The Plot thickens, or the plot thins

[bill_bly_ca]

that's exciting! do you know if they will be renting a air compressor and sprayer or will they just trowel the cement over the covintec panel?

As far as I know trowel - The one rental expense is the scaffold - BIL is not as interested in making a scaffold set now as he was last spring - Rental of a set of 3 is 200 cord a day - If they can skin the outside in 3 or 4 days it may be better to rent.

[bill_bly_ca]

So the Covintec is $3800 total for the non structural (That is panels for the outside walls and the 2 interior rooms) and all of the associated hardware - So all said and done the dry in of the second floor will be about 8 and change grand.

A little more then we wanted to spend, but it should make the place much more habitable whenwe get to the point that we are stayind through April and maybe parts of May and some mild AC hits the spot.

Now to see how Money transfer laws can tie us up :-)

[bill_bly_ca]

A new 100m stretch of road was laid in the past week. Going from about 10m past our house (where the pavers ended) up another stretch up to the Coyotepe bypass.

So far this year there has not been a single flow into the compound of rain overflow - so far so good.

[bill_bly_ca]

Sent some by Xoom yesterday and it sailed right through

Sent a bit more by Xoom today and it says stuck in a 3 day review.

Not sure if those funds will apply to Sept or October totals - BIL states BAC limits what he can receive in a month.

Buddy is ready to start - We told him to hold to the 17th as we need to get the funds for the materials and the labour deposit.

[KeyWestPirate]

[QUOTE=bill_bly_ca;167839]Sent some by Xoom yesterday and it sailed right through

Sent a bit more by Xoom today and it says stuck in a 3 day review.

Not sure if those funds will apply to Sept or October totals - BIL states BAC limits what he can receive in a month.



I got the same grief from WU trying to sent,, and to various people.
The solution: a debit card that I can add funds to from here.

Krisnia had one,, Yaritza has one now.
My hit for a cash pull is $6.50, here and there,, so cheaper than WU.

I get the occasional whatsapp from Yaritza: "I didn't have any cash so I charged . . . . popcorn and a movie ticket,,,,,,, a few bucks at La Colonia for food,,
"I'll pay you back"

I think that she just likes to use the card.

[el duende grande]

Lately I send monthly money by wu for a fee of $1.99 from US bank to Lafise, 1 to 8 days. WU says the limit is 5k.
Moneygram, which I had used for years to send cash, blocked my account so I went to wu. Someday when I am in the US with nothing better to do I will try to unblock it.

Trying to get a Nica relative in the US to go the extra debit card route but no luck.

Bank lines are horrible but now you can suck remesas out of Rapibac booths and ATMs at local stop and robs. BAC downtown has a super ATM that will do deposits but the day I tried it it would only do $20 at a time. Lafise has a new fat one that claims to do deposits but I don't need any new adventure in my life.

Your Canadian laws will be different from US, plus the poor Nicas have to figure all this legal crap out.

One year BAC called me in to fill out a US FATMF form because I had more than 10k in the account for a couple days during construction. Never heard from them since, but never had any money since, either.

[KeyWestPirate]

In Esteli,, I think that the best place to get the WU is Maxi Pali.
Never a line. Walk in,, walk out.

At La Colonia, always a long line.

[bill_bly_ca]

Google maps has a new fly over - This would have been between Nov 2021 and March 2022 - You can see our 2nd floor curing in the red box - BIL house is in the Blue

The new road is clearly shown as well. It is fantastic - Rain runoff to the compount is less than 10% of previous years

Getting cash down has been problematic

The first two (through Xoom) went pretty smooth (One the same day, the other 3 days) but transfer #3 was bounced back- Going to RIA first said - Sure send 2K - Then the computer said - Only $1400 allowed - So down to 1400 - THen computer said too much go lower (no number - We tried $1000 it said "Nope go lower - Fellow at aribic grocer (Both of the Latin grocers in town no longer do RIA) called and they said $500CDN (About $390 US) is the most that can be sent every day. So $390US left and we will see what happens now.

The Covintec (I always spell it wrong) is pricy @ almost 6K of material to do the perimeter and the walls of the 3 rooms (Bath bed 1 and bed 2) - But we are hoping it pays off in livability factor in the coming decades

[billbudsocket]

Hey Bill have you tried leaving a bank ATM card with a family member that you can add funds to, and then have someone pull money from the ATM that way?

Our little town's daily bus to next biggest town that has the only bank for 100 miles is filled every day to standing room only, and over 90% of the people on the bus are going straight to the bank to get money sent to them from family overseas. People start queuing by 6am. The ATM line is pretty much empty though.

[bill_bly_ca]

Hey Bill have you tried leaving a bank ATM card with a family member that you can add funds to, and then have someone pull money from the ATM that way?
.

Its a Canada thing - To maintain a Canadian account that can withdraw in Nicaragua you have to use one of the chartered bank - A chartered bank has fee of 12 to 15 bucks a month. So that's almost 200 bucks a year.

And then the card has to get down there.

We may do that for 2023 - For now we are seeing (Update within the last hour) is if we can drop some dollars in BILs Canadian account and just have him withdraw there. Hopefully that will get us past this impasse.

They have almost enough cash to do the first half, so worst case is that we have to pause and pick up again Nov 9

[KeyWestPirate]

Hey Bill have you tried leaving a bank ATM card with a family member that you can add funds to, and then have someone pull money from the ATM that way?

Our little town's daily bus to next biggest town that has the only bank for 100 miles is filled every day to standing room only, and over 90% of the people on the bus are going straight to the bank to get money sent to them from family overseas. People start queuing by 6am. The ATM line is pretty much empty though.

I've done this successfully for quite some time now.
WU has gotten easier,, do it online from this end, and a bit cheaper.
But they are quirky about how often,, how much,

The amount of the ATM withdrawal as well as daily purchase amount can be dynamically managed,, quickly and easily.
I use PayPal, you can get multiple cards tied to one account and keep the dollar amount low.

Changing involved simply logging in,, and the change is instantaneous.




There is an ATM fee and also something on my end. It comes to $6.50 for a transaction.

[bill_bly_ca]

The BIL finally went to BAC to get the SWIFT code information. I will send a little more at lunch

XOOM only allows 4K in a 30 day period - But if you then switch to teller pick up, at another bank, you can send again as we proved yesterday - Starting to feel like I am up to no good from a regulatory point of view even though I am buying material from businesses (who must have sandie ties or sympathy to still be in business) for the work <shrug>

The Convintech for the 2nd story perimeter wall and the 6mx4.3m Master Bd room, the 2.3mx4.7. Visitor B room, and the bathroom all came to $5800 Yea - Pricy - but as I said before it should make things far more comfortable.

[cookshow]

Has anyone sent money to an acct holder of Banpro? I tried long while ago and gave up. WU on Island is notorious for not having any money (they only tell you after you have waited in line for hour or 2), or they have to go to the bank to get you $$, either way is a half a day deal, on a good day. A visit to the only bank (Banpro) on Island is a little less painful than self suturing

[bill_bly_ca]

Has anyone sent money to an acct holder of Banpro? I tried long while ago and gave up. WU on Island is notorious for not having any money (they only tell you after you have waited in line for hour or 2), or they have to go to the bank to get you $$, either way is a half a day deal, on a good day. A visit to the only bank (Banpro) on Island is a little less painful than self suturing

One of the transfers I did on the weekend was Walk up to the counter, @ BanPro Masaya, for $1000 via Xoom - For what it is worth..

[cookshow]

How hard to set up xoom, any issues with amounts or frequency? WU has become a PIA on my end, has always been on Island end.

[bill_bly_ca]

How hard to set up xoom, any issues with amounts or frequency? WU has become a PIA on my end, has always been on Island end.

If you have paypal already it is easy peasy - But the fees were high on the CC - (Not as high as a CC cash advance, but still high) so I clicked through to connect my bank account and the first transaction took 3 days - The remainder of transfers have been within minutes - They walk up to the counter with the code generated texted to their phone and their cedula and it is done - Fees for Canadians are $4.99 up to $2000 - You guys probably pay less

[bill_bly_ca]

Covintec is ordered Should be at BIL's place Tues or Wed. Cement and Peidre (sp?) as well.

Fellow is finishi up another job and the dry in of the 2nd floor should start on the 31 or the 1st.

Says it should take about a week to finish.

[bill_bly_ca]

All the material arrived today covintec it two piles - one is about 10 foot high

A S#it load of cenment.

Buddy has a cement sprayer on its way and scaffold on the way.

Here we go - Butt pucker from the cash laid out this past month.

Rubber is hitting the road now...

Promised the BIL no pix on the net until things are cemented in place - So maybe a week before I can drop some pix.

[bill_bly_ca]

The back walls panels were set yesterday - all of the panels should be set by the end of the week (not cemented thought) - 'Letrics and water tubing to follow, and skinned over shortly after.

By the 12th it may be done and skinned.

[KeyWestPirate]

The back walls panels were set yesterday - all of the panels should be set by the end of the week (not cemented thought) - 'Letrics and water tubing to follow, and skinned over shortly after.

By the 12th it may be done and skinned.

I'm bullish about the future of Nicaragua. I may eventually sell some view lots as I had planned.
It would be nice to have some English speaking neighbors.

This latest and on-going refugee exodus will enable a ground up prosperity,
once they become established and begin sending remesas.
Will the results of the mid term elections shut it down?
We can only wait and see.

I've been re-reading A Twilight Struggle by Robert Kagan.
Too long at 800 pages but it does put current events into perspective.

[el duende grande]

Lotta rumbling lately about "it is hard to find good hired help". Endemic thievery is doing as well as ever.

[bill_bly_ca]

Lotta rumbling lately about "it is hard to find good hired help". Endemic thievery is doing as well as ever.

It is the same up here - You can fall down and find two jobs onthe way down. Our boys are just rolling in free cash - I keep on telling Chilo to hike their rent and I just get a scowl back..

[bill_bly_ca]

BIL sent more photos this AM - They have now done the west wall and are wrapping around the north side - The north side is the 4' knee wall so I bet it will be foam walled in by the end of the day today .

[cookshow]

I'm bullish about the future of Nicaragua. I may eventually sell some view lots as I had planned.
It would be nice to have some English speaking neighbors.

This latest and on-going refugee exodus will enable a ground up prosperity,
once they become established and begin sending remesas.
Will the results of the mid term elections shut it down?
We can only wait and see.

I've been re-reading A Twilight Struggle by Robert Kagan.
Too long at 800 pages but it does put current events into perspective.

The Smart people have left, a Brain Drain, yes Labor will remain cheap.

[cookshow]

Smart Sandanistas will have to haul ass when Ortega Regime falls, all other smart people hauled ass, those making money now will all be targets.

Took 30 yrs to fix last mess.