Ojo de Agua, Panama

There is no job as monotonous as painting. First coat of primer, then second coat, then first coat of paint, then second coat, rolling, brushing, trim… jeez when does it end! Okay I cant lie, I only painted about ten percent of the house, Dexter was a little faster then me and he painted about fifteen percent before we threw in the paint rag. I had to bring in professionals. Two brothers referred by Uri Valdez, the dependable electrician, came in to finish up and they did a hell of a job. Clean, fast, mess free and had their own brushes. Hired! In a couple weeks they knocked it out. The house is shining like a new diamond! Sasha Cole, a professional designer friend, helped me pick out the exterior colors, thanks Sasha, the house is looking great.

The garage door has been installed on the future workshop next to the house. Uri Valdez, the dependable electrician, put me in contact with a fellow from Chitre that is the representative for a company out of Santiago that installs metal store front security doors and residential U.S. style electric garage doors.

I choose to go with a manual store front style door. It looks rather industrial but I think it is more secure. Not that crime is much of an issue in this part of Panama, it hardly exists. I just liked the simplicity of the door. Few moving or electrical parts in this part of Panama is a good thing. It can be a long drive or a long wait for a part order here in Panama. For me less is more, keep it simple and strong is always the best bet here.

I am very pleased with the door, once I choose the paint colors for the door and garage it will look nice and take a away a little of the industrial look.

Progress! I no longer need to use the generator to fill the tanks when the spring can not keep up. Yippee! Although the spring can keep the nearly 4000 gallons of reserve tanks filled all year. Here towards the end of the dry season, with all the plant and tree irrigation and concrete work going on, the spring just can’t do it alone. This is the first time this dry season that I have had to fire up the well to fill the tanks. How nice it is to switch a switch and nothing more. First time the power has had to be used. Electricity is good.

Here are some photos of the new project I am helping Dexter out on. It will be an interesting structure by the time we are done following the architects plans. It is not something that I would build for myself personally, but to each his own. Out of respect for the owners I am not going to give out much information about the project, but I am going to post some photos occasionally so friends can see our handy work.
Enjoy,

Nothing makes a mess of a construction area like concrete work. My once beautifully crafted wooden home has now been covered in a grey cement powdery film. Oh well, it’s worth the mess, the stucco must go on. Rubiel, a contractor from Tonosi, has been brought on board to do the stucco work. I do not have the time, experience or patience to do this type of work. I would rather leave this to an expert and Panamanians are experts in all things cement. He is doing a fine job, in a week or two the stucco project should be completed.
Also, we have started the garage/workshop/storage area next to the house and finished the electrical wiring. I was lucky enough to have an electrical engineer friend from England help me to wire the entire house to first world standards. It was a fairly easy job since the house is built up off the ground.
The garage is being built strictly out of concrete, load bearing structural grade foam panels and metal. I hired another contractor from Las Tablas named Luis to handle this project. Luis and his team have finished the foundation and should be pouring the slab this week. Hopefully the garage will be completed within a month or so.
I have had to contract some jobs out in a need to speed things up. I need the garage done before the rainy season starts (it’s coming soon) to store tools and materials in and to have a nice area to make doors and shutters amongst other things. Also, though it is taking up some of my time, I am helping on another carpentry project in the Pedasi area (see blog post).
Luis and Rubiel are doing great work so far. I am glad they are on board to help. Luckily, labor is still inexpensive here.

Throughout the building process there are moments when construction seems to go at a snails pace, the last few weeks are a great example. We have been “pecking away” at the foam panel installation. It is a slow process filling in the spaces between the post and beam framing. Some of the spaces, especially around the eaves still had to be framed. When building one seems to always leave the more tedious parts of a process for the end. So the last few parts seem to take forever. But now all the panels are fastened to the posts, beams and bottom plates of the floor. Once the stucco is in place the house is going to be well insulated and strong.

We also installed seismic straps or “hold downs” in case of any future earthquakes. Any one who has spent time in Panama and has some construction knowledge can see that most residential buildings are not designed to withstand an earthquake. I’m not saying all houses are built poorly here, but unfortunately the majority are not constructed well. Concrete is king here. Almost all construction is concrete block and stucco. Builders here generally use the least amount of rebar they can possibly get away with. This is mainly due to economics. The majority of Panama’s population can not afford to spend anymore money than what is absolutely necessary to put a roof over their family’s head. So they must cut corners and rebar reinforcement in the popular concrete construction is minimum. If there ever is a strong quake here most likely many good people are going to have their homes crumble around them. This is one reason why I choose to go with a post and beam home. Wood flexes and bends when the earth shakes, concrete does not. Anyways, one important part of our construction is attaching the posts that are in the ground to the posts that are standing on the floor and supporting the beams that support the roof. We designed the seismic straps and had them fabricated by the local pig farmer / welder named Toni. He did a great job at a fair price in a quick manner. One strap is screwed into the ground post below and another to the wall post above, then the two are connected together by a long threaded rod. They are fastened on each corner of the house. In case of a quake the house should hold together as one unit. In the near future we will be installing Simpson hurricane/seismic straps, brought in from the states, to the roof rafters and top plates or beams. This should really hold everything together in emergency.

The past couple days we worked on the main entrance to the house. We built a small “star deck” with steps leading up to the large front porch. As those of us who live here know, the night sky is absolutely amazing. Here in the Azuero their is so little light pollution. The star gazing is incredible. This little deck will be a perfect place to recline a chair and stare in to the vast dark night watching the stars and listening to the coyotes howling in the distance. Of course we built the stairs to U.S. code, seven inches high and eleven inches wide. Easy to maneuver stairs are a rarity here, not these, their perfect.

Since the last update we also worked on the bathroom design, mainly the shower. As the photos show we placed a lot of windows in the bath for natural light and ventilation. For now the only glass in the house will be in the corner of the shower and a window between the beam and the roof above the entrance into the shower. The rest of the windows will have screens and shutters.

Enjoy the photos.

While walking around, coming or going from the project, or running errands, I can not help myself from snapping photos of random points of beauty, or at least things at that moment that I think look beautiful. And of course, since I am trying to sell gorgeous ocean view land located in Panama and always in need of new material for my website ranking, these aforementioned photos end up on this blog. Whether it’s my neighbor’s tractor bailing hay for his livestock to chew on at the end of the dry season, photos of near-by churches or the sun shining through a cloud, if I think it’s beautiful it’s my duty to share. So, enjoy the sharing.

Nothing makes a structure start to feel like a finished home like raising walls. I have a sense of deep satisfaction seeing the design come to life before my very eyes. All those hours sitting at the table, with a sketch pad, pencil, calculator and Google Sketch-up running on the computer are finally paying off. As the walls go up, empty spaces become future bedrooms and baths.

The interior construction is going slow, but after finishing the roof, working on the inside is a big relief and time passes quickly. In the morning, park the car near the house, turn some music on and build some walls. Before I know it each afternoon it’s time to clean up and go for a surf to wash off the dirt, saw dust and foam shavings of the day.

We framed all the walls with 2 x 6 material from bottom plate to beam so that after the foam insulated panels have their final stucco finish a 3/4 inch relief between the lumber and the stucco will show. We choose this particular construction method for easy framing and for a unique style that does not exist around here. We will see how the finish product turns out. At this point I am very excited.

Here are some photos of the project up till now.

Here are some updated photos of parcel one, the premier ocean view titled parcel we have available here in Ojo de Agua, Panama. This parcel has one large home site and several other building sites. The property has basic utilities on site and is covered in native fruit and hardwood tree species, some mature, but most trees planted during our intensive reforestation project started four years ago. Take a look at the real estate section of the site for details.

Here are some nice photos showing the vegetation difference at the entrance of the property after a few years. The before photo is right after we installed the fence about three and a half years ago. The after photo is from about a month ago. The pampas style grass in the photos is Vetiver or locally called Valariana. Vetiver grass is amazing at retaining moisture, controlling erosion, shading out weeds, has medicinal qualities and is used throughout the cosmetic industry. Also, the root can be dug up, cleaned, boiled into a tea and drank for a pain reliever. I have never tried the tea, but someday I probably will. I bought about 60 small sprigs of Vetiver a few years ago and have propagated it all over the property. I lost count, but I must by now have nearly a thousand of these plants along the road side and on many slopes. It stays green all year, never needs watering and the seeds are sterilized so it does not spread. It’s a wonderful plant. I look forward to planting more each rainy season.

For more information about Vetiver and it’s uses take a look at Vetiver Network International, vetiver.org.