A Panamanian house. Almost DIY

Sometimes it is better to buy a ‘fixer upper’ than trying to build from scratch.

This lovely little gem was a new build that has been sitting empty for the last 10 years. It came with a good size lot. The location is also perfect, it is on the edge of town but only a two minute walk to main street. So we can walk ‘everywhere’.

Three areas needed to be attended to before we go home: a fence, security bars on all windows and doors, and a new roof.

This house had no water or electricity. Our neighbour across the street let us run a water line from his well and to hook up to his electricity. Both were run in ‘tubos’ under the street.

This all came together relatively quickly.

The electric wire had to be pulled through the pipe. It was not easy. I ended up standing on the pipe so the worker did not have to hold it with his feet while pulling.

Once we had water and electricity, the fence was next to get going. The process was a little different. The quote was in two parts: supplies and labour. Daryl went to the hardware store, the ‘ferreteria’, and paid for the supplies. Everything was delivered and work started.

It was manual labor for the most part.

There was a line of trees across the back yard that was in the middle of the property line. They were all removed with a machette and shovel, except one. That one needed a little help to get the root.