Land again , but also about a house

Yes, we have advanced another step on the road to landownership. Last Monday 14 August we signed the commitment to buy the land in Veraguas. The official ceremony took place in the town council of Mariato because one of the parties involved cannot read and has to put his fingerprint.

The Sunday before we also visited the plot ‘briefly’. We went to bring a copy of the commitment of the landowner, for him to read or to have it read to him. That was done by the granddaughter of the owner. The granddaughter is the owner of the house we want to buy, and she came along to show us the house that we would like to buy. We had a good look and noted that a lot of work has to be done to rehabilitate the house, so we offered less than the asked for and got the price we had in mind. The house has somewhat deteriorated because no-one has lived in it since 2001, except for a couple of bats and spiders.

However, real estate is about location and this house is right on the road and surrounded on three sides by the plot of land we want to buy, so it makes sense to get the house as well and include it in the property. And we can use the house, after substantial rehabilitation and some extension, as reception and office

Yes it might look quite decent on the picture but it really needs a bit of work. It needs a new roof (some of the beams are rotten) and we want a steeper roof angle of stronger material that insulates against the heat. And we want to install solar panels and solar heat collectors on the roof. The floor needs to be tiled and we will have to inspect the water and electricity systems. But the good news is that there actually is electricity and running water. We also want to put in more glass windows, to make it lighter. The picture only shows the front of the house. At the sides and the back, windows consist of ornamental breeze blocks. Very safe against thieves, but not against insects and they let in very little light.

While granddaughter spend tim ewith her famliy, we also ran around on the plot of land we want to buy with a tape measure, paper and pencil. Since it is rather hilly, we tried to establish the location of the peaks and valleys so we can start thinking of what to put where. This is physically quite challenging at 30 degrees centigrade and 85% humidity. We now understand better why the livestock keepers want to sell hilly land: Cows spend so much energy grazing on hills that they do not gain weight But it is interesting for our purposes. You can lay out the buildings in such a way that guests can have the privacy of their own little valley or hill top. We could also get into de diet-holidays: To get from your room to the restaurant you need to climb ten hills so weight loss is guaranteed!


p.s. sorry today somehow the photo´s do not want to upload.