Resuscitating a Dead Water Buffalo

Elissa and I were attending a wedding at a neighbor's house about two months ago. As the ceremony was winding down, the older brother of the groom leaned into the father of the bride and said, "Hey if he wants to renovate your house over there, you'd give it to him rent free for a couple years right?" Both men laughed and the father of the bride said, Sure."

You're probably wondering what's so funny right? This is the house...


I laughed with them at the time, and didn't think much more of it.

We were looking for a building that could serve as an office / garage / guest room and the idea slowly dawned on us that we might be able to use this building. As we talked to friends about it, we learned that it was one of only three buildings in the entire town that survived (at least partially) the tsunami. This is pretty amazing given its location right on the coast. Here are a couple shots from what was left of the second floor.



Our house is the farthest yellow building in the second picture (about a 2 minute walk away). I talked to a builder friend and figured out that if we could get the building rent free for three years we could rehab it for what we'd pay in rent elsewhere. When I approached the owner about actually taking him up on the offer he said, "The water buffalo that was dead is being raised back to life!"

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the progress on the building by the time we left...Jos is overseeing the renovations in our absence.