It’s time to settle on our Puerto Rican dream home! That’s what I’m thinking, but my husband must be worried about owning a house he has not yet seen.  We have not shared the details with our friends, wanting to wait till everything goes through.

We fly in on Oct 11th and stay again at the home of our friends in the Wyndham Rio Mar.  The next day we head to the bank in San Juan. Santosh still has not seen the house. The paperwork does not take a lot of time.  We sign a bunch of legal documents and finally we are given keys to the home.

We take off in the rental car, I am excited to show Santosh the house. At the security gate, we show our deed to prove that we have a home in the development.

We pull into the carport and open the kitchen door.  As we step into the living area, we discover that it is flooded. The drain in the atrium was clogged and it filled with water and seeped into the rest of the house.  Some of the lovely wooden doors are damaged. 

Our realtor introduces us to a contractor and we discuss what needs to be done.  All the walls and the ceiling need to be repaired and painted.  The roof needs to be resurfaced and water-proofed. The whole home is tiled and it is in decent shape.  We plan to gut the bathrooms.  We hope to keep the kitchen as is.

Santosh decides to to try and unclog the atrium drain.  He buys a drum auger from Home Depot and tries to clear the drain. No luck.  He then uses a drain bladder connected to a garden hose.  After the pressure built up, we hear water gushing in the street. Turns out a child’s rubber ball had blocked the spout outside.  My creative husband saves the day and $400.

We prepare the house for renovation, removing rusted fixtures, outlets, shelves and a TV mount.

I notice that the neighborhood cats have been watching us. Later we discover that our house is their local hangout. They still stop over to visit. I am allergic to cats so I am not a fan. But when the house is empty there is no one to stop them.

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago.  The second best time is today.  So I plant mango, papaya and banana trees. And sow a few seeds.

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We begin to purchase stuff for the home that we find on sale at Costco and stash them in our friends closet.  

It’s a quick trip. We leave after 5 days.  Despite the shock of a flooded house, Santosh is happy with what he saw. I guess the descriptions, pictures and the videos were not far from reality.  Now comes the hard work, how do we make this house a home?