Question for all u 25 to 50 yr old EXPATS

Not sure how the topic got onto failure. I just know that what we thought would be a 6 week renovation turned into 3 months. I was just trying to prepare jsmith that sometimes you get your self into more than you asked for. We did change the scope of our project once we started. Not only was the plumbing a mess but the wiring was from back in the 60's so we decided to just finish pulling everything down to the stud walls and start with the shell of the building. The work was exhausting but the end result is wonderful.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm delighted that we went the extra mile to fix everything all at once. We plan to keep our place for many years to come. Just trying to give some friendly advice.

Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat.

They(the local professionals as their sometimes called) don't think their work is "Shoddy" here.
Be it pluming, electric, carpentry, masonry, tiling, etc. most just don't know, JUST DON'T KNOW or care about the difference!

You can do well here if you do your work properly & reasonably.

Pluming especially -- I know, pick up some gun comment.

From what I understand home owners there in order to save money hire a neighborhood HANDYMAN ( not licensed or insured like the lawn guy or painter) to do things they probably have no business doing. So that's mostly how u end up with the shoddy work.

Exactly jsmith.

I know that there are very qualified and competent contractors on the island building beautiful homes and doing proper work. What my husband and I bought was a fixer upper and needed all that work. That's why we bought so cheap and fixed it ourselves, no one wanted to deal with all of the headaches. We had our property appraised when we were finished and it worked out well financially too.