Typical Costa Rican Homes

Important disclaimer: I really can't claim to understand the home life of all Costa Ricans. I only saw the inside of four separate houses during my stay, so I'm just stating some things I saw because I know there was a lot I wasn't expecting when I arrived.

For ease and organization, I'll break my observations down by area of the house to answer the question: what are Costa Rican houses like?

In general

My host home: I lived downstairs with my host
mother, her niece lived upstairs with her husband and child

Houses in Costa Rica—especially the sort that a host student would find themselves in—are quite similar to American houses in style, just with muted luxuries. There is no air conditioning. Most if not all rooms are tile floors. There may not be cable, and there really may not be Wifi—electronics are extremely expensive, so many people don't have computers and thus don't get Wifi. As a courtesy, note that many Wifi services in Costa Rica charge by the amount of data used, not just a monthly fee like in the U.S, so try not to torrent the Lord of the Rings movie series or the Encyclopedia Britannica on your host mother's Wifi. 

Bedrooms

Bedrooms—similar to in European housing—tend to be smaller in favor of having larger common areas. There is a TV in most bedrooms, and a good deal of people even have cable services. However, it is all in Spanish. The closest you'll get to English television is if you happen upon a movie that has only gotten Spanish subtitles instead of Spanish dubbed voices. Not everyone has cable but if not the television will have antennae that pick up several basic channels—namely TeleTica (channel 7 on every TV I tried), which is a national channel but has a very local news feel that plays news programs, talkshows, and Saturday morning cartoons. Also of note, every single day it plays announcements of who in Costa Rica died that day and where their funeral will be held, all to the tune of "Gabriel's Solo" from The Mission.

Where I slept for 7 weeks!

Most beds in the homes are unfortunately exceedingly uncomfortable, usually because they're ancient. I'm not certain about all of them, but I'm pretty sure that my mattress did not have springs and was just stuffed. Most of the support comes from the wooden slats that support the mattress as part of the bed frame. In several of the houses I saw there were no fitted sheets, only what I would think of as a top sheet tucked into the bed
frame around the mattress. As far as size goes, all of the host students I talked to slept on "single" beds, though these appeared slightly wider than American twin beds. In homes, because the bedrooms are typically quite small, I never saw any beds larger than what would be called a "double bed" in the U.S. In hotels however, you can get as large as an American king-sized bed, though if you stay in less-expensive and/or non-American hotels a double will be more common.

Bathrooms

#1 rule to abide by in public restrooms: Don't flush anything that didn't come out of your own body. The sewer system cannot handle toilet paper and especially cannot handle feminine hygiene products (you aren't even supposed to flush those in the US, by the way), and you will find yourself with a clogged toilet if you try to flush things. There will always be a trash can next to any toilet you use to toss used toilet paper and whatever else you might need to dispose of. Toilet paper is almost always lightly scented, so many restrooms actually don't reek like you might expect.

Well, public restrooms and private restrooms in Costa Rica are entirely separate creatures. Public bathrooms are usually pretty nasty and if you can help it, avoid them. Unless you paid to use it (the most I paid to use one was 32 cents) there is no guarantee or realistic expectation of available toilet paper or soap. Accordingly, if you imagine that you will potentially find yourself in a public restroom at any point, make sure to have tissues and hand sanitizer on you. Paid public restrooms are passable; they at least have toilet paper and soap but tend to not be cleaned at any recent time and frequently lack toilet seats. Restrooms inside of restaurants are fine, and those in bars are decent but usually lack toilet seats and sometimes soap.

Private restrooms obviously always have soap, toilet paper, and toilet seats. They're pretty plain in terms of the whole toilet/sink situation. Bathrooms are almost always shared with other people, and I never saw them placed in a portion of the house where they can only be reached by walking through a bedroom. Showers in Costa Rica are definitely distinct from American ones. They are frequently tiled and sometimes are a bath tub/shower combo. Everywhere except in hotels though, you will need to deal with turning on the hot water. There will usually be a switch or something that looks kind of like a circuit breaker near the shower that you will need to switch on in order to have any vain hopes of warm water. In the case of my host home, I had to switch it on, then off, then on again to turn on the heater. However, only once in seven weeks (due to forces I didn't remotely understand) did I have water as warm as I wanted, and there was many an occasion where it was ice cold. Also beware of the fact that in some homes the water can be optionally rerouted to better fill the clothes washing machine, meaning your shower will turn off. Costa Ricans are very conscious of conserving water—whether it's to not have to pay water bills or for green-ness I'm not certain. When they shower they frequently turn the water on for a minute, turn it off to scrub/shampoo/whatever, then turn it back on to rinse.

My host home's dining room/living room

Living Rooms

Living areas in the Costa Rican homes I saw were pretty bare bones. Sofas, armchairs, and a stereo. Every once in a while a television. Usually this area was really small, and sometimes not used at all. In some homes it's where people sit and read, or entertain guests, or sit since it's usually the closest room to the front door—which is left open when it isn't raining for air circulation.

Kitchens

Compared to many American kitchens, Costa Rican kitchens are also bare bones. Not only are they substantially more compact than most American kitchens, they lack many of the same appliances. This is due to a combination of not wanting to spend the extra energy on running them with the fact that electronics are relatively much more expensive in Costa Rica, due to the fact that they're all imported. The kitchens I saw were usually the size of the average American laundry room. Not once did I see a dishwasher—all dishes were washed by hand with a sponge and solid dish soap from a tub sitting at the side of the sink. Many people have refrigerators, though the niece of my host mother didn't have one so she shared my host mother's. Another host home with a lot more people living in it that I visited had two refrigerators. The kitchens I saw there all had a stove and oven, though ovens are rarely used in typical Costa Rican cooking. Many places also use electric skillets that look like some sort of George Foreman creation, to minimize pans used. My host mother cooked almost everything on her "sartén." Accordingly, a lot of food is fried. Most people have a microwave, and I also saw toaster ovens, coffee makers, blenders, and toasters. However, many of these extra appliances are unplugged when not in use to save electricity.

Laundry Rooms

Some houses in Costa Rica have a designated room for laundry, and some don't. However, there is not a tumble dryer to be found. If there is a laundry room, it is—at most—a sink, maybe some counter space, and a washing machine. Sometimes it isn't a room, it's just the washing machine inside somewhere. In my host home it was on the back patio in a covered area. Laundry is usually done on the weekends when there is less to do otherwise and people don't have to go to work. All clothes are dried outside in the sun, almost always on clothes lines but sometimes on more improvised areas. I saw clothes hung on fences, out of windows, etc.