill for cooking. They had a small refrigerator, and a little outhouse with a cold shower surrounded by plastic walls. They even had a regular flushing toilet perched above a hole in the ground. It was all very Survivor-like. I wish I had a better picture!
As soon as it was daylight, they would make coffee in the compound, come to the work site for construction, walk back to the compound mid-morning for breakfast, return for work, go back for lunch, come back to work, have afternoon snack on the job site, and retire to the compound mid to late afternoon for the evening where they’d make dinner, and (party!) go to sleep. One of the workers’ jobs was to make all the meals for the group. He spent the day prepping each meal and cleaning up from the last one.
During the day, our hotel staff would work 6a-2pm on their projects while Cordero’s team worked on the main construction projects. There were a disproportionate number of males to females: me and about 4 other women from our staff to about 30-35 men on site at one time. When our staff left at 2pm, it was just me, Mark and the 20 male construction workers. I never felt unsafe, but it felt strange to be the only female on site.
The Dinner
I had been in the U.S during the first weeks of the construction while Mark stayed at the hotel, so the construction team knew Mark better than me. Plus, as I was usually the only woman onsite, and the jefa (boss-lady!), the workers were cordial and respectful but didn’t speak to me much. After all, a construction site is very machismo, and for traditional Costa Rican men, not much of a place for a woman.
During construction, Mark and I stayed in a villa at the hotel, while the construction team stayed in their compound a little way up the road. When I returned from the U.S. Mark told me that the team wanted to host us for dinner in the compound.
I was nervous and I’m not sure why. But we planned a date and time for Mark and me to walk up to the compound for dinner. Again, me (the only woman) and 20 men!
We went to the compound, and the construction team welcomed us and invited me to sit down in one of the only chairs. In the compound, there was limited seating, so Mark stood, as did most of the men. We had been in Costa Rica for about a year, but our Spanish was still really bad, and none of the workers spoke ANY English. There was a lot of pointing and trying to communicate. Boy, did I need to learn more Spanish, and quick!
We brought some beer to share. As guests, we were offered the food first to eat. They made pork, grilled plantains, yuca, and rice. I’m not a big pork eater and my piece was huge! As a guest though, I felt strange about NOT eating something, so I kept eating-very slowly so I wouldn’t offend anyone or be offered more. It was delicious, but not my thing. (I think Mark ended up finishing my plate.)
They were very respectful and kind to me. It was very nice of them to host us to thank us for their jobs. From then on, the construction team was a little more relaxed with me. I think we had come to an unspoken understanding of each other.
The Hammer (sledge!)
I grew up in the 1970s. You know, women’s rights, women’s equality. I was raised on my namesake, Marlo Thomas’ Free to Be You and Me album. My dad, having only 2 daughters, always told us we could grow up and be whatever we wanted. We were expected to do ‘boy’ things like mow the lawn, so I hadn’t grown up letting others ‘do it for me’. I wanted to do it myself.
Early in our marriage, I had worked alongside Mark when we did home projects. I loved painting and hammering nails.
So being at the hotel during construction, I wanted to help. But in the machismo construction site, if I grabbed a tool or lifted something heavy to move, a friendly Tico worker ran over to me ready to lend a hand (which usually meant politely taking the tool or the heavy object from me). I didn’t want a hand. I wanted to help. They didn’t want me to.
I worked on some of our cleaning and spiffing projects that our hotel staff was working on, but I wanted to do more! And I felt it was important that I help, as we were all in this together working as a team. I didn’t just want to be la jefa, but part of the team. And I wanted to do something more than just paint. I wanted to destroy something!
I wanted to demo anything! In a way, I was mad at this place. Mad that what I thought it was going to be hadn’t turned out that way (yet). Mad that Gomer made a place that wasn’t up to par. Mad that we had the perfect storm.
I wanted a hammer. A sledgehammer!
I kept lamenting to Mark that I wasn’t able to do much. Frustrated with me, he told me to ‘just go do it’. Finally, I got my chance.
With the construction, we were going to build a small ‘apartment’ for us above the kitchen in a place that formerly was an old office/storage room. The walls of this upstairs room were not adequate for the structure of the new apartment so here was my chance! When it was time to demo the wall, I asked one of our maintenance guys, Flaco, to find me the mazo (sledgehammer).
I’m pretty sure he told everyone that la jefa wanted the hammer because as soon as I climbed up to the 2nd floor with the sledgehammer to start hammering the cinder block walls, all 20 or so men in the construction area STOPPED what they were doing to watch.
Game on!
It took all my strength to lift the hammer, let alone swing that dang thing and connect with the cinder blocks. But there was NO WAY that I wasn’t going to do it. They knew I had been wanting to, and now they were all watching to see if I could.
And I did!
It wasn’t easy, and I didn’t do it for long, but I gave that wall the hardest hits I could muster. (There might have been some swearing at those walls with each hit as the cinder block crumbled-slightly!)
From then on, the construction team really had a better understanding of me-and any time we were ready for more sledgehammering, they (may have giggled!) but they brought me the hammer!
Pura vida team, pura vida!
Were you a child of the 70s and believe that women can do anything? Do you think we were crazy or over-optimistic with our remodel timeline?
Love this! Great to have photos to look back on. That list seems massive and scary!
Pura vida, girl! I love that video. So great that you turned your desire into action. That list of what you needed to accomplish was lofty to say the least. Good on you for shooting for the stars.