Time flies like an arrow - Dean
“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”
― Anthony G. Oettinger
Dogs with their “good girl” halo collars.
I’m not even going to look back and see when the last blog post was written. A long, long, time ago…
Here’s a quick recap of the first quarter of 2025: Moved to the property in Dolphin Bay, lived over the water until moving to the main house, painting upstairs, painting bathroom, replacing screens, dog training to not break out of new screens, new solar panels, new electrical wiring, new major appliances, replacing termite eaten house supports, plumbing upgrades, sloths, turtles, bananas, coconuts, Panamanian residency, new friends, old friends. And so much more in just day to day living.
screen replacement and painting
Let’s make this edition about House things. We knew this was a fixer upper when we bought it. No big deal, neither of us are strangers to this and neither of us shrink away from hard work. The thing is, it’s just different here. We keep reminding ourselves that if it were easy, everyone would be doing this. Everything that we need to do repairs/upgrades has to come from the main island or the main land. We have a small boat so if it’s bad weather or the waves are too large, we don’t go. (Think snow storms in Ohio) We had one trip where we had overloaded the boat and the waves were large and coming from behind us. We felt very lucky to have made it home; both of us thought we were going to capsize at some point. (We are trying to get a larger, safer boat) If items are too heavy or too large, we pay someone to bring them out to us.
When we did the plumbing upgrade, for example. We use water catchment, 2600 gallons, as our water source. The first few weeks we boiled it every day for cooking and drinking. We rerouted the water line to run through 3 sediment filters and then a UV filter. Adding a pressure tank and a new pump in the mix. Completely designed and fabricated on the spot. This took 3 days and 3 trips back to the hardware store on Isla Colon (30 min each way) because of things not lining up right, not having the correct size connections, or things breaking and not having a replacement piece.
Figuring things out when replacing the water pump.
On the other hand, labor is cheap here. So having things done for you, like having the support posts replaced, is much less expensive than the US. We knew there had been some termite damage in the past, but not to this expanse. Once we started to demo… whoo boy. Three 6x6 posts, 10 ft long and from a dense local hard wood that is naturally termite resistant. These were about 300lbs each and took 4 men to carry each one up to the house.
Termite damage. This was about a meter long inside the post. Yikes!
Yes, they had to use a chainsaw since the wood is so hard. Yes, they did that in the house.
The first big thing we did was upgrade the solar. There were 9 panels and a 5KW battery. The panels were so old that they couldn’t effectively charge the battery. It was so undersized that we could only charge phones, run a small camping cooler, portable fans, and have the Starlink on for an hour or 2 a day. Sometimes it would run too low at night and I had to go turn off the system to stop the alarm until morning came. Now we have modern connivences like a UV filter for the water, a refrigerator, a washing machine, ceiling fans, and internet all day!
Happy Jodi after the solar install
So, we started the kitchen reno recently. Our vision is to redo the open space into something a little more functional as a kitchen and also create a utility room of sorts. We’ll make a wall between the kitchen and the back door. This will hold the washer, dryer, and a workbench/shelving for all of our tools and house hold supplies. The side of that area will be the new pantry, and the large wall on the kitchen side will house the fridge and connect to the new cabinets. The cabinets are being custom made for us, as well as the granite countertops. We’re doing the walls and new floor tiles ourselves.
Old kitchen
Things just take longer here. We are familiar with the term “island time” and it still rings true. There is rarely a rush or a sense of urgency to get things done. Once you accept that and roll with it, everything is fine. There is another side of “island time” though. It’s mostly related to the remote nature of where you are living. Some things are simply not available here. Jodi wanted a certain tile for the kitchen floor. There are only 2 colors here in Bocas and all the hardware/lumber yard places seem to have the same 2 styles. She wanted a simple grey tile with a nice natural look and a bit of dimension to the surface, much like you would get with slate stone. We needed to order it from a store in Panama City that has an outlet in David. There is a local company here that will shop for you or transport your items from David to Bocas, twice a week. You can then go and get it from them or have a local worker go into town for you. All of this took about a week and a half. A lot different from running to Home Depot then getting a start on your project when you get home.
Wall between the kitchen and utility room. Kitchen counter and shelving made from benches.
Funny side story about the tile. Maybe not funny. The tiles are 24in square and the boxes of 6 tiles each weighs in at 82lbs. We had help getting them from the delivery tuck in town to the boat. We decided that the extra 656lbs in our little lancha was not safe and left half on the sailboat in the marina. A few days later I needed something from town so I stopped at the marina to get the rest of the tile. One lift to the edge of the sailboat, one lift down to the dock, one lift and carry to the lancha, one lift down into the lancha. Times 4. When I got back, Jodi and I laid the tile in the kitchen. I cut and carried tile to her, and mixed mastic. Jodi was spreading the mastic and setting the tiles just right. Lots of work. After all that we needed to get the rest of the tiles out of the lancha (we had a pool party to go to…oh our sad little life) I handed the boxes up to Jodi and she stacked them on the fence of the dock. It went well, until it didn’t. As I lifted one up, the boat shifted and I couldn’t grab anything to steady myself. I fell over the bench seat, tiles went in the water, and I ended up in the bow on my back. Bruised back, skinned knuckle and a very sore knee. I thought I might have really messed up my ACL at first. Some ice and some rest and a little self-medication, we were good to go to the pool party.
Tile!
Cabinets! Countertops and sink coming soon. For now, washing dishes outside the back door.
You can’t just slap in new cabinets and flooring in a section of the house that still has old rustic-faux-distressed (choose your adjective) looks to it. So, we replaced the screens, painted the wall and ceiling, and painted the new wall we just build. The kitchen sink will move so that meant moving the plumbing and the drain pipe. But the old drain pipe is cheap flimsy pvc that is distorted from hot water being poured down the drain. So that had to go as well. Oh, and the flimsy 2” pvc pipe is a different diameter than the 2” heavy duty pipe that we use in the US. (Ask me how I found this out) Another trip into town and our favorite hardware store.
New bathroom paint and fixtures. More to be done in here…
New screens
We’re getting there, slowly but surely. There’s no real rush of course, but at the same time you want to be comfortable and not feel like you’re camping. Well as much as you can feel like that when you have no walls, lol. Next is to finish the kitchen (waiting on the counter tops and sink install) which is being hampered by the protests on the main land. Nothing violent, just people wanting better treatment from the government and a better life. Imagine that.
rescuing baby Edna
Enough of my rambling. I’ll put together another blog with our day to day type stuff and of our adventures.
