Ojo de Agua, Panama

Dexter and I were fortunate enough to be visited by a young architect interning for the Kalu Yala development project located near Panama city. Bradley Luna Wilson came out to the interior and spent two days with us. We toured him around my project in Ojo de Agua, the Super Camp near Pedasi and finished the first day visiting Seth, one of our best friends here near Pedasi that is building his own unique post and beam home. The second day Bradley worked with us on site and listened to our perspectives on trying to build custom wooden post and beam homes here on the Azuero Peninsula. Read our new friends perspective about the area and our work at his blog post at the Kalu Yala website.

Bradley Wilson’s Post on Kalu Yala Website

I must thank my friend Jimmy Stice at Kalu Yala for allowing Brad to visit us, we enjoyed his company and his help working with us, he is a great person and a pleasure to have around. I hope his experience with us here can help the Kalu Yala development become a success.

A few months back while spending a sunday afternoon at our local beach, Playa Venao, Pucha and I were interviewed by an american couple, Brian and Leela Gill, working on a trailer for a television series about expat’s relocating to foreign lands such as Panama.

If it were not for Pucha they probably would have not been interested in me, I do not have much star power, unlike my girl.

You can watch the video trailer for the upcoming television series with a short section of our interview below.

They recently returned for a more in-depth interview for the Panama show. They interviewed Pucha at her house and store in Pedasi, me at the project in Ojo de Agua and all of us together at the beach. This time I think they got some better shots of us surfing. It will be interesting to see what the final show looks like.

I have been working hard trying to get the electrical system up and running in the house and garage. Everything on my end is finally completed, just waiting on the electrical utility company, Union Fenosa, to connect to the grid. This may take a while. Ummmm, who is it I have to bribe? Just kidding. It is not quite that bad, should be soon now. Must stay positive.

I took advantage of Señor Uri Valdez from the near-by town of Tonosi and his electrical crew to go ahead and run cable from the well house over to the project maintenance shed. It’s really nice to finally have some lights in there.

Here in Panama the electric company hates to enter private property to see the meter, so the meter has to be out by the property line somewhere. Of course that helps them place the majority of costs on the property owners end. If you have a large parcel and your home is far away from the edge it can be expensive. Luckily the house and garage are not to far from the property line. The only problem is there is a rather steep inclined slope from the meter to the house. We went underground to avoid future tree pruning. Uri and his crew got on the hill side and “busted it out” even while it was raining. I can tell you from experience, digging ditches on a steep hillside in a tropical rain is not fun. Every shovel and pick strike to the ground comes up with a couple of pounds of clayey mud stuck to it. It can be a royal pain in the you know what trying to free your tool of this sticky goo. But they made it happen in the time promised.

Uri is the only contractor here so far that I can honestly say has done everything he promised in the time at which he promised. Amazing! I highly recommend him for any electrical work. He is a little pricey but worth it. No headaches or waiting endlessly.

Remember, mañana in spanish means tomorrow but in Panama it means not today! I’m unsure if Mr. Valdez knows or understands this. Thank goodness!

Unfortunately, looks like this is the final Update for the Super Camp.

Although the project is not completed it is close. Dexter had to part ways with the architect in charge of the project. Another crew must takeover from where we left off. I do not want to get into details, pointing fingers and naming names, for the reason why everyone is parting ways. Although I would like to, it would make me feel better, but it would be very unprofessional. I will just say agreements were made, work was completed and money is owed. Until further payment, we had to go!

Anyways, the finish work for the project will be finished by some one else. The hard part is all completed so they should not have much trouble, I wish them the best.

Things work out for reasons, now I can finish my house in Ojo de Agua.

Adios Super Camp! It’s been real interesting.

I have decided to call the new project we are working on near Pedasi the Super Campsite. Once the entire structure is completed I am sure it will be the envy of any person that has ever spent time in a tent way out in the woods. The locals are calling it a rancho because of the palm thatched roof, but once it is finished it will only resemble a local rancho from a far distance. With closer inspection one will recognize the fine details and modern luxuries the Super Camp will possess.

Windmill water system, solar powered electrical system, finely crafted hardwood furnishings, imported lighting and bath fixtures, imported African safari tent, modern kitchen and bath, structural construction from three different incredibly beautiful Panamanian hardwoods, imported pressure treated Canadian lumber and recycled lumber originally imported from the states during canal zone construction all combine to set this rancho apart from anything in the Los Santos Province and possibly the Republic of Panama.

I will admit, at first I was a little apprehensive with some of the techniques required for the building process. The architects vision and design left us with only one option for construction, we had to break some of the basic rules of carpentry. But, as the job moves along and the camp slowly grows out of the ex-cattle ranch grazing pasture I can now say, “this is looking really cool” and I am proud to be a part of the construction of this truly unique structure.

Although it can be a bit difficult working with local hardwoods that have sufficiently dried, the beauty of the finished product is worth the trouble. Look at some of the close up photos of the beautiful deep dark Balsamo posts. Also, check out the photos of the drill bits we have gone through. The bits start to smoke and sometimes break or bend after only a few holes have been drilled. The only thing that will enter the wood with ease are square drive screws made and imported from the states. Gotta love American quality. The wood is so hard it took a month to find a sawmill that would dare mill it. Every other local sawmill owner confidently said sure they could do it, a couple of boards were milled and the call came in to come and get our wood, it’s to hard! Finally, a guy with a massive carbide tipped table saw blade came to the rescue and milled it for us, of course it was not cheap. I think word got around the country-side that some gringos had really hard wood that had to be milled at any and all cost. The ranch administrator that helps us track down materials and laborers most have put 100′s of kilometers on the company truck trying to find the right sawmill.

This job was originally thought to be finished with-in a few months. I know the clients must be let down. But, as all things go in Panama and anyone from the modern world will learn with time and experience here in the interior of the country, whether dealing with local utility companies, so-called professionals, private businesses, government authorities, whatever, estimate your best most well calculated time frame judgement call, then double it, go ahead and double it one more time and then maybe you might be close to a realistic time frame. Building here in Los Santos is nothing like building in the states. Here there is no Home Depot, no Lowes, no local hardware store that consistently has the latest materials and products consistently maintained in-stock or on order and arriving soon. No, no, no, no not here. Even the most reputable stores almost never have what you need. The sub-contractors almost never show up when they say, almost never have their own transportation, almost never have all the tools their job requires, hence you have to supply it, and almost always buy inferior cheaper materials, even after specifying price does not matter, “just buy the good stuff for crying out loud.”

Anyways, I am rambling. My point or points are, that there are a million things in this country that can eat up time and money, that even after experience, it is hard to fathom the amount of time that can be lost for unforeseen circumstances here in Panama. Plus, there are few carpenters here, if it is not cement, it’s hard to find someone that can do it. And if it is an architecturally complex design, forget it. There are few to none that can figure it out and make it look nice. Do not get me wrong, there are quality builders, carpenters and sub’s here, but the good ones are so busy that they do not want to talk to you and are usually tied up with their own projects, with owners that realize their value and pay them enough not to let them go.

Although I have somewhat, only temporarily, abandoned my construction project in Ojo de Agua, it is worth it to be helping Dex on this project, his ingenuity, high energy and creativity are amazing and it is good to be learning from him, especially on such a interesting build. Ojo de Agua Panama is not going anywhere, plenty of work awaits me there and as the trees and plants continue to grow and transform the once bare over grazed deforested cattle land back into a beautiful fruit and hardwood producing forest, it just becomes more and more beautiful and valuable and more of a joy to work on.

The project is moving along good. Our only real issue so far has been the hardness of the wood we are using. We have material that needs to be milled into smaller pieces and no one will touch it, it’s just to hard. For today we are stopped on the carpentry until the wood situation is figured out.
We are finding a lot of indian artifacts around the building site, I guess the ancients liked the view as much as the new owners do.

It is such a nice feeling to be working on one project and having others working on another. I keep the materials arriving as needed by the contractors working hard in Ojo de Agua while me and Dexter move forward on our other project near Pedasi. I admit I worried about leaving the project for any extended period of time, but so far all is well. Rubiel, Luis and their prospective employees are doing a great job on the house and garage. Both are capable, responsible contractors. Rubiel is nearly finished with the stucco on the house and Luis is moving along at a good pace on the construction of the garage. They both are only a little behind schedule, for here in Panama that actually means way ahead of schedule and much better than can normally be expected.
I choose to build the garage out of all concrete and metal. Although I feel confident, that with careful maintenance the house will hold up under the constant threat of termites and other wood loving tropical bugs, I do not want to worry about the garage as well, so no wood construction on this building.
As the stucco is applied on the insulated foam panels sheathing the house the average interior temperature has dropped substantially, better then expected. My theory of having a comfortable non-AC house may be proven. A few fans and it may get cold. We shall see.

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.