"You are one decision away from a totally different life."- Mark Batterson

If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you.

And that one decision was the answer to the question, “Should we put in an offer?” to buy the boutique hotel in Costa Rica. It was a yes! (you know, since time flies and all)

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But I had one caveat. It was important to me to run this idea by our college kids. I felt this decision impacted our kids since they had not completely left home quite yet. I wanted family buy-in. We called the kids at the same time and told them what we were considering. When I asked what they thought about us moving and what they would think if we didn’t have our house anymore, they both were a little indifferent, and not too surprised.

So, there we had it. With buy-in from the kids, we made the offer, the owner accepted, and things moved fast for the next 5 months. First order of business, downsize. As Mark prepped for the due diligence on the hotel purchase, I undertook the task of getting rid of almost 25 years of stuff in preparation for our move to Costa Rica.

Downsizing

We built our home in the Chicago suburbs only 7 years earlier. It never occurred to me that we wouldn’t be in that house for the rest of our lives. I was the one in the family that had the hardest time with this downsizing. I had pictured our daughter walking down the staircase on her wedding day, hosting more holidays in the house, and much more. To sell the house and downsize, meant these visions would look different but I had already made the ‘one decision to a totally different life’, so I needed to swallow and move on.

I’m not sure why the downsizing was as emotionally difficult as it was, because after my parents died, we consolidated all their life’s possessions. All that was left fit into one blue plastic box. Is that too sad? Maybe. But if you ever are the family member going through all the saved lifetime of stuff, you’ll know what I mean. You truly realize that ‘you can’t take it with you’, and it really is just stuff. The memories are still with you.

The blue plastic box we named “Dead Parents Society”

We put our house up for sale and planned to rent an apartment in Chicago. In addition to serving as a base for our return visits and for the kids’ college breaks, it would double as a storage unit for the belongings that were to remain. I began donating, selling, or giving away most of our stuff. Friends and family took rugs, art, furniture, bikes, and yard equipment. We donated clothes, CDs, books, and sold exercise equipment. When we visit friends and family now, it makes me happy to see some things of ours that they are enjoying in their own homes.

With the help of a close friend, we found buyers for some items, and organizations to accept donations for others. We made trips to Goodwill, local churches and sadly, also to garbage collection bins. If it weren’t for this guiding force of a friend- the older-sister I never had, I couldn’t have gotten it all done.

The kids came home from college, and we downsized their rooms. I asked them both if they wanted to save ‘this-or-that’, something like a sports trophy, or team or class photo, statuettes of composers from each year of piano lessons, etc. Usually the answer was ‘No, don’t need that, get rid of it’. I’d push back asking again if they wanted me to hold on to it for them for the future, but in the end, they were the ones who pushed me, firmly said no, and so it usually went. To this day, they both like to purge things that no longer serve their purposes.

What did we save? Winter clothes, photo albums, some of the kids’ memorabilia, art, and things we’d need to furnish the apartment. We packed the summer clothes and shoes to take to Costa Rica. Everything we took to Costa Rica fit into 2 roll-aboard suitcases.

two roll-aboard suitcases

There was just one more thing, and it was the hardest to part with. We had a family dog named Dolly. We knew that a 12-pound cockapoo would not fare well in the Costa Rican jungle at a hotel. I agonized over where she could go. I started asking around in search for a home for her: a friend who already had a cockapoo, another friend who fostered dogs, even the woman who would board her when we were out of town. I didn’t want to burden anyone, and the kids obviously couldn’t take her to college. But don’t worry, pet lovers, my sister and her family were able to take Dolly which meant that we’d still see her when we returned. And at almost 16, she’s still a part of both our families! (Thanks, Muench’s!!)

Cutest dog in the world

Hotel Prepping

Having had no previous background running a hotel, we decided it would be helpful to begin with information. We quickly read:

• The Legal Guide to Costa Rica by Roger A. Petersen to help us learn about the ins and outs of doing business and banking in Costa Rica,

• Passport Forward by Lex Latkovski, one man’s quest to explore the world, live without regrets and seize opportunities while you can,

• Happier than a Billionaire by Nadine Hays Pisani about a couple quitting their jobs, buying 2 plane tickets, having no plan and what they encountered,

• and the best book for our purposes, The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Service Experience by Joseph Michelli detailing Ritz-Carlton’s approach to the best customer service.

We worked with lawyers and accountants in the US to set up a business, spoke with a realtor in Costa Rica to help find a property inspector, and found a Costa Rican lawyer. We checked things off our due diligence list meticulously.

In late April, we made another trip to the hotel to meet with the seller to begin the transition and be introduced to the team. We met those we hadn’t met on our secret-shopper trip in March. If we were sure of one thing in this transition, it was that we needed THEM! After all, they actually knew how to operate a hotel! They were welcoming and receptive to the idea of us as new owners. (And as we found out later, they didn’t think too highly of the current owner.)

Mark made another trip to Costa Rica for the inspection and other finishing details, and by August 2017, we owned the hotel.

Mark was already in Costa Rica for the closing. A few days later, I flew down with the kids and our daughter’s boyfriend so we could show them the hotel before they returned to college for that school year. It was strange to arrive to a place that all-of-a-sudden you own, have responsibility for its 15 team members and be ready for the guests.

On the very 1st day we owned the hotel, a guest pulled Mark aside to congratulate him on the purchase and to recommend that he fire our hotel manager. (gulp) A lamp in the guest’s room had caught fire the night before, and the guest wasn’t happy with the way the manager had handled the situation. Welcome to hotel ownership! (Side note: there was no way we were going to fire one of the few people who knew what they were doing at the time!!)

Those first weeks varied between being owners learning the ropes and tourists taking in the area and its excursions. It was important to scout the excursions on the hotel’s recommended activity list, so zip-lining and whitewater rafting it was! Mark jumped right in with the working part, and I was mostly in vacation mode, as I was to fly back to the US with the kids to take them back to college and then return to Costa Rica.

Someone’s gotta do it! Whitewater rafting and waterfalls

By late-August I was back at the hotel. Was the transition seamless? Pretty much, but the first month was a complete whirlwind of on-the-job training!

When Mark and I started this journey, we expected it to be fun and adventurous, but it was also incredibly challenging, and sometimes frustrating. But we made the one decision for a totally different life, and there was no going back.