Doing hard time

3/4 actual size....

I just had the nightmare event. Blogger is supposed to save drafts as you go along. I hit the wrong key and an afternoon of typing and pics went into the void. It starts with an F and ends with a K!

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah. Why don't I update more often? Exhaustion. Generally I work, drive home, sometimes via the beach and crash. Most of the time I don't even have the energy to make myself some food outside of a sandwich at best. The upside, I've lost more than 20lbs of that "fine wine/martini belly" I had worked so hard to get. Ten more pounds and I'll be dangerous! I usually leave Cruz Bay about 7:30, late by island standards, and return around 5pm. I get up the mountain by 8:30am. I'm able to start later than most (7am) because I'm up at 1000ft and I left all the giant trees. Virtually my entire work area is shaded for most of the day. When its not I work somewhere else. Plus, it's easy to relax now. In July I got a satellite feed from St Thomas and I set up a wi-fi router and we have a pretty good wireless internet connection around the house. It's not DSL but no complaints from here at $49/month. The only problem is staying awake long enough to read the news and review the stock market. Saving the world has been put on the back burner for now!

a road side beach on the way home...step out of the truck and walk in

When I got back to St John at the end of June, I returned to a completed pour on the lower level. All and all, things went well as I had reported last time. The big problem from a labor point of view was all the spilt concrete up against the forms making their removal a bunch of needless work. Until I was able to rent a jack hammer I went at it with a 14lb sledge for a few days cursing the whole time. Grueling to say the least. In hindsight I should have just gone to the beach while I waited the week to get the hammer from rental company. You learn by doing. I'm not doing that again. The jack hammer took about four or five hours. The only hard part was hauling it up and down the hill.

the best $75 rental I have made so far....

Anyway, Mike and crew had originally said/thought they would take all the forms down and stack the 2x4's and plywood while also returning the rented whalers. Well, you guessed it, it wasn't done by the time I got back. I told Mike to forget it, I would do it. Nothing against Mike, I'm just at the bottom of his work list. Originally he signed up to do just the foundation. The upside is that I save $85 an hour I would have had to pay the crew. The downside, the job takes a whole lot longer. I set about doing it right after I got back.

the site as I found it....under the garbage can, in front of the blue tarp, you can see a square footing. That is the column footing that moved an inch forward causing all kinds of problems as you will see later....

I forget how long it actually took me, but it was about three weeks. I went at it with a 4lb baby sledge and a pick after removing all the spilt concrete. Pound the flat end of the pick behind the plywood and use the handle for leverage to pry the ply loose from the concrete. Three or four spots around the primeter and you are good to go. Most of the time is went reasonably well. The only real problem was there was a lot of it. About seventy full sheets and forty or so half pieces, not to mention first taking off the 1600 or more whalers. Break down the 300 or more 2x4's and pile them, neatly of course, on top of the cistern. Then carry the plywood behind the foundation to be hoisted out at a later date. No way I was going to boost those on top. I may be mad but I am not insane yet. Things moved along until about the ninth or tenth day. I woke up one morning and I could not touch the top of my head with either arm. Oh my god, the pain in my elbows. Apparently that little baby sledge was killing me. I mean you feel it everyday but then you just switch arms. It's no big deal or so I thought. Well, I'm almost three months down the road and I can finally wash the back of my neck and lift up my coffee cup with one hand!

the forms are still up on the inside....

I finished breaking down the forms with two hands for every task. It was the only way. Thankfully the only movement that was excruciating was a hammer motion. Every one says I have an extreme case of tennis elbow. Ace bandage is making a living off me. I took a week off.

I broke the handles on the hammer, baby sledge and two shovels not shown.....

Generally I work seven days a week putting in about seven hours a day. I putz a little on the weekends thinking it all through while I work. Net net, I probably do 40 hard ones per week. If I have to go to St. Thomas (Home Depot) I go on Sundays, usually about once a month.

a passenger ferry makes for St Thomas....

Next on the agenda was building the retaining wall on top of the eight foot base wall we had already poured. Of course I thought it was no big deal, what with it only being four feet high. We could use the plywood on its side and have at it. I said we because I thought Mike and crew would be part of the process. After a week I gave up on him. It was all I could do to have him show up to "shoot" the bolts on cottage. Shoot the bolts? Set up a surveyors level and make sure every bolt around the house was set to the same level so when I put up my steel columns they would all be at the same height. There are other ways to do it but this is the easiest.

Building retaining walls is fairly straightforward when you have a helper. Doing it alone is a whole other treat. I know, I know I should get a helper. That's for another discussion. Trust me, I ran a two man crew for many years. I needed to do this alone if for no other reason than to learn everything that was necessary. You learn every trick in the book by doing it yourself. Yes, it takes longer but not twice as long. There's a lot of standing around when you have a crew, even if it's just one other person. With all the digging and trenching it probably took me another three weeks to put up about 70 feet of winding retaining wall, ranging from four feet to eight feet. Don't forget that includes all of the # 5 rebar, cut and bent.

You line up all the snap ties keeping pressure on two sheets of 3/4 inch ply standing on some flimsy scaffolding and see how long it takes you! Plus, don't forget, you don't have any elbows to speak of.

I added another six feet to this segment.....

Next waterproofing the foundation walls.

Then moving six yards of gravel down the hill to put in my drains before back filling the foundation/lower floor. The task. Move the gravel about 150 feet down a makeshift galvanized luge run after digging a small trench around the perimeter of the foundation.

the luge run....
It's not as easy as you think even if it is very steep. Gravel finds a way to stop even on slick galvanized sheets! Tweaking, tweaking and more tweaking. Three days of tweaking. Up and down the mountain breaking up gravel log jams. Slipping and sliding until help arrived. Denise rode to the rescue. In the old days they would have said the coolie labor has arrived!

that pile originally filled both sheets of plywood three feet high....

We rented a small cottage lower down the mountain above Coral Bay below our property.

Denise stayed nine days three of which were spent shoveling gravel onto the luge run at exactly right amount so that it would not clog the chute except at the very bottom where I shoveled it out of the way. What a god send that Denise showed up. I took a few days off and we putzed about. Anything to help my elbows. Denise left and returned to SF.

All the work to date was the build up to what I was putting off. The deck pier and cement beams that had to go on the lower level. Originally I thought I would address the lower deck slab after the cottage was almost livable. The work as planned was to pour the three individual footings, 4x4x3, for the columns that would support the deck above. We poured these with the walls. The bad news, the last pier on compacted fill moved about one inch forward after a monster series of rain storms. Previously it was thought that the 20 ton cat would provide enough compaction to allow for this base footing. We are talking about being on about three feet of fill. Hmmm.

Plan B.

I was not looking forward to this. After getting confirming advice, the obvious had to be done. I had to sink a pier at the outer edge of the patio, where there was fill, down to terra firma and run beams along the perimeter to stabilize the entire area--fill or no fill. Oh man. In a perfect world the earlier advice I had gotten would have said "put in a pier while the big cat was doing the excavation". Ten minutes to make the hole and dig the footings. Now. Whew. It's not possible to get a big machine back down there, not to mention the additional cost of another delivery ($500). Plus the scheduling. You don't just call someone up and they show up. You get in line, usually a long line.

a frigate bird along with a "laughing" seagull...

The only solution was a small excavator. They have them, running about five feet wide. But I needed one with steel tracks. Most have rubber which can't make it up and down our property. It took about a week but I found three, two on St Thomas. The bids were all over the place from $1500 to $2200 for about a day's work or so they said. I am so depressed. I can't do it by hand, it would kill me!

I'm not sure how I found out while I was crying in my coffee, but Elvis, where I have some steel etc stored, was said to have a small steel tracked excavator. He did, at $95/hour plus delivery. Of course this being St John it would not be available for about a week or so. Who cares! I could spend the week cleaning out and patching the inside of one of the cisterns getting it ready for the thoroseal coats. Also I had to remove everything that would be in the way of the machine coming down the hill and squeezing its way around back. The timing is working. I should have plenty of time to get all my work done before I return to San Francisco on October 6th--including pouring all the concrete.

Meanwhile I overheard a conversation on the project above me while I was eating lunch. They had "too much dirt for too little hole". Oh really! I have got plenty of hole! The already existing driveway retaining wall could take everything they have and more. I told them that they could move all the fill onto our property at the top of the driveway on their dime. It saves them a lot of money. Otherwise they would have to hire dump trucks, find and pay someone to dump their fill. At the same time I also negotiated with the cat operator to move the fill down to back fill my retaining wall and then continue further down and back fill the foundation. Besides the good timing, I save on a delivery charge of $500 because the machine was already there. I dropped everything I was doing and spent the next three days dismantling the job site to make room for the big machine. Lumber, steel, water tanks, everything had to be moved. I was already going to do some of this for Elvis's machine. The rest of the time I spent directing the excavation/saving trees. Perfect timing.

The next day they spent moving the fill with a backhoe to the top of the driveway. You can see it in the corner of the this picture when the big cat showed up.

moving the fill down to the retaining wall....

Turning and moving down to excavate and back fill the foundation. You can see some of the plywood I had him hoist out of the hole before back filling started.

Rather than have one tall retaining wall we cut a shelf in. At the base of this wall will be the small wading pool. Landscaping on the top shelf.

the front yard....with the front door to be in the lower right.

Total cost $800, five hours at $160. Free fill and no delivery, sweet.

The following week Elvis showed up. Three and half hours later the work was done--$750 including delivery. Actually he had to come back one more time after I determined we had to go deeper when I was squaring up the hole--another $190. Now the hard part. Figuring out how to build it all, alone!

I left part of the retaining wall unfinished so he could get his machine down.

It looks ugly! I had to have plenty of plywood as a roadbed so that he could go over what he had previously done to make the hole deeper. Plus attempting to protect the bolts in the original footings for the deck columns. Ultimately with machine and by hand I went down about nine feet for the pier.

The work begins.

It took about a day to square up the hole and dig it down about two more feet. I put a four foot base to the pier. The pier itself is 2x2.


I squared everything to the existing foundation. Everything was done with 16' 2x4's. Don't forget I'm also the dumb end of the tape. Net, net everything came within a 1/4". Good enough for government work. Even if it hadn't turned out I could square it again when I pour the slab. Plum bobs and levels rule!

This is a good picture of the scope of the work. The pier is under the plastic tarp. It's at that corner, well actually in about four feet, where the footing for a deck column moved one inch. The covered deck is eight feet wide with the patio extending another four and half out to the forms and pier that I built.

This will be the side patio with no overhead deck. Lots of sun to dry out the place after heavy tropical rains.

That's all #5 rebar. Counting the cottage and retaining walls I have used about 550 20' bars. My Dewalt grinder has earned its keep. It has made at least 1500 cuts. By using stirrups in these 10" wide, two foot high footings I'm attempting to have a steel/concrete beam running the outside perimeter. Six bars and a 14"x5" stirrup every six inches. I had to build it all in place. No way I could lift six 20' lengths and stirrups and put it in the footing. What a pain in the ass to assemble in place. Almost three days for sixty feet. My logic, if the deck is going to sink I want it all to sink the same amount everywhere. It is not going to move away from the building as the original column footing did because when I pour the five/six inch deck slab I'll epoxy my rebar into the foundation slab every foot. That deck may go down but it is not going out. A professional would probably tell me I wasted my time.

I'll be pouring all the concrete to five or so inches short of the top of the forms. That way I'll only take down the inside of the forms on the patio and the upper retaining walls leaving the outside forms still up. This way I won't have to build new forms for the slab. I put a level line all around the inside to approximate the right level. After the pour while it is still wet I'll stick new rebar in every foot to tie it later to the slab. I'm also pouring the pier and its footing at the same time. Same with parts of the retaining wall. It's just such a pain to get a pumper truck and a concrete truck up the mountain. Not to mention the work and expense of bringing down 150' of pipe for pumping the concrete.

Now, the wait for the concrete. I'm scheduled for Wednesday October 3rd. I leave for SF the following Saturday. I could not get it sooner because Majestic ran out of concrete. Centerline Concrete said they could squeeze me in for my 21 yards the following week on Wednesday.

I hide under this during the down pours and to get a break from the sun. This is the one area where there is no shade. The hurricane season brings some heavy rains. The biggest drawback is it turns the site into a three, four day quagmire. Ankle deep mud. Slipping and sliding, falling on your ass at all time. Digging trenches etc is doing hard time. I have virtually no level ground. It's everything to keep from being speared by the rebar. Carrying 3/4 inch sheets of plywood is always entertaining, up or down the hills. My poor feet. One pair of boots has already rotted off. I keep the mosquitoes in check by running my pump after every hard rain draining any standing water. Clorox does the rest.

I had to wake this guy up when I needed my plank, totally docile....

I have spent a lot of time in the tropics starting all the way back in the early seventies. On land and sailing across the seas. I have a routine. It has worked flawlessly everywhere except for a night spent sleeping on a beach in French Polynesia on Moorea. That night a six-inch centipede crawled under me and later bit me on the back of my neck. Despite being sound of sleep it was like bolt of ligthning struck me. Blind as a bat I started smashing everything around me after I saw him move. The rage and the pain are not expressable. To this day if I see a centipede I kill it as pay back. The next morning with my head and neck throbbing, I stood up still cursing and swearing, and there low and behold was that little monster sleeping very comfortably in his original curled up position under where my neck had just been. I pulverized him. Say hello to the other time my routine failed.

This sucker crawled into my wet leather glove into the thumb hole. Like I said, I have a routine. With gloves, I twist them as if I were wringing them out. Which in this case I was, the sweat makes them feel like drenched rags. Anyway, twist away. Don't ask me how he survived, but survive he did. Trust me when I tell you this, the folks that say their sting is like a bee have never been stung by a scorpion. I know bees and wasps. I have had occassions where I have been seen running out of the woods with whole hives after me. One time Helen Dunn was vacuuming when I ran into her house trying to escape. Yup, she vacuumed them off me. I have been bit by more than 20 or 30 bees at the same time, so take my word for it when I tell you that the scorpion above is NOTHING like a bee sting. When I suck my hand in the glove all I could think was, whatever did that, if it does it again it will kill me. I kid you not, the pain was so incredibly instant that my heart skipped a beat. It was all I could do to just get the glove off. My thumb went instantly numb with a hammer like throbbing. I couldn't breath right. And then, like the centipede before, revenge set in. Picking up the glove, there he was comfortably nestled into the thumb slot. It actually took a lot to kill him. They are tough little creatures.


these are my wards when Roger and Fran go off island....they found the mud hole....

I spent the week waiting for concrete by finishing everything and spending time on the site nearby where they are in the stucco stage. A crew from Haiti and the Dominican Republic were making short work of it. Fast and good. I learned every secret I could. I spent hours watching and speaking spanglish with them. Products and techniques. Names and numbers. I can definitely put up the first two coats myself. A big money saver. Then I can get a couple of these guys on a weekend to put up the finish coat. As some payback, I taught the painter everything he didn't know.

If your wondering if all this work is worth it, it is. The best price on St John for poured concrete, forms, labor, the whole task is about $850 a cubic yard. To date we will have poured 91 yards for about 1/3 of that price. It takes me longer but the savings are there. All those containers I brought from Florida continue to pay off.

The excitement builds as my concrete should be coming in two days. There's something final about concrete. A stage is completed and a hurricance can't blow away three months of work.

Yes, you guessed it, the phone rang. Jeff, the pump truck operator broke down trying to get to another job. He's not sure if the axle will be repaired by Wednesday, maybe by Friday. He has the only truck available that makes the switchback turn coming up the mountain. Thrusday, Centerline concrete calls to tell me they are also now out of concrete. The barge from Puerto Rico has been delayed. There will be no concrete with no date certain. I'm getting on the plane. I rebooked the concrete for the 24th.

Why the pictures of the interior of the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas?

remember that's the interior....

That's a whole other story of cancelled plans. Anyway it led to me being stranded in Vegas overnight waiting for a flight to SF.

POKER!!!! a whole night of Texas hold'em. I pulled a 44 hour shift-- St John, Vegas on to SF. Who's better then me. Denise knew I was up to no good, she just didn't know what. I made enough to cover food, drink, taxis, tips etc and had $7.50 left over. Down to the felt as usual!

Finally, this entry is done. I get on a plane this Saturday to go back to the jungle.

The big pour

Flamboyant tree in full bloom.......

Mike showed up as previously mentioned on Friday, May 4th with Mario. Cleon was awol with a bad back--actually it was carnival on St Thomas, aka "bad back". No worries, the three of us got it done. Closing up the walls is a lot easier and goes a bit faster. We worked Friday and Saturday with Cleon returning Monday. I spent Sunday checking things finding a couple of small mistakes in the layout and figuring how to remedy them without spending a lot of time. The long and short of it is the bathroom will be two inches narrower and I'll have to epoxy two anchor bolts for one of the supporting posts. I'm not concerned with how Mike made the mistakes I'm just happy I found them early. Once they got poured in concrete I would have had to live with them. The outside dimensions were spot on but the inside dimension of the cistern was off by two inches when the wall changed from 10 inches to eight. Ultimately everything is on me so I was very happy to spot it. Early on I decided to butt out of all the measurements in regards to the concrete forms. There are a lot of little twists and turns to what seems like a simple process. The last thing someone needs is me asking "how come" on every step. The silver lining? The bedroom is two inches bigger.

The work went fairly quick. After work Monday I stopped by Majestic to get in line for concrete. I had two choices, Friday the 11th or Tuesday the 15th. I called Mike to see if he thought we would be ready by Friday knowing that if we poured on Tuesday the 15th I would have to cancel my flight back to San Francisco. He thought we could make it by Friday. I paid Majestic for 48 yards and they penciled us in for Friday afternoon. It would be a long day with six trucks carrying eight yards each up that mountain.

the driveway landing pad!

Semi tame wild burro.......

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we worked like dogs with the concrete delivery hanging over our heads. While I'm new at this game, I knew we would never make it. What was going to get short changed was the very big retaining wall/driveway landing pad that was so necessary for sculpting the driveway so that I could finally drive down it for the second stage with all the steel. It's one thing to toss and drag plywood and 2x4 down the hill along with the rebar but it's totally out of the question with steel beams, posts, etc. I could not sleep Thursday night. Friday morning I stopped by Majestic and asked them how late in the day I could cancel the last eight yards--the retaining wall. I also asked Patsy not to mention to anyone that I might be doing that. Keep the pressure on.

Armani goes jungle......

Within an hour it was obvious we were not going to get to framing the retaining wall. Huge bummer. Not only is it the key to the driveway but it actually plays a big part in the process for back filling the foundation. My grand design for the universe has the excavator digging out the cottage above and using that dirt to back fill the retaining wall and the foundation below. Meanwhile he grades the driveway, digs out the small swimming/wading pool and hoists, out of the foundation below, the hundred sheets of plywood and assorted 2x4's and places them in the newly excavated hole for the next cottage well up the hill. I don't want to have to think of alternative plans at this moment.

Well, the other shoe drops at about 10 am. Jeff, the pumper truck guy, breaks his rear axle trying to make it to his first pour. Majestic starts looking for a different truck for us to meet the afternoon pour. Meanwhile we keep working. Now it rains, not enough to stop us from working but enough to keep the cement trucks off the "slick" roads. Majestic cancels the afternoon pour but promises us Saturday. A break for the good guys! However we are still not going to be ready with the retaining wall. Heavy thunderstorms Saturday morning again keeps the trucks off the road. The other pumping truck doesn't even try to get up the mountain. This is turning out to be pretty good news. Majestic thinks I'm crying the blues, paying a crew for waiting around for concrete that never comes, so they keep bumping us to the front of the line. Now we are on for Monday am. Jeff's other truck, which was getting its bearings replaced is now ready for work. We put in a full day on Saturday. I work Sunday laying out all the bolts and tightening up all the whalers etc. We still have a lot of work to do on the retaining wall which Mike expects to do while I'm working pouring the walls.

scaffolding platform up and ready

Flamboyant tree flower blooms June-July for over a month......

Monday morning comes. The weather is perfect. How we are going to get the wall done is any one's guess. I assume it's not going to get done and I'll be calling Patsy to cancel the last eight yards. This is going to be close. Jeff calls while I'm up in the container getting some anchor bolts. He can't make it up the mountain with this different truck. He's losing power. With no power he has to back all the way down the mountain. The good news--after three delays for concrete caused by the pumping trucks, the retaining wall gets completed up to eight feet. Majestic bumps us again to the front of the line for Tuesday the day I fly out. Do I stay or do I go? Will Jeff's other truck with broken axle be repaired? After Tuesday we no longer get bumped to the front of the line. It will be at least a week before we get concrete. I talk to Mike and decide to get on the plane with everything completed. Not what I really wanted to do. But.

a new wild burro.........


Invasive vines I thought I was going to cut down until I saw them bloom.....

Jeff's truck finally gets up the hill on Tuesday. The cement starts showing up while I'm heading to the airport. Of course there's a a panic moment for Mike and crew. They topped off one of the trucks and fresh cement spilled out of the back going up the steep incline. Everyone had to rush down the mountain to sweep the road so the next truck could make it up the hill. Other than that everything went as planned. Thankfully I had put all the anchor bolts in place with Simpson anchor holders the night before. They would have never been put in. Some crews put the anchor bolts in after the pour. With the crew short handed they would have never had the time. I would have had to drill and epoxy 75 anchor bolts probably hitting rebar on every hole. That's why I bought my 50 cent plastic Simpson holders. Thank god! And just to be safe, Allah Akbar!

The vine flower--blooms in April-May for a month.......

Finally some great news. Majestic was packing those trucks with concrete. We did the math several times. Even with the pumping truck eating a yard and the piers taking one extra we should have still used 46 yards with 48 ordered. Anything extra I would just add to my splash driveway. Meanwhile Rick, a nearby builder stopped by and mentioned in passing if there was any extra concrete he would by it. Extra concrete? How about eight yards! He took it all. What a save. He just lowered my bill $1700. The only thing we can figure is that Majestic was putting almost the full nine yards in the trucks and after the first five trucks it started to add up leaving us with an extra truck. Whatever. I got mine and Rick has his footings! Yah man! Jeff also stepped up after all the delays. Last time he charged me $1390 to pump thirty yards. This time $1250 for forty. Maybe they are just happy to not have me there!

Just in case you think I spend my time holding drinks with little umbrellas, I have not been to the beach since the middle of March. All the work above was performed while we were being attacked by mosquito hordes which appeared after the big rains breaking a mini drought that lasted four months. We had fires going at all times, feeding it with whatever we thought would make smoke. I wore long sleeves etc. Only my face was exposed.

I'm typing this freezing my butt off in San Francisco. It is nice to come back to our fur lined rut here in SF. This is easily the most beautiful city in the world. I leave here June 3rd. Home for eighteen days!

our hood.......

where our pets go to heaven.......

I thought I was leaving on June 3rd. What was supposed to be my usual skin cancer removal routine turned into an extremely painful, trip delaying eyeful.

I had to change my return until the 13th, only to have Jetblue then basically cancel my trip to Ft Lauderdale where I then board Spirit Air to St Thomas. These guys collectively are all highwaymen. When I called Spirit from the Jetblue counter to inform them I would not be making my connection the next morning they told me tough luck--as I was within the 24 hour cancel period I would lose my whole ticket value. And, just to kick me while I down, they had no seats until two days later and I had to buy a new ticket at the much higher price. Jetblue, for their part, simply said they were sorry! Of course that's just half the story. For virtually the first time in my life I decided to check bags. Not just any bags but two forty pound collapsible thermos bags with twenty pounds of fresh halibut and salmon, ten pounds of fresh cherries, ten pounds of cheeses, and assorted other fresh things too many to mention. That fresh fish is now frozen in our SF freezer. The day of new flight I went and bought fresh fish again and more cherries and tomatoes. You don't even want to know what this is starting to cost!

Jetblue remembers me from two days ago as I'm chitchatting at the counter. Same two heavy bays with moisture showing. Thank god I don't look like Ahab. Anyway the bags get grabbed and labeled and taken away. After I'm handed my ticket the counter person asks where my bags are? Say what? That guy put tags on them and put them on the conveyor belt. Hey you, where did you send this guy's bags. I sent them to Boston on a rush because the plane is leaving in fifteen minutes. I am about to die. After a two day delay, canceled flights, one ticket lost with no refund, five hundred dollars of fresh fish and produce and they lose my bags at the COUNTER. I assume the plane I getting on is going to crash. This has bad news written all over it. Plus they don't even fly to St Thomas. It's gone. It is everything I can do to avoid arrest. The ticket counter personnel disappear. What's worse, I'm a Jetblue fan. I'm crushed as I board my plane an hour later.

Sitting next to me as it turns out, are two Jetblue stews heading home to Lauderdale. I want to strangle them. They overhear my conversation with my wife on the phone as I'm still seething. Denise tries to calm me down. They offer their condolences. I'm resigned. As they are closing the main cabin door the counter person comes bounding down the isle with an orange vest on. Mr. Neid, the Boston flight had to return to the terminal with technical problems on takeoff and I personally retrieved your bags. They will be waiting for you at the gate when you get off the plane. I can't believe it. I guess this plane isn't going to crash after all! For one last scare, the bags were not at the gate. I went to baggage just in case and there they were. Whew.

I won't bore you with the details of paying an extra $110 with Spirit Airlines in Lauderdale because I had to return to check-in when I failed security with a liquid in my bag--melting ice. Duh. Then the four hours of sitting in the waiting area and on the tarmac while they looked for a new co-pilot. My poor fish. We arrived four hours late but i still caught a ferry to St John. Roger, Fran and I are happily eating halibut and salmon once a week! Moral of the story? Use dry ice. They allow it on the plane in carry on luggage.

I still have to write a letter to Spirit Airlines. They tried to tell me the responsibility was with Jetblue for the ticket. OK. We shall see. The Spirit flight which got delayed is usually the return flight I catch to Lauderdale where I catch Jetblue to Oakland. Spirit would have caused me to miss that connection. Would they have paid? I don't think so.

Back to construction 101. I went back to work on Monday, June 20th. The site was a mess of debris and spilt concrete. Unfortunately in several instances it was up against the forms causing all kinds of unnecessary work tearing down the forms. I'm new at this but its not rocket science. After the pour you take the time to shovel back any concrete away from anything that later has to be moved. The guys certainly worked, I'm sure, but they bailed at a critical junction. Work that should have taken ten minutes took hours breaking concrete with a sledge hammer. After work some days it was all I could do lift my arms. Cosmetically I have a cold seam running around the building excluding the cisterns. It happened when one of the trucks was delayed. While they say I'm wrong about this, I intuitively think that's where my earthquake cracks will be. St John is Zone 4 for earthquakes--same as San Francisco.

I'm going to take a few pictures before finishing the walls. All my plumbing and electrical survived the pour. What I should have done is taken pictures when the walls were open so I wouldn't have to think about the layout. My brain goes to toast if I'm gone more than two weeks and "out of shape" definitely returns after one month. I had to go through the heart attack stage when I got to taking down all the forms. The first week was deadly.

I have to add another four feet to the height.......

I'm typing this again waiting for Mike and crew. The retaining wall on the driveway has to be raised another four feet by my calculation. Possibly less, but more is better. Once that is completed I can bring back Jose, the excavator, and sculpt the driveway, back fill the house and put a splash driveway down so I can bring down all the steel etc. Right now it is not possible to drive down the hill--actually it may be but I'm not risking it. It's not like I can make a phone call and get pulled up the hill!

before and after

Two major termite colonies to be burned out. One is pictured below. These suckers got into my forms already.

Minor problem that I need to resolve immediately. One of my piers for a column has settled one inch out of whack. We can drift the bolts but I'm worried about more of the same. With the area being totally dry and under a tarp I'm thinking about finishing the back patio now rather than later. I'll have to get some advice on this. The pier in question is marginally on the edge of the fill area and my guess would be as more water saturates from above it can only settle more. If I put down some crushed rock and six inches of concrete it would certainly prevent any water seapage and further settling. We shall see. I have found a person with a mini cat, about five feet across with tank treads and a small bucket. He could get down to my back area without doing to much damage to the foiliage. That little machine could dig all my footings for a couple of retaining walls, grade the patio, put in all my drains lines etc in less than a day at $100/hr. Money well spent.

For the last wek, ending July 4th, it has been carnival here on St John. All day and all night. Bunny Wailer was the big act among several. Folks come from all islands for this one. Last, but certinly not the least, I went to a private party at a famous building on the water front--Christian fort (Danish) now known as the Battery, built in the early 1800's to watch the fire works given by/for the new Governor of the Virgin Islands. Sitting on the lawn we chatted for a bit as he made the rounds. No, I didn't tell him how to run things--I"ll save that for next time.

Just spoke to Mike after he canceled again. He blew out his back, yet again. I'll do the retaining wall myself. Thankfully it is only four feet. I'll have to built some scaffolding. I did finally finish the trench around the back and side for my drain lines. Next week I'll waterproof the foundation and build the slide to bring my gravel down. Galvanized roof segments is the material of choice around here for the slide. Hopefully I can get it in sixteen foot lengths at no extra charge. I'll pick that up Monday on St Thomas when I drop Roger and Fran at the airport as they depart for Argentina.

That's it for now.

When it rains it pours

Mike and crew showed up as scheduled on Wednesday, April 4th. As I mentioned previously, I had brought down all the materials--3/4 inch plywood, rebar and 16' 2x4's. Work went quickly as it seems to with Mike. He always has other commitments so he's always running in place. He runs his crew like I ran mine--hands on. He does all the lead work etc. barking out orders. A ten minute break at nine and a half hour lunch at noon with water breaks anytime you need one--these you need a lot of.

Everything in place to go down the slide

The site as we had left it previously

We put the slide I had built up on two saw horses to lessen the slope and quickly slid 50 sheets of ply onto the slab. The 2x4's were simply dropped into the hole against the back wall by the ladder. I won't bore you with the details but after nailing down some 2x4's with concrete nails, the guide for the inside walls was in place. Next in very quick order the pre-drilled plywood was stood up and screwed in at the bottom to the 2x4's, with the corners plumb and square the work went very fast. Snap ties were then put in each hole and the whalers were attached to hold then in place. Mike prefers plastic snap ties and whalers. Myself I had no clue although with shipping etc they are three times the expense of metal. However after working with them so far I wouldn't use anything else. Just the weight difference of humping plastic whalers down the hill vs metal makes it worthwhile. Don't forget, everything here is done by manpower for the most part and more importantly every thing that goes down the hill may still have to come up! After putting up the inside walls with snap ties and whalers we then started putting up all the rebar. A lot of rebar.

How fast did the work go?

We were done in four days. Those are the two cisterns on the right side of the photo.


In this photo the plastic snap ties are clearly evident. For the uninitiated, which included me about a month ago, the snap ties and whalers hold the walls both together and apart with the concrete poured in the middle.

In this photo you can faintly see the whalers. They hold the snap ties in place but more importantly they hold the lateral 2x4's. These ultimately are the real strength of the forms. Without these the sheer weight of the concrete would blow the walls out. In fact it still happens on many occasions.

The utility room door, bathroom window

and the three door bi-fold opening to the deck from the bedroom. These eight foot doors are going to rock.

This is the other eight foot rough opening for the doors from the bedroom to the side patio.

Mike and I came up to the site on Sunday after breakfast to button up and he gave me a punch list of things to do while we waited for our inspection. I put in for the inspection on Monday morning. As I previously mentioned these things take some time.

Meanwhile I worked alone again to bring down the next 50 sheets of ply, 100 16' 2x4's, more rebar and I drilled the 18 holes in each sheet of ply for the snap ties. I cannot say enough about downhill building sites. With the chances of getting a level site very slim you are left with the choice of uphill vs downhill. There is no discussion. All the work I do alone would not be possible with an uphill build. There is no way that I could carry rebar, ply and 2x4's uphill no matter how slight the grade. In the photo above my container is on a very small downhill lie. Just that 1--2% allows the sheet to literally slide out the door where my truck waits also on a grade.

Gravity helps the sheets slide onto the roof racks. From there I drive down into my cul de sac where again I'm parking on a grade. The sheets then slide off with little effort.

I included this because I can't stress it enough how important it is to be above your site. Did I know this before I started? Of course not! But I know it now. What's that saying about god taking care of fools and idiots.......

I was finishing up drilling all the holes when Carlos, the inspector, showed up on Friday along with rain. What had started as some showers on Thursday turned into a torrential downpour by Friday afternoon. It basically rained nonstop until Monday with more on Tuesday and Wednesday. Most everyone was happy to have their near empty cisterns filled to the brim. However there was a small minority that wasn't happy. Those folks who had just days before paid through the ear for the water truck and people like me in the middle of a project. Everything is now delayed! But worse still the excavated back wall caved in onto the rebar and the wall forms. Thankfully when I did the excavation I left about six feet clearance tapering to about eight feet at the top. It helped. But not enough. I spent five hours a day last Tuesday through Friday digging out the mud. I'm still not done. One of the corners came down while I was working and I have to go back today, Sunday, to dig it out. Once the slide occurred sleeping was near impossible. We have all been through tropical downpours but hearing it knowing that all could be lost if the rest of the hill comes down is a bit much. I was freaking out to say the least.

The clearance prevented any structural damage, aside from having to clean out the rebar and keyway with a spoon! There's nothing quite like shoveling sticky mud. Forget that it weighs a ton, its the sticking to the shovel that kills you. Finally after a couple of days I figured out using the broad end of my pick worked better--akin to plowing a field. I'm hoping that a power washer may work with only a gravity feed water line or sump pump to clean out the keyways and rebar. It seems a stretch but I'll find out Monday at the tool rental place. Its been clearing since Friday.

On a bright note rain brings flowers. The whole island is blooming, all within three days of the heavy rains. We went from a very dry cactus type environment to a lush tropical island again.

More rain and more delays. Another week goes by with not much accomplished except digging out the mud. Another small slide covered the plywood piled in the retaining wall excavation. That took a day. At best, I'm good for five hours of shoveling this stuff all the while thinking I'm having a heart attack! I put a 16 foot 2x10 across the driveway to divert the water coming down the road. It has solved the problem. In fact the best time to solve problems with water is when it's raining. You can see all the rivers that are causing all the problems. A day spent digging small trenches proved to be the cure all for the entire site.

My hopes of clearing the mud from the rebar were dashed when the rental shop's pressure washer would not work with the sump pump pressure. I asked why it did not work. He had no clue. I need to get that mud out by today as Mike is finally coming tomorrow. I ran down to my wifi connection, went online and google searched pressure washers. Five minutes later I was opening a pdf file and reading the specs on a washer. Technically the gallons per minute output has to simply be met by the same input--more is better so you don't burn out the engine. Take a five gallon bucket, put your hose in it and measure how much water you have after one minute. His pressure washer should have worked. The real problem? He has the only one on island for rent. I called Home Depot on St. Thomas to see if they had any in stock. They did. I caught the next car ferry. Thankfully they run every half hour for $40-50 round trip. Four hours later I was driving out to Coral Bay with my $500 pressure washer that uses 3 gallon per minute! I had a sump pump already. Three hours later coated in mud head to toe, the rebar, footings and keyways were clean. Mike canceled! He's showing up Friday instead. Good, it gives me time to put in all the electric conduit.

Cleaned and protected.

To recap the time line. Mike showed up on Wednesday April 4th. We were done by the 8th. Monday the 9th I put in for the inspection. I was inspected on the Friday the 13th the start of the rain. It basically rained, on and off, for the next ten days delaying every one's projects. Then there was a shortage of concrete for a week. Bottom line Mike finally showed up on Friday May 4th. Meanwhile I had the adventures mentioned above. I also took care of getting my electric and plumbing permits taken care of. The trick here is to find a licensed contractor that will pull the permit and then let you do the work. It took a while but I got it done. Begging/asking favors is not one of my social skills. And begging is what you are doing. Net, net it took a few grand and everything is ready to go. I will still have to pay for the actual permits when I pick them up in St. Thomas. The contractors in question will come eyeball my work to make sure I'm doing it the right way etc. Paul, the electrician, was extremely helpful in detailing what I had to do to meet local customs for running conduit in concrete etc. Anyway a few grand saves me about fifteen by doing the work myself.

We started closing up the walls on Friday. I'll sleep a little better now. The rain is coming again. I'm scheduled to fly out of here for a eighteen days on May 15th. We shall see. Tomorrow, I'll order the concrete after work. Everything is always down to the wire!