And the construction continues at the Carter propiedad! Before our vacation we liquidated all our workers. Which means that we paid them all the required vacation and decimo pay and basically laid them all off. Scott let them know that they could resume work on the first Monday of our return if they wanted to. But, we didn’t know for sure if they would still want to come back to work for us because we couldn’t assume that they wouldn’t go find different work for the three weeks we were gone. So I drove down to pick them up at our regular meeting spot at 7:15 on Monday moring (right at the end of the bridge in town) and….Gulp, no one came! I was sad, I kinda thought in my head that they all really, really liked working for us and that “of course” they’d all be back! The two indigenous guys , Federico and Arquiles both showed up at the job site ready to resume work but no one else on Monday. So Scott very calmly said to me, “No problem, Shrug, we’ll just move on to Plan B”….Gotta love a guy who is calm and adaptable! That vacation really renewed his “Tranquilo”! hah! So Plan B in his mind meant that we would just let the main house sit on the back burner until the next dry season and for now if none of our crew aside from the two guys showed back up we would refocus on finishing up all the details on the casita. There’s still quite a bit to finish up like cabinetry, soffits, all the outside hardscaping, walkways , steps, exterior painting, stone work on retaining walls, just to name a few things.
But on Tuesday morning we decided to go to the pick up spot one more time, just in case. And guess what? They were all there, ready to go! YES! I was so happy to see them! And now we’re back to our regular schedule and all is moving along back to normal.
They’ve been working on the foundation for the outdoor kitchen which juts off the side of the terrace off the main kitchen in the house. The footings have been poured and next week they will build the walls and it will be ready for backfill then they can pour the floor. Its hard to explain, I’ll take some pictures today and include them so you can see. But its being built on a hillside so its going to take a ton of fill to fill it in! The outdoor kitchen will be roofed just like the rest of the terrace so it needs to be done before we can start the roof of the main structure. Scott really wants to get the roof up before the heaviest part of the rainy season starts. The heaviest part of the rain really starts right around Sep-Oct timeframe so we just might make it.
We’re getting really close to getting our electricity run started, which will be a dream come true! The permits have finally been all approved. The approval didn’t come back with exactly what we hoped for, but it’s close enough and we’re going with it. The last little detail we’re still working on is getting the two transformers that we ordered way back in November. Ugh! The guy down at Electrista, (the electrical supply place in Dave) was on vacation this week so we will go back on Monday to see if they have come in yet. We’ve already bought all the materials and will be ready to get the electrician out just as soon as those darn transformers arrive. Little by little we’re getting closer to having power that doesn’t require a generator, sounds so luxurious! 🙂
Talking about generators… When we got back from our vacation the generator here at the casita had decided to conk out on us so we had to go buy yet another one! If you’ve lost count, that’s generator number FOUR! Ugh! I never dreamed I’d move to Panama only to have a generator junk yard! Pfffffft! Actually, just yesterday Scott took the broken one down to see if he could get it repaired, we shall see about that. The great thing is that we bough this most recent one from Price Mart (Costso) and they gave us a 12 month guarantee. Fingers crossed that we have electricity before anymore generator glitches!
Like I already said, It’s so good to be home. This first week back from vacation has been so mellow, not much at all going on. It was nice to just readjust to being back home and get the house back to normal. It’s taken most of the week to get my hummers back to the feeders, they were really unhappy about my negligence in keeping their food filled up for them. I really missed them buzzing around but they seem to have forgiven me and are back with their normal silly flitting about. The cat has been very relieved to have us back, we’ve been justly punished by puke in the bed and poop on the bath mat! Hah! Eye Roll…I guess he’s told us! But he seems to feel as though we are back in his good graces and he’s back to normal. My neighbor dogs have also been quite pleased to have the nice gringa lady back and they come by the house each morning for a little food and a little love. My Spanish lessons resume on Monday and then life will be allllll back to normal. Sigh…life is good!
Let The Adventure "Continue"! 
Scott is so much like T! Shrug, no problem, it is what it is and on to plan B. It always seems to turn out just right! Glad all is back on track!
So glad all the workers returned so you can proceed with work on your main house but on the other hand, it might have been nice to have completed some of the finish up work on your casita, too. It is a very good thing that you two have a well developed “tranquilo”😊😊!!!
You are living my dream, and hopefully we will be doing the same thing in 2016. We enjoyed Chiriqui last month, but found Boquete too cool, so we plan on a little further down the mountain, but not David, which was too warm.
Thank you for blogging, so that us wannabes can keep track of your progress. Have fun on your adventure! Laureen
Laureen….Thanks for your sweet comment! Thanks for letting me know that your enjoying my little adventure! Good luck with your preparations for your big Adventure, sounds like your well on your way to making it happen! Cheers! And, maybe we’ll meet one day after your all settled in.