Blame it on House Hunters International

One of our favorite tv channels is Home and Garden Network, and one of our favorite shows is House Hunters. If you've never seen the show, it goes like this: A person, or couple, or family is needing/wanting to relocate, they have a budget, a wish list, an agent, oh and a camera crew. The agent shows them many properties, some are under budget, some are over. Some check all the wish list boxes ( usually the over budget ones) and some fall short. They discuss upgrades, costs of said upgrades, schools, neighborhood, public transportation, resale value and then narrow down to three properties. ( you only see these last three contenders). Anyway, very informative, and fun to see what your money gets you in different parts of the United States ( and Canada)... But then! They came up with House Hunters International! (Insert angels singing) the heavens opened up!! We were in love!

From our living room we got to travel all over the world, making mental notes of where we could go and how much we could expect to spend. The possibilities were truly endless. We saw people buy dilapidated 100 yr+ farmhouses in Italy for $18,000, and people buying 3 bedroom beach houses in the Virgin Islands for $850,000! We saw people following their dreams, selling everything in the States, and making a new life. Opening bed and breakfasts in Slovania, starting surf schools in Costa Rica, bicycle tours in France, and doing web based businesses, that one can do anywhere there is internet connection. It was on! We were hooked, it was just a matter of when and where. 

When we tell people we are moving to Ecuador, lots of them say, " like House Hunters?" And we say "yep, you may see us on there one day!" and you never know. We do plan on buying over there someday, we love having rental properties, and the idea of having places in different areas, is fun. Certainly the coast will be different than the highlands, and northern beaches differ from southern beaches, and we will have to explore it all.

 We recently say a YouTube video that a young student from Guayaquil made, of his sisters house building project. She bought land for $10,000 it had a road, power and water and she was building her 3 bed house for $5000. The material of of choice in Ecuador is cinder block, with rebar run down the middle, then they skim coat the walls, and stucco the outside, roof is either metal, tile or some kind of thatch. The house was probably not much more than 1000 sq ft, but after completion would be comfy and most likely a dream come true. How inspiring! Mike is already drawing blueprints in his head!

This house is a little close to the surf,  but on top of the hill would be nice. Stay tuned, you never know what channel you may find us on! Adios amigos!