Living in what you can afford to build—until you can afford to build more
In many places where mortgages are not readily available, people use the layaway plan.They lay away money, and then they build their plans.
You see many homes with rebar sticking out of the roof, a flat concrete roof that in five to twenty years will become the floor of another level. Folks live for decades on the first level as they save money to build the second, and eventually third floors.
This lucky family has started building the second of three stories--15 years after moving into the first floor.
— Fernando Pagés Ruiz is ProTradeCraft's Latin America Editor. He is currently building a business in Ecuador and a house in Mexico. Formerly, he was a builder in the Great Plains and mountain states. He is author of Building an Affordable House and Affordable Remodel (Taunton Press).
