bordeaux mountain

The big day has arrived. Leo and company arrive practically on schedule. On concrete days this is the calm before the potential storm. Usually at this stage nothing can go wrong. Myself, I'm able to walk around, hop here and there and make sure every loose end I can think of has been squared away. With the property starting to take shape I'm more particular about the route the pipe takes getting to the pour. I have no idea how it is in the States but here the concrete pours are really messy. Every time they break pipe down, put it together, move it etc there are spills. Some get very large. If the spills set in the wrong place, on the wrong things, it is a huge pain in the ass to clean up-some times jack hammer painful. Forget about the pump truck crew cleaning up.

With all that stated, I direct where I want the pipe to go. Yes sometimes we yell back and forth. I get my way in the end.

As I have previously mentioned I don't pay for the crew until the concrete starts pumping. I'm happy he is enjoying himself. Because of the nature of my pours it can take a couple of hours for the pump truck to set up and lay all the pipe. Sometimes it is almost 200'. Timing is everything and Majestic has been known to send trucks early to get them on the road. On several occasions that has led to backed upped trucks pumping very hot concrete.

We built a similar ramp on the lower cistern. I cannot say enough about them.

Because of a host of reasons, chief among them the difficulty of getting trucks up here, I tend to have complicated pours. I tell Leo or Jeff, as the case may be, what I want done and then we figure out how to do it. As we have in the past, on other projects, I formed up the septic and lower cistern such that we could pour the slabs and walls on the same day. Yup, this definitely runs the risk of problems but I roll the dice. I figure the risk is worth the concrete loss should something happen. The difficulty of getting a pumper up the hill, the spotty availability of concrete and the cooperation of the weather make me more of a gambler than I already am--that takes some doing! I certainly would not take the same risk with the house. Never. The loss would be too great.

All that said, on this pour we are going to pour the slab of the septic first, jump over and do the lower cistern. If I have my yardage right we will get a break to change trucks after the lower slab is done. It will give it time to set up before we pour the walls. Finger crossed with the dice rolling.

The sluice we built for Jeff.

Even though we did not really use it, it made things a lot easier bringing down the pipe. The sluice was old 6" waste pipe that I cut in half. It was from one of Roger's properties. When he started some construction I jumped in and grabbed it.

Like most of the concrete I get, it is pretty stiff by the time it makes it from Cruz bay. Don't get me wrong I would prefer that to runny concrete but it makes it harder to move around. That's where Thor comes in! You saw the pictures of him. He likes it stiff. It keeps him in shape. He is a sick man. Without him this pour would have been a failure. Jeff, who passed on this job, is the only other person I know that moves as much concrete. I get tired watching.

The crew I paid for was okay. But when it gets really heavy there's only a VERY few folks that can get it done. To be honest I have no idea if I could have done it when I was 35. Sure I would have lasted longer than the 20 minutes I do now without a break, but hours, I'm not sure. Just try to imagine standing practically knee deep in five yards of hot concrete that is not self spreading. Your job is to spread it around a 8x12' area by the shovel full, knowing that it is getting stiffer and stiffer as you work. You have 30 minutes. Plus you have to get it reasonably level. Me, I'm good for about fifteen minutes, max! It is heart thumping work with a small dose of panic. I'm like Redd Fox on Sanford and Son having a heart attack all the time. Thor gets it done. The crew I paid for jumps down, puts up elevated planks and proceeds to level the slab.

They switch trucks. We have used eight yards for the two slabs. Meanwhile Thor jumps over the wall and starts leveling the exterior slab of the cistern. Same drill as the inside but even stiffer now. Every shovel full moved now is jack hammer work that won't have to be done busting out the wall forms. Don't forget we are pouring the slab and walls at the same time. Me, I'm getting CPR as I watch.

With a new truck in the saddle they start pouring the walls. The slab holds, the rotted re-enforced plywood forms and termite pitted 2x4's, doubled up for luck, do their job.

Imagine. There are tourists, usually from cities, who are afraid of lizards! Without lizards humans could not live in the tropics.

The cistern walls took another truck and a half. We get a break while they change to the new truck. NO BLOWOUTS!!!!! You can't imagine the relief.

With the cistern completed they break the pipe down to pour the slab and pool. I want this to be one contiguous pour for a host of reasons, strength being one of them. The plan is to start in the back corner and work forward screeding as we go and in one final move pour the walls of the pool. See that mess above. That is what happens when you break downhill pipe apart to move it. The concrete above the break leaks out everywhere. In this particular case something happened, who knows what, and we had nearly 1/2 a yard spill out. You can see the stain on the patio. This is the one time I had to yell at the crew to pick up shovels and clean the deck. They really enjoy watching me and Thor. Well, mostly Thor!

The back corner of the patio is out the door on the left.

The back corner we started in. So far so good. The crew Leo brought were pretty good with their trowel work. Not quite tile ready but pretty close given the circumstances. They relaid the pipe back to the septic and put another truck load in there. By this time we were around 32 yards.

Then the rain came. Murphy's law.

It wasn't a particularly heavy rain. Hard and short. But enough so that the empty truck could not get down the mountain and the full one could not get up. The empty truck could not even get up the cul duc sac. Meanwhile Leo and crew did nothing. The key word is nothing. This is the second time with Leo that it rained and he did nothing. Nothing, you ask? There's concrete in his pipe, 4" pipe no less. It starts to set, just like it did last time. Set? Yeah, it won't come out on its own. I ask him why isn't he squeezing out a few inches every ten minutes or so. Blah, blah, blah.

Of course it gets stiffer. Like last time, the solution is to take apart the entire run, each ten foot piece, and pound it out with baby sledges.

Like I said, I don't pay when the concrete doesn't pump. Now you know another reason why!

The rain stops. The road dries and trucks move.

At least some one is happy. Pink flamingos, a very rare sighting on St John.

Well they finally get the pipes cleared and move everything to the upper deck. The area to be poured is on the left where the rebar sits. The far corner is the exterior shower. You can see the white plumbing PVC sticking up.

We have three main pours left. The patio slab, the upper four foot driveway retaining wall and the new lower driveway. Once again because of the rain and more importantly the pipe delay, well over an hour, we are not going to complete the pour. It will be dark. I cancel the last eight yards. I went into this job owed six yards and I'm coming out owed eight!

They had to add a lot of water to the last truck. It was not Majestic's fault their truck sat so long. It was Leo's. I don't really care at this point. It's just the upper patio that will end up under 1/2" travertine. In fact it was nice to work with self leveling concrete for once. The deck and shower are tile ready!

Leo ran his usual trip on me. Always with a smile. In Leo's world the pipe delay is just life. Because he likes me he'll gladly come back tomorrow to finish the job. Oh really? Problem is, in Leo's world, tomorrow is a new day and a new CHARGE. Just like last time I got shorted with his pipe snafu, thanks but no thanks.

It's a crying game as my bud Jim says.

As always I make my pours as big as I can. Next time will be the roof for the septic, finish all the retaining walls raising the driveway, steps and a new three inch floor on the lower interior level to take out a pretty significant swale that happened on the original pour when the house slab was poured.

Leo clicks into plan B. Figuring out the charges.

I already wrote the check. I handed it to him before he did his math. "But, but, but." I said no Leo, I spoke to your uncle days ago. I get 100' of pipe and 20 yards for your show up fee. After that I pay $10 for every extra 20' of pipe and $10 for every extra yard. We poured forty yards, here's the money for the crew for the time the concrete was FLOWING. Here's $100 for you for showing up on short notice. I tell him to clean his truck out on my driveway. I spread it. With all the water almost another yard comes out of the pumper. At least I have a concrete turn to the lower packed driveway now.

After paying Thor, its another two grand pumping day with another $10,400 in concrete. Welcome to paradise!

Thor is leaving this time on a 98' footer. Computerized helm. Hmmm. I guess at those prices they can't risk a human error at the helm. I would sure love to sail something that big in some weather. I'll head home in ten days or so. I never make reservations before a pour. I only end up canceling them.

I'm going to the beach, a place I don't get to very often.

Home was wonderful. Family and friends and X mas.

The view from our roof deck. Alcatraz with the larger Angel island in the background

Our future view....

A new year with one last big push to finish the majority of the concrete work and finally start on the house. Thor is expected mid January. Between us we should knock it out in a couple of months weather permitting.

I changed my mind again. The septic doesn't work as planned. I'll never be able to get it serviced. No current company will run 200' feet of pumping pipe down to it. Even Jeff, the concrete pumper, will not run pipe down that far. I have to build a sluice from the lower deck. With all that in mind I now plan on building another cistern. It fills the hole solving a safety problem for people and animals and provides another six thousand gallons of storage. In addition at some future date I can put a small in-law unit on top of it. I now have to change the rebar again and enlarge the footprint. No big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Throwing down the plywood from the deck

Ultimately these will be ten foot walls

We made sure everything brought down the hill was the worst of the lot, plywood that normally would be never be used again. Why? Because nothing is coming back up that hill. It is one thing to drag/throw wet ply down but it is a whole other matter trying to bring it back up. This stuff is going to the termites after the pour.

While it is hard to imagine now, originally the driveway was ending at this wood pile. Had it, the lower cistern would have remained a septic. The original "black diamond" driveway cancelled that idea.

That solved one problem. Next, where to put the septic, how to dig the hole and how to get the equipment in place? Yikes.

I brought Elvis up to run my ideas by him.

His small track hoe can weave its way around the new site.

I decide the only real place the septic can go is down and to the right of the cottage. Among other reasons, really the most important, it will allow any future servicing from the driveway above.

Everything went according to plan. Elvis came without making too big a footprint and he started digging the hole. A few hours in and we hit rock. Not blue beach but hard enough such that the baby track hoe was over its punching weight. The real problem, we were near the maximum extension of his bucket to begin with so that he could not get any leverage to break up the rock as he pounded it. With just another foot to go down so we opted to rent the jackhammer--again!

We have at it for a couple of days in shifts but I had enough. I call Jose with the big cat.

Godzilla arrives....

Why didn't I call Jose to begin with? For one thing he's not available on short notice and when he does show up it is like having Godzilla rumble through the property. Among other things it also means there is a good chance my thin concrete temporary driveway is going to suffer some damage. Not to mention a $500 delivery charge. For that money I have to think of multiple tasks before I commit.

Plan K!

Dig septic, grade side of cottage for future steps, level upper patio and ready for rebar/concrete, build temporary wood retaining wall and back fill it with the patio dirt. Reshape lower driveway and raise the turn so I can back all the way down to the cottage to deliver materials, steel, siding etc. Add four feet to upper retaining wall for the future driveway turnaround.

Someday I'll get to the house itself! None of this was in Building for Dummies!

Grading the upper driveway and patio. We put in the steel floor during the two weeks we waited for Jose. Remember everything has to be carried by hand down the hill.

Now I'll be able to back down with supplies. While we waited for Jose's schedule to clear we formed up another four feet on top of the existing driveway turnaround retaining wall, some 70'. At some point down the road the entire bottom of the driveway will be raised four feet allowing for a reasonably level turnaround while taking a chunk out of the steepness of the upper driveway.

The finished look. As usual, very steep. When the house is done a retaining wall will cut across the driveway starting at the blue tarp. Stairs and a walkway traversing the hillside will then lead down to the patio and front door.

Finishing the septic, breaking through the rock.

The graded upper patio with the beginnings of a house.

Jose took ten hours at $125/hr plus delivery spread over two days which allowed us a late afternoon to build the 8' high wood retaining wall. Ultimately we had to rebuild it the next day when the rebar spikes gave out. Dig out the back fill, take it apart and sink the 4x4's in post holes. Put it all back together and hope like hell it holds all the tonnage. Jose got a nice two hours talking on the phone.

Now the original concrete pour is getting very large. Twenty yards jumps to forty eight at the new $260 a yard plus $1400 for the pumper and crew. Thor and I start forming up everything using every scrap we have. All new ply went into the septic so we could use it again.

From the septic we jumped over and finished the jacuzzi that I had started last November and laid the remaining rebar for the lower patio.

the jets and the rebar on the lower patio

The rebar on the upper deck. We got in line for concrete right after being inspected. Of course the usual delays set in. Jeff the pumper said yes then said no--of course on the day he was due!

The view from the bedroom downstairs. Eight foot doors, seven and half feet across.

There is water out there!

Leo, who has the only other truck that can make it up the mountain, once again became the back up guy. This time I called his uncle ahead of time and got the pricing straightened out beforehand. As usual I had Leo provide the extra crew that I pay once the concrete starts pumping and not a moment before. Laying pipe etc is on his dime. My clock stops once the concrete does.

During the scheduling wait we put more steel up and spread plywood around for walking and safety for the upcoming pour.

The block and tackle I brought from San Francisco made quick work hoisting the steel. The posts weighed about 140lbs with the beams around 175. The cross beam in the pic was over 400. I had it made in two pieces so that I could drag it down the hill/driveway. The ridge beam still to come is the monster, one piece 400+. My erector set design is working!!

Still to be put in are floor joists over the cisterns. I found the pool ladder in the dumpster while diving!

Once again we are in a race with the concrete delivery and Thor's having to leave. If there is a delay Thor is gone. This is how he generally leaves or comes. This is how he came from Maine.