Home Repairs

Propane

The new tank of propane seems to burn much better than the old one. I suspect that there was oil in the tank, which I understand is not an uncommon condition. There is far too much oil for this to be attributed to compressors. Clyde, who purports to be a certified propane specialist has no idea how this much could get in. He has taken tanks apart and inspected them and found up to a quart of oil in the tanks. I guess I need to get a filter. The refrigerator has been running fine since I cleaned the flue, there was no carbon deposit on the baffle.

Composter

The sanitary composter is leaking. I'll need to have a drainage hose attached so that it doesn't constantly leak on to the slab and then down onto the soil beneath my house. It has also picked up a bit of a smell. Is it too wet? Should I be adding more wood chips? I don't know. A month in this house and I haven't filled the drum to capacity, with three adults, but two are only here half the time. Believe me, the dogs more than make up for two petite women.

Electrical

The kitchen ceiling fan is out, I think it's the switch. Next trip up I'll bring my volt ohm meter, which is in the bow hold of the boat. The living room light is out as is the light in my bedroom. I'll have to replace these dimmer switches with rocker switches. If one is using fluorescent bulbs a dimmer should generally not be used any without special bulbs. Of course, the switches are not available into town as I need double switches and don't have enough room to install another box.
Electrical outlets are needed on the porch and down the stairs and on the dock. I'm hoping the wire that came in is of the correct type. Ceiling fans and lights are needed on the deck.
Motion sensor lights light detecting flood lights to be installed on the boat house once I get the cable run. Trying to get off a boat and get my shit together with a flashlight on a moonless night is a pain.

Solar

I'm running the generator. It is charging my 24 volt system at 52.6 amps and is down 94 ampere hours so It will take a little over 90 minutes to charge to capacity. Someday I'll document solar powered systems, batteries and the like. On these cloudy days I've had to run it for an hour to an hour and a half twice a week. I'm sure it will get far worse in November, when the rain comes in earnest. I have to change the oil on the generator.

Internet

The internet went down Friday. Hopefully I just have to pay the bill. Let's see if I can catch them open, Panama Cable and Wireless does run some irregular hours.

Terraces

The terraces beneath my house are giving way, that should be a simple but labor intensive repair, involving a shovel, a sledge hammer, a drill, a hammer and some nails. What kind of wood should I use?

The steps in the soil under the house are giving way, I'll have to stake them and get new boards, a few steps are missing. How am I going to get this done in the rain?

Gardening

The bushes and ornamentals are overgrown, I've been trimming them back with my machete, the files and machetes always seem to end up on random places. I will have to terrace the yard, that's a lot of terrace work, big boards, a huge amount of shoveling and tons of file dirt to be brought over in 100 pound bags in a 40 foot dugout canoe and carried up the hundred steps, hundreds of times. Obviously I'll need to employ some help and stop smoking.

I picked up some ornamental plants from a neighbor, broke off the handle of the shovel on the first usage and started using a post hole digger. Where is my other glove? Where are my machetes and the file?

Jungle

Trails need weekly machete work and I have acres of underbrush to clear.


Hot Water Heater

The hot water heater is out in the bodega, doesn't provide adequate pressure, is intermittent and it takes too long to run water. I'll replace all of the 1/2” PVC with 3/4” and place a larger unit more centrally. Nothing like having a gas fired hot water heater mounted underneath a wooden house. I'll install some concrete boards, behind and over the unit, although no local would do so.

Stairs

Five years of neglect have taken a toll on the stairs, generally in good structural shape there is some fungal growth and mold. I've started the task of pressure washing, using an undersized hose and running off of electrical cords, my massive five gallon per minute 3,500 psi pressure washer in Southlake would do the job in a quarter of the time, but I sold it and lugging that thing up and down the stairs would be difficult. I'll have to run new conduit, electrical outlets and sill cocks. The pressure washer is not up to the task. It looks ok when first cleaned, but greys up in a hurry and it should be a rich dark shade of red.

Plumbing

I'll have to run new PVC from the water pump, under the house, down the stairs and to the dock. Half inch PVC is just not adequate for long runs.
A new water heater needs to be installed, I'll place it under the house rather than wait for the long run from the bodega.

Refinishing

The nispero wood on the outside of this house and the needs to be sanded and finished with clear marine varnish. That should take the best part of a month.


Tools Shed

A tool shed under the house seems in order, the bodega is too small to work in and after creating shelves for storage there won't be much room.

Furniture

The couches took some abuse from the dogs, who now have been relegated to the deck where they chase each other in circles around the wrap around deck at dawn and then take to chewing on the wicker furniture.

Gutters

The gutters are clogged with leaves.  This is my drinking supply water, trying to get to these gutters 30 off the steep slope should be a trick.   I used to just power wash my gutters, but I don't want to wash these leaves into the connection system.

The guy I bought my rocking chairs from has not replied about getting spare parts.

Run to Town

Internet
Panama Cable and Wireless couldn't find my account.  I looked up the previous owner's passport number only to discover that my internet provider is Cable Chico.   The office is a two room house with no sign in front.   They knew who the former owner was, said she had shut down her account and that I had a $35 reconnect fee.  I paid two months in advance, asked how fast my connection was supposed to be and was advised it was 256 KB/s thats about 2.56 mb/s, not bad about old cable speeds in the U.S.  unfortunately my connection is nowhere near that fast.  They said a technician could look at it.  We'll see what that gets me.  My first hop is about 956 ms latency, probably from here, to Bastimentos and back to Colon.

Groceries

I bought damn near everything on my list at one store, no shopping around, the largest sizes I could find and took a taxi back and dropped it off on my boat.   

Shopping for Hardware

Chow Kai is not on my list of preferred places, they carry little, are often out of stock and are closed from 12 to 1:30, I went to Sur de Bocas and found success on a double gang switch and some hose washers.  A quick pizza and back home to find my room-mates trying to get a water taxi back into town.

Repairs

When trying to install it I found that they were two independent switches with no connection bar, so I'll have to make a pigtail for the wire coming out of the wall and make a common cold wire for each switch.  Bypassing the switch, the ceiling fan worked fine.  I can't believe I failed to buy some #14 and #12 stranded wire, a pair of needle nose pliers, miscellaneous wire nuts, crimp fittings, and electrical tape.  I'll make another run to town tomorrow. My wire pliers were retrieved from my waterproof box on the dock, two weeks old and seriously rusted. I wiped down everything with 3 in 1 oil. There is no WD-40 here and not by accident. After my improv fix I hacked a little in the jungle hitting my dogs pretty hard with a stick at every opportunity. I cut down two to near three inch hardwood saplings in a single blow, if they were near my machete, I would decapitate them.

That doesn't include everything, I got some tires I need to string up on the dock and have a slew of boat work pending as well as some legal work on the house that needs to be completed, I'll document that later. There is a lot of shit to do. I told a friend I would install a cellular repeater five months ago when I had little or nothing to do. He finally got around to working on it and wants some help. I'll put your request in the queue. Don't wait up.