An Update

If you’re not interested in my house progress, I offer my apologies.  My wife is in Seattle with our grandson, so this is the best way I have to keep her up-to-date on the progress of our house.

The stone is finished on the front of the tower.  Naturally, the builder didn’t order enough stone to do the whole job (this is endemic in Panama), but at least the front is done.  We bought an antique door from Egypt (Yeah, Egypt!) that’s all carved and neat, and it will go in as the front door.  Just you wait!

And our railings are finished for the terrace or “back porch” and really look great.  We will have little “balconies” of the same design around the sliding doors in the bedrooms that are raised off the ground.  I really like that it was made by our neighbor in Palmira.

The porch floors are slate.  This picture is looking down into the quebrada on our farm, which is where the flocks of green parrots hang out this time of year.

The fireplace on the porch is local river rock and is double-sided, one side opening into the great room and the other onto the porch.

We’re also using “California Gold” slate on the walls of the master bath walk in shower.  The outside wall will have windows and glass block.

Corner of shower and bathroom walls.  I really like the tile guy’s workmanship.

My wife’s tub surround. 

The water works . . .

This is a very international house.  Designed by gringos, built by Panamanians.  The floor tiles and the roof tiles are from Spain.  The front door is from Egypt.  The cabinets are Burmese cherry, made in China.  The stove is from Italy.  The hardware is Chinese, German, and US.  The appliances are all US.  The wrought iron chandeliers are made by an iron worker in Boquete that we’ve used before.   We found the outside lights in a flea market in Chile. The rest of the lights are from China.  We imported the slate from India.  And the sinks are Talavera sinks from Mexico. 

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If you haven’t already done so, please check out my new photo blog at www.RichardDetrich.wordpress.com 

it features pictures from Panama as well as my cruise travels all over the world.

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Yesterday I went down to Boca Chica to check on our property, so I’ll close with a couple of Boca Chica pictures.

First, my dog Baru at Playa Hermosa beach near Boca Chica.

And finally, the view from our place in Boca Chica.