Updated Jan 9, 2020
A wonderful place to live, The Living in Panama HouseThe Perfect House for The Tropics
- Designed to keep you cool and comfortable
- Economical to build and easy to maintain
- An attractive and wonderful place to live
- Allows a strong connection with the natural surroundings
What makes the Living In Panama House different?
The Living In Panama (LIP) House is, in essence, is a big covered porch, wrapped around the bedrooms and the bathrooms. Compare this with a more typical construction of a house with a porch attached.
Depending upon the model, up to 75% of the house is an open-air secured and covered porch.
The Living in Panama House is designed to keep you cool and comfortable, even without air conditioning.
- Its roof is designed to repeal and release heat
- Wide, 5-foot roof overhangs
- Dramatically energy-efficient roof reflects and does not store heat
- Gable roof acts as a chimney to release any heat build-up
- Long and lean design to encourage free airflow
- The design makes it easy to enjoy nature and the tropics more fully
The Living in Panama House – Plans For Free!
When you buy one of our properties, we will provide you with the blueprints for free!
Plus, we are available to answer your questions about the house or how to customize it. Feel free to ask us material, design or related questions. We are happy to help.
Already bought a house elsewhere, but want to build a Living in Panama House? We are happy to sell the plans to you for $250. Please contact us about it.
To explore our beautiful properties, click here.
Passively Cooled Homes
The LIP House is considered passively cooled due to its:
- Open floor plans
- Unimpeded airflow
- Big roof overhangs to keep the sun from warming the building surfaces
- Ceiling fans to enhance air movement and evaporation
Shade-Producing Roof
For instance, the LIP House’s ample roof overhang provides shade and heat protection from the sun. The LIP roof design calls for a good quality corrugated metal roof that has a proven track record here in Panama. Local contractors are familiar with it, and it has a look that is pleasing to the eye. For the oceanfront lots, you may want to consider an alternative roofing material to minimize or eliminate the corroding effects of the direct sea breeze.
Unexpected Consequences of Air Conditioning
Until you experience it, it can be hard to realize how living in a fully air-conditioned house can negatively impact your lifestyle.
Here are just 3 of these unexpected consequences:
- Isolation from the sounds of many wonderful tropical birds, ocean waves, and more.
- Reluctance to leave the artificially-cooled air & venture out into the comparatively hotter out-of-doors.
- Difficulty in noticing that a friend has dropped by for a visit since the visitor cannot be heard above the sound of the A/C within the closed-up house. This is especially true if privacy fencing prevents people from knocking on your door.
Air Conditioning In Living In Panama Homes
Some areas of the LIP House are designed for full, artificial, climate control (e.g., bedrooms and media room/office). Even for the purist, sometimes in the dry season, it is really too hot, and one needs a little break. Although, for many folks the cool ocean breezes, which are strongest in the hot dry season, cool the house sufficiently. This is especially true in our houses, which are designed to take full advantage of these refreshing breezes.
Some clients, especially those from warmer climates, may find there is no need for air conditioning at all. Our family uses only natural breezes (and we are from Seattle!) enhanced by electrical fans in our home (although, we wouldn’t mind A/C in our media room for those hottest of afternoons).
Embrace The Tropics & Nature – LIP House
Living In Panama Houses are designed so that you can hear the birds, the ocean waves, and enjoy nature all around you. The House embraces life in the tropics and at the beach.
Learn more on why the Living In Panama House is the perfect house for the tropics here.
3 Versions – Living In Panama House
If your needs change, you can easily enclose more space and do an additionThe Living In Panama House comes in 3 models
- 1 bedroom, 1 bath
- 2 bedroom, 1 bath
- 3 bedroom, 2 bath
The 1 bedroom is 1000 sq. feet, all on 1 floor.
The 2 & 3 bedroom models are 1300 sq. feet, all on 1 floor.
Ample floor plan allows you to get comfortable and enjoy life. But not too much space to clean, furnish, and maintain. Over time, if you discover that you need more room, the style of this house makes it easy to enlarge and change.
Enclose more space. As you see in the images, the main difference between the 2 & 3 bedroom models is that the 3 bedroom version has more enclosed space than the 2 bedroom version, plus an extra bathroom. You can decide to enclose even more space – in any model – It’s up to you.
Discover the cost of building a house in Panama, including the Living in Panama House, here.
Change in Our Delivery – The Living In Panama House
At one time, we were offering to build the Living in Panama House for buyers of our property. However, as some of you know, we have only been able to be in Panama part-time for a bit. We blame it on our kids: one wants to be a professional ballet dancer and the other loves to act, thankfully she starts college next year. Neither activity is offered in Puerto Armuelles, which is why we are often in Seattle these days.
We simply are not able to oversee contractors and laborers consistently enough to ensure a high-quality construction of the Living In Panama House. We really don’t want to promise anything we cannot deliver. That is why we are now offering the plans for the Living In Panama House so you, or your contractor, can build it.
However, we are and will be available for any questions about materials or design or what-have-you. My husband Reyn loves to talk design. He had his own design-build company in Seattle for over 20 years so it is a topic near and dear to his heart.
We are looking forward to moving back to Puerto full-time so we can build a Living in Panama House of our very own at Corazon de Oro (lot #1 is ours!). When we return permanently, if everyone hasn’t already built a LIP House there, I’m sure Reyn would love to oversee the construction of LIP Houses then.
To find out more about Corazon de Oro, click here.
Request The Plans
We think you will enjoy living in a Living in Panama House. If a Living In Panama House fits your needs, please let us know. We will send you its construction plans. They cost $250 if you are not buying one of our properties. The plans are free if you do buy a property from us. Don’t forget, if you buy one of our properties, we are here to help answer your questions about the LIP House all along the way.