Casa Carter Continues To Evolve…

Rainbows in Boquete never stop amazing me!

Four weeks from now we will be living up there in our new house. Four weeks! Wont be long now! Yesterday was Easter and we had some friends up for a wonderful Brunch. We took a stroll up to the house to show them our progress and I was telling them how nice it will be to finally be settled into our home. Thinking about finally settling into our new house makes me think about just how transient this last few years have felt for us, well, by ‘US’, I actually mean “Me”! I don’t think Scott’s really been phased by all this moving around, I’m much more of a ’nester’ than him. But, I was thinking about how our journey began way before we even set foot in Panama.

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Mission Accomplished…We Have Granite!

Lito is THE MAN! The truck driver who agreed to drive to Panama City to pick up our ten slabs of granite and bring them to our property in Jaramillo Centro in Boquete is a man of his word. It’s hard to find those types of men..you know, the ones who do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it! But this man is such a person and I feel so grateful and lucky to have met him. The plan was for Scott to fly to PC on Sunday night, and meet Lito at the warehouse at 8:00am on Monday morning. Lito was there at 7:30 a.m.! Scott helped them to load and secure the ten slabs into the truck. Lito said he would be at our house on Tuesday morning at 7:00am….he was here this morning at 6:30am! Gasp! I love this guy!

Only In Panama….I lovingly say, with a smile on my face…

In my last post I mentioned our latest adventure in buying slabs of granite from Panama city for our kitchen and bathroom countertops. The ‘buying’ was not exactly the adventure but the figuring out how to transport the ten huge slabs from Panama City to Boquete is what I speak of as the actual adventure. You see, I should explain…In case you feel sorry for us that we live in such a remote area that there’s no granite to be had nearby and we have to go all the way to the city in order to buy it. Nope. That’s not remotely the case. There are at least two sources in nearby David to purchase granite countertops. But they refuse to sell us the raw slabs without hiring them to do the fabrication and installation. All our good friends here have had them fabricate and install granite countertops at their homes with much success. But, as we all know Scott loves to do everything himself and even though he hasn’t got much experience in Granite fabrication he has decided he doesn’t have enough projects and he wants to do it himself! Need I say…Ugh! hahaha!

Project Update…

For my friends and family who like to keep up on what’s going on around here, this is for you…

the stone on the front of the casita turned out nice too

two raised planting beds for veggies!

I love the railings, they turned out great!

the wall that boarders the parking spot in front of the casita

its looking good

First I should make sure to report that at long last we have our electricity! I can hear the cheering and Whoot! Whooting! 🙂 With all the visitors we’ve had lately and so much going on around here I must admit that finally getting power up to our property is a bit anti-climatic! Sigh…But, of course we’re thrilled to have that hurdle over and done with and to finally be totally up and running with our very own power. We’re so eternally grateful to our friends and neighbors Kat & Alan for coming to the rescue and allowing us to run that ugly pipe from our house to theirs to highjack electricity from their house since November. Getting rid of that darn generator was such a godsend! And now that we are officially hooked up to the power supply we need to run all the tools in Scotts workshop, he’s up there as I’m typing this cutting plywood for the carcass’s of our kitchen cabinets in the house.

A Visit From A Good Friend…

Angela came to visit and my heart is so happy! Ive been looking forward to sharing my wonderful new home with friends from The Bay Area and boy did we have a blast. It’s a funny thing, living in a place where others come for a vacation. Playing tour guide has been a delightful experience, exhausting, but good fun! And experiencing Panama with a friend who’s never been here was more fun than I imagined it would be. I must admit though, I had a tiny bit of butterflies hoping that she would like this place i now call home. I had nothing to worry about, she was mesmerized by the beauty that is Boquete. Of course… Angela is well traveled and understands and appreciates all the cultural differences that one experiences while visiting different places in the world. She see’s the diversity and magic that a different culture has to offer and she embraces it all with such wide eyed enthusiasm! I just love that about her. Central America is not the United States, and while it may not always be quite as organized and tidy as we’re accustomed to in the States, its easy to fall in love with this vibrant culture and to adore the kind, welcoming Panamanians.