Getting close to the roof ...

January 24th: Meet Carlos & see the '3-ring circus' he's overseeing, today:

The above was the photo he provided (he thinks he looks better in a hat)... The following is one I took - I think he looks even better without the hat.


He's got workers finishing window sills:




Someone popping the framing off the opening for the front door:




& he even has a crew building the septic tank:



January 20th: The past week was devoted to quite a bit of landscaping; Paul's version of this involved hiring a couple of tractors & Tommy:

While our friend, Pierre, translated landscaping into using a shovel & wheelbarrow:

& I hope that our yard will equal its natural beauty when we're done:

This week, we realized one bedroom wall had been built about two feet over from where it should be ... no room for Paul's tub, which he's NOT happy about. Our solution was to 'flip' the points in the room. In other words, one side was supposed to have his and her sinks plus the toilet / the other side was to have my shower and the tub - one meter something is NOT enough space for a tub to someone over 6' tall... due to the 'flip', I'm not getting my shower, but Carlos says he'll build me one with the tub. Also, due to the flip, there's only space for one sink and I know Paul will commender it ... I'm claiming the guest bath!
January 13th, the carport looked like this:

& By January 20th, the same area looked like this, so you can see the house is coming right along, too:

(notice the 2nd tractor in the background?)



The next 2 photos are from January 8 - 13:
The crew poured the posts for the carport and began leveling the floor ... when I realized they were simply piling up the dirt & rock they were taking out, I asked them if they would please dump the wheelbarrows on the garden path where I was working - I then put the rocks on the side to 'edge' the flower beds and now has lovely, smooth footpaths - the crew smiled quite a bit over this, but I can't decide if they were amused by a gringa who knew how to use rakes and shovels or not having to move the dirt and rock a second time:

And #2 of January 8-13 isn't immediately obvious --- they added rebar to the tops of all walls and posts so everything is tied together:


January 15th - former boards are going up for the top beam, so we're not too far from starting the roof - also, the huge pile of dirt and rocks on the left is from digging the septic system, so that part is coming along, too:


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And the walls start upward ...

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The following is the original blog, which I added photos, etc. to the bottom of -- then I realized the same people visited the blog to see update, and since I will be updating it at least once a week, now that the house is starting, I'll be adding the new portions on top.

Yes, we signed a contract with Carlos, who assured us that he would build us a wonderful house for the budget we have available. I gave him a sketch of the floor plan that we wanted and told him we wanted an L-shaped roof that has hips on the ends and eaves that are a minimum of one meter from the walls. Okay, Paul was the one who demanded wide eaves - in SC, we learned just how much damage rain could do and there is a mega wet season here.

We're looking forward to having a termite-proof house - block/stucco walls + metal rafters & a faux red tile roof that's corragated cement.

I'd originally wanted the living room to be open to the outdoors, but Carlos tweaked my roof design to have a high roof with huge windows on either end - Paul figures that will be better at night. It does get nippy at this altitude.

Basically, the 'guest wing' will consist of 2 bedrooms connected by a full bath (shower only). Then a sort of hall, which is really open to the living room. On the other side, the kitchen will open to the living room - a large L-shaped eating counter will divide the space, yet allow people to intermingle. A half bath and laundry room are adjacent on one side of the kitchen; a small dining room on the other. Just outside the dining room, we eventually plan to have an outdoor kitchen, so we'll have a lovely sliding door to link the areas.

The door to the master bedroom opens off the dining room. I'd originally thought of having a sliding door in there, too, but the one in the dining room should be close enough. The Master bedroom opens into the master bath: Paul's jacuzzi tub, my shower, his and her sinks and, of course, a toilet... Paul totally detests the short toilets that are the norm, down here, but Carlos assures us that the can get 3 taller toilets.

He also assures us he can get this done in 4 months and give us a 'turn key house', though he does seem baffled by dishwashers and says we'll need to purchase this. (This after first offering recommendations for a maid.)

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Meet Victor, who has been working with Paul on the walls:






In the states, we would have the footings dug with a backhoe, but in Panama, labor is inexpensive because jobs are scarce. Our architect/contractor, Carlos, pays each worker on his crew $10-25/day and he's considered to be a great employer.

While Carlos (in the white cap) & his crew work on the house, Paul and Victor use the plentiful rocks in our yard to continue building the rock wall around the property, which they began a few weeks ago, and I putter at landscaping ... I'm hampered in this goal by the knowledge that the septic system will need to be dug in, so I'm second-guessing Carlos as per his intentions on that subject, and, for now, confining my efforts to one corner of the lot. AND, as I put in paths, I dig up rocks, which I shove to the side of my path .... dear Paul thought I was building walls and asked if I'd like some suggestions for building stronger ones.... that's a fine example of how one person judges another by themselves ... HE was building walls, so thought that since 'my' rocks were more or less in a line, I must be building walls, too. Not. Outlining a garden, until the rocks are needed elsewhere, yes - frankly, I consider my 'walls' more of a line of debris from clearing my path than a wall.

The house started out by going down to dig the footings, so for the first couple weeks there wasn't much progress to be seen. However, walls are now rising to the eventual roof and in some rooms we can even see where the window will be, so I can begin to lay out complimentary garden beds.

From the beginning, Carlos has told us that he wants to put a rock in our floor ... we learned that the rock he wants to put into it is apparently too hard for his crew to dig out of the footings ... they dug down over a meter and that rock is still going. I guess the darn thing could be in a worse place, but I'd designed the house to have a doorway to facilitate 'traffic flow' from the garage and laundry area to the guest wing and due to the rock, I'll now have to put shelves up there so people won't trip on the protrusion.

Building in Panama certainly has unexpected situations!

Rainbow on the Horizon

I've seen main rainbows in my life, but this was the first 'horizon rainbow' I'd ever seen. Magnificent, isn't it?

Maps to help orient you:

First, a topographical map - Tisingal is just to the left of the Volcan triangle, which is on the far left:



& the provinces of Panama:

Around our area ....

A local stone mason carves statues out of solid rock. He makes things to custom order as well as copy ancient designs:

IMO (in my opinion) his work is far superior to things I've seen at Pier 1.

And this palace is the house to the west of our lot... can not understand why it's uninhabited -

This is what the plants look like in the wild -
These wild orchids are my favorite -

This is one of my favorite neighbors - I call her Linda, which is Spanish for pretty:

And this is the house to our east ... it's inhabited, but I suspect that it will soon be sold to another gringo & whoever buys it will have a lovely bonfire - this assumes that the Ngobe who lives these doesn't burn it down himself ... I've seen smoke billowing out of the cracks more than once:

Canyon trip

Hello from 'the canyon', which is a fast moving little river about a half hour drive from Volcan. As you can see, it's quite spectacular:

A few of Panama's birds...

The above photo was taken by our friend, Nariño V. Aizpurúa, who is a local ornithologist. In case anyone is interested, he has a company called Western Wind's Venture and will take people on birding trips - his knowledge is amazing.

While I haven't had much luck photographing birds, as you can see, others have, so I've borrowed a few bird photos from others, too - if you like what you see, you can view lots more at http://panamabirding.com. The first photo is of Panama's famous quetzal, which nests on the slopes of Baru - I think its christmasy colors are appropriate since poinsettias and mistletoe grow wild in this area: