BUILDING A HOUSE IN PATAGONIA....

...takes giant leaps of faith

Building a house anywhere is guaranteed to try one’s mettle. Building in Argentina would be considered by many sheer lunacy…well, we haven’t been committed yet and the fruits of our efforts have exceeded our wildest expectations.

First of all, as the property we chose to buy, while in a well established real estate development, required a year-long approval process that included submitting an FBI report stating we were not felons and that we were not named in any pending lawsuits. Guess Argentina is trying to clean up its image as a nation that harbored war criminals for decades. Anyhow, as it was explained to us, our property was within 50km/30 miles of the international frontiers with Chile, so all foreigners purchasing property had to go through this vetting process to make sure “terrorist” or “undesirable” groups were not sneaking under the radar to establish a secret foothold in Argentina! In reality, the process is one to try the patience of would-be foreign investors.

Being of an impatient sort, we soon learned for every rule there is a way to circumvent it, this is the Argentine way. We did a straw purchase with an Argentine friend, and with the property in her name we preceded full speed ahead to have a house designed and built. The agreements with the architect and the contractor were closed with a handshake and ground was broken without a down payment. To make a long story short, weekly photos were sent via the Internet to keep us apprised of the construction progress and we wired money as certain benchmarks were met.

Really, it was simple a straight forward, much like the way summer houses were constructed in the early 20th century, i.e., plans approved, contractor employed, money sent and your house was ready for the next season. We have nothing but high praise for the seriousness and professionalism showed in accomplishing our objective of moving into a new house before Christmas 2007.

These images will give you a quick tour through the construction process. We're still waiting for the completion of the landscaping.