Wait a minute, slow down, dis be de Virgin Islands.

     The construction crew has hit the road running. In three weeks they have crawled up the
driveway, cleared the site, dug the foundation and poured the cement footings. This week they are framing in the cisterns and first floor slab. The next concrete pour will be soon. Hey, this was supposed to be a slow process! But everyone tells us that the work will go in spurts and stops. So, who am I to complain?

      Jim has been traveling. Up to New York and then out of California. Business, business. Busy, busy. Bob has been minding the store. Store? The art gallery is closed until mid-November. I've been trying to paint, but keep getting distracted.
      Jim missed the opening dig, and here he is coming up the driveway to check out the progress. I think he was surprised.

      Here you can see the two cisterns. The floors are in and they are framing the walls. Once the concrete is poured they will back-fill around them. The den and master bedroom still over these.
How about that view? 26,000 gallons of water at 300 feet above sea level.
Hope those walls are strong?

      Steel arrives. All the way from Puerto Rico. Is thers such a thing as Spanish steel? I've heard of Spanish fly, but not steel! Anyway, this is some of the rebar that will be imbedded in the walls.
This shot is looking across the lower bedrooms towards the rear of the house.

      A small shed has been built to house equipment and such that needs to stay out of the rain. Or perhaps they lock it up to keep it away from the goats and donkeys. Both climb around here at
will! This shed is sitting about where we expect to park the Jeep(s). 

      This week the plumber and electrician start to lay out pipes to go beneath the first floor slab. We are still sorting out parking locations. But the architect tells us to wait until the main floor is in so that we can see how to hide the parking. Whatever!



    
      Jim is heading up to Boston tomorrow.  So I guess I'll just grab a bottle of wine and head out to the site. I'll be sitting at the top of the lot watching the crew at work. Think of me toasting the crew, and looking out at this............                                                          Life is good!

Digging between thunderstorms.

      We've had several storm systems blow through de islands this past week. But it hasn't stopped the construction process one bit. As you will see from the photo below, the initial excavation is almost complete. They are starting to build forms for concrete footings. They dig down until they hit solid earth/rock and that's where the footings start. Once the concrete 'knee walls' are in place, they back fill around those and move upwards. Hopefully all will be well anchored and stable!

      The photo above shows the initial digging at the left. At the right, same location, shows the forms for the knee walls. Rebar will be added too. There are huge piles of earth uphill from the footprint. Most of it will be used to fill-in and grade around the house. Otherwise it has to be trucked away.

      Here you are looking to the west, towards Jost Van Dyke island in the British Virgin Islands. I'm standing at about the deck level of the master bedroom. Below me are the beginnings of two cisterns, Each will hold approximately 13,000 gallons (That's a lot of rainwater!).  The wheel barrow is sitting on the floor of the lower bedrooms. The tractor is in the middle of the swimming pool. The water level will be about even with the top of the tractor arm. So you can see that the pool will be "out there'. We're putting an underwater bench at the end of the pool so you can sit with your beverage of choice and watch the sailboats glide by!

       Directly below the pool will be the parking area. But the cars will be about 18 feet below the pool, so you'll look over them. At some point we may put a flat roof over the cars. Not sure about this yet. The cars may sit to the left, and downhill of the tractor. All this is still under consideration. (No three car garage, Don!) Anyway, now that the trees are removed we have our full view in front of us. Looking directly down you will see the turquoise water of Dreeket's Bay and our private beach.
     Get your swimming suit ready! 12 months and counting!