The missing link

Building the nest...(not my photo)


Finally the super structure, studs, rafters and floor joists were all in place except for one small crucial detail.



Aside from a beam something is missing in this photo. That's right, a connecting flange on the upper right. Let the fun begin.


Now a couple of points before casting aspersions on my simple construction. These plans were gone over by an extremely dedicated group of folks at Palm Beach Iron Works, not to mention two engineers. While I looked at them every day and used them for erection purposes there comes a point where you have to trust that it has been checked out. As anyone who knows shop drawings they are very complicated. At first glance none of the dimensions make any sense. When the drawings were first handed to me for review I burst out laughing as did the steel guys. It takes a good engineer to find a mistake, if any. For all the minutiae in this entire project this was to be the only smudge. In fact my future welder was surprised that this was the case. I won't bore you with what he said was the norm. Scary indeed. Whole buildings put up backwards!

In fact Palm Beach assumed I had erected the structure wrong--a most common occurrence!

Truth be told I thought the same on their part. On numerous occasions while assembling the parts for erection I thought they had made mistakes only to be proven wrong every time. Nothing seemed to have the same dimensions! Thank god I always figured it out before I made any idiot phone calls. It was because of this I spent quite a bit of time looking for a missing flange! Why it would bolt on in this one case instead of being welded, as all the others, I had no idea but look I did. I had four flanges that bolted on the ends of the ridge beam so it wasn't a stretch to think there was another.

Furthermore when I had assembled the posts for the dining room I never even saw that a flange was potentially missing. It was the corner of the dining room. Porch, what porch? Out of sight, out of mind. (the posts for the porch had not been erected yet) Worse still, the corner then went under the tarp above so I never knew there was a missing flange until the last beam was to be hoisted in place. Go figure. What a shock to find a missing piece, the last piece no less, after all this time. It was a Murphy's Law moment! After crying I could only laugh.

With the plans in storage on their end, I used my camera and email pics to prove that the flaw was in the drawings and that all the steel was in the right place.


All the plans were hand drawn. Classic.

The beams and posts have numbers painted on them. After much back and forth they realized the mistake was on their end. It was at this point I was hoping for an easy solution. Would it be possible to send me a flange that bolted onto the existing post? The connection would ultimately be framed in so it would not present any architectural problems. More important however, there was no chance of having it welded on site. There is no portable equipment on St John to weld this size steel. None, nada. A few days later the big "no" came. It had to be welded for liability reasons and they would send me the flange. This had been my fear since the project started. A mistake with a big piece of steel. Thank god it was just a flange. In Florida there would have been no loss of sleep since the project started. You have a problem there, they send over a man and the problem goes away. Here on St John it is your problem and it will be very difficult to remedy. You will be able to find a solution but it will be on island time and not cheap.

Yup, that's right. We had to dissemble part of the dining room and remove the column, hump it up the hill to the truck, take it down into Coral Bay and find a welder. We did. Sixty five dollars and a couple of days later the post was back in place. Meanwhile, during this almost three week episode, we continued to work around the issue.

Roofing around the problem.

Coming up for air--both of us, after putting out another small fire.

The 32' steel and ply highway.

Easy to build, hard to get in place! As you can see, once in place it made everything easier and possible for a solo or two man build. Over the temporary wood retaining wall and onto the scaffolding at roof level. Roofing made easy. Just a reminder for some, everything on this site has to be hand carried down the hillside. If you ever visit you will appreciate the task.

The procedure remains the same for most materials. Drive up to the container or water tanks, load pickup, go down the driveway in reverse, unload, traverse the hillside and now walk down the ramp. In this case it was the 3/4" borate treated ply for the roof deck and later the sub floor. It's a California thing. We are not allowed to use treated lumber in a residence. In fact I don't think you are even allowed to have it on your property in new/remodel construction. For doubters, borate treated plywood works against termites even the most vicious. 100 sheets under tarps, sat in the rain forest for the better part of three years, encased in termite trails etc with no damage to speak of. Borate treated wood however has to stay dry or the borate leeches out. It is not for exterior applications. Australia and New Zealand have been using it for decades. A shout out to the family in Alabama that I found to treat my plywood. As an added bonus if the haz mat nuts come here our residence won't be flagged on resale.

A lot of people have asked me how, as a novice builder, I found out what materials etc to use aside from the steel. Besides hundreds of hours of computer searching I found out about products by driving around construction sites, especially in Florida where I was staying packing the containers. Jupiter island was one of my favorites for high end construction materials. If they would not talk to me I would use binoculars. Get a name and you can find out anything for the most part. In a lot of cases they print their web address right on the product. Spend hours in comment sections and you will learn everything you need. Mainly though I wanted to talk to the workers and get their opinions. With my entertaining spanglish I had no problem. Good guys will tell you about every product they have ever used, what they prefer and why. When they find out you are building your own home, mostly by yourself, it's high fives around. Jim Phillips and Fritz are two local examples.

This radiant barrier was going up on a new mansion. It is now on the roof under the sheathing and it works. You can see it in the photo sticking out from under the plywood. Cheap, fast and durable it does what it says. Later when we worked inside you could barely feel the heat through the sheathing.

Ryan .....
Here's a product that I saw being put on another palace. This is not your normal run of the mill ice and water barrier. I know, I have some of the cheap stuff. Besides being gray/white, which is vastly easier to work with in the sun, it has a fibre surface which makes it easy to walk on, almost non skid even while wet on a 6/12 roof pitch. Ryan loved the stuff compared to what he was used to. You can put any kind of roof on top of it when you are ready.

After the roofing we put up the Tyvek and started the siding/sheathing. There is some discussion about wrapping houses but my real intent is simply to keep hurricane driven moisture from contacting the steel. No water, no rust. Vapor is not enough to cause any real problems. Constant dripping, standing water and you have problems. I have opened up walls in SF that have stayed mostly dry and the steel is still blue 100 years later despite a five month rainy season with high humidity. These are walls with no insulation or caulking to speak of. Surrounding areas in SF get more rain in five months than St John gets in a year. There's not an apartment building whose roof has not leaked extensively.


It's difficult to put into words what having a roof means and feels like after so long. A dry floor. Who would think something so mundane could be so incredible. The end of rotting handles and broken shovels and picks. Shelter! Working during downpours.

The siding is a Georgia Pacific product, "Smart Siding", 4x10', 3/4 inch sheets. Like so much else, I had to special order it from the factory while in Florida. In addition I had to buy twice what I needed as the local regional supplier would not sell anything less than a full pallet. No one it seems has use for 4x10, 3/4" sheets in Florida. At the time, perhaps still now, this product is the only sheet siding that can go straight to the the studs, 16" on center, 145 mph, open exposure C conditions. Like everything I attempt to use, it is termite proof, mold and mildew resistant. I can say, it is termite proof. Like my borate decking this too sat under a termite mound with no damage. Yes those little buggers got into the containers and attempted to eat everything. Later I'll give you a blow by blow of what they got as we go along!


Same drill as before. Up to the containers, back down the driveway, down the ramp and put it up. I special ordered the ten foot sheets so it went up without any cutting. With a problem here and there, it went very quickly. The time consuming, (Ryan can tell you about it), hardest part was sinking the screws into 14 gauge studs. Nothing like the nail guns he was used to. Every screw takes effort. The screw guns were a big help but it takes a shoulder to drive the screws. That said, we spaced the screwing over days. Just put enough to tack a sheet in place and move on. Double back when there's nothing else to do or to finish a day. Conveniently I always had something else to do. :~))

A porch starts to take shape.


It was at this point the Boss showed up for her biannual visit! Just in time for both our birthdays and Halloween.

Ryan had another small job to do so we basically kicked back for two weeks hiking and going to the beach.
Thank god Denise likes to camp! Hard at work in the shack kitchen.

We did the Reef Bay hike again but this time with a Ranger. Very informative plus a nice boat ride at the end back to Cruz Bay along the south side of the island.

During big rains this turns into a small waterfall with a small pool at the base with pre Colombian carvings. This carving has long been been used by Caneel Bay as its logo of sorts.

Hikers boarding the boat for the ride back to Cruz Bay,

Our friend's house at night along the beach that we passed on the boat trip. It's the first house you see in the following video closest to the water. One of his guests took this great shot on a moonlit evening.



Just like that, two weeks went by and Denise returned to San Francisco.

Ryan returned and we started putting up the exterior trim. 2x10 and 2x12, 16'&20' as needed. Not cheap stuff and good quality was hard to find. In fact the 2x12 stock used to trim and hide the red iron beams on the two story porch were different widths by up to 1/4 inch. None were the same. All kinds of detail issues at corners and seams. Thankfully because I'm running gutters around the entire perimeter it will not be seen. The table saw did its job. The 2x10's from MSI were on the money, sort of! It is at times like this that steel slows you down. We had to tap each hole with a 1/8" bit before we drove home the screws. 14 gauge plate is pretty stout for for those little guys. What would take perhaps four or five days on a wood house took us more than two weeks almost three when you include the trips to St Thomas trying to source material. I may have bought all of Paradise's 1/8 bits at the time. They break so easy.

Screwing on my 61st birthday.

Next, we were finally working "dry". Sub floor and then interior wall layout! How sweet. This is starting to look like a house. Screwing the floor into 12 gauge joists was made easy with the screw guns.


The bathroom on the left and the den on the right. Originally the den was going to be a small screened exterior space which I changed during the construction. The doors will now be an arch. The den will be a library and an office. Some would have it as a junior bedroom.


I do not like vaulted ceilings with gable walls. The end walls, unless they have a small balcony, are just so much wasted space for my taste. Neither do I like some island homes that have beamed ceilings with walls that don't go all the way up. Very strange indeed. Sound that travels everywhere with all kinds of weird angles. When the walls do go all the way they more often than not ruin the lines of the beamed ceilings. And not to be outdone, I don't fancy the trend in open spaces, the kitchen, family room and dining room expanse unless we are talking gi-normous! Our West Indian home is anything but. Instead I prefer creating separate spaces when working with small designs. We have squeezed eight into this keg. Happily my wife concurs. That said I created an interior hip roof ceiling with the same dimensions as outside for the living room taking care of all our design wishes. It looks easy but it was not. Steel is not wood and the original red iron layout created a small problem that had to be addressed to get around the red iron rafters. All the steel will be ultimately covered by fibreglass sheetrock, DensArmour Plus.

The interior finished height will be about 13 feet. All the other rooms will have 9' ceilings.

This is the ceiling from the Legion of Honor in SF that solved our design woes. It is in a room about the size of the living room. I made the simple version. :~))


The cottage is finally visible, with a telephoto lens, alone on the right.

If you could see us through the clouds we would be in the upper right corner.

The view looking west. Elevation 1000'. That is water out there!

Coming down our road from our house into Coral Bay.

Deer among the ruins...

With the drop ceiling in place we started pulling electric cable. While I put the boxes in Ryan went back to finishing the sub floor screwing. On a electrical job this size it is really a one person operation especially if you are on a budget. Not to mention I have to figure it all out as I go along. The steel post and beam added a few twists and turns not to mention my suspended floors. Gone was the floor joist space below the walls. Mine is concrete so everything, wire wise, was coming down from the ceiling rather than up from the floor. Likewise all my plumbing was exiting down or up through interior walls. Not a real problem but it has to be thought out ahead of time.

A standard run....coming from the top.


When it rains our seasonal rain forest pops green with all new leaves in three or four days. Has to be seen to be believed.

A nightmare with a happy ending.

Lots of rain, saturated soil that appears compacted, leads to parking a 40' container bursting with house supplies, windows, doors, lights, tiles etc. The load rolls over a couple hours after being parked.
It has a certain elephant feel to it! The small divot in question by the block.

Oops!

His bud had just bought the truck a couple of days prior.

But as I said, this nightmare has a happy ending. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was broken inside the container. The owner of the truck went from a used convertible to a brand new truck! Now that's the xmas spirit as he arrives in his usual fashion on St John.


That's a wrap. On my way back to SF for the holidays.

The year started with the house looking like this after the mini hurricane in October 2008..

The year in review

The Erector set continues

A daily happening over at Francis bay. (Not my photo.)


To the good life. Working in the shade.

Finally the work was simple. Screw the "C" track to the red iron beams and use the anchor bolts to attach the floor track. Unlike most home building I attached my walls directly to the foundation 16" on center rather that the floor. This is much stronger than normal stick framing. Another bonus when building with a red iron post and beam--header calculations are not necessary. Doors and windows are not load bearing under normal circumstances. Screw up your "C" track and start putting up your studs. The erector set continues.

While posing as the architect, engineer and builder I get to make changes, within reason, without the endless consultations, call backs and redraws. We won't even talk about the money saved.

It can't be stressed enough about the benefits of living on the property full time during the construction. Now I admit most folks would not do a unibomber shack but live on the property they should. Beyond the short commute the land comes alive, the seasons, the sun and views to name a few.

As I previously mentioned, who knows when, we moved the splash pool from the upper patio to the lower because of the sun position during the winter. The jungle hides it for about four months where we originally thought to put the pool. Had I not been there we would be pissing and moaning about how chilly the pool was during the winter. A pool needs to be in the sun and out of the wind all year. It is now.



The second major change. A small "Juliet" balcony off the dining room replacing a picture window. A small room just got larger with French doors opening onto a balcony, better ventilation and ascetically a much nicer look indoors and out. The romantics can now step out and look at the stars and moon!

The framing for the balcony doors. The other large opening to the right is a window.

The view from the front door looking through the galley kitchen out the new French doors.

The third major change we made as we put up the studs--enclosing what was to be a small screened porch off the living room. By doing this we created a small den/office/library or junior bedroom. Aside from a better use of space it made the house stronger and easier to build. The framing and detailing are now consistent with the entire footprint.

From my original drawings you can see the screened porch was off of a bedroom which is now a living room! When we added the lower level, conducive with a downhill build, not to mention Roger looking at a better resale, the bedroom went downstairs. The pocket doors from the bedroom to the screened porch are now an arch, again saving construction time and money. The covered porch in the drawing above will now be screened, allowing us to leave all the doors open 24x7. The screening above the railing will be in panels such that we can leave them open during the day. Aside from occasional mosquito blooms there is no reason to have screens during the day. Don't be clouding my view dude! Added bonus--I can take them inside in a severe storm if need be. The original screened porch now framed into the house.

The final major change. I replaced the upper patio bedroom windows with french doors. It's a living room now! There will be no bed against that wall. Out opening doors, with no thresholds, will be a seamless transition from the patio to the porch. Indoor, outdoor living.

Looking through the upper patio doors out through the porch doors.

In short none of these changes probably would have happened had I not been there. Strike that, they would have happened years later in an expensive remodel.

Help arrives, my buddy Jimmy, on the left in the pic below with Ryan.

Of course I put him up in my "One Seasons" accommodation. Not to be outdone, it comes with a crab toilet. We aim for the total experience! By the end of his stay he called himself "jumpin" Jimmy.

the "Crumbs", another Jimmy Yogism.

The aforementioned "One Season" accommodation!


The view from the tent zipper window looking through the planned french doors. Hey, it could be worse, I could have charged!

Now the question. What to do with three people. You get so used to working with one, two seems like too much. Jimmy is like Thor, he disappears and starts doing things. It's a Virgo thing. Everything is now organized temporarily. It's a little unsettling to have screws arranged by size! Better still, Jimmy is a successful contractor back in California so he instinctively tried to take over until he ran into "Daddy". I mean, I have to keep the pretension going.

Thankfully he ignored me for the most part and we finished the hardest part of the red iron assembly--erecting the three 20' porch columns. I'll save you the details but they were a bitch. 250 pound monsters wanting to go their own directions. Anchor bolts which had drifted, overpowered hammer drills, columns recessed 3/4" from the building edges off by 1/4" and other things I forget. Concrete is not as plum and square as you would like. That's why god invented stucco guys. Plus I wanted a 1" slope on the porch that wasn't in the plans which affected the plates on the wall.


Ryan and I discussing the placement of the wall plates relative to the slope I want, to the drawings, the floor coming out the dining room and its effect on the roof line. Taken by Jimmy with his crackberry. Mine's almost showing. Scary indeed.

Yes we assembled scaffold towers and used the block and tackle again to get these beasts up and on the bolts. Don't forget, most anywhere else there would be a boom truck lifting every piece in place. The entire red iron structure would go up in two days with long lunches. With two people, humping everything down the mountain by hand, two/three weeks. Trust me, I know. The columns alone took us a couple of days.

The three columns finally in place with the connecting red iron beams.
With the red iron up we laid in the floor joists and porch rafters only to find a missing flange. I'll deal with that later. Next we built my 32' highway ramp. Everything from here on will be brought down this ramp.

Just like that Jimmy's two weeks were up. Besides the good beach times, he met some Coral Bay locals. After a night of drinking with the locals his only response as he staggered into the truck, "those people are professionals". I had warned him but he's a wind/kite surfer that had other ideas. Worse still, after looking around the Star Wars bar, I told him it was amateur night.

The boss comes in a couple of weeks.