Land

Never seen prefabs, but there may likely be somewhere you can rent. You can finish a part of the house, then live in it to finish the job. Construction here usually takes much longer than in North American. Also, you can hire help, but you may need to provide food and shelter while they work. Labor costs are low. Depending on where you build, you may use entirely concrete or brick construction (inner and outer walls), no insulation, no central heating, and heated water in only parts of the house. The roof can be the upper concrete floor with stanchions sticking up (complete with rebar) so that you can finish a second story later, if you wish. That second level floor can become the terrazza and can be covered by some simple roof to keep water off the floor and from coming into the house from the stairs. It should be fun and I wish you luck. I am pretty busy, but remind me and I can send you some pictures of a house under construction in Zaruma, if you wish.