The most important room

sand at 250x



With the stress of the marinas temporarily on hold I jumped downstairs to start framing out the now dried out utility room. In a strange twist it ends up being the most important room in the house while usually being relegated to dark, dank areas. In our case it ends up being front and center, something akin to the laundry room you might find in a larger condo. Everything comes together here more so than your typical home. Besides the electric and usual plumbing we have to incorporate pumps and pressure bladders to retrieve and pump water from the cisterns for household use. A rural farmhouse has the same although they would be using a well. For someone who has basically lived in apartments for the last 40 years it is all Greek to me. Our household inconveniences meant picking up the phone to call the manager!

A new friend waiting on the truck. The original stick figure.

 

Speaking of the truck I suppose it had to happen. After eight years of never locking my truck someone had the balls to walk down my driveway, no small feat, and rob the truck and the immediate area. They didn't just pick and choose. They literally took everything, including old rotten baseball caps and electronic cables/chargers for phones that don't even exist. They did however get a complete set of house drawings and my aluminum hand truck used to bring down the appliances. They got me while I was working in the house cutting tiles. After the shock and anger wore off it's the sense of  being violated that takes forever to be forgotten. Sadly I now have to lock my truck and the shack every time I work on the house. I spent two days driving the roads hoping to find my papers tossed by the side of the road. No luck. Hello DMV for a new registration and title. On a side note, of course I thought it was the evil marina supporters sending a message. haha. I'm not paranoid, am I?

 

 

The utility room layout begins. The grand design had the sub panel on the back wall where all the wires are hanging. The other wall is a shared wall with the bathroom. It is here that the washer, dryer, and utility sink will be lined up sharing the plumbing with the bathroom toilet, shower, and sink on the other side. Convenient plumbing 101. The pipe hanging out of the ceiling above is the waste pipe from the upper bath. The other is coming from the kitchen sink and dishwasher.

 

The plumbed waste pipes. Only the toilets are going to the septic. Everything else is gray water heading for banana, lime, orange and grapefruit trees yet to planted. 

 

Connecting to pipes in the slab. The utility sink is going where the level is standing. I had to special order a sink to fit the space. Thankfully they shipped to the island. I haven't framed out that corner yet. I use the opening to go back and forth to the bathroom/bedroom.

 

Sleeping under a T-shirt



Everything was going according to plan until I actually did a mock up of the entire room. Using online measurements of bladders, hot water heaters, washer and dryers it was proving too tight. It would work but using the washer/dryer could possibly be a pain in the ass not to mention an inspector with a tape measure might claim that the sub panel didn't have the necessary clearances by an inch or two. Back to the drawing board and chalk lines on the floor. I might add that this was never going to be a problem on the original drawings. We since have cut off the back five feet of the utility room to expand the walk in closet from the bedroom making it 12 x5 finished. Rather grand for a cottage.




The good news, there was a very workable solution that made the 9x6 room seem expansive and the appliances easy to use. The bad news---I had to rewire the whole room and relocate the sub panel and all the outlets. After all the cursing and swearing it took a day but thank god that voice in my head suggested a mock up. Had I put up all the sheetrock it would have been much harder and taken a lot longer.

Now the real trick. Getting 4'x9' sheets of drywall down to the house from under the shack.

 

Even the chickens on the path want to watch this one. That is a pretty steep pitch even when you are not carrying anything. Dummy that I am, I manipulated a sheet and started off. It snapped just past the chickens. Duh. Then I used my brain.

 

I cut them in place ending up with 4' and 5' lengths. This is how my insect brain works. It only took years! All those ceilings I did alone. It hurts just thinking about it.

 

 

Panic. I woke up on 9-11 of all days to a refrigerator no longer working. This is a serious crisis. Inside that freezer is a month's worth of frozen fish etc. Just as bad, they don't make this particular 4.3 cubic ft any longer. Why is that important? It has the largest freezer. Why only 4.3? Because I can carry it down to the shack and it doesn't take up a lot of room. It is the perfect size for one person living in a 12x12, doing one month runs to St Thomas. Anyway, I had maybe ten hours before everything would spoil. Here's hoping Home Depot had a replacement.

They did but with a smaller freezer. I wouldn't be in this mess if the full size refrig in the house had worked. Welcome to the rock. I did use the trip to pick up all the bits necessary to install the plumbing for the shower without which I can't close up the wall in the utility room. Silver linings.

the shower plumbing on the right

 

Mother's little helper. Why hadn't I thought about cutting the sheets sooner? With the screw gun below the work was actually enjoyable. I had dreaded laying out the utility room for a long time.

 



 



Almost there. The washer and dryer will be against the back wall with the hot water heater in the left corner. I used the left over gray rock from the bathroom rather than cut up new sheets. Tapping and mudding is easier not to mention this fiberglass rock I brought from Florida in 2007 was $12 a sheet. Here on island the smaller 4x8 sheets are $56. Meanwhile I now have the pump and the hot water heater. I'll have to get the bladder in SF and ship it. The pricing here relative to my budget is way to expensive.

In shipping news.....;~) This is just a sprinkling of what goes on here.

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/cargo-ship-runs-aground-off-st-thomas-1.1718234

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/v-i-s-2-new-ferries-finally-in-service-1.1715552

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/boat-runs-aground-on-savana-island-dumping-debris-diesel-fuel-onto-reef-1.1809983

http://stthomassource.com/content/news/local-news/2014/11/24/coast-guard-rescues-six-boaters-st-john

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/coast-guard-cutter-crashes-into-sinks-fishing-boat-1.1758919

When you hit the lottery I'll take this 1994 Hinckley...;~)





Round two. The T-Rex marina proposal--this one driven by the corporate peeps that run the Moravian Church empire. Why go small when you can go ginormous. Summer's End Group has 146 slips with long term plans to develop the hillsides with multi million dollar condos and endless gated communities. T-Rex took up the challenge. While they only envision 96 slips theirs includes a hotel, Embassy Suites type, a complete marina repair, power plant, water treatment plant and a whole host of other developments that are focused, like SEG, in driving out the current 500 residents from their homes. If your lower house price from living in a ten year construction zone don't kill you the noise will.

Not shown...their marina literally overlays the northern part of SEG's at the bottom of the picture.

 

Imagine if everything you see in the picture above, to the left and front and center, going almost across the entire bay was covered with gangways and slips. Not only do they say it with a straight face they say it will be good for the community and the eco system.

Supposedly how it will look from the church we are sitting in.



Just prior to this town hall the Coastal Zone Management committee approved without comment SEG's marina plans. Of the two members who were allowed to vote, one said in passing that he hoped, with fingers and toes crossed, that this would work and the other moron said he envisions Coral Bay becoming the largest commercial harbor in the Caribbean. This on an island of 4,000 residents. They further made claims that they read every one of the 12,000 letters in opposition from individuals and every government agency. This is the stupidity we have to deal with. Corruption is as corruption does.

seven freeloaders at the trough...





With about a month left to go before I return to SF I jumped over to St Thomas to replace all the plaster that got ruined in the prior flood. Afterwards I spent my time plastering the utility room and the walls under the porch with Durabond 90. All the concrete walls, house and retaining, are really very, very rough. When they were done they weren't vibrated. Combined with the cold seams and all manner of imperfections three coats were necessary.

 

Coming together. It's all going to be tight though!





Of course midway through I had to drop everything for a few days as hurricane Gonzalo decided to pay us a visit. Here's a series of pictures that held everyone's attention while it is happening.

 

 

 

When he first appeared he was south of us. Not the best place but far enough away that the damage might be limited to monster rains. This was on October 9th.

 

Not good. He is turning north. St Croix is under the US Virgin Islands printing on the map. They have to be worried. At least it is still south. 

 



In a further move north over night, St Croix is projected to be hit by the eye. Not a good thing. Even a Cat 1 causes damage. Lost electricity chief among them.

 

 

In dramatic fashion Gonzalo continues making a hard turn. Now he is projected to miss us. However it is the worse position, short of a direct hit, for Coral Bay. All boats that could leave are long gone.

 

 



 

And finally he passed to the north of Tortola. We were spared any real damage except for some serious rain.

 

 

Ten inches over the four days from Gonzalo. I'm getting really good at hurricane proofing the house and shack. When it rains this hard the back wall of the shacks cries and floods the floor. And yes the roof leaks a bit here and there but not over the bed so I have never dealt with it. haha. On a serious note I did find that the grout on the upper porch in a few spots was not doing its job. Drip, drip underneath, downstairs. When it finally stopped raining I dug out all the old grout and redid it all. You know the house has taken too long when you are already doing maintenance and the house isn't finished.

the back wall seeping

Overall a pretty quiet season.

 



With all the ruckus we have raised against the marinas we are now considered an important player in community relations. In a tight race the future Governor found time to hold a town hall with about 20 of us just prior to the election. We pinned him down to not being happy about the sizes suggested. I filmed it all. Short versions of which made the rounds. Like a true politician he left open the idea that smaller would be better. He doesn't realize we want no size. The goal remains as it is...all boats on moorings. End of story. We are a bedroom community based on eco tourism with over 300 million invested. You and yours do not come in, no matter what the pretense, and steal our investment. We built the community from scratch. The government and other anointed folks had nothing to do with it. All the roads were privately built except one--and that was built by the Army.


 



 

 

With that another year closes on an unfinished project. Who's idea was this anyway?! I'm so ready for the holidays.