A short return

The return to St John was uneventful. What's better than that. The truck started right up, just a little air in the tire and I was good to go. With my friend Roger letting me park at his building I simply walk off the barge a couple of island blocks and I'm at the truck. It makes the red eye more than tolerable.

Nothing had moved into the shack while I was gone. Plug everything in and it's like I never left. Bringing fresh coffee and bread on my return, as I do, the next morning I'm not even sure I really left. For the next couple of days I simply chill and take inventory and put a punch list together for St Thomas. I need lumber, plaster and food.

The bathroom window takes shape. There will be no glass.
A stout wooden or metal grill with storm shutters when necessary.

Keeping it simple and strong, same as upstairs. 2x10's cut to fit for the 8" jams and 1x4 for the trim. Everything put up with Blue Climaseal Tapcons. Counter sink, tap hole in concrete, screw them home.

 





 

 

 

For the most part the four concrete openings were pretty square and true. The one headache, always, a wall was not plumb. It was out almost a full 3/4 inch top to bottom over the ten foot height. It gave me problems hanging the trim on the door below where said wall met an interior wall. If I didn't tell you about it you wouldn't see it, especially by distracting you by waving my hands as we talk! Other than that the lumber from MSI was pretty good. As usual, I hung it wet and let it dry, bolted in place. True, I have to sand it in place rather than on some saw horses but I avoid any twisted sisters--not to mention I don't have to set aside a drying area which only gets in the way. The place is already a mess.
 



 

 

 

 

At the risk of having some of you never talking to me again here's the shack in all its glory. Every five months, or so, I get a one month reprieve back in SF. It wasn't supposed to be for this long!
I could be sitting here instead if I hadn't got this crazy idea years ago. I do scratch my head sometimes.

Then I wake up and it is back to work.

Next up the doors, 8 footers. We're living large! Three per doorway for a grand 7' 1/2" opening on two sides of the bedroom. First up, the termite damage. The picture below was pretty much the standard in a few spots. The truth is, it was a miracle that they passed them up to eat all the pallets first. Also helping, perhaps the reason, was the very stiff plastic/cellophane wrapping reflected in the picture above. It is a credit to Jeldwen that these simple fir doors withstood being encapsulated in a container sized termite nest with ungodly temps and drenching humidity. Not one door suffered any noticeable damage. There was some minor stuff, more on that later.

This is why god invented wood putty

Years ago when I had grander plans, Jim Phillips a local builder recommended that I purchase a Porter Cable Hinge Jam Template kit when he heard I had purchased "slab" doors. I took his advice---THANK GOD. $250 well spent.

Without this kit there is no way I would have been able to accurately chisel out all the jams I needed.

I had a lot of jams to cut in. With the kit, shown above, you space out your jam templates connecting them all together with the adjustable rods. After routing out each jam you simply move the setup to each door and then ultimately to the door frame itself so that every hinge is perfectly aligned. There is no way, no way, I would have been able to pull this off on a triple bi-fold setup with 8' French doors.

Below is the mock up that I had to constantly refer to. It looks simple but it does get confusing as to what side of the door you are doing.

In reality there were four hinges not the three drawn in.

Of course there had to be some drama, nothing is allowed to go smoothly without first creating a little panic. My very inexpensive router that came with a table did not have the black "sub base" shown above. In fact Ryobi doesn't even sell one. My friend Steve loaned me one off an old Porter Cable that no longer worked. I screwed it to the plastic housing on mine. Without it I could not use the jam kit. It holds the center guide such that you don't chew thru the templates with the router bit.

Hard to believe. The helicopter above, at huge taxpayer expense spends days every year flying all over the island looking for weed plants. Several law enforcement agencies get involved driving around in black SUV's. Usual haul, 2 or 3 potted plants every year. You can't make up this kind of stupidity. Meanwhile when they catch the local police dealing cocaine in quantity they basically slap them on the wrist under the pretense that they "cooperated". The guy with the potted plant gets his life ruined. The police, they get to keep their pensions. WTF!

 

 

A genuine character that I had the pleasure of talking to on several occasions. He knew he had terminal cancer which we discussed at length--the psychological changes that naturally occur so the end is not so bad if you embrace it. He did.

 

http://newsofstjohn.com/2013/08/27/a-tribute-to-pirate-bill/ 

 



 

 

The plan--a pickled white wash finish with a low lustre marine varnish. A quick sand to remove some termite problems/stains and then get them done and up. After all, it is hurricane season, that's why I am working on the doors and not finishing the walls. I now have a semi finished interior that has to be protected. The white washing goes very fast compared to painting with its drying times. It ended up taking a couple of more coats than I anticipated. The fir was tripping orange as I applied the wash, not what I had in mind. In fact, we had originally hoped to just stain them for the Tuscany look but it was not to be. These doors were meant to be painted especially after aging in the containers.

When closed, as above, the door on the right acts like a single door. I haven't put the hardware on yet. The same arrangement with the three doors on the other side, not shown. My guess is most of the times the doors will be closed but you never know. The wild goats may have something to do with it.

 

 



 Some days, actually all days I have to pull over at the over look. It never gets old. The music was playing in the truck at the time. Youtube will probably flag it.

 

Our ship has come in. The kitchen, gutters, closets, storage items and even two leather couches! Several trips to Cruz Bay/Tropical shipping to load the truck. If you think carrying down plywood or travertine has its issues you should try leather couches! Its not the weight so much, it's getting your arms around the suckers.

 

the gutters

 

Thankfully I could break it down. Same drill as before, about fifty trips down the ramp etc. I cleaned out upstairs before starting the work downstairs and now it's packed again! You think you have a small galley kitchen until you see it in parts. Good grief. It literally took me an entire day to inventory the invoices. Then when I found something missing I had to do it all over again the next day to be sure. Yup, a base cabinet assembly was missing. Ikea was good about it. However they would only mail it to SF. We'll have to transship it on our dime. We'll talk about Ikea, it's all good, at a later date.

 

 

From the "smugglers' blues" files....

 

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/dea-arrests-4-men-seizes-187-pounds-of-cocaine-on-st-thomas-1.1551397

 

 

 



With doors hung downstairs I jumped back upstairs and stated assembling the base cabinets in the time I had left before returning to SF. I bumped the upper cabinets off the wall so we could hide a microwave in one of them. We are not big fans of the hanging micro nor the cluttered counters look. Even if we were we really don't have the room. To keep it clean we are not even going to hang the uppers on the stove side--except above the frig.



Daddy screws up!

 





Look closely at the picture. Notice the wood inside the arch? Try to overlook that behemoth of a cabinet. The general plan/design was to frame out a refrig cabinet with a side panel separating it from the counter followed by the stove, basically the standard layout. But I f'ked up on my measurements when laying out the arch way back when. Actually the arch is exactly where it is supposed to be. The mistake was caused by the refrig dimensions I used. With the refrig deep inside a container when I built the arch I went online for its dimensions. Some how I used the width not including the door dimensions that were further down the stat sheet. Look, I never bought a refrig before. I had no clue there were two sets of dimensions. WTF.

 

I cannot convey how depressing it was, the refrig almost touched the opening of the arch. Plus if we were to have the enclosed refrig look the gi-normous cabinet above had to be bumped off the wall almost three inches. Trust me, if I had the money I would have given the refrig away and bought another "counter depth" one to replace it. That's how much I did not want to change the arch.

 

I knew everything was going too well!

 

The 2x8 boards you see above were the first leg in shrinking the opening to see how it would look. I do not want to see the refrig door when I walk through the front door. I have no idea how this is going to turn out. I'm getting on a plane. F'k it....

 

 

While they wait for the bus I'm driving to town to catch a ferry. This was a short stay, only a little over two months on island.



America's Cup Summer Racing

 

From the exhibit at the Legion of Honor, Impressionists on the Water", all timed of course for the America's Cup racing.

I think they clone these speakers at a special lab in the basement of the Louvre!

Not to be outdone...Diebenkorn at the DeYoung

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seed/diebenkorn_b_3961911.html



 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile back at the ranch an early near miss.  http://newsofstjohn.com/2013/07/09/4137/



 

a replica of an original America's cup racing boat

 

 

Two videos that capture a little of the feel

 

 

 

 a couple of local Caribbean boats made the journey 

  

 

 

I had to come home to SF to see what I have crawling around the property on St John.

 

 

 

With various parts and materials in my carry on, the hot water showers, good food, and Denise ended and I was back on island. A month goes by in a blink.

She who must be obeyed arrives

 

 

Has it really been a year since Denise's last visit? Wow. On the positive side a lot of things seem to have gotten done on the house. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way when you visit every six months or so. For myself, nothing seems to get done, everything is a drawn out slow motion play. I don't know what possessed me to start this blog many years ago but thankfully I did. It forced me to take pictures and write a general outline. Had I not, I can say without reservation, I would have no idea what the sequencing was. It's all a blur now,  hustling from one thing to another.

 

the ruins of Leinster Bay

 

 

 

 

http://seestjohn.com/history_leinster_bay.html

 

 

Waterlemon Cay

 

Because dueling was illegal in the Danish West Indies, those convinced of the necessity of settling disputes or defending their honor in this manner would travel to Tortola where the practice was legal. In 1800, however, the British Virgin Islands also prohibited dueling. Consequently, the remote and uninhabited island of Waterlemon Cay, far from the eyes of Danish or British authorities, became the new "field of honor."

http://www.seestjohn.com/beaches_leinster.html

 



Mangrove snorkel

And just like that, Denise was gone after two weeks. While she was here I generally worked every morning, finishing the Juliet balcony off the kitchen/dining room. We went hiking or to the beach later in the afternoons--usually the beach. With Wi-Fi in the shack Denise also worked when necessary. Who doesn't love the connectivity these days? But a lot can also be said for the old days. All those years I spent travelling in the 70's the only real means of communication was letter writing. Post offices all over the world had general delivery where they held your mail until you showed up weeks, months later. It's true, I missed family weddings and a funeral by the time I got the notices but I would have not returned anyway. Hitch hiking from Central America back to New York, Michigan, California or wherever was quite the effort. I did it a few times--both ways! Best time, seven days, SF to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.

Lake Atitlan, worth hitch hiking to.

Next in line--the downstairs, framing out the rooms. The only drag, it's my storeroom and general workshop.

I did the typical work around. I only moved the 2x4's! Previously I had put all the plywood, sheetrock and doors within the confines of what would be the utility room. You would be surprised how much labor it takes to move 60+ sheets of 3/4 inch plywood and 9' sheetrock. I was pissing and moaning about just having to move 50 or more 16' - 2x4's. Virtually all the stuff in the picture below has to stay sheltered otherwise the elements, termites etc will destroy it.

Hanging from the wires on the back wall was a Bananaquit nest with babies! Yes, yes, I framed around them ultimately leaving open walls so they could fly about. They tested my limit though when we had a mosquito bloom and I had to leave the window opening unscreened.

They are really small. The first time you see them flitting about you might think they were very large humming birds.

On a sad note, after 37 years Maho campground is closing after losing their lease. Maho among other things was a springboard used by many short and long term residents on St John. They had a long standing, slave labor to some, work for lodging arrangement that gave some folks the toe hold they needed to stay on St John until better job prospects surfaced. Here's the story.

http://stjohnsource.com/content/news/local-news/2013/04/25/stanley-selengut-reflects-37-years-maho-bay-camps

http://newsofstjohn.com/2013/12/05/and-the-maho-bay-buyer-is/

I did not have enough steel to frame out all the walls so I happily went with treated 2x4's. Generally I would have done everything in 2x6's but I needed the extra two inches from each wall. Things are tight for a number of reasons and none of the walls are load bearing although I felt good about them adding support to the floor joists.

Rather than skim coating the back concrete wall I framed it out by splitting 2x4's in half lengthwise and hung sheetrock. Basically it was a 28' run encompassing the bedroom and walk in closet. Like so many concrete walls it was neither smooth nor plumb. Now it is. The other walls I'll skim coat. Those walls have very large door and window openings not to mention that any framing would screw up how I planned to frame and trim each.

the walk in closet

 

 

Too many birds. Where are the hawks when you need them?

No question, working with wood is easier when it comes to plumbing, electric, and putting up sheetrock. As previously mentioned, driving screws into 12 and 14 gauge steel is not an easy task especially when you are holding up sheetrock doing a ceiling. More on that later.

Thor shot me an email and mentioned he would be on island for a day or two before returning to Maine after the boat delivery. He volunteered to help if I needed any muscle. He said the magic words, "volunteer". With the money long gone, the days of having paid help are warm memories! Long story short, I still had a 20' container up the hill with 40 sheets of 10' siding and about 30 sheets of 9' sheetrock. I had previously moved some of the sheetrock myself and it was insanity. It was every thing I could do to prevent snapping the sheets in half. Out of the container, slide under the camper shell, drive down the driveway, out of the truck, walk the ramp, down all the wooden stairs, around several corners and scaffolding, more stairs and then find some place to put it without flexing it so it doesn't break. You only do that a few times. It will prove to be the heaviest 70 lbs. you will ever carry! Now where was I going to put seventy sheets of assorted materials?

Why of course, under the shack!

Despite a lack of headroom to swing a pick, it was dry and the grade sloped downhill. Looking back I think I stretched it over two days. We got everything moved except for about 10 sheets of siding. There's no risk of breaking those so I can get them alone at a later date. Thanks Thor. Now I can sell the container when the opportunity knocks.

Discipline!!! I played every song on shuffle/no repeat without touching the iPod.

 

Hole in the ceiling? There is a method to the madness. Everywhere there is a joint in the plumbing pipes I left the ceiling open so I can check when I get water pressure. Right now the cisterns are empty and there is no utility room. Those are my last two major projects. For some it is their first, for me I have chosen those last for a whole host of reasons. Blah, blah, blah.

I mentioned that moving 9' sheets of fibre glass sheetrock was very difficult. I chose nine foot lengths because that was my wall/ceiling height but when it came to do the ceilings I knew I would have one foot of waste as the rafters are 16" on center ending at 8'. To make things easier on myself I cut my pieces under the shack at four feet making carrying and putting them up a breeze. The only work was one extra seam to mud. No big deal.

I had to leave the bathroom wall undone because we hadn't been able to find a suitable medicine cabinet on St Thomas. What is it with these gi-normous medicine cabinets? Are they secret in-law units? We had been looking for what used to be the standard 20x26 pedestal sink cabinet. We'll have to order it online and hope it arrives in one piece. Until then the hole shall remain.

God takes care of idiots. Thank god I left that wall open. It's through there that I carried all the sheetrock to finish the other rooms. I almost painted myself into a corner as they say. All the sheetrock is on the other side of that wall or up under the shack. Whew!

And yet another opening! We could never decide on sink and shower fixtures so I had to just keep on moving forward. Boy, they are not playing around on pricing. Stuff that just a few years ago was a couple of hundred dollars now sells for $500-$700. Good grief.

MSI had Durabond! It's hard to beat for a first/second skim coat on sheltered concrete. The walls look great and I'm not even finished yet. You will not be able to tell the concrete walls from plastered sheetrock. That's one huge worry off my list.

Yeah, this is what I do in my spare time! ;~)

One last task before heading back to SF. Carrying down all the Travertine for the bedroom etc.

Extreme bummer. I carried down about 300 square feet, almost a ton over several days, started to dry lay it, and realized I did not like it at all. The light reflective quality changed dramatically compared to upstairs. It went all muddy looking. I stared at it for a day, moved them all around and basically ended up crying the blues. Not only was I out tile, with none on the horizon, I had to hump it all back up to the truck area. 50lbs a box doesn't sound like much but 40 trips up several sets of stairs and traversing an uphill ramp is a very depressing thought. Plus, now I have to estimate the future thickness of a floor so I can trim out all my doors etc. The work has to continue. I had to do the upstairs that way and it sucked. It can be done but it's pain in the ass stuff.

On a sad note, I found one of the feral kittens dying outside the shack. I took him, made him comfortable and he died later that night. In the wild most animals die young, that's why the litters are so big. Out of every 100 bush chicks, maybe 2 or 3 make it to adulthood. Even the lizards eat each other.

The one month party ends on the day I leave, July 4th.

The queen goes by as I wait for the ferry to St Thomas...