Near misses




Looking into Hurricane Hole

The question is often asked how could you possibly leave San Francisco. Looking at the picture above goes a long way to explaining some of the reasons. While admittedly looking like it was staged, it's not. It's hard to grasp, I know. Walk around with amber tinted sun glasses and this is how it looks. If you want to change it up just go to the same spot at a different time of the day.

Off the ferry, I got up to Roger's house and the truck started right up. Sweet Tacoma! Even the slow leak in the tire had plenty of air still left to drive to the gas station. Apparently I've been a good boy. The shack did its job while I was away. The microwave was still showing the time so I knew there had been no power failures. Everything in the frig was good to go. Having to buy condiments all the time is an expensive drag. A bowl of ice cubes in the freezer gives me an idea of how long the power may have been off had it been. The rain gauge showed about two inches, so the island remains fairly dry. But there is always something to remind you who/what is in charge.

The two wild goats who took up residence under the shack at night and during any downpours added a third and decided that it was a little too cozy. They moved into the downstairs of the house by breaking through my flimsy barricade. Yup, they shit a lot. How much? Enough to cover 16'x26' in an 1/2 inch or more. That sound you hear is "Green Acres" playing in the background. I'm not touching it until it dries out.

The next couple of days are always the same on returning. Chill, get to the beach to remind yourself why I'm doing this and jump over to St Trauma for food and supplies to start the next job on the punch list. Thank god I didn't put this trip off. Things immediately got squirrely.

A couple of days later one of my favorite aunts shows up--Irene. ;~)

She missed me but got him. Not ten miles away on the back side of Virgin Gorda, the world's number one narcissist lives on Necker island. As one snarky attorney said, god with a gas can showed up. Richard Branson's place got hit by lightening. With the luck that comes from having your every minute filmed or framed in pictures it was all caught on film. The naked girl is no accident!

Here's the blow by blow of his "heroic" moments.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028865/Richard-Branson-ran-naked-rescue-Kate-Winslet-mother-Necker-Island-fire.html

It is said that Kate Winslet rescued his mother. That I would believe. She is after all the face of St John having replaced Angelina Jolie. ;~)

Here's the before layout.
http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-necker-island-fire-photos-2011-8?op=1


We only lost power for five hours. However the tower got hit and I had no computer for almost two weeks. Something about the power grid being uneven so my air card/data connect did not function. Cell phones did work intermittently.

Other than minor wind damage St John escaped Irene. We gave birth but the main land suffered.

I got lucky. This tree snapped above the cul de sac blocking me in. By the time I finally cleaned up the property and went up to deal with the tree these guys were there from a management company for a rental house. I watched that tree miraculously survive a previous hurricane while I rode it out in my truck tucked next to one of my containers. I had told the owners if they saw what I saw they would take it down. How it fell this time without taking out the power lines still remains a mystery!

Lizzy shows up after Irene. She lives in the bush while I'm gone.

After storms come pristine views

With all the excitement over, basically fear and trembling, I got back to the grind. I set about finishing the skim coating of the original plaster job that I interrupted to do all the concrete work with Thor. The kitchen and dining room. Same scenario as the other rooms. Smooth out the uneven plaster. To refresh, the veneer plaster I had shipped went "off" in transit giving me a working time of 15 minutes vs one hour. So instead of working an entire wall through five steps I did little tiny patches. Why? Because I'm an idiot. Yes, I have veneer plaster but it is somewhere buried under your standard topping compound. A compound I was trying to avoid because of its comparative softness. I wanted rock hard walls like we have in SF with their added vapor barrier qualities. Plus if it is done right it has a certain pearlescent that can stand on its own. Painting would be optional, and I did not want to, at least not now. More importantly it is mold and mildew resistant. Now, with all this skim coating, I have to put up four or five coats of paint to get to a level five finish. The dreams of mice and men. F'k.

This tool saved the day on the arches.

The pros are probably laughing their asses off but for me what a huge problem solver. Trust me, build yourself an arch, mud it and get back to me. Sometimes five dollars is worth hundreds!

Just finished cleaning up the previous mess and we started tracking Katia. She followed that track and missed everything on a grand circle route that died near Iceland!

It seems all the young chickens have split or been eaten. The adults are still around but the flock has been culled or whatever they call it.

Continuing the tradition on running ships aground, here was the latest.

http://www.bviplatinum.com/news.php?page=Article&articleID=1314632892

She practically landed on a more famous wreck--the Rhone.

By the end of the first week of September I finished all the skim coating and had one coat of primer on all the walls. All the while the "plaster" failure was bugging me. When you are not getting paid, extra work can really be irritating. To change the pace, I jumped into the bathroom and grouted the floor, cleaned and sealed it.

Never a dull moment this year.

Coming at us, going away, coming back. Do I put up all the plywood again? Everyone is tracking  her. Next morning at 11 am she disintegrated. Go figure. Never mind!

My live entertainment. The three feral kittens that adopted me generally hang out for days at a time and then disappear for the same.

Sleeping by the door as young chickens look in.

This guy is something else. He's a male though so the big tom is probably going to make short work of him.

the local tom  ;~)

Next up, not a week later, Ophelia. She turned north at the last minute and missed us completely. Another near miss!

Here's where they start off Africa. Generally you have about a week.

On the rocks in Coral Bay

Now you would think that I should have put everything aside and started building my storm shutters upon returning. Seems reasonable but you are not in the Virgins! We are currently out of treated 1x4 stock on both islands. When is it coming? Two barges ago! I am not going to buy 1x6, rip it down and waste my money and my labor. Instead I'll do some more skim coating, refining the finish, and put a second coat of paint on all the walls.

To break the monotony and get some cardio I jumped outside for a week and dropped and cleared about 30 trees opening up the view.

The new look

It doesn't seem like much for a week's work but half the job is getting to the trees, climbing back and forth to the house to be certain you are cutting the right ones. Dropping them, cleaning them up and making sure that the countless wasps nest are not disturbed during the process. I am prepared to drop everything and run like hell if I walk into a Jack Spaniards nest. These guys will wake you up. I have bounced off many a tree in my needless panic. Have I mentioned the grade of the hill? I'm good for about five hours a day at this stuff meanwhile drinking almost two gallons of water. The best part--you don't have to go to the bathroom. You sweat it all out! Years ago the original view was the that little sliver of water on the left.

pregnant mamas on the beach


During the time I painted or cleared trees I designed my shutters in my head occasionally making sketches. The basic criteria was they had to be operable by an 90 year old man or woman, all from the interior, no ladders and with no effort, and I mean no effort--you could do it with a walker if you had to. All done in ten minutes or so. As an added bonus, I did not want to see any of the hardware if possible. Further still, on the porch, they were also going to be the doors. Plus they had to be extremely affordable!! I had a host of other criteria I won't bore you with.

To keep it simple I figured I'd do a sandwich board of sorts. The strength of plywood with trim etc on both sides. The ply would also act as my template. Then it would just be a matter of  screwing all the bits on. Of course at the time there was no marine ply available so I substituted a Brazilian ply that is popular for door and cabinet makers. Smooth on both sides with no knots, it will paint up nice, another of my demands. Strong, made with eleven layers, it marginally fits the bill. I would not use it again. I would use untreated form plywood, usually smooth on both sides. Smooth? I don't want to do any patching etc that ultimately will show through the paint.

Keep in mind all the 1x4's and 1x6's that I used are treated. Not the best choice but the most economical, bug free and weather resistant etc. The major problem--it comes wet. How wet? Dripping copper azole all over your truck when you transport it. In a perfect world you stack it for six months. I don't have six months to find out what pieces are going to "cup" or go "twisted sister" on me. I'm putting it up wet and hopefully all the screws will keep it straight as it dries. I'll hang all the shutters and let them dry in place. This was the idea behind the dry ply sandwich as a template.

Welcome to my treated lumber world. The plan as it evolved was great but the lumber wasn't. Putting aside the raised grain, dents and the like, dimensionally none of it was the same, even from the same pallet. I had first dibs as they opened the bundles and it still didn't help. Every dimension was off by a 1/16 or so giving me raised edges where anything met. This is why professionals have planers and mill their own lumber. Did I have a planer? Of course not. A huge mistake that was going to cause me untold grief/labor down the road. Keep in mind I'm learning all this as I go. I had no idea that 1x4's and 1x6's would not match up. WTF.

the first set hanging to dry

Color samples on the walls next to the eight foot doors

The back side of the eight footers

I had to make the eight foot shutters bi-folds to span the five foot opening. I took some time to design the back of the shutters so they still held the strap hinges and closed flat against the wall when open--another demand. I did not trust the hinges to hold if they were anchored just in the plywood. This way they pass through the ply and then into the 1x6 stock. I know, too much information. But each of those shutters is close to 100 lbs. You can close them, however, with one finger and you don't see any of the hardware when they are open. Ok, yes you can see the hinge profile tucked along the door frame but it does not stick out!

Denise arrives in a few days. I spruced up the outhouse and tiled the jungle shower--all big hits! Even some of the feral kittens showed back up. I made about 20 sample boards for color choices so we can get that out of the way.

Denise picking colors!

Odds and ends

The mouth of a Parrot fish! The Joker.

With the monster pour behind me, the forms all taken down and stored, the skies opened up and the rains came. This ended what had been a very dry spell. Great for work but bad for every cistern. The water trucks have a field day making deliveries to all the folks that ran out of water. Locals usually don't run out of water but rental villas do. Visitors bring their usage rates with them. The average islander uses maybe 20% of what passes for normal water usage stateside. When the rains come, for which there is no schedule, everything blooms. The rain forest turns green right before your eyes over three or four days. It has to be seen to be believed. Francis Bay
A Flamboyant tree blooms.

As luck would have it, the property is sprinkled with wild jasmine trees and a few others I don't know about. The bloom lasts maybe a couple of weeks. But oh la la, the fragrance. When the construction finally ends we can then get to the landscaping and have some influence over the current randomness of the rain and what blooms. Many have told me I should have started right away with this, but the truth is, I had no idea where anything was going to go. Had I, it would have been run over by now. Build your house then plant your garden etc and in two years it will look like it has been there for twenty years. Anyone in Florida knows what I'm talking about.
Signs and symbols!

Long story short--Cost U Less on St Thomas has a relationship with Costco back in California--San Francisco/Oakland to be exact. There is actually a Cost U Less up in the Gold country in California near Yosemite. I mean, what are the chances that you move almost 4,000 miles away, land on a 21 square mile island in the middle of the sea and the coffee/bread/cheese etc you have been eating for thirty years shows up within two years.

They carry several of the most popular bakeries from San Francisco including La Brea from L.A. Incidentally a three pound bag of this coffee only costs $2 more. The world is definitely getting smaller. If you want the organic they have that too.
Leinster Bay ruins. An old guard house.

OK, back to work. With the hurricane season, July-November, fast approaching I figured I would first get back to finishing all the tile work. Lay the porch, bathroom and then grout everything. The porch was the most important. While it was covered with a waterproof membrane, Stratoflex for the curious, it was not glued down. Early on I had taken some damaged rolls out of the container and put it down on the deck to protect the sub floor. Not smart. Water still found a way in and I had to take up the top layer and replace it. Not a lot of work but a pain in the ass. It was this water that made it imperative that the tile be laid and grouted before any wind driven rain arrived.

In laying out the tile the pattern the measurements worked perfect-no cuts aside from the threshold separating the living room from the porch. As a result my last row of tile, a full row, was at the edge of the porch. I mean how lucky could I get? Or so I thought.

Hmmm. Why is this perimeter row around the porch not sloping right? The subfloor was perfectly level, sloping one inch over eight feet. And yet it seemed that the last row was not as sloped. WTF.

The real bad news? I did not see this until it was too late. I was sitting in an Adirondack chair looking at something else I screwed up. Not all the travertine tiles were the same thickness and I had some problems with my thinset. You know, I mixed it with measuring buckets and I still screwed it up somehow. Basically I would lay about 50-70 suare feet and be done for the day. Next morning I came in and what had been level was now slightly uneven in a few places/corners. Not everywhere but enough to bug me. Stateside I would just rent a grinder and level the whole floor as they do during a remodel-billard table level with a new honed finish. What happened even happens to professionals sometimes, so living with it on St John won't be so bad.

Denise forgave me. Who knows, someday they may have grinders here and I'll put it on my honey do list.

But back to the real problem--the slope change on the last row of tile allowed water to puddle. Plus, once I saw it, I could not, not see it even when there was no water. I tried to live with it for a couple of weeks but couldn't. Out came the sledge and the meticulous work of only breaking the edge tiles and not the adjoining ones. It took a long time. So long in fact that the 26' long run is still there waiting to see it the gutters and trim work, still to come, prevent the water from accumulating.

After busting out all the tiles I still could not figure out why the sub floor was out. Steel is steel. Every joist is exactly the same. Screw down your sub floor, cement the earthquake waterproofing membrane and be done with it. Lay tile. But somehow I'm a 1/8- 3/16" high on the outer edge--just enough to puddle water. With that I cut out the top sheet of plywood and replaced it with a 1/4" thinner sheet. I got my 1/4 back but where did it go in the first place?
The culprit. The angled pieces of 14 gauge galvanized steel(laying on the ground in the pic above) that I used to sheath my red iron connecting rafters and studs. Among a host of reasons it gave me a screw surface for my siding and roofing panels. In the picture below you can see it more clearly on the roof on the hips and also where the wall meets the roof--the silver banding so to speak.
I used this fabricated galvanized because they would not let me drill holes in the red iron beams and attach 2x10 boards as they do in California. You just bolt the boards inside the I-beams and you have your screw edge. Tying the rafters and studs together with weldable steel did give it a Fort Knox feel however. It also gave me the problem on the porch.

When I put up the 20' columns I added a one inch slope to the porch--not in the original plans.
The 20' red iron columns and the porch in question.

This new slope presented a minor roof line issue but the real problem was in the 90 degree angle that I had prefabricated into the sheet metal. The new angle where the porch joists met the red iron beams was now greater than 90 degrees and the sheet did not lay perfectly flat. You can't re bend the angle however. Anyway you could not see it or so I thought. I mean what's 1/8-3/16's amongst friends? The slight uplift translated through the plywood sub floor and finally showed up under the last tile. I know, I'm being annal but the whole idea was not to have water puddle on the last row of tile after every rain. The thought of having to possibly take out the last row is not something I'm looking forward to.
The infamous Lionfish. An invasive species from the Pacific that escaped private aquariums in Florida during a hurricane in the early 90's. They are taking over until a natural enemy emerges.

After finishing the tiling I spent a week or more grouting everything. With easy access to clean water being a problem I used her approach to grouting.

Just the lines ma'am, just the lines....cleaning as you go. It made clean up and rinsing the floor so much easier.
St. John's nearly one month excuse to party. Starts in June and ends after July 4.

The New York Dolls lead singer David Johanson aka Buster Poindexter says it best.

In keeping with a long tradition that I documented in previous posts, a yacht/ferry from St Croix ran up on the rocks the night of the fire works. They thought they knew a short cut. You are allowed to drink and drive here but I don't know about boating!
She sat aground for over a month until a ocean going barge/crane could come down from New York of all places.I guess the blow up cruise ship in the kiddie park might have been a tip off of things to come.

Something I ate? No. This toilet spent several years inside a termite nest!

I dug it out when Denise told me she was coming back in mid July. It seems American airlines was basically giving away a free flight if you signed up for their MasterCard. With that news I stopped whatever I was doing and finished the septic. Poured the lids, installed the interior pipes and laid the waste pipe from the house. I made the connection from the house temporary. I was in no mood to dig about a 30' trench, at a starting dept of 3', on short notice. I need warning for something like that. That's a whole lot more cardio than I want at any given time! As it was, the temporary set up was pain enough on its own.
Waiting for daddy....

Despite the posters, it is not always sunny.

Two weeks fly by and Denise is gone. My mini vacation ends.

This is a mock up for how I may build my railings on the porch. Copper tubing, 1/2". I'll put a vertical support divider in the middle of each run with the standard 2x6 cap ledge. Basically 1x4's with holes drilled 4" on center. Slide them into place and screw the end boards home. I can knock out the entire porch in one day. Besides being economical, easy assembly and upkeep, code fulfilling, it's the patina on the copper that I'm really after!

The time is flying by. By the end of July it was time for my semi annual pilgrimage back to San Francisco. To use my mileage with United I had to fly on US Airways. Of course there are no seats available-ever-except for first class, nicking me for 60k miles. First class on US Airways is a joke. No movies or music. I was surprised they had food. The seats don't recline more than coach. Sure they were a little larger but a much better deal is coach with an empty seat next to you.
Flying over Eleuthera and Long Island in the Bahama chain. Satellite photos. Of course it does not look like this from 35,000 feet but if the lighting is right the views are amazing. The underwater sand dunes look exactly like mountain ranges.

Ahh, back home in San Francisco! The latest fashions.

Showing at the DeYoung--different spelling but the same pronunciation as the Governor of the Virgin Islands. Who knew! In a further coincidence he was in Detroit going to high school while I was at U of Detroit. We talked about it at the fireworks one year. That's the Twilight soundtrack you are hearing n the background!

The usual suspects. Museums, movies, burning cd's for the truck, adding to the ipod and mailing supplies back to St John. This time, strap hinges and the like for the shutters I will be making. Yes, it is cheaper to buy and ship but the real issue is availability. While you can get most everything on St Thomas at a price, the waiting time can be impossible. My two trips a year back to SF has solved most of these issues. I can't say enough about Priority shipping with the Post Office. Extremely affordable and the email tracking service is excellent. Five to ten days and all the packages show up.

And in a first, a car repair. The 20 year old Lexus coupe finally needed a repair. There was a leak in the gasket behind the water pump. I mention this because they gave us a brand new Tacoma pickup to drive for a couple of days. Did they know I have a 1998 that had been in a head on a year after arriving on St John?
Now I ask you, what are the chances that you ship your truck 4000 miles only to have a "local" driving on the wrong side of the road crash head on into you with his vehicle plastered with stickers that say "Keep Tahoe blue" among others. When he comes to, he says his name is "Tahoe Dave". Don't stop the carnival.
And over at the Legion of Honor....



The Unseen Sea. Full screen, speakers on.

Down to Stanford University for the womens finals of the Bank of the West tourney. Serena Williams in her first competition since her injury and almost one year layoff. She won.

Great seats are always available.

Baby's got back!
The MOMA will be home to the 1100 piece Fisher collection. The collection is so large they are going to build a wing larger than the original museum to house it. San Francisco almost found a way to lose the collection. The Fisher's, on their own dime, wanted to build a museum in the Presidio. Local opposition prevented it. Talk about biting the hand.

Also on exhibit at the time
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/exhibitions/410 The Steins Collect, Gertrude and family.

We are getting close enough with the house on St John that we are stealing colors! This house is around the corner from us in San Francisco. We could not get it right so we will be knocking on their door. There's no guarantee they will give it to us. If they had a colorist pick the color we are probably not getting it.
I wonder how my feral kiddies are doing? They do know how to get by.