Home Building In The Virgin Islands

Sweet Master Suite

2007-05-01T14:37:00.000-04:00

Great, Great Room

2007-05-01T14:36:00.000-04:00

Green, Green Grass

2007-05-01T14:34:00.000-04:00

FWrom the front yard at the driveway, this taken on a rare cloudy day

The Great Room, with the dining room table and some of the furniture we have purchased. Now we get to furnish the whole house, such fun!
The kitchen cabinets, from The Home Depot, in Massachusetts, fit perfectly in the space they occupy. This kitchen set-up is almost identical to our the kitchen in our Harwich home.

The Final Electrical Hookup

2007-05-01T14:32:00.000-04:00

This utility worker, a lineman from the virgin islands Water And Power Authority; AKA: WAPA, he is busy connecting our home to the electrical grid, permanently. Our temporary service pole is disconnected.
This means two things; the first is that before they hook up the power to your house, you must acquire a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) from the Building Department. We passed the inspections and we are cleared to move in - we needed their permission - and we got it!
The second thing is that our exhorbitant electric electric rate is going down. Seems the only way they can entice people to get their CO - and legally inhabit their house - is to charge them a higher rate for the power until they get it done!

I couldn't resist the sailboat. I took the photo from the gallery, the rock pile is topped by what looks like half a cracked egg shell, now a natural stone birdbath. We pulled the stone from the rubble of the excavation; assembled the pile with the bowl facing skyward.
Our home, as it looks from the front yard, the Papaya trees in the foregraoud are grown from seeds the workers dispersed while eating their papayas for lunch.

Concrete Dust is History

2007-03-23T10:50:00.000-04:00

Progress is being made, as we race the clock to get back into our great room, and what a Great Room it is turning out to be! The kitchen is now complete, sans grouting, which we will do later. It is unbelievable how much work this floor has turned out to be. Debbie and I have been working, non-stop, since last Thursday (March 15th) when Terrazzo Bobby finished grinding the concrete down for us. We jumped in on Thursday afternoon, right after the floor dried, and cut the score lines. We did the kitchen square first, which you can see, incidently, came out precisely centered in the kitchen alcove. Amazing, simply amazing. We stained the barely dry exterior squares that would be under the kitchen appliances, like the dishwasher, the gas range, and, of course, the refrigerator. We finished them first so that we could re-occupy the space, maybe make some toast and feed ourselves again, the motto: the sooner the better.

Once the stain set in-place for twenty-four hours, we had to wash the areas down with clean water, to remove the residue of the process. This was a dark stain (Aged Leather, by name) and when the stain is a darker color, it's mildly acidic nature interacts more vigorously with the chemical compostition of the concrete, thus, a lot of brown powder, which, when clean water is added, turns it to a muddy brown liquid.

Eastward Ho!

2007-03-20T15:53:00.000-04:00

Masking Tape Marauders

2007-03-17T11:51:00.000-04:00

We have scored the floor in this room first (pre stain) for a good reason, we are coloring the square tiles like a chessboard, light squares and darker squares. Fema Blue masking tape and 4 mil polyethylene hide the light-colored squares as we prepare to apply the stain to the darker colored; unprotected squares.

With the first coat of stain applied, we begin the waiting period before we can recoat.
Notice the kitchen appliances are gone? We had to remove them and store them for this period of time. The refrigerator is plugged into the kitchen outlet (20 amp circuit) but the frige itself is in the blue bedroom.

Great Room Floor

2007-03-17T11:36:00.000-04:00

And, as we begin the last major project on our new Caribbean Home, we are forced to vacate the only unfinished (did I say AND dusty?) room in the house. This is Michael, an employee of Bobby the Terrazzo Man, as he grinds the concrete with a diamond-studded blade. Notice the water everywhere? A function of the machine he is using, which weighs over 900 lbs, is the shooting of water onto the rotating blades of the machine. This is multi-purpose. The water cools and lubricates the blade(s) as it rotates, and, it also carries away the "spoils" of the operation. I call it slurry, to others it is waste material, which, once rid of it's water, resorts back to it's actual existence state. Dust - the fine-powdered kind - that kind that gets into everything!

Add H2O = Zero Dust = Good Deal

Bobby's truck reminds me of a saying an old timer told me: "Some craftsmen marvel at their own work; take such great pride in their effort; usually forget the condition of their truck and it's contents. They prefer to spend their time honng their skills - afterall - anybody can wash a truck, but there are precious few that can do this level of craftsmanship!" I heard that, 'specially on St. Croix!

This is what the slurry looks like when it's wet, when it's dry it is usually airborne, like spores!

Once they are done grinding, this is what is left behind: A Reasonably flat surface on which to design a floor pattern., next.......

Our cat's view of these proceedings is a little different than our own; I am sure he thinks we are batty!
We did the areas behind and under the appliances first, that way we can re-arm the kitchen sooner. Working in the kitchenn when it looks like this is very discouraging, especially with the refrigerator in the South bedroom! Here you can see that we masked off the areas we didn't want to stain, once the first squares are sealed and finished, we will strip off the plastic and tape from them for transfer to the squares we just completed. Don't worry, we are confused, too.

Once the kitchen was done, we turned our attention to the rest of the room. The combo set up, with the vacuum cleaner, the scoring tool and the scoring guide are set up here, ready for action!

Grade the Driveway

2007-03-17T11:34:00.000-04:00

Now you see it, no you don't. Our shipping container is FINALLY moved away from our front door. We had Israel back to finish the grading, and, lay down some gravel in our driveway. The gravel will help us deal with mud issues when it rains. Afterall, we are doing the finish floors!

In these shots you can see the drive at the front door being graded, and the container slid back onto the lots edge with our neighbor.

Israel has more equipment than you can shake a stick at, and, it is all in tip-top shape, he applies grease to all the grease fittings after ten hours of operation. Here his dump truck, which holds 22 yards of product, is dumping the blue stone gravel.

2007-03-11T14:04:00.000-04:00

Guest Bath Revisited

2007-03-03T18:45:00.000-04:00

Did I mention the finished floor in the guest bathroom? I used slate green stain on the field and the light turquoise for the border.

The Back Hall & Laundry

2007-03-03T15:56:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the error, these photos didn't make the website, as they should have.
In this sequence of photos you can see the process of having the floor grinded (ground?), stained, scored, washed, sealed, and, finally, grouted.
The first two images are of the back hall & laundry area, prior to the work of the grinding tool. Notice the waves in the floor surface? That is how the last guys left the floor, unfinished, mostly because it was the end of the day.

These photos can be enlarged sometimes to full screen (yours) by clicking on the image, try it!

The next shots here are taken after the staining and scoring has been done, what needs doin' now is the wash off of the slightly acidic stain residue. I use a baking soda and water solution for this process. After this is done, the floor can be sealed for posterity.. If washing these floors is the least fun, sealing them is the most rewarding by far of all the processes, or maybe it's the grouting. I can't decide.....

The icing on the cake perhaps?

Ta - Da, the finished product, well, we have still to wax them......

Master Bedroom

2007-03-03T15:53:00.000-04:00

The master bedroom is next, I have applied the first coat of stain, wait twenty four hours, score the floor and then apply a second coat of stain. In this room I have mixed two different stain colors, not that I mixed them into a single solution, but I applied the second color over the first, mostly along the scored "joints". This gives each tile a little individuality; and adds to the "antique" look of water-stained tiles.

The scoring tool and the jig I used to ensure straight lines, simply two pieces of 1/4" masonite, attached together so as they lay parallel to each other and spread apart at 1-1/2" to allow for the saws width.

The blue tape and string are used to mark out the "tiles" for scoring. I used the blue tape, instead of marking the floor with a pencil, simply because it's easier to see and it doesn't leave a mark that must be erased off.

In the last photo, you can see the semi-finished product, with the scored joints and the addtional concrete stain applied. Now we wait for an addtional time period to allow the stain to burn into the concrete surface, tomorrow we wash and seal!

Guest Bath Floor

2007-02-27T16:40:00.000-04:00

Guest bath floor border is stained a light turquoise, wait 'til I uncover the final product tomorrow..............

Hallway Floor, Before & After

2007-02-27T16:39:00.000-04:00

This shot is of the back hall / laundry, you can see the vent for the dryer, as well as the propane gas tubing, sticking out of the wall. Notice the waves in the concrete, as it was troweled to a finsih, shy of a finished job, prior to grinding and staining. The second shot looks down the hall in the opposite direction, looking into the Great Room.

This next shot here is of the same hallway, looking into the house through the back door, see the stained and scored floors within, this will be cleaned up and a coat of sealer applied, wait and see............

Bobby the Terrazzo Guy

2007-02-27T15:41:00.000-04:00

This is Bobby the (self-described) Terrazzo Guy, his name is actually Wentworth Thomas, rather distinguished sounding, eh? Anyway, Bobby is, how should I describe this, finish-grinding the white cement and white sand concrete mix, which is the top coat of our finished floor. About 1/2 - 3/4" thick or so, more recenetly troweled on top of the rough slab we poured months ago.
Bobby is shown here, using his small rotary machine with diamond blades, I think he was using 80 grit at first, finishing with a 120 grit metal blade.
The machine itself is called a planetary polisher, that is, the round diamond-embedded grinding disks (five or seven) are also spinning, in an opposite direction than the main blade, to ensure a smooth surface, free of grinder marks. Get it, the small planets (grinding disks), rotate around the main planetary body? The master bedroom floor, shown here, is getting ground down and the slurry, or spoils of the grind, are mopped and vacuumed up with a wet vacuum system. Creating zero dust, zippo, none, he left the floor smooth and wet and clean!!
The next step, after his water has evaporated, and the floor is dry again, I begin by applying a first coat of stain with an insect sprayer, the kind you pump up by hand. I leave the stain sit on top of the cement and let it doing it's work, burning it's color into the concrete's DNA. There is no going back and there is no certainty to the color of the final product, it will be what ever it will be, end of story. Isn't it grand - no control at all - absolutely none.

Enter the Solar Age

2007-02-27T15:33:00.000-04:00

Pictured for you here is the solar system, well, not actually the Solar System (which is substantially larger and much more complex), it is our solar hot-water-heater system, and it is installed and working, as I write. The system consists of the (from left to right) the Solar Photo-Voltaic (PV) collector as part of the system, in that the electricity that operates the circulating pump, is provided by this little unit. I put it in that cute little aluminum frame and angle mounted it to provide maximum solar gain (sunlight on-target). In this way, we use none of our own electricity ($0.48 / KWH) to power the system. If the sun doesn't shine brightly enough, the pump doesn't operate, but who needs a circulating pump if the solar Hot Water Collector isn't heating water? By the way, that big brown thing, about 4 feet wide and six feet lengthwise? That is the solar hot water collector, or, heater. The insulated feed hot water water pipe is shown entering the bottom of the collector at the right. After traveling through the collector, pushed by a very small electric motor, and so-called gravity feed, (where hot water flows uphill more easily) the heated water leaves the collector at the top left hand corner, and travels into an electric hot water heater / storage tank, in the utility room of the house. The electric, or utility power that feeds the electric hot water heater, is used for long periods of cloudy days (as if).

Tile Free

2007-02-23T07:43:00.000-04:00

The confluence of grout lines, scored into the concrete by my Soff-Cut cutting tool, are ready for grouting. This is the floor portion of this home building project, I am most humbled by the enormity of the task, but onward I press to the finish line.

This shot of the West Wing' south bedroom, or blue room. The floor is sealed and ready for the grout, which I will do later this week.

It has always been my goal, when building this house, to eliminate the need for any kind of tile, be it ceramic, or terra cotta, or marble; intended for the floor, ceiling, and, yes, even wall tiles are off the project list.

We are using a fairly new technique on our floors, be they in the bedroom, in the hall, in the bathroom, or anywhere at all! We are using a concrete staining system from DECOSUP, an acronym for Decorative [Concrete] Supplies. They are based in Miami, FL. I used their product here in St. Croix, for one really good reason; the concrete stain they manufacture is a low acidic product, compared to Acid Based Stains, which contain hydrochloric and / or sulphuric. It should come as no surprise that acid is a hazardous material, therefore, read: HAZMAT shipping costs, which are prohibitively costly, especially overseas!

The finished product, after grouting the seams between the tiles! Ha ha, as if. I have to polish the final product with terrazzo floor wax, NEXT WEEK!

In The Weeds

2007-02-21T11:18:00.000-04:00

I have to say, that when it comes to some building materials; most especially a product with which one has never worked, the old method; or, trial and error, serves as the best guide of all. I am referring to the product concrete, and the various (they are many) problems one can have with it.
I use the metaphor thus: Toying with concrete for the first time (read: every time is different) is a lot like learning to play golf. At first, one tends to hit a lot of balls into the rough, the high grass, off the fairway, into the sand traps, or, as they in the business, hittin' 'em in the weeds. Maybe this is the most frustrating thing you've ever done in life, that is, constantly putting your golf ball in a place where it is extremely difficult to hit it from, from amongst and under the trees, from deep grass, from under a bush, etc. That being said, I've been in the weeds A LOT.
There is an upside to the predicament, and that is that, besides learning not to hit the ball into the woods, one can also learn how to make some unbelievable shots that wouldn't otherwise be a part of a normal practice regimen. It's no fun being in the weeds, but when you find yourself there, you deal with it. Afterall, some of the craziest things come from learning by burning. So, you spill a little sealer in the new concrete, because the concrete is sealed, the spots show everywhere, what to do? Scrub the spots with a wire brush and discover the emerald green you'd hope to have for an end product....
The first shot here is of the south bedroom in The West Wing, or the blue room. The floor is scored and ready for sealing, which I will do later today. The next three shots are of the guest bathroom floor, which you see here. The border of the room, about 7" wide and which will be stained later, is masked off from the rest of the room. This is after the acid staining and the use of a wire brush to work the stain into the concrete. The finished product will be the emerald green I wanted, with a light aqua, a little darker shade than the master bedroom as the border color. The seams will be filled with white grout, which will really finish the look of ancient stone.

Floor Scored & Several Days Ago

2007-02-17T08:11:00.000-04:00

The floors of our home are going to be colored, or stained concrete, we had a top coat of concrete poured over the rough, what I call sub-floor. Which is the steel reinforced concrete slab through which the plumber and I coursed several conduit runs, and the plumber his water supply lines, hot and cold; as well as waste piping.
The top coat of concrete, poured on an average 3/4" to 1" thickness, is white cement. That is, white Portland Cement, instead of the normal shade of gray; the product we used was actually a product of Denmark. Interesting, considering the Danes owned and ran the plantations on these United States Virgin Islands, until the good ole USA bought them prior to WWI, to protect the Panama Canal, I think it was in November of 1917.

In this series I show you the stages of preparation and application for scribing and staining concrete floors. This is my second attempt at this craft, O.K. third try, our Harwich, (MA) barn was project one, the master bathroom in 71 Vista Concordia; and, now, the West Wing. The blue room, above, is in the process of protection from water based concrete stain application. We covered the lower 12" of the walls for this protection, sealed top and bottom to prevent leakage behind the protective membrane. We will leave this in-place until the floor is stained, scored, rinsed and the mildly acidic stain is neutralized; and, finally, sealed with a lacquer based concrete sealer.

We are using products from a company in Florida, under the name of Decosup, or decorative concrete supplies. Decosup's floor stains are a non-acidic solution which don't require HAZMAT (Hazardous Material) shipping. After all, shipping to this Island, 2,300 miles from Miami, FL, is expensive enough as it is for normal shipping rates.This shot of the south bedroom, sorry, the blue room, viewed down the Greenie Beanie (the name of the paint color) hallway, shows the application of the 1st stain coat, note the plastic film wall protection, taped to the wall top and bottom.

That black, cylindrical. & hosed aparatus in the center of the doorway is the stain applicator. I simply pour in the stain, pump up the pressure and pull the pistol grip handle to spray the liquid on the floor.

The vacuum cleaner I use for dust collection, and the floor jig for cutting straight lines is on the floor. The jig consists of two pieces of 1/4" masonite held parallel at the right dimension to allow for the concrete saw's footprint. This insures a straight and unwavering cut in the surface. The white cement, used to pour this layer, is extremely hard at this point, being fully cured now for several weeks. The handle of the saw pokes out of the closet at left of photo.

Everything but the.........

2007-02-14T12:53:00.000-04:00

Before formica was discovered; prior to corian or so-called solid-surfacing, or - previous to the advent of granite, slate, or even linoleum, soapstone ruled for kitchen sinks with adjacent countertops. But that was in my grandfather's house in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in the 1960's!

Our kitchen cabinet bases (carcases) are topped with cement board, 1/2" thick and then we mixed concrete for the pour, using a brown pigmented liquid to color the batch prior to mixing, actually during the mixing stage, as it was used for the necessary water that is needed to complete the formula for concrete. Again, Portland Cement(named for the English city, not the coastal city in Maine), an aggregate, in our case sand only for a lighter mix, and, of course water. We used plenty of color additive to make the mix a color as close to Milk chocolate as possible, not to be confused with Dark chocolate, or even the Semi-Sweet variety. Actually, I'm just kidding, I was trying to match the darker brown in the cabinet wood, which is Hickory, incidentally.

Note the the under-mount sink, or the drop down front edge in front of it? Strictly Stylin', I am say - in'! Being the first concrete job I've EVER done; O.K., the second, if you count the bathroom vanity (picky - picky - picky).

The gentleman in the photo is Johnson, he is from St. Lucia, he mixed and transported the concrete from the yard to the kitchen and did some preliminary leveling, and then he left, the finish on the surface was done by yours truly!

Debbie insisted I show the BEFORE and after shots of the scene, that is before she painted the edge around the countertop, where it meets the wall, nice, huh? The next shot down is the AFTER.

At long last, the kitchen sink is in-place and Debbie finally is happy, did I say FINALLY? The counter top pour was a giant step to the completion of the house, not only for our basic cooking needs and the peace it provides us at mealtime, but for the mere saneness it affords each of us. I was petrified about the concrete work for weeks before we did it, weeks! And now 'tis done.

That red-ish looking wood in the foreground of this last photo is the last finish piece for the kitchen peninsula, I have yet to mount or finish that piece of lumber, which covers the top of the concrete block 1/2 wall that separates the kitchen from the living area. Too high for bar stools, we will just have standing room there for guests to rest and watch the cook, maybe a plant or two, who knows?

The Kitchen Counter

2007-02-13T15:58:00.000-04:00

The Kitchen Sink

2007-02-13T11:26:00.000-04:00

Seen here, in these exclusive photos, the kitchen counter top is being readied for the concrete. The forms are in place around the counter's edge, the 3/8" rebar placed, and tied, at 6" intervals; the pvc pipe stubs can be seen poking up through the cement board base. The grid of rebar helps to strengthen the slab and makes it less likely to crack from shrinkage. The pvc pipe stubs are for the faucet and sprayer, yet to be installed. The same shot, of the same sink cutout, during the "pour". You can see the glass like surface of the wet concrete in the next photos. The water will evaporate as part of the curing process, which also includes the production of heat, as the mix of cement sand changes from a liquid into a solid.

The Master Bath Vanity

2007-02-08T13:40:00.000-04:00

The Master Bathroom is the first room we have completed. In this series of photos you can see the bath vanity top, and the above-counter sink, as the ensemble is being constructed. I say above-counter because the sink was intended to mount in a vanity top, lower than the height we wanted of 36", or kitchen counter height.

The Long Haul

2007-01-07T13:28:00.000-04:00

I haven't been adding much dialog to the blog, to go along with the images of our newly constructed house, since last July. In July of last year (2006) Debbie and I returned to the "continent" for a respite from the daily grind of construction. We were on Cape Cod, in our Summer home, which is located in Harwich, Massachusetts.
Toward the end of July, I don't recall the exact date, I received a phone call from our builder, Arnold Jeffers. Arnold was concerned for our belongings, which were securely stored (we thought) in our 20 foot shipping container, on our property, almost adjacent to our front door. Arnold said that the container was open and a few items were strewn on the house floor, in our walls without-a-roof half-built dwelling. My antique Gibson acoustic guiter, still in it's case - apparently unharmed - was among the pieces of our life, as yet unclaimed by predators, in the bright sun of mid-Summer.
Inside the double locked, double doors, was every single tool I owned, mostly power tools. Some of them for electrical work, some of them for woodworking work. In all I accounted for a total loss of a little over $4,000.00! When Arnold called the police that night, the dispatcher said they didn't have the manpower to respond until the next day! Imagine, they asked my builder to leave the scene as he had found it, so as not to disturb evidence, as if - I found out later - it actually mattered! Instead of doing that Arnold had the container closed and relocked. We found out later - a full two weeks after the crime. Upon inquiring at the "Cop Shop" what the status of the investigation was, a young woman told her superior, in front of my wife Debbie, that she and "someone" had gone to the property that night (I guess they were bored, but didn't realize she had to file a report about the incident) and nobody was there to show them the crime scene. They didn't do anything when they got there? Can you imagine anything that outrageous happening in your town, with your local constabulary? How do we know these cops weren't involved in stealing some of the lost items, an open container - no one to account to for their time - you do the math!
If you can imagine, I was angry about the loss for weeks afterward! I have since recovered from the loss and I plan to take up where I left off, in late June of last year.

The Laundry and Utility Room

2006-12-13T11:31:00.000-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

The Next Best Guest Room

2006-12-13T11:30:00.001-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

Guest Bedroom of Choice

2006-12-13T11:30:00.000-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

The Outdoor Shower

2006-12-13T11:29:00.001-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

Ah, The Permit

2006-12-13T11:29:00.000-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

Our Entrance From the Street

2006-12-13T11:28:00.001-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

Even the Basment Level has a View

2006-12-13T11:28:00.000-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

Through the Arch

2006-12-13T11:27:00.001-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

Fronting the East 'ard

2006-12-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

The Birdbath Overlook

2006-12-13T11:26:00.000-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

Our Home, Sweet Home

2006-12-13T11:25:00.000-04:00

To Enlarge Photo to Full Screen, Click on Image

2006-12-12T10:05:00.000-04:00

The View Over the Bird Bath

2006-11-15T18:06:00.002-04:00

Nightfall
click on image to enlarge to full screen

The West Wing

2006-11-15T18:06:00.001-04:00

To Enlarge to Full Screen, Click on Image

2006-11-15T18:06:00.000-04:00

The Kitchen Near Complete
click on image to enlarge to full screen

2006-11-12T18:27:00.001-04:00

the whole north elevation
click on image to enlarge to full screen

2006-11-12T18:27:00.000-04:00

through the arches to christiansted town
click on image to enlarge to full screen

2006-11-12T18:26:00.001-04:00

from the southard
click on image to enlarge to full screen

Six Days

2006-10-24T15:41:00.000-04:00

click on Image to enlarge to full screen

Great Room - Little Time

2006-10-10T16:18:00.000-04:00

click on image to enlarge to photo full screen

I haven't let on that the plaster (actually concrete with easy spread) is being applied throughout the house, so this is the first indicator. This room actually has the primer coat of paint (notice our painter, Dilbert, in upper right corner of photo); the finish painting coat with color begins tomorrow, with our bedroom and this room all ready to go.............. wahooo.........

Did you see the ceiling fan? Debbie helped me install the two for the great room today, the master bedroom is tomorrow; I will install the remaining bedroom fans, in the West Wing, once they are plastered, (or... parged... or... stuccoed [sic?]).

The clock ticks away as we close in on Halloween, our official moving day, although we are bringing items from the rental house every day now, and not bringing them back here. So the move begins..... Debbie and I are accustomed to moving, we were programmed to put up with it twice a year when we lived on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. We called it the Nantucket shuffle, every Spring and every Fall we were off to new digs, in search of the best deal... ...as if!

Vista Concordia Signpost

2006-10-06T14:49:00.000-04:00

The entrance to our area is not gated, but it bears the name of the Estate we are in, Concordia, and the view is unbelievable! Coincidental that I was raised in Concord, Massachusetts? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

The pressure treated plywood, in this case 3/4" Tongue & Groove, is being applied to the roof systems of the separate "pods" of the house.

At the Break of Dawn

2006-10-03T16:36:00.000-04:00

The East gallery facade, with eliptical European arches and columns with collars. The staging is still up in places for the stucco job, or parging.

clik on images to enlarge

Bright and early this morning, 6:45 AM. The puddle on the floor is from a brief shower moments earlier... No, the roof still isn't tight yet, we are still hoping to move into this place on Halloween, scary, eh? I won't be in-costume, but I will likely look like a raving lunatic!

The staging is set up for the ceiling fans, which I will put up soon. The cables floating (seemingly) in to view, are for a smoke detector for the Great Room ceiling. There is also a smoke detector in the back hall, one each

inside each bedroom and one in the basement apartment. The will ring in unison, at 8.5 decibels, if smoke is detected.

Roof in Process

2006-09-27T16:09:00.000-04:00

The roof planking going on, providing a new commodity... shade from the relentless sun. Note that the walls are still showing concrete block? Wait 'til next week, when the plasterer starts! Whoooeeeeeeeee

The Great Room Ceiling, see Debbie there, she's resting from sanding the cypress planks, prior to tung-oiling. Trini (short for Trinindad, his home, his real name is Kenrick) is outside on the gallery, he's the head tung-oiler.

On the West Wing roof, that's Edmund on the left and Donald on the right.

To enlarge, clik on any image

The roof over the Master Suite pod is visible now, from atop the main roof of the Great Room.

Donald, with saw, is on our roof, Stanley the gardener, is actually on the road below, working his magic gasoline-powered trimmer for the Vista Concordia Homeowners Association. He keeps our neighborhood neat and trim, week-in and week-out..... literally.

Pappy & Edmund

Painted Rafters, #2 Cypress

2006-09-21T16:39:00.000-04:00

to enlarge photo, click on the image

Megan's Bay, St. Thomas

2006-09-15T20:25:00.000-04:00

This shot, taken on a recent trip to our sister island of St. Thomas (we took the high-speed ferry service out of Gallows Bay). The island in the distance is Danish-named Hans Lollik, Petite Hans Lillik is even further to the northeast and is hidden from view behind it's grander uncle.

Pouring the Gallery Roof

2006-09-14T17:03:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on images

The roof of the gallery is being poured, Arnold Jeffers, center, oversees the concrete pump worker. Once the forms are stripped away, the finished product appears from it's cacoon, below.

Israel Rivera, from Puerto Rico, is our latest excavator, he is digging the trenches for the new septic system for our home.

From The East Scenic Road

2006-08-25T16:49:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on image

Roofin', in the Afternnon

2006-08-23T16:06:00.000-04:00

This photo was taken before the concrete slab was poured, looking east and a little south, you can see the busy area that is Christiansted town. Remember that these images can be enlarged thus: With your pointer on the photo, left-click the image; presto!

to enlarge, clik on image

The perch view as it looks today, with the roof framing alomst complete. You can see that the fascia board has been installed along the outer edge of the roof rafters. This is the first member of the gutter system we are incorporating into the roof design and water collection system. The downsouts are set in the appropriate places - within the concrete wall cavity - and out of sight.

Edmund, with this back to the camera lens, discusses a point with Arnold Jeffers. The rafter "tails" overhang the plywood forms; Arnold is leaning on one of them. These tails will be trimmed off square, true and plumb, to accept the facia board. For the most part, this roof system has a very shallow pitch and the pitch it will be almost indiscernible from the ground. We are putting our solar hot water collector and the dish for the satellite television system we choose on this roof and we are hoping they disappear, too!

Puttin' on the Roof

2006-08-16T18:55:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on image

As evidenced in the photos above and below, we are making progress. Arnold and his merry men continue with the roof framing, the Great Room is in the center, with the Master Bedroom to the left, the Laundry/Guest Bath and Guest Bedroom Wing is to the right. The plywood casting forms are in place along the eave of the roof, with concrete to be poured after all the rafters are in place.

The rafters tails overhang the building for now, to be plumb cut (vertically) when the entire roof is in-place. The gutter detail and facia boards that form it will be illustrated and I will also take photos of the components as they are assembled and installed.

The yellow house with the white roof, in view on the hillside, visible over the Great Room rafters, belongs to our friends, Jim and Liz Richards of JET Development Corporation.

Enlarge these photos up by clicking anywhere on the images.

to enlarge, clik on image

Progressing Westward

2006-08-15T12:56:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on image

Carambola Resort

2006-08-13T12:43:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on image

Raisin' the Ridge Pole

2006-08-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on image

From these two photos you can see the progress being made on the roof, in this case we are building four, what are known as a "hip" roofs.

A hip roof isn't cool - or square for that matter and it doesn't have an attitude, so what is it? As these frame members are set in place and secured, I will demonstrate the function of the roof rafters and the unique relationship it has with the bond, or collar beam, discussed previously.

In the photos of the roof framing, you will notice that the lines of the roof form an oblique triangle, with the long side being the level (horizontal) plane across the tops of the walls of each of the pods.

Bond, or Collar Beam

2006-08-06T16:13:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on image

In this photo I am showing you an outside corner of the house, in this case the south bedroom pod, and the laundry / guest bathroom pod. Notice the steel rebars running vertically. At the top of these steel columns the reinforcing bars are allowed to protrude above the wall of the dwelling. These are to be utilized in the bond beam-to-corner column connection. Once the corner is formed it is cast (poured) and stripped of its plywood forms, the bond beam forms are nailed in-place along the top of the walls, where additional steel is fabricated into a steel reinforced concrete "beam", or, in our case, a "bond" beam.

A look at the inside of one of these beams, from insiode our great room:

to enlarge, clik on image

In this shot, taken from our kitchen area across the great room toward the south wall. The concrete block wall, which is the dividing partition between the camera's lens and the master bedroom. There are three six foot wide, double french, outswing doors. These are three double french door openings across that front wall (left to right in this shot) but one of them is off-camera. The other two doors in view are, left to right, the master bedroom door and a small closet door which, incidently, backs up to the linen closet in the master bathroom.

The bond beam, and the required steel reinforcing that will be cast within it, are evidenced in this photo when enlarged. You can also see some grey conduits (electrical) and some white pipes (plumbing) protruding vertically out of the cast corner, as well those vertical steel rebar column assemblies within some of the partition cavities. When completed, this structure, or conglomeration of vertical and horizontal steel rebar, will be bound together, with the vertical members bent over the top of the horizontal members, and serve as a means to fasten the beam between vertical posts and hold the structure in a tightly clenched grip for eternity. Anyway, that's the goal here.

But it doesn't stop there, this eternity thing raises it's head again, before the final concrete is poured into these plywood forms, covering all in a slurry of sloppy grey matter.

The second function of this bond beam is to strengthen the building walls and enhance the connection between the roof rafters, the building reinforcing steel and create a "building collar". The collar beam, or bond beam, are also intended to increase the strength of the wall system and prevent what is known(in most parts)as total building collapse.

I will endeavor to explain the phenomenon which occurs to building roofs, caused by the inclinations of gravity and constant stress, as well as the unexpected. No, I am not talking about any of you old folks and your sagging whatevers, although I do have a certain familiarity with the subject myself.

The top of this beam will serve as the resting place for the roof rafters; in our case, the roof is going to be what is known as a "hip" roof. Each rafter, a 3" X 8" plank of insect and mildew resistant lumber. Once called Wolminized lumber, for the inventor of the process, Mr. Wolmin. [sp?]. Some refer to it as pressure treated lumber, after the process of subjecting the raw lumber to high pressure osmosis if you will, of this poisonous (originally it was laced with arsenic) green-colored fluid. Anyway....

The rafters are placed on top of the forms as they are now layed out, with the proper spacing in between each member of 24". You will see this soon as the builder is coming back to work tomorrow (monday). More later..............

Estate Clairmont Overlook

2006-08-06T14:12:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on image

From a friend's house some 140 feet higher in elevation than we are, you can make out our house (walls w/o roof) on the flat knoll top, just above center in the photo. Our new friends have an incredible view of both the North and South shores of St. Croix. They, Jim & Liz, are two of the three partners that comprise JET Development Corporation, a construction company building homes and additions, they also do remodelling work as well.

Further below on the crest of a hill, with the serpentine driveway surrounded by a burned-out lawn, is the visitors center for the Salt River National Historic Park. Somewhere on that beach below; either the far shore of the Salt River, dubbed "The Cape of the Arrows" by Chris Columbus himself when he set foot in the New World for the second time in two years, this second voyage taking place in the year 1493. This is actually the only documented (three separate, written accounts) evidence of his voyage, or his landing spot.

Frangipani Caterpillar

2006-08-06T13:58:00.000-04:00

to enlarge, clik on image

This unlikely suspect is the culprit behind the defoliation of the frangipani tree. These caterpillars, which do not morph into butterflys, live to eat the leaves of this one plant, and, once the tree is denuded of leaves, the vermin die and the tree goes into winter mode. In the early summer they begin to refoliate, and, before ya know it - guess who's coming to dinner?

Photo Inhancement

2006-08-04T16:22:00.000-04:00

As is always the case with the photos I display on this blog, they are fully enlargable for easier viewing and to optimize detail recognition. To enlarge any image on this site, hover over the photo with your mouse pointer until a hand appears in the place of the pointer. This hand is like a magic wand that will, when clicked, enlarge the photo you are viewing.
Once the photo is enlarged on your PC, you will notice a popup display in the upper right of the photo - ignore it, and, if you hover the pointer over the enlarged photo, an icon appears in the lower right of the photo that resembles a cheesburger with arrows pointing in four different directions. Don't ask me what the icon is supposed to signify, or resemble, just clik on it, and bingo - (presto?) the photo will enlarge to the largest scale, in most cases covering your screen. Use it as a desktop background, or just to get a closer look, whatever. JUST DO IT!

Old View From The Perch

2006-08-03T07:18:00.000-04:00

Once the photo is enlarged on your PC, you will notice a popup display in the upper right of the photo - ignore it, and, if you hover the pointer over the enlarged photo, an icon appears in the lower right of the photo that resembles a cheesburger with arrows pointing in four different directions. Don't ask me what the icon is supposed to signify, or resemble, just clik on it, and bingo - (presto?) the photo will enlarge to the largest scale, in most cases covering your screen. Use it as a desktop background, or just to get a closer look, whatever. JUST DO IT!

click any images to enlarge

This photo was taken months ago, and shows the footings as they were poured (cast) around the perimeter of our house. Notice the folding chair in the left foreground, we bought this chair, and three others like it, for $4.00 apiece. I call this Debbie's view, from the women's tee (a little golf humor there). Anyway, this view has changed considerably since this photo was taken, as you will see in this next shot, taken yesterday!

To enlarge photo, clik on image.

This is the stage we are at presently at, with the plywood forms, in view around the entire perimeter of the house for casting the "Bond Beam" in concrete! The "bond beam" as the locals call it is actually a multipurpose structural component of the building.

The plywood forms, with 2 X 4's run laterally (side to side) for rigidity, are set up and nailed directly to the cement block wall below. If you blow up the photo above and, by looking over the first rooms in the foreground, you can see the back side of the plywood forms. This is the plywood casting form for the bond beam that surrounds the great room. If you look closely, you can see the steel members of the bond beam exposed inside the laundry-bath pod, this will also be formed and cast.

The purpose of the bond beam is multifold, as I mentioned. To understand this you have to rely on a few "givens" in weight-bearing load situations. Since we have a roof system for each pod (we have four pods) each pod has a bond beam around it's entire perimeter; since the roof will rest on these partitions, they are all weight-bearing walls.

Before being deemed ready to accept the roof rafters, the entire form system will have to be shot with a transit, or a laser tool used for this purpose, to ensure a straight and level resting place for the roof rafters. Ah, the roof rafters! ......but I'm getting a head of myself........

Steel City Awaitin' Picture

2006-07-04T14:31:00.000-04:00

click on any image to enlarge

Arnold Jeffers, in the foreground wearing safety glasses, is overseeing the installation of the steel reinforcing bar assemblies, and the flexible 1/4" masonite formed over the 2 x 4 lumber, used in conjunction with each other to form and brace the casting form for the archways on the gallery's exterior walls. The steel rebar "assemblies" as I call them, are made up on the ground and twist-tied together for strength and rigidity. These shown are actually wrongly constructed, by our earlier contractor. Arnold has devised a way to use them in this way, otherwise we would discard them as scrap iron.

The assemblies of steel are then connected and tied to the vertical steel in the columns for additional strength. This gallery roof will be cast in concrete as well, so these steps are very important to ensure the structure doesn't detach from the building and get blown away in a hurricane (not likely, eh?)!

Wooden Eliptical Archway Forms

2006-07-04T14:14:00.000-04:00

click on any images to enlarge

Progressing Eastward

2006-07-04T14:09:00.000-04:00

click on any images to enlarge

Looking back at our house, from the northeast corner, you can see the progress, from west to east, as our home is built, block by block, masonry nail after masonry nail! There is a method to this way of "directional" construction, or crew movement through the construction process and the structure. The wind plays a significant role in the process. West to east construction method allows that the last wall put up, that last window installed, that last opening sealed is in that eastern most wall...... don't block that wonderful wind, which generally blows out of the north and east.

Note the four columns of our gallery, wrapped with collars of wood? These four are the pillars which carry the concrete gallery roof. The collars are concrete casting forms which will create the "collar trim" and also provide a base for the plywood which will be used to from the wall above the pillars and above the half-elliptical arches.

Still Life With Coffee Mug

2006-07-04T14:03:00.000-04:00

click on any images to enlarge

Perch View Over Walls

2006-06-18T14:45:00.000-04:00

click any images to enlarge

Closing In

2006-06-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

click any images to enlarge

In the East wall our three french doors are framed in wood forms and you can see what will be the pillars of our gallery, or front porch, now just rusted skeletal reinforcing bar entities, as yet unformed, unpoured but somewhat defined elements.

In the distance, through the opening for the second french door, you can see Christiansted through the haze. The haze on this day is caused from two separate incidents, one happening southeast of here, in Montserrat, in the form of an active volcano, spewing ash into the sky (some 10 to 15, 000 feet altitude); the other about 3,500 miles to the east, in Africa, the winds of the desert are sending the dust skyward as well. On a clear day we can see forty to forty five miles to the horizon and other nearby Islands, with the ash and dust? Two miles, sometimes less.

A study of the dust that is transported from Africa to the Caribbean Basin, with some micron-sized bits carried in the Jet Stream at extremely high altitudes, is ongoing. Once thought to be sterilized by the extreme heat of the desert, they are now discovering that these once innocuous specks may carry disease and carcinogins in the form of microbes, pesticides, crop-enhancing fertilizers and other chemical wastes that may hitchhike along with the finest of the particles. So much for clean Caribbean breezes, is anyplace free of these poisonous pollutants?

There is an upside to the dust and the severity, or not, of the airborne dust storms or particle deposits on our shores. The dust may help protect us from the formation of tropical depressions, storms and Hurricanes, because they adhere to water molecules in the atmosphere that they pass through, slowing the uptake of large amounts of sea water, which normally feed the storms fury themselves as they gather strength coming across the Atlantic Ocean. This, it is believed, is why the most recent of Hurricanes, which caused unprecedented damage in coastal and inland regions of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Missippi and Texas, as was the case last summer and fall, are forming much further to the west thqatn normal.

Edmond & Ellerton

2006-06-10T14:09:00.000-04:00

click any images to enlarge

These two guys, are Edmond, facing the camera, and Ellerton Jeffers. Ellerton is builder Arnold Jeffer's son. Ellerton was drafted by the Florida Marlins Baseball Team and he was called up to "The Bigs" or "The Show" for a week where he faced Major League pitching for the first time! (They throw in the 90's, as in MPH!) When he returned to St. Croix, he was asked to run a baseball camp for young boys, which he does during the spring and summer, in between sprints working for his father.

Upwards & Eastward

2006-06-10T14:06:00.000-04:00

click any images to enlarge

The mason work on the 8" bearing wall that divides the Great Room from the guest bath / laundry "pod" I call them pods for the design method. We have four "Pods"; the Master Bedroom / Bath Suite, the Great Room, the Laundry, Guest Bath, Utility Room and Back Hall, and the Guest Bedroom pod. Each pod is a rectangle, (except for the trapezoidal Master Suite) and each will have it's own individual hip-roof system, supported by the four walls that comprise the rectangle. Therefore, the exterior walls, which support the roof system (as in bearing the load) are of 8" cement block and the interior partitions are of 6" cement block.

The two gentlemen masons are, left to right: a Trinidadian and a St. Lucian. Working acroos the house from west to east, keeping the open to the east feel; what for the sake of the Trade Winds, which blow from the northeast (usually). They close the east wall last for this reason, in this summer season the wind and shade are the only saviors at times to the unrelenting sun.

Toad in Residence

2006-06-10T14:05:00.000-04:00

click any images to enlarge

This guy was inside our master bedroom closet, behind some water soaked cardboard boxes. The boxes turned to mush when it rained, and the contents spilled out when I picked one up. The electrical box was an expected find, the toad, however, was not.

The house is coming along as the masons / carpenters are busy building the walls and the necessary forms for the poured concrete portions of the wall. This method of construction is NOT electrician-friendly. In New England, where the walls of homes are generally constructed of wood frame, sheathing, fiberglass insulation and plaster or sheetrock interior finish, clapboard or shingled exterior. Wood frames are drilled and romex is fed throughout the dwelling, relatively easy stuff.

In the Caribbean the emphasis is on the strength of concrete blocks and concrete, and the inherent resilience to sun, wind, fire and rain; did I mention Hurricane? (note the capital letter).

So, the process for me, viewed strictly as an electrical contractor, is thus: dimly lit. In other words, there has to be a better way than this to construct concrete block homes! I've shown you photos of the work in the slab, before the concrete was poured over it, creating the (almost finish) floor for the first level of our home. I am told that the electricians hereabout don't often do elaborate electrical stystems installations, such as I have in my own dwelling. I admit that I may have gone overboard in some areas of the installation, with stereo speaker conduits, telephone, coaxial television and Category 5e data lines; a low voltage lighting installation that is high tech and different, but really............

From what I have observed, and experienced first hand, getting conduits to conform to your blow torch's heat, breaking away more concrete and mortar mix than I ever want to see again, (you should see my knuckles, scarred and torn from the harsh surfaces) ..and basically following along closely with the masons and get your stuff where you have to have it! Lights fixtures, properly centered in a space, how is that possible in this world of gray matter and aggregate? Aggregate?, I'll tell you who's aggregated!

It is not. Possible that is, possible to properly locate a wall sconce, and do it in increments of eight, eight and sixteen (= inches in a single concrete block).

I had conduits sticking up out of the floor in various places (see photo)

before the floor was poured. The measurements used for locating the various partitions and bearing walls were derived from the foundation as it was constructed, as opposed to as was written in the house plans themselves. The original contractor told me I couldn't see a 1/2 inch error in a 24 foot expanse of wall being square or out of square with another wall.

He was likely correct in his assessment. Funny thing? He didn't ask me if I could tell if there was a variation of three inches in that same 24' expanse of wall! Our Master Bedroom Suite (Bed & Bath) now has the following dimensions: 24'-1" on the South wall, the West wall is 16' 3-1/2", the North wall, which adjoins the Great Room, is 23'-2", the East wall is 15' 11-1/2"! My son James asked me if I had purposely designed a trapezoid, or was that unintentional? The latter is true. Did I mention that the whole wing is shifted to the East 5", yes, it is so. The old joke is that somebody rubbed the little marks off their ruler, ya think?

Anyway, measuring off an already unsquare building is kind of hit or miss, in this case (especially mine) the walls were shifted to and fro so as to throw my conduits in a hallway, instead of the bedroom partition, under a steel rebar, inaccessible, useless or damn near it.

I was after these guys at every turn, almost it seemed, that they would much rather have me off-site at times, instead of right there watching there every move, trying to keep from getting buried (literally and figuratively) in concrete dust, blood, tears and perspiration. Which reminds me, don't stand down-wind of a mason as he dumps shovelful after shovelful of cement into the screen, especially with a sweaty body. Water, salt brine, epedermis = closed skin pores and trouble for the person peppered (or seasoned) in this manner.

As a result of this method, and in order to keep the peace, (I guess) the electrician is forced to accept the building method as it was presented to him, and (usually)didn't go the extra (expensive) mile to ensure code compliance. The inspectors (note the lack of capitalization) are usually no-shows at inspection time, allowing the builders to continue along concrete block after concrete block, to the level of the bond beam; often way out in front of the plumbers and electricians. They cope, I do not. My house is my home and I want it wired properly and that is that, deal with it!

One of the guys said he thought I was wiring a radio station, instead of a home; laughingly I told him it was a television studio, the anttenna would go up next! He laughed.

Photo Enhancement

2006-06-04T16:26:00.000-04:00

Estate Clairmont Overlook

2006-06-03T08:20:00.000-04:00

click any images to enlarge

This view, taken from a neighbor's house, is how the house looks from above in this shot; looking Northeast. You can see the progress better from this angle, the interior walls are being built, as are the corner casting forms, which I will illustrate better after Debbie and I get back from the beach at Cane Bay, where we will have breakfast.... so, check back in the morning (sunday) for more on the progress of our new home.

Buffin' Up

2006-06-03T05:04:00.000-04:00

Blue Sky & Cement Partitions!

2006-05-26T13:58:00.000-04:00

click on any images to enlarge

Upwards She Rises

2006-05-26T13:56:00.000-04:00

click any images to enlarge

At long last, we are going vertical with our homebuilding project, the exterior walls of 8" concrete blocks evident in this shot taken just after dawn yesterday. The vantage point for these perch views is the pile of topsoil that was set aside for the final grading and landscaping of the grounds around the house. I play King of the Hill and snap away!

The windows in the west wall of the guest bedroom wing are obvious, with my electrical conduit resting on the window sill of one of the portals. Notice the gap in the otherwise continuous course of blocks between the two framed windows? This is what is called a partition "catch", or a point where an interior partition adjoins the exterior wall. The block courses have been "broken back" at the intersection to facilitate the installation of more steel reinforcing bars, and stirrups, as they are referred to, to strengthen the joint. The corners are treated in the same manner; the reinforcing steel column is fastened to the rebar stubbed up from the foundation pour.

Once the concrete blocks are layed to the specified height, and the mortar has set up, the workers go around to each of these areas and apply plywood "casting forms" for each corner, wall intersection, or, anywhere else there is the need for these steel-reinforced concrete columns.

The casting forms are basically custom made plywood forms, manufactured with site-specific, tried and true methods and, naturally, Caribbean engineered & approved. With the use of cut nails, of hardened and tempered steel, the 3/4" plywood is nailed into place over the block intersection at the building corners and elsewhere. Braced with pressure-treated southern yellow pine members, 2 x 4's every 24" for stability and strength with snap ties, inserted through predrilled holes in the plywood, using the 2 x 4's as backers. And, once again I say, concrete is wicked heavy stuff, SO BRACE FOR IT! Remember the exploding wall? Don't go there, oh please, don't go there.

Once the entire house is walled up to a certain point; in this case up to one 8" course above the windows. The lentils, also called headers, are beams above window and door openings and are fashioned from the same 3/4" plywood and 2 x 4 P/T framing lumber. Again, these forms are nailed directly to the cement blocks and are backed with bracing for the concrete pour.

The effects of hurricane-force wind, inside your house, and AFTER your roof is blown away, are taken into consideration in this case. Obviously, to an engineer, the intersection of walls, the inclusion of windows and doors in the exterior walls all serve to weaken an otherwise solid wall structure. The windows are framed by the blocks and the adjoining blocks are reinforced with the insertion of a steel rebar to run down each side of the window opening. In some cases, where an unusually long exterior wall is called for, these vertical posts are added every ten to twelve feet or so, to serve the same stabilizing function and strengthen wall.

Taken to an "Statesides" eductated engineer trained in concrete block construction, none of these measures would be taken, The Building Code is much less stringent than the one applied by Caribbean builders themselves, and they wear their badge of courage proudly. In thinking about this situation in St. Croix, or anyplace in the Caribbean or coastal United States, with the recent upturn in the hurricane frequency, in number and intensity, I think these people may know a thing or two about this hurricane-ready at anytime thing.

Afterall, their ancestors once lived in huts and small thatched roof houses which were prone to much damage from those high winds. They at times resorted to actually tying their homes to the ground with anything available, including vines from nearby trees. In some cases whole familes would bind themselves together in the same manner and tie themselves off to a strong tree, to avoid being swept up in the maelstrom, often to their death. A small voice cries out "Listen to these people.. they know of what they speak...........", no doubt.

Fawn in the Yard!

2006-05-26T13:53:00.000-04:00

click on any image to enlarge

This young fawn was seen walking calmly across the yard at our rental house, I was able to snag this single shot of the child deer. Her mother was in close pursuit, however, without any fear for herself or her offspring - they don't allow deer hunting on any of the U.S. Virgin Islands - so the deer don't fear humans; at all.

Pouring The Concrete Slab

2006-05-22T15:36:00.000-04:00

click any image to enlarge

As you can see, there is concrete being poured, through the black hose from a concrete "pump". This is usually a device that the General Contractor has in his tool box, this piece of machinery is rented, along with an operator or two as the need arises. The pumper always coordinates his arrivals at a job site with that of the concrete truck - no concrete, no need for a pump, eh? This bit of coordination from one trade to the other, or between one cement supplier and one cement-industry service provider, is rarely seen in this place.

The concrete pump operator had some trouble with his gear, when there was a delay in the arrival of a subsequent concrete delivery - the sauce (wet concrete) hardened in the tube! What a spectacle to watch as the operator scrambles, not only to save the concrete, but his "wicked expensive" concrete pumping equipment. The boss and his helper took turns sledge hammering the 3" concrete hose, as they tried desperately, against the clock, to clear the tube of the hardened gray stuff as they pumped more concrete in behind the existing. I had to leave the jobsite - the attempts - one after the other, pummel and pump, pummel and pump!

If those hoses were under warranty - and I doubt it - you can bet it is now void on those two puppies! How much abuse do the owners think can they endure, anyway?

They got it poured, level and true, by days end.

Myriad Systems Conduits

2006-05-20T14:22:00.000-04:00

The time has come to restart the blog, we were bogged down and in a funk over our chosen General Contractor (GC). Six weeks ago we fired the first builder we had about for shoddy workmanship and dereliction of duty (not following the plans and/or checking a measurement). The slab forms were out of plumb and the dimensions of the house (as they were on the drawings) were not adhered to. We have a Master Bedroom wing more resembles a lopsided ploygon instead of a simple rectangle. One partition is 3" longer on one side of the room than the other, the other two walls are not parallel to each other, leaving me without a single square (90°) corner. Built with wood studs this wouldn't be simple to correct, but it would be possible. With concrete block, either you tear down the block wall and start over, or you work with what you have, thanks to Mr. Christmas, we work with the mistake. Nobody else will notice the error, but I won't forget.
Houses have to be attached solidly to the ground on this hillside we chose for a homesite. Evidence of serious tremors abounds in this historically earthquake-prone area. The ground below is either the blue granite we had to carve through, or this rotten rock, which is a broken down form of it's former forbiddingly solid and massive self.
In the first photo you can see the electrical PVC conduits (the gray ones) and the plumbing PVC pipes, (the white ones), these systems are installed after the steel mesh is laid down and before the exterminator is called to spray the ground under the slab. Termites are rampant here and there are many varieties. After this first spraying the house is guaranteed for ten years to be termite free... ...we'll see.
It was interesting with myself allergic to the insecticide (brings on migrane headaches). It must look comical to others to see me hightailing it when the Terminex truck arrives. No where to be seen was I.

click any images to enlarge

click any image to enlarge

This is our General Contractor Arnold Jeffers, and printing his picture is a favor to a mutual friend of Arnold's and myself. Arnold was recommended to us by this mutual friend, and we are happy to finally have him working for us directly. We had hired the original GC on Arnold's recommendation, but, finding out the poor quality of work from myself and from his own inspections, he has decided to finish up the shell of the house for us, so, in five or six weeks we should have a building with all of the exterior walls built and interior partitions in-place. The roof will be on and weathertight and the only thing left for us to do is everything else.

Among those to-do's for us are the window & exterior door installations, the interior doors and trim. The floor finishes, including a skim coat of white cement to use as a canvas for the artwork that will be our finished stained concrete floors, by yours truly.

The kitchen cabinets installation, the interior painting, most of which Debbie wants to do herself.

The painting project is a huge one, considering we would like to paint the (exposed interior) roof rafters and 1" x 6" tongue & groove cypress ceilings before they are assembled together. We can probably help to oil the cypress, as long as we have time to do so. More pictures tomorrow (we have 1st floor walls to show you).

Photo Enhacement

2006-04-04T16:25:00.000-04:00

Earth Moving

2006-04-03T13:57:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

The machine you see is a back hoe, operated by Joe Listrade, Joe has a brother living in Magnolia, Massachusetts, an itsy bitsy town sandwiched in the Cape Anne town of Gloucester, the oldest fishing port in New England. My ancestors came ashore in Gloucester, in 1846 or so, originally from England and Ireland.

Floor Slab Preperation

2006-03-28T16:40:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

The plywood forms, nailed against the concrete block foundation with old fashioned cut nails. Cut nails earn their distintive name from the manufacturing process that produces them. The individual nails are actually cut from a slab of hot tempered steel. Tempering, which serves to harden the steel, is accomplished in a series of heating and cooling cycles - the more cycles - the harder the steel. The hardened steel is also very brittle (read: many cycles = very brittle steel). This brittling affects and enhances the cutting process, which occurs within a very noisy building, as the termpered steel slabs are cut with a massive blade, which very much resembles a guillotine. The individual nails are spit out into buckets. I have witnessed the process in the Tremont Nail Factory in Wareham, Massachusetts, frascinating old machinery making the same product for over a hundred and fifty years.

Most nails these days are made of varying thicknesses of steel wire, and are "drawn" to their finished dimensions by machines called extractors, the heads are dimpled or flattened; the business ends cut to a chisel point, like a carpenter's pencil.

What is the big deal with cut nails? An old technique (nailing into concrete by hand) still in-use here in the USVI! The process works for them, but it would (and does) drive any continental builder up the wall. Power activated nail guns are used and they actually drive screws into cement back home. I will show you some close-up photos of the process when the time comes to illustrate it properly for you.

Looking east, over Chico's room, across the end of our Great Room, you can see what is left of the hole dug-too-deep, as it is being filled with previously excavated material and made ready for laying down steel rebar, pouring concrete and one day maybe we'll actually be living here! The reality hasn't even sunk in yet for me; I think Debbie feels the same way - living the dream feels just that way to me - hard to grasp.

Maritime Heritage & Cheap(er) Gasoline

2006-03-27T20:17:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

This is a photo I took of this mega yacht tied up at the St. Croix Marine, it has been stylized in my photoshop program to appear as a painting. Visitors like this sailboat (with their owners) are tying up on this Island, because of the oil refinery here. Once Hess Oil; now locally owned and called HOVENSA, it is the largest refinery in this hemishpere. In the early 1960's, Mr. Hess promised the Islanders cheaper gasoline and diesel fuel for allowing the construction of his behemoth air polluter.

Unfortunately for the locals, and I suppose for visitors too, are the independent gasoline dealers, who are unscrupulous in their price fixin' ways. However, we did visit St. Thomas earlier this year and found the price of gasoline was .70 cents costlier per gallon on average than St. Croix. Go figure, who knows what the price would be without the refinery in the picture? Off the charts no doubt!

To wander back to the point, the cheaper gasoline is a real factor given that these vessels can hold 10,000 gallons (or more) of fuel... ...therefore, with a $1.00 per gallon disparity in price. Let's see, multiply $1 x 10,000 and you get....... well, you do the math! Thanks Mr. Hess, I guess!

Caribbean Standards

2006-03-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

In these photos you can see the extent of the work involved in getting the first (main) floor slab ready for the concrete pour. The entire foundation perimeter will receive wooden forms such as these to hold back the concrete and make a perfectly level benchmark for the floor masons to use as a guide. The first floor masonry walls (in this case the lower safe room walls) have to be continued to a height

just under the first floor ceiling, enough to allow for the casting of a collar beam, which will encircle the rim formed by the top of the walls of the lower level room. As it is right now, the last course on the east wall (furthest from the camera) must be removed to accommodate this important strutural element.

I should explain a finding I have made concerning what a professionally engineered building means to these Cruzan homebuilders. In a word - nothing! A "Caribbeaan Standards" engineered building, is built to withstand tremor after tremor. Yes, as in earthquake; we've already had 200 to 230 tremors this year, the epicenters of which were some forty miles north of St. Thomas!
Caribbean Standards means everything, according to our builder, Mr. Arnold Jeffers. Arnold was born and raised on the once British Virgin Island of Nevis, most often heard in conversations about her sister Island of St. Kitts. St. Kitts /Nevis is now self governed.

Caribbean standards refer to the solidly built concrete and concrete block houses (such as our own) that the natives build here in St. Croix in particular and all over the island archipelago. Prepared for anything, understand that the hurricane is the number one fear of every local resident, native to no one Island in particular, the fear is in their blood, from generations of experience. The concrete block houses, with interior as well as exterior walls of blocks, are braced for the worst weather imaginable. 100% poured cement is the only other building medium that is stronger than concrete block construction.

I have joked that these houses have more steel imbedded in the cement than the Big Dig project in Boston, Massachusetts. The footings are not footings, they are grade beams, with double 5/8" steel rebar, and stirrups every 12" along the length of the excavation. Each piece of steel is wire-tied to each other for rigidity, before the cement is poured. From the footings there are vertical risers, also tied to the footing steel rebar. Rebar city.

Concrete vs. Plywood

2006-03-26T15:45:00.000-04:00

From the evidence presented herein, we will determine culpability in the disasterous concrete pour for this second set of walls. Don't ask me why they formed and poured these two walls, instead of using concrete blocks. I thought it a good idea to pour the cistern walls, since it is designed to hold water. What do I know?
The plywood panel hanging out an an oblique angle is indicative of concrete form failure due to improper bracing, and shear bullheadedness (is there such a word?) on the the part of the job foreman.
When the cement was poured out of the truck, onto the chutes and into the forms. There was even a device set up to help direct the concrete into one confined area, directly under the chute. If you understand anything about fluid dynamics you should understand this - water doesn't compress - nor does aggregate; most especially blue bitch granite aggregate.
Witness the cement mix running like molted rock into the chutes of the concrete truck, see it curl it's way downward and into the chute, ever so effortlessly. Listen to the stones of the aggregate as the chafe each other and the steel chute, ringing like one rushing train of motion. Listen as the forms creak and groan from the abundant weight of the mix; roughly 7 yards @ 2.5 tons per yard / 35,000 lbs , or 17.5 tons. Notice that the concrete isn't flowing as you would have hoped, and instead it is building increasing pressure right where you are pouring the weighty slurry. A very load bang follows, with the sound of a crackling fire, as the braces and plywood fly about the area that was to be our basement room (dubbed Chico's room). The form blew open and dispensed the concrete, and, with the aid of gravitational pull this was occurring too rapidly for anyone to plug the leak.
Luckily no-one was hurt, since there was no-one in the basement room at the time of the blow out. Had there been anyone down there, the would have suffered bone crushing injuries, as the double 2 x 4 braces were literally severed at their ends in the explosion of gray slurry, the plywood forms broken in clean lines as though cut with a circular saw! With the force of the blast wood members flew everywhere, as if escaping from the concussion; the whole mess of lumber and cold, molten cement quieting down in waves.
This disaster didn't bode well for the workers, since it was at the end of a long day that this event occurred, and their work as yet unfinished. Cleaning up the mess was an imperative, since the room would be lost to the onslaught of concrete, the ooze seeping into everything, including the plumbers soil pipes jutting out of the uneven an unruly concrete layer.
By Friday afternoon, they had cleaned up the area and reset the forms for the repour. Braced now to the nines, the forms were not to collapse with the introduction of "the mix", not this time. The concrete repour went exceedingly well, as if the workers used the force of their collective will to make this happen, they had a long hard and unproductive week and the weekend stood before them, and much needed rest.

Blown Out Form

2006-03-26T15:02:00.000-04:00

Concrete is wicked heavy stuff. Note the plywood panel at the end of the room on the left, this is not a good thing. If you look closely you can see the two 2 X 4 members nailed together lengthwise, that comprise this site-built concrete form system. The first and second pair of 2 x 4's, once holding the form together are non-existent in this shot, taken the next morning. During "the event" the guys tell me, the concrete was flowing onto the chute and out of the truck rapidly, as they unloaded the entire batch (7 cubic yards) in one area, instead of using a pump to dispense the liquid alternately in different areas.
The form kept filling up with concrete, stones and sand and water, the water acting as hydraulic fluid, unwilling to compress. As the stones that comprise the aggregate mix are forced down on top of each other with such force that all at once the 3/4" plywood, it's supporting cast of double 2 x 4's and steel snap ties gave way. The noise was horrendous as the concrete burst through the plywood and pushed the 2 x 4's out of the way, literally snapping the boards at the point the plywood panel was joined to the next sheet. The plywood looked as if it had been cut partially through with a circular saw, the line of severance was so distinct.
The braces were thrown acroos the room with such force that if anyone had been standing in that lower room (there was not) they would have probably lost the ability to walk, since in the flash of a second the boards were jettisoned, at about knee and ankle height, into the opposite wall of the room. Word was they bounced around in there some... before they went silently still.
As you can imagine, the excess cement, now following gravity's path, was flowing out of the open form and onto the floor of our new room. You can see the plumber's pipes sticking out of the floor in the middle of the room and the space looks pretty disheveled with concrete slag everywhere.
After working all day, the workers had to then remove the excess concrete, which covered everything. If they hadn't done this, the plywood and other parts of the forms would be inretrievable, being perpetually cast in cement.
The concrete was poured late afternoon Monday, they worked for the next four days completing the clean up rebuilding the form and repouring the concrete (yes, we also paid for the second load of cement).
Thinking about it today, the wasted concrete weighed in at about 17.5 tons, most of this weight having to be re-lifted and redeposited somewhere other than inside that space. Everyone earned their pay that week.

Photo Enhacement

2006-03-04T16:24:00.000-04:00

Layin' Cement Blocks

2006-03-02T14:34:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

As you can see from these photos, the concrete for the cistern is being poured and the cement blocks have arrived, we are underway with the masons taking the court. Clockwise from top left: John is the lead mason - and besides being at his best when laying block - it is also what he enjoys doing the most.

Behind the cement truck is another trailered vehicle, this is a concrete pump. Notice the concrete mix is poured into the hopper of the pump where it is pushed through a hose to the applicator. The applicator, shown with hose in hand, ensures that the mix is poured properly between the plywood forms.

In the last photo, those are John's hands is laying the very first cement block to be set (of 3,000 or so) for the foundation of our home. This first course of blocks sets the level of the floor inside the finished house.

Remember that the footings were dug by hand and subsequently were dug as deep as necessary to allow at least an 8" thick footing in virgin earth (read: not previously excavated). Inside those poured footings is as much steel rebar as was used on The Big Dig project in Boston (just kidding, but there was a lot). In our world these are not footings, they are grade beams.

Since there are several different levels of footings, the foundation consists of the subsequent courses of blocks necessary to complete bring all courses to the same floor elevation. Once these courses are set the interior of the foundation walls can be filled with excavated materials and brought to the same height inside the walls. This filled area is then compacted with a machine, to ensure that there will not be any settling after the house has been perched here for a time. A wooden concrete form is then installed around the foundation walls, in preparation for the poured concrete slab, which will be our main floor.

Next comes the plumbing and electrical, which must be installed before the floor can be poured. This is the next step - plumbing and electrical rough-in - stay with me... more tomorrow.

We Got Blocks!

2006-02-23T16:12:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

This photgraph shows seven pallets of 8" x 8" x 16", two-void cement blocks.

This shot of three more pallets of two-void cement blocks makes a total of ten pallets. Multiplied by ninety blocks per pallet, we have 900 of the 2,000 blocks on order from the block plant. Right here on St. Croix, a cement block factory, the Superior Block Company, who'd thought?

Ah yes, the sand. This sand is the main additive for the mortar mix. Water and cement are the other two elements in the mix. Water, where are we to get the water to the site? I will see to purchasing a pre-formed, pre-stressed concrete septic tank. Our builder informed me that he usually has the owner do exactly that, purchase the tank that will eventually be your septic tank and have it delivered to the site. In our case we will probably not dig a hole for it, at least not yet.

We intend to store our tank above ground for now, in what will be our front yard, to the south of the house. We will fill it with water for the masons to use to mix the mortar, clean the work tools and the worker's hands too! I haven't seen this yet, but they tell me a pump is used to extract the water from the tank, through a hose and into a plastic barrel for use. we have no power to the site yet, and we are still on a generator for electrical needs.

Tomorrow the Masons begin the walls of the house, stay with us as the house comes out of the excavation, and, little by little, block by block, our new home will be built.

The Leaky Ark

2006-02-23T14:57:00.000-04:00

You can see the labor involved in getting the cistern formed and made ready for concrete is extensive. Rebar emerging from the forms; folded or bent to 90° to become part of the roof of the cistern, which will also serve as the first floor of the Gallery and Great Room. There is a pass-through constructed in the center partition between the two tanks, this form will keep the cement out of that area when it is poured.

Later, when the floor is formed and poured, there will be installed two flush hatches for access to the inside of the cistern for cleaning, inspections, or fixing a leak. There will be one in the gallery floor to enter one vessel, and one in our great room floor to enter the second. I will do my best to conceal these somehow, under a rug, or in an out-of-the-way corner. The pass-through mentioned is only for the water

I have been joking with the workers that I didn't think the "plywood ark" will hold water for any appreciable amount of time, what about the seams in the wood? In actuallity our cistern will be waterproofed by a new product to the market called Xypex, an additive that can be mixed with the concrete prior to pouring, or applied later as a slurry mixture to the inside walls of the tank. Applied in either fashion, this product is actually drawn in to the concrete itself by the presence of water. It seeks out water in the curing concrete and reacts to the encounter by crystallization, thus diminishing the size of the pores to such a degree that water molecules will not fit through. Not only does this product seal water "inside" a structure, it can also migrate through the capillaries of the concrete, against hydrostatic pressure from the outside! To find out more, go to their website: Xypex Concrete Additive.

F.Y.I.: This website address, as well as other helpful sites, also appear on our "links section" in the right sidebar.

Artistic License

2006-02-21T11:10:00.000-04:00

The steel rebar makes a subject for still life photography, resplendent in their rusty elegance. Some of the ties for the foundation forms, these hold the two sides of the plywood form together, spaced at rougly 24" intervals. They are removed and brokern off after the forms are stripped off the cured concrete walls.

Everywhere you look on this tropical Island there are flowers, flowering shrubs, flowering trees, flowering perennials and even budding cactii. This specimen is a Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata), a South African evergreen shrub known for it's lilac blue flowers that bud throughout ther year.

Another shrub that resembles what we know as the rhodedendron, this specimen also produces a similar flower. It is actually a Plumeria Temple Tree (Plumeria rubra), a native of Hawaii, often used in the manufacturing of leis.

Wooden Ships on the Water

2006-02-16T12:04:00.000-04:00

As the first concrete pour continues to cure (for something like the next twenty years or so) the preparations are made for the next batch. In this photo you can see the footing forms as they are laid out on the unexcavated portion of the house foundation. Actually, the digging was done for the footings, the rest of the slab for the first floor will be poured after the walls are erected around each space.

I have begun to install some of the PVC conduits for the electrical wiring, these conduits are for power and communication. Notice that they are installed under the footings and enter the slab, within the walls of the utility room partition. By "inside" I mean the electrical panelboard and communications panelboard are to be installed inside the wall cavity, this practice is often referred to as a flush mount installation.

On the far side of the footing form is a riser containing a 2" conduit, this is for the incoming power conductors, which will terminate in the main panelboard in that room. The main panelboard will contain forty single-pole circuits, there is plenty of room for the various circuits throughout the first floor of the house, with room for expansion, if necessary.

The 1-1/4" PVC conduit is an outbound circuit for the sub-main panelboard in the lower level, apartment, or safe room. Safe room you ask, what the hell is that? It is a place to go in the event of a hurricane where you will be safe from flying debris which might penetrate the envelope of the main house above.

(Kind of like a modern day fallout shelter, minus the radioactivity threat. I am talking about 2 x 4 lumber missiles, travelling at 130 to 185 mph! [Huricane Hugo, 1989]. One survivor friend of Hurricane Hugo says you should consider how all of your belongings would look submerged in your swimming pool!)

There is on piece of 1" conduit which is to feed outbound to the pool equipment shelter, which will house the filters and other devices for the pool's filtration systems, etc. I am thinking of combining the pool equipment shed with a barbeque, flip up the top to grill dinner.

I am early in the design stage as yet, but I am thinking of building a small replica of another house, in miniature, a little scaled down dollhouse if you will. With equipment on one side for the pool, equipment for grilling on the other. A lift up roof will be the access to either side of the dual-purpose unit.

The two 1" conduits in the center of the footing are for the communication cables, television and telephone. These two pipe, along with the 2" conduit will be extended to the front of the property to be connected to a meter pedestal, which I will also design. This pedestal will house the electric meter and disconnect switch for the main house. The telephone and television cables will also be connected to the utilities at that point. Innovative is the company for land line telephone and also cable television service; but their future is a little murky - they have a horrible track record for service and commitment!

This we fondly refer to this excavation as Chico's room, although it is actually going to be a bathroom and a deep closet, or basement, for me to have a very small workshop. The closet will be in the foreground and the bathroom beyond.

This is the lower view of the cistern, the apartment footings are visible in the foreground. The cistern will be ten feet deep, with an access manhole, for cleaning, located in the gallery floor. Access must be provided for yourself and future homeowners, for cleaning purposes. The reason for the two vessels? If you want to clean the cistern itself, which may take several days to complete, you can lower the water in one vesssel by syphoning off one tank into the other. Remember the little boxes in the floor of each vessel? The debris that is washed off the walls is hosed down along with the effects of gravity guide the water stream to these little catch basins, where the spoils can be easily vacuumed up.

Another thing I learned about water collection systems is that there are screens installed, inside the gutter at every downspout, to prevent larger organic materials from getting into the water supply. Also, for isolating the cistern water from salt water contamination when a hurricane is forecast, there are gate valves installed in the downspouts which, when closed, shed the salt water rain onto the ground, and not into your potable water. Good thinking, eh?

Forward Progress

2006-02-11T16:04:00.000-04:00

This is another shot of Grapetree Bay, taken from the Grassy Point overlook, "lookin' nor'east in this view". The house is under way, as we pour the first batches of the magic slurry, some 20 cubic yards of the gray matter.

In this pre-crete perch photo, I took this shot while sitting in my collapsible oak chair (imported from a yard sale in South Harwich) atop our mound of top soil. It is especially nice in the morning, when you are in the shade of a tree.

Knowing full well that a friend of mine up north is following this blog, page by page, as he relives, vicariously through Debbie & me, his ten year tenure as a concrete man on this tropical island. He emailed me and said the shot of the concrete coming off the concrete truck's chute gave him goosebumps.

These Cruzans have a way of making do with whatever is available, in every situation! In this shot, you can see the truck's concrete "chutes" or the gutter-like troughs, used to direct the fluid concrete into the areas being poured. Look closely at the extension chute the Cruzans made, it is a couple of pieces of old corrugated steel roofing, nailed to a few old 2 X 4's. This particular model was made on the job, since I was told the last one they had was in pretty bad shape, it makes me wonder sometimes what "bad shape" actually means to these people.

They call it innovative thinking. I call it "Island Living", where one is often without the proper parts needed for every project, and, instead of being defeated by the experience, one makes-do with available materials. I ran into this phenomenon when I lived on Nantucket Island, thirty miles off the coast of Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.

Maybe this view of the cistern floor will give you an idea as to how large the cistern will actually be. This is a view before they form the walls of the two halves of the vessel. Notice the rebar, as it is poked up out of the concrete slab, these will be extended to the top of the wall, within the wall cavity. A second piece of steel is wire tied to the stub; will extend out the top of the poured wall and will be and utilized in the construction of the concrete "roof" over the two tanks. This poured steel-reinforced concrete roof will be the floor of the gallery porch and part of the great room, directly above each tank section. One man's ceilin' is another man's floor.... (Paul Simon circa 1968, I think).

This concrete slab that will be poured later, is actually referred to as a structural slab which basically means it has lots of steel rebar reinforcing and can withstand a great deal of weight before giving way.

Where the workers are congregated, in the upper left corner of the photo, they are making sure to distribute the concrete evenly for the footings of the apartment and safe room. In the foreground, barely visible in the shadows, is what will be our new space created by Chico, when he removed more stone than was necessary during the excavation phase.

The footing forms are not yet set for this new space, that's slated for next week!

Let it Pour!

2006-02-09T09:43:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

And so we enter the construction phase, this is a perfect follow up to doing practically nothing the past month or so, as the hole was dug deeper and ever deeper into our pockets.. er.. ..I mean the earth.

Much hand work was necessary to dig the footings around the perimeter of the cistern, in the background in this photo, and the apartment in the foreground. The footings are 12" deeper than the rest of the slab itself, which is the floor of the cistern, will be six inches or so thick. Notice the vertical steel reinforcing bar (rebar) which is stubbed up into what will be the poured concrete walls of the cistern, these are placed on 12" centers, in line with the rebar you see in the flat areas.

Because this is a poured concrete cistern you can also notice some wooden members tied in place around the perimeter, these will actually be pulled out after the concrete has cured. The resultant rabbet, or slot, is called a keyway, this will hold the poured concrete walls in place, permanently locking them to the footings. There is a center partition within the cistern itself, you can see the stub-ups of rebar set in place. This center partition is going to support the great room wall above it and it divides the cistern in half. This partition will not have any stresses on it, therefore it doesn't need a keyway to lock it in place. There is a washover window cut into the center partition, which will balance the amount of rainwater in each tank.

This close up photo shows clean-out trap, installed in one corner of each cistern half. The concrete floor will be troweled so that it is pitched to that corner. This is used when cleaning the cistern on the inside and is a very important step. Our cistern will hold approximately 33,264 gallons of water collected, hopefully, off the roof gutters, leaders and downspouts. Filled to capacity it will weigh-in at 57.7 tons, and that's without the weight of the concrete under-house swimming pool!

This concrete box must be water proofed on the exterior also; this is done as we do up north, with foundation tar. Black, gooey and stinky, Debbie and I can attest personally for the experience, having done our Harwich house back in '95. Don't get any on yourself if you can help it. We are not going to tar this cistern ourselves, we are paying somebody to do that for us.

I am going to waterproof the inside of the cistern with a fairly new product called Xypex. This product can be added to the concrete batch, slightly before it is poured into the forms, or, it can be mixed with water and which forms a thick slurry liquid the consistency of wallpaper paste. This product is then brushed or rolled on the inside of the tank, from top to bottom, every surface that will get wet inside the cistern. Before the Xypex is applied, the walls and floor are first wet down, it then permeates the solid concrete, drawn into the concrete by the water itself. Once the slurry is applied and allowed to react with the chemicals present in the concrete itself, the tank is protected from water incursion from either the negative or positive side of the tank.

A Fredricksted Beach

2006-01-27T16:47:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlrge

Still Hammering Away

2006-01-27T15:00:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

At last, the damage has been done to the blue BITCH granite and our wallets, as Chico finally raps up the excavation work at 71 Concordia, or rather, most of it. Chico was at it for two weeks straight, that's 80 or so hours to dig a hole roughly 9 ft. deep by 20 ft. by 40 ft. and remove about 800 cubic yards of rotten rock and bluebitch granite. Besides which we found precious little dirt or sand, or anything that wasn't back-breaking difficult to extract on that knolltop!

click on all images to enlarge

We now move to phase two, getting the slab poured for the floor of the cistern and the hurricane room / safe place / future studio apartment. Whatever you call it, it gets a concrete slab; which in this case will be the finished floor, although I plan to score the concrete after it is poured. The scoring, about 1/8" wide by 1/4" to 5/16" deep, besides providing a decorative look, provides "relief" cuts in the slab.

You see, as the concrete slab hardens and cures, it shrinks, and, over time, cracks appear in the finished surface. A relief cut is basically a shallow notch or rabbet cut into the slab. This kerf, as it is called, relieves stress and encourages cracks to occur at that weaker spot, where the slab is thinner. The scored lines will dilineate or represent large "tiles", the joints, or kerfs, are then filled with a colored grout, just like an actual tile floor would appear, except these won't be terra cotta, ceramic or adobe tiles! My floor will be stained concrete, this is not like anything you have ever seen before, ever! But I go on...... check back next week when I will have more photos of our new home.

Danish Influence

2006-01-23T13:38:00.000-04:00

Job Status Blue

2006-01-19T10:36:00.000-04:00

As Chico dug deeper into the hillside, in a valiant effort to excavate the cistern and lower level of our home, he encountered more and more of this Blue Bitch Granite substrate. Where most builders encounter large boulders, we encounter rock ledge! Not just any ledge, this stuff is really, really hard stuff! Makes me wish they could use dynamite to blast these encumbrances from our memory and our jobsite!

click on all images to enlarge

As you can see, Chico has his backhoe "standing" on the chisel bit held in the jaws of the hydraulic hammer at the end of the arm of the back hoe. Notice the front wheels of the machine are off the ground? I don't know how Chico can sleep at night, he must vibrate all night after a grueling day at the helm of this monster. We thanked him profusely for his stick-to-it attitude, and we still wonder why he keeps coming back for more.
The Mother Lode of Blue BITCH Granite (excuse my sarcasm) runs from left to right twenty six feet and front to back thirty feet. We suffer through the assault on our checkbook, we are paying Chico by the hour for this work.

click on all images to enlarge

Hamm's Bluff

2006-01-16T13:49:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

If you look real closely at the object on the far promotory you will see the Hamm's Bluff Lighthouse overlooking the Caribbean Sea, at the northern-most point of the Island. I have tried to drive closer to this landmark several years ago to get a closer shot of the light, to no avail. I got as close as a mile and a half to it, where I could look over rolling, grass covered hillsides and that was it!

A Knolltop Flattened

2006-01-14T13:07:00.000-04:00

click on all images to enlarge

In the twilight our newly purchased Jeep looks small next to the D9 bulldozer that belongs to Chico's Rentals.

Our lot was a choice piece of real estate, with unobstructed views over 200º, but it wasn't perfect. The knolltop was just that, a top; not a flat area, but rather a mound. As a part of the site preperation, we had Chico shave a little off the top of the mound and redistribute it to create a flat area. The stage had to be larger than the house to help create space for comfortably parking and manuevering two cars, wide and long enough to accommodate a 14 X 28 swimming pool and concrete apron surround, plus a little quality yard space.

We removed a considrable amount of fill and rock to lower the knolltop, add to that the spoils from the cistern and lower level excavation, we won't have to bring in any new fill to make this site perfect! In this climate, you do spend a considerable amount of time outdoors. That said, a lot of houses on this Island, set into a hillside, don't have very much walkable ground outside your home, so you spend more time indoors. (read: very boring)

The interior floor of the finished house will be approximately three or four inches above the final, finish grade surrounding it. Remember Debbie's rule about stairs and ramps? The only reason that this house will not sit right on the ground (floor level inside = finish grade outside) is due to the fact that rainwater can actually be driven into the house under the doors! The house will be weather tight, but like the shipping container, it will not float or survive total immersion. A two to three inch drop to the concrete walkways from the threshold of the door is adequate to prevent an inflow of rainwater, even in windy conditions, where the falling rainwater often follows a horizontal path, pushed by the force of the wind.

Estate Butler, Fredricksted, St. Croix

click on all images to enlarge

The north or front yard faces due north and we want to have an area to turn the cars around, so we don't have to back out of our driveway every time we leave the premises. We plan to have a gate at our property entrance, since it dresses the place up and makes a formal statement to visitors. The gate itself will be wrought iron, supported by two masonry gateposts, with "top hats" or "finials" as a finishing flair. Debbie and I are trying to figure out a way to give credit to our other home, on Cape Cod, and we're thinking of mounting *half-hull codfish sculptures embedded in a plaster "canvas" each facing toward the other, from opposing posts.

To accomplish this I have a notion of purchasing a Codfish-shaped decorative copper weathervane, the variety made with ball peen hammers and other hand-held metal working tools. I would ask the artisan to leave the two fish halves (filets w/scales?) of the fish unsoldered; don't send me the mounting hardware, the bronze cross bar direction indicator or the stainless steel shaft and bearings. I need just the two fish halves; I hope they are sold "separated".

For the canvas for my copper sculptures I will make a mold, 10" h X 24" w X 1-1/2" deep, with a frame out of 1" X 2"; with a plywood back. I will fill the mold with fresh plaster of paris working to smooth the surface flat. Once the surface has started to cure and harden, I will embed the copper fish into the plaster, but just enough to hold the half-model in place and by burying it only slightly I won't be hiding any scales or fin details.

*Half-hull ship models are common decroative wall sculptures, where the subject vessel is presented in relief, from stem to stern, indicating only the starboard half of the ship's longitudinal profile, no superstructure, no sails, rudder or propeller.