Santa blew in on the Tradewinds!

No, we did not have a 'White Christmas' this year.

In fact it was around 80 degrees all day, with just a bit of breeze. We are having the 'Christmas Winds' which mean all the sailors are in heaven. The breezes will last into the middle of January and then will taper off. But March will bring another round of tropical winds and all the boats will be out again in full force.

Look what Bob got Jim for Xmas.....Not!

We love the island ingenuity. Want a woody? Slap some plywood on an old Suzuki and you're done.

So, what was for Xmas dinner in de islands?




Appetizer? Several types of cheese and raw honey from Jim's family. Really yummy.

 Main course. Roast leg of lamb with garlic potatoes, carrots and Jim's amazing onion/parsnip tart.
At right is the whole tart just out of the oven and flipped over for serving.

Desert? Sure, Olive oil pound cake with lemon frosting.

It's official, Bob is now overweight and looking like 'Bob's Big Boy" Remember him? Whatever.

Christmas on St. John was wonderful as usual. We decorated our outside deck with our version of a Christmas Tree. Beautiful, huh?

Oh look, there's the jolly ol' plump one now! Ho,ho,ho!   Have a Happy New Year, everyone!

De concrete, it jus keeps comin'.

      Wednesday, December 18th. We receive another delivery of grey gold. Concrete.

      Backing up a week, the guys have been working from the first floor slab up. Framing bedroom and bathroom walls. And the swimming pool. Look, there's a guy standing in our pool! Well, he's standing on the floor of what will be the pool. Hey, check out the view from the pool. We like it!

      Back to today. So I drive out to the lot. This time I don't go out at the crack of dawn. I leave at ten AM and find myself behind yet another cement truck. When I get to the lot there's a que.

      This time we have the pumper truck and six, seven, eight, oh I'm tired of counting so I don't know how many trucks showed up.

      Whatever. Concrete trucks are coming out of our ears! Money is flying out of my bank account. Isn't life in the caribbean grand?




      Here comes the pumper crane. They start off pouring the pool walls and floor.

      Jim and I climb around the lot and watch the action. There's lots of yelling. Start, no stop. No start again. Wait. Start. Hold it. Pump. It moves pretty fast and the sun is starting to set.
      But we don't wait around for the last drop to be poured. We head off to our favorite watering hole to fill ourselves up.

       Many thanks to the concrete guys from St. Thomas. 'Heavy Materials.' Good name. They have to load up, Take the ferry over to St. John. Drive the entire length of the island over narrow, twisty and steep roads. Dump the stuff. Then drive all the way back to catch the ferry back to St. Thomas.
      And concrete turns to stone pretty quickly. Their timing is incredible.

      It's Xmas soon and this is the last posting of 2013. Happy holidays and have a great new year!

Slap Down Dat Slab Mon

     

     So the first really big day of construction is here. Today they will pour the slab for the lower level of the house. I was told that work would begin early. I rush out to the site at the crack of dawn.
     Look, a rainbow! This must be a really good sign.


     I wait and wait. Then wait some more. Where is everybody? I get tired of waiting and the Jeep needs gas, so I drive over to the other end of the island where the only gas station is located. I pass no one along the way. But they have to pass this way to get to our lot. Whatever.



     Back across the island I go. Just as I turn into our development look who I come up behind!

     Well it looks like the pouring will begin soon.  Soon? They've already started. How did this happen. Not only are they pumping concrete, but look at the line-up of trucks. I will learn later that a total of nine trucks made a delivery today. That's a lot of cement!

     Once I climb up above the site, I get a great view of all the action. Cement is pumped up and then flies out into the framing. It all happens pretty quickly and is very well orchestrated. Guys rake the stuff around and others smooth it out. It looks like they're icing a cake! Clearly they've done this before. They move along like a well managed team.

     Here's our trusty contractor Alex Brooks. (in the red and white striped shirt) Alex isn't one to stand around and bark orders. He gets in there and pushes concrete around with the best of them.

     The whole process takes a good part of five hours. I go to join Jim for lunch and when I return they are finishing up pouring the floor of the pool. (Actually the storage room under the pool. The pool bottom is eight or nine feet off the ground.)  What an amazing process. Really cool Mon.
 

     The next day, here's the dried result. Two cisterns and the first floor slab poured. 
                                                               Onward and upward!

    

Quick note, before a bigger event.

Oops.
Forgot to post these pictures.




This was a week or so ago when they poured the foundation footings.

Mr. cement truck arrived, and since the driveway is still pretty rough the truck wasn't able to climb. So how to get the cement up there?

Well, let the backhoe carry it up.



Look inside the bucket. A lovely mix of cement coming right up!


Don't spill any, please.

There is Alex, our contractor, supervising the action.


Wayne, the backhoe operator was great. He delivered every load safely up the drive.

What a great eye. Every pour went straight into the forms.







Tune-in soon. The first floor slab is being poured tomorrow. The cement trucks (at least 4, maybe more) show up at 8AM. I'll be there with my trusty camera!

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!

King of the Hill.

      We are so excited! We have been climbing around this piece of the rock for two years. Each time we pushed ourselves through the underbrush we wondered is this the right place? What will the view really be like? Will this 'top of the ridge' lot support a structure? Can we afford to put a house there? Could tough rock formations get in the way? But putting aside the practicality of location, will this place deliver the dream, the dream we both share?
      We are so excited. The ground has been broken. We can see that our dream will work!

      There have been questions about access to the lot. The driveway would be carved against a 

very steep hill with little room for error. Where it actually would sit was not completely defined. 

The tractor showed up today. Let the questions be answered. Up we go!

      Dig, dig, dig. The operator, Wayne, must be a dare-devil.  Because at many points half of the vehicle was suspended out in the air. He pushed earth up, he pushed earth down, side to side, you name it. Somehow he managed to push himself up the cliff.

        Half way up 'the driveway' Wayne says he has run into a large rock. He says he will just run up over it to get the machine up on top of the driveway. But he says that the metal treads on the tractor don't like rock. Meaning he could slide off. Off to where?

      He made it. Here's the cut driveway finished, for now. It's not as steep as we expected. And the tractor is now in position to start digging the foundation for the house.
      We are so excited. These pictures do 'not the story tell'. There were points when the tractor looked like it would cascade over the edge. Giant boulders went tumbling down the hill. Fortunately there were breaks to stop the rocks.
      But now there is no stopping our construction! Stay tuned, more to come! And quickly!