When we first initiated purchase of the structures that were to become Villa Ndio it was 1993. By initiated I mean we made an offer of a million French francs to the previous owner. A nice round number. At the time, the French franc was worth less than 17 US cents. Well, you can do the math. To the buyers it was a bargain. To the seller is was a steal. So everyone was happy.
What we got was basically a bombed out shell. But we saw its potential. The plumbing and electricity were decrepit. The kitchen plumbing consisted of a concrete sink with a pipe fixed to the wall above it. The pipe passed through a nearby heater that auto-activated when a spigot was opened. The middle floor bathroom had a toilet that was poorly seated and leaked. There was also a sink in the bathroom, but no tub or shower. The upstairs toilet was in a separate room next to another that had a sit-down tub and a sink. The electrical wiring ran mostly through metal conduit, some hidden, some exposed.
