Perlurdom: The www.wunderground.com site is fantastic - it even has aviation maps and star charts. Thank you for that link.

abc200: I see what you mean about yearly average temp at Samana being 26 C - there really is no winter there, is there!

It is almost the same price to fly from DR to London return as it is to fly from Johannesburg to Cape Town return - a distance of ± 1 100 km. With the world cup looming on our doorstep all the local airlines hiked their prices so drastically that no locals in their right minds will fly anywhere in June. However they are not selling enough seats so last week South African airways announced that "as a special favour" to local residents they were offering "discounted" fares over the duration of the World Cup. A flight from Jhb to London is over $1000 return excluding airport taxes.

www.trekearth.com has fabulous pictures of the DR for anyone who might be interested. Your roads look to be in excellent condition - it is getting to the stage here where you need a 4x4 to drive on our national roads. The major highways have been upgraded for the World Cup but other roads are full of potholes which get worse after each bout of rain.

Do you know of any company in the DR that sells weldmesh or specimesh sheets, preferably galvanised after welding? where do you get most of your imported goods from? US, South America, Europe, China?
M

Yes, the days are a little shorter in winter. Less rainfall mostly. Peak tourist season.
A friend used to fly Emirates from S. Africa. Very good fares through informal channels. If you can get a decent stopeover in Dubai then you can save $$$ on shopping compared with Europe or SA.
Just one Rolex watch saving can pay for trip.

Yes I have heard internal flights are expensve.

Trunk roads are good here now much improved in 5 years. Still much work. Mountain roads are difficult.
I do not know about weldmesh sheets.
Wide variety of imported goods - appliances mostly Mexico, South America. e.g. I bought a Bosch fridge made in Peru.
Food is local or Europe e.g. butter, pasta, canned specialities, cheese.
Local cookware is much cheaper but cruder than Europe. Also much lower qualiy from China.
Wood, raw materials, soya etc. Brazil.
Sometimes you have to be careful. Plywood for example might have small defects having been rejected by other markets and ending up in DR.
There are cheap flights New York - Santo Domingo. Also Miami. South Africans quite often visit New York so flights must be reasonable. You could advertise in a yachting magazine for someone making the crossing and crew.

S.

We have been thinking about purchasing a log home since they are quite common in the coastal towns out here and we were wondering if it could be suitable in the Dominican Republic. There are many companies in the USA that build and supply log home kits. Maybe there is a company in the DR that builds them? Any idea if these are allowed in the DR? We have also been wondering about incentive schemes that the government might have in connection with creating work in the DR. Does anyone know any websites we could look at to get further information?

gerryh, on the subject of log homes, i can help you there. there are only 2000 people in the world who are qualified to build a log home. one of those people is a good friend of mine. he is coming here soon, to team up with a Dominican businessman, to build log homes of very high quality.. the Dominican has built a few kit homes, but the fit and finish leave much to be desired. my buddy will be building from scratch, to the highest standards.

Dreadlocks - thanks a lot. Please let me know when he's up and running with the business or ready to supply plans and costs. Maybe we can supply a basic plan of what we had in mind.
G

i will give you all the help i can. as a matter of fact, he is coming to the DR today. usually, you tell him what you have in mind, and he makes the final design. the guy is one of the best woodworkers on this planet.

gerry, send me a pm, and we can exchange email addresses. that way, i can put you directly in touch with him, and i will not get in the middle.

Many peoples advice would be to avoid wood. They know what they are doing with concrete and block. Softwood is a 'no-no' in many areas. A Frenchman was building a Brazil hardwood design here but quite expensive and his project folded.
You are going to need a foundation anyway and block walls are cheap. Plus all the doors, windows etc locally are engineered for block walls.
A roof in timber is often cost effective but many people prefer concrete/rebar.
If you are on a tough budget I have known people buy a 40' or 20' container and convert. These look nice when finished and are quick as the whole thing is delivered to site. No foundation just 6 or 8 4' concrete filled holes. An organc composting toilet, a couple of solar panels, a 12 volt pump for a shower, water collection on roof, A lot of time is spent outdoors so size may not be important to start with. You can add another later.
I think it is like CR you can avoid planning by having wheels.
http://www.containerhomes.net/products/products-and-prices/45ft-home-container.html
A contiainer here in the DR might cost 4000 dollars. Initial fitting using local labour 5000 dollars.
I guess you could pilot mushroom production in part of it.. 200 sq. ft of trays could produce 500 lbs per cycle. Steel construction with aliminium trays would make sterilisation easy. If you bought or leased a small plot of land with option to extend later you could get going for 20,000 dollars. At 3 dollars a pound 1500 dollars could be there 3 months after startup. Horse straw, chicken manure etc is plentiful.
If you are near LT there is a nice container home on the main road and several others . Most people spend evenings out of doors and breakfeast too, watching TV etc. on patio due to nice temperature. Most manage without aircon.
S.
S.

ABC, these homes are being done by people who know far more about this subject than you and i put together. they are not new to this. anything you can think of, they have done so a long time ago. it is not a plan, nor an idea. it has been done, and it works. there are quite a few around. also, the alpine style A frames in jarabacoa are doing just fine, and they are made mainly of wood.

Ask Mr. Schoeder in SD he's been around a long time. For touristy developments fine in neighborhoods / projects thar are well supported fine. Mostly it costs more, will resell for less,less secure in every way, wood treatments can leach out destroying gardens and termites etc can get in.
I came from Scotland - continuous damp conditions and all timber frame houses had to have brick or concrete etc. cladding.
Hardwood is possible - as Indonesian houses - there are one or two small dwellings here.
Its easy to clad a steel container with whatever to make it look like a log cabin. But if a tree should fall on that container it will survive. Ditto concrete strucure. If there is a local forest fire - quite common here concrete, steel will survive. Look at the mess of wooden houses in that crazy nation USA after a forest fire. Is your friend a crazy American?
Away from poor peoples houses only a tiny percent of decent houses are wood stuctures.
Necessary arsnic treatments require timber to be covered.
http://www.apvma.gov.au/products/review/completed/arsenic_timber_treatments.php
Drywall used with timber has a bad record.
Sometimes Dread you are an idiot!
I invstigateted thoroughly in Scotland before I had a timber frame house built. Distance to trees, fire precautions,covering sealing of timber, fire hazard etc. etc.
S.