HOUSE HUNTERS TAKE ONE

This past Tuesday at two o'clock, our house was complete!  The microwave was perfectly installed, gas was connected to the oven, another hole was dug in the front yard for a palm tree while two were dug in the back on Monday for two other trees.  Shrubs that were transferred over the weekend do not look happy (shock), so they will eventually be replaced, and internet was set up along with TV!  We will use this service for about six months and hopefully within that time frame, Cable Onda will have run cables throughout the subdivision.  I have washed and dried clothes, washed a load of dishes (new), and run the coffeemaker.  I have to yet to use the stove, oven or microwave, but hot dog, Ray and I have a home in Panama!  Such a huge accomplishment!

While at our friend's house for dinner the other night, there was discussion about moving to Panama and building a life here.   We have lived here nine months along with one other couple, while the other two couples have lived here five years.  It was interesting to hear about their accomplishments along with their frustrations in the house building process, and even more interesting to hear what their final straw would have been when moving into their house.  The point at which you just cannot explain anything further, try to change anything (why?), or have something corrected or done in a timely fashion.  Was it with the actual design and construction of the house, the installation of materials, the delivery of furniture, the challenge of speaking the language to get everything done or all of the above?  We also learned that the one couple is very good friends with our landlords (a small world/country!), so before we left, we made plans for the six of us to have dinner one night when our landlords arrive to Panama.

On our way to dinner, we stopped by our furniture maker's shop to inquire about our dresser.  We cannot have Cruze bring it here until May simply because there isn't a time in the next week or so that we will be here during the day to accept delivery of it.  What we gathered from Cruze is that the stain was not the right color, and there was another color, but it was the wrong color, and so on and so forth.  So we will wait for the dresser.  The future restauranteur that also builds furniture came out from the back room and gave Ray and I a styrofoam cup filled with some kind of frozen mango yummy goodness.  He wanted us to try it, because he would be having it in his restaurant.  Such a nice guy!  Everyone in that shop is super sweet and patient with us trying to learn the language.  Let's just hope I have a dresser soon!

But while I am lacking a dresser,  I have three beautiful, unexpected drawers that were built into a shelving unit in my closet.  Ray was leaving them empty, so I snatched them up for the time being and pushed the suitcase aside.  We are also without patio furniture, but I remembered that I have these awesome beach chairs, so I sat outside in the breeze (we had a slight breeze!) reading a book and watching the cows run in front of the mountain.  We do not have a dining room table, but the six bar stools will suffice, and we have yet to cook a meal here, so why do we need a space to dine right now?  In good time.  House Hunters International filming started late yesterday afternoon and, perhaps, they will "stage" a dining area?

 With the start of HHI yesterday, our back story was filmed and our interview took place in our Chame rental home.  It was the shortest day with the crew.  Thankfully, the Producer, Elizabeth, and the Cameraman, Mike, are two of the four crew members filming our story in Panama.  They were with us at the lake house filming with Carly in February.  Along with Elizabeth and Mike, Chris, is the Sound man, and Stephanie is the "fixer".  She is the Production Assistant and has been all over the world, along with the others, filming different television shows as well as being part of the crew on movie sets.  Today through Saturday we started touring three possible properties that we are considering buying along with visiting our Spanish teacher for a lesson, El Pampero for the Spanish speaking restaurant experience, and taking time out to sit on the beach.  There will be a reveal decision filmed at Coronado Golf Resort.  Along the way, Ray and I will visit every Happy Hour in town!  haha

First, I am assuming House Hunters International is understood by all.  Let me explain what I know of it, or what I learned so long ago when I simply googled the ins and outs of buying a house on national television in a foreign country.  HHI is an American reality television show that airs on HGTV channel.  I have yet to find this channel with our cable package in Panama.  The premise is that a family, couple or individual searches for a new home in a foreign country with a realtor.  There are three properties featured in the show.  More often than not, the buyers of the home have already decided on which of the three properties they want to put an offer in for, and they have purchased the home.  The final minutes of the thirty minute show reveals what home the buyer purchased and how they made it their home.  It is a reality television show.  People are sought out by being far along in the process of buying a home.  Viewers are privy to the contributors (me and Ray in this case) setting a budget, touring properties, and then discussing the pros and cons of the properties.

Yesterday was, I hope, the only grueling day we would experience over the next four days of filming the show.  The crew arrived at our rental house at two pm.  They wanted to interview Ray and I, and then we were asked to talk about life in Panama.  How have we fared in Panama so far, how have we enjoyed the Chame area where we chose to rent our first home, and and how have we found our rental home to fit our needs of living in Panama these past few months.  To keep noise to a minimum, the air conditioning unit and the ceiling fans had to be turned off completely.  It was so hot.  And let's throw in there extremely humid.  During a quick change of camera lenses, I put my head in the freezer (after ducking into the bedroom for a cold blast of air).  I also encouraged Elizabeth to hold onto a freezer pack.  There were, as usual, no cross breezes coming through any windows so opening them was not an option.  Plus, wind makes noise.  But in one scene, Ray and I are discussing our appointment with Roberto, our realtor.  We "hesitantly" cracked open two beers during this scene!  It's all we had left in the house.  We had left beers in the refrigerator on purpose for our landlord. And then Ray is shown watching television, and I am reading my book on the hammock outside--in my pretty sundress.  You know, it's my usual attire when lying in a hammock.  And then the sky opened up, and the rain came pouring down sideways.  The thunder was intense with loud crackling and booming--for all of fifteen minutes.  Once the rain and mostly the noise subsided, the exterior shots of the house could then be filmed, and we were done with the day.  With that part, at least.

Ray and I then went to Picasso's to meet our friends for dinner.  An expat was singing, so we were determined to stay and enjoy his live music.  We had never seen him play before, so while we ate burgers and chicken stir fry, we met up with more friends, and also chatted with the HHI crew that had arrived for dinner.  We had had such a leisurely morning forgetting to do laundry while we hung out waiting to get the day started with HHI, so once home, we knew we were faced with chores.  We also had a wonderful face time chat with Carly.  She wanted to hear all about our first day back with the HHI crew, and we, of course, wanted to hear about her week.  She went on to bake cookies for Administrative Assistant Appreciation week, and we crashed.

This morning we had to be in Coronado at eight am.  We have three properties we are looking at in the coming days.  We had our "back story" interview in our rental, but Roberto is then showing us homes in Gorgona and Coronado.  We are also going to look at the model homes in the Azura community of Rodeo Viejo.  Today, we stayed in Coronado with Roberto.  He is such a pleasure to work with, and he really made the day go by quickly!  He and his wife, Marla, were on HHI in 2013 as contributors so he understands the format.  They have both been fantastic to work with these past seven months, and this experience, even just based on today, was a joy.  It was a long day, with a lunch break at Coronado Cafe, but the seven of us made the most of it and filled it with a lot of laughs.  At the end of the day, the sunset was filmed (B roll as they call it which to me mostly means Ray and I are not part of the scene), we drank wine, and ate chicken wings that our friends had brought over to us.  Twelve hours later, Ray and I settled into our big comfy couch preparing ourselves for our second full day of HHI in this time that is seeming not so much like retirement right now.

Roberto from United Country Realty Panama discussing our wish list.