August 12, 2007
WALK OF WOE!!:( ☹ (temporarily). We went to STT to spend the night since our flight out was so early. We stayed at Emerald Beach. It’s the hotel near the airport. It was really crowded and we didn’t like it, but the restaurant had good food. Note to self: STT is Not St. John!

We arrived in Alaska the next day. Sad to have left St John, but still we have little to complain about. We live in a house that we built 8 years ago. It sits on a quiet lake with no other development in sight. We have the privilege of living in another beautiful part of the country where we see more wildlife than people while we're at our home. We arrive still in the nicer part of the year, but winter "soon come' and in Alaska it can be long and bitter.

August 10, 2007
What happened today? Finishing up cement screw up. Locals do not like using a cement mixer. They want to do it all by hand. After that we spent the day closing up the house and preparing to leave back to Alaska for the upcoming school year. Our plans are to come back at Christmas break to work some more.

August 9th

August 9, 2007
We got our pour in the morning. Jeff and crew were there. Unfortunately Scorpion King was there because you really need a crew when you pour a slab. The first thing we told them was to make sure they stay on the cage. First thing he does is have his leg break though the Styrofoam. We had to jump into the cistern with plywood to repair the blowout. While that was being fixed, they smoothed our outdoor shower floor FLAT…FLAT…FLAT! We told them to slope it. Then we had a blowout on the front corner that needs to be fixed tomorrow and Scorpion King and crew REALLY messed up the slab. We are talking 1 ¼ inches off from one end of the room to the other – and that’s only a 24-foot distance! I guess we’ll be doing some major repairs later.

August 6, 2007
We finished plumbing and started electric and verticals. Tomorrow inspectors show up and we pour on Weds.

August 7, 2007
The electrician came over and helped with electrical. We almost finished putting in all the uprights (rebar). We put the wood around the perimeter. We went to dinner at Chateau Bordeaux to celebrate our anniversary.

August 5, 2007
THE BEST DAY EVER!! We booked a trip on the Stormy Petrel to the Baths at Virgin Gorda. There were supposed to be 8 people on the trip, but the other people from the Ritz Carlton cancelled, so it was just the four of us. They took us on a tour of the Baths. We went crawling and climbing through the rocks and noticed that the snorkeling was pretty good too. The next stop was lunch at Willy T's (new experience). It was VERY quiet. Then we snorkeled the Indians, which was awesome. It dropped off to about 50' around them. Great reef. We saw "Henry" the baby blacktip. We saw a big eel (probably a moray) - saw its teeth first! We swam through some grottos and had a great day. Didn't get too "Messedup!" Had pizza and played mini golf with S&P at Compass Rose. A pretty excellent day.

August 4, 2007
Spent the day doing lots of rebar tying and plumbing. We had a very disappointing meal at the new Italian restaurant. OMG $26 for pesto pasta. Nothing special. Muy expensive - equals about $1/noodle. Won’t ever go there again. Tomorrow we’re taking a boat ride with our friends to Virgin Gorda.

Aug 1, 2007
Yesterday and today we installed the Lite Deck. It’s pretty easy to lay it down. Then you have to put the rebar grid over the top. You have to be really careful when you walk on top of this stuff. You HAVE TO STEP ON THE STEEL BEAM! We were walking across the deck carrying rebar hooks for the upstairs grid when I fell through the styrofoam!$! It was scary, but I didn’t go all the way through. Later we met with an electrician. Even if you are an owner/builder, you still need a licensed plumber and electrician to pull your permits for you. Later on we went to Majestic to pay and arrange a pouring for Thursday, but changed it to Weds. in the interest of time. Stayed home at night.

July 28, 2007
Today we finished forming up and started hand-pouring concrete in the porch beams. After pouring awhile, we ran out of water!@#$%^! Luckily we got some from a neighbor and put it in our other neighbor’s cistern. We didn't finish completely. We stayed home at night because we were so exhausted, but we’re looking forward to a day off tomorrow!


JULY 29, 2007 DAY OFF!!! WE LOVE SAYING THAT!!! (It doesn’t happen that often!)




July 30, 2007
Today we made a ring beam and finished pouring concrete. Lite deck supposed to arrive tomorrow.

July 27-28, 2007
We’re building cages for the upper porch bond beams. We use our rebar bender/cutter to cut and build rings. Then we wire them in place. We build them horizontally and then lift them into place. We are getting muscular at this point! We had to go to town to arrange paperwork for receiving Lite Deck for Monday. This is the styrofoam ceiling/roofing material. It has channels that have a steel beam running along it. That gets poured with concrete, which forms I-beams when poured. We got it from a knowledgeable man in Puerto Rico. We did a short snorkel at Francis. Saw some gorgeous yellow and blue French angels and a pretty big flounder. It was beautifully camouflaged on the rock and in the sand. This place is the perfect beach for an after-work dip. It’s right there, it’s empty, and it’s got great snorkeling

July 21-24, 2007
Now we’re working on the downstairs porch columns that will support the upper level porch. We built the rebar cages in place and formed these columns with plywood. We’re using our cement mixer and mixing right on the lower level. We are hand carrying the 5 gallon buckets up the ladder. This is HARD WORK! EXHAUSTING! Luckily there were three of us, so we tag-teamed. One mixes, one pours, one does the bucket brigade. The bucket brigade gets the most exercise! A few of these days we needed a swim. One day we went to Francis after work. We went snorkeling through a huge mass of baitfish. Then the excitement began! We were right in the middle of the school watching jacks wildly attacking all around us. Add the seagulls that were trying to land on your head and it’s an amazingly exhilarating experience. After all that, we had a nice dinner at Paradiso.

17th-19th
CONCRETE WALLS! We were a yard short, but everything held up very well. We were very excited that things turned out so well. We used Majestic and Jeff from Jeff’s pumping. He is awesome. Our brother from NJ arrived to spend a week helping us with the building process. Don’t worry…we’ll beat him up ‘good.

15th
BEACH DAY!!! WHAT? YOU'VE GOT TO BE %!#$@ KIDDING ME! We go to Cruz Bay and the transmission goes out AGAIN!!! We limped it up to Islandia's parking lot. Our friend Steve picked us up and we went home. Called around and found a rental for later on in the afternoon. Took a taxi to Honeymoon and then to Delbert Hill's. Got about an hour and a half or two hours on the beach. Hit Compass Rose on the way home.

16th
I am offically a STJ driver and I think it's funnn! Traveled to Coral Bay and dropped Scott off and did a little work. Went to Cruz Bay to exchange car to a smaller one. Then back to Coral Bay. Then back to Cruz Bay to meet a tow guy to put the disabled car on the ferry. Hopefully Metro Motors will get it right this time!

12th
We almost finished cistern level 7, but ran out of clips. Went to beach and swam for almost an hour! Scott met tourists and found conch shells (empty!) for the shower. Went to Ocean Grill for their "special" which didn't exist. Ended up at Paradiso, which we love.

13th
Finished cistern level and almost finished bracing. Stayed home tonight to catch up on sleep, email, etc. Tomorrow we'll install uprights, which means a lot of bending 5 bar in the early am. Hoping for a beach day on Sunday? We have an inspection on Monday and a pour on Tuesday. Took pix of the view and it is splendid - Mountain and Glorious Blue Ocean! STJ Life will be sweet!

14th
WOW! Are we tired. We worked from 8-6 bending 5/8 rebar. Hot, hot, hot! We have more tying to do before the inspector comes on Monday. Up early on that day, but.... tomorrow is BEACH, BEACH, BEACH!!!!!

July, 10th
Wow - A house is in the making!! We almost finished the fifth level. The windows and doors needed to be framed out. To do this, we needed to cut boards on our friend, Bob Carney’s, tablesaw to the exact width as the interior dimensions as the foam blocks. We screwed these together and framed out the downstairs window and the sliding glass door. Swam at Francis on the way home. Bob Carney has been a Godsend to us in the building process. He is the husband of our realtor friend, Karye Carney of Islandia Real Estate. If you are in the market, land prices are coming down and she’s the realtor for you!

July, 11th
We put the bracing up in the cistern. The braces we used were also from Bob Carney who also sells the Formtech ICF’s that we used, They work really great as a bracing during pouring, but also provide a planking system for standing on during the pour. Finished Level 6 on the cistern and 5 all around. Nice salad and appetizer at Tage on Wine Down Wednesday. Had "truth" which was awesome. Over dinner we decided on going concrete for the roof.

The Walls Get Started

5th
Early AM we dropped our car off at Metro Motors in St. Thomas to get the transmission fixed. We had a helluva time getting a rental, but Spencer's came through in the clutch. You just can’t count on cars being available when you need them on the spot. When you live here, they seem to come to your aid more readily. Maybe it was the “Ohhh is me” that got it.

Wow! Only one day?!? Doesn’t seem right. However, they say our truck is fixed. Hallelujah! We say. Don’t worry, story doesn’t end there.

8th
It was a really long day at work. Get used to it! We planned out the location of all the walls and started laying the first level of blocks. We are using ICFs, which stands for Insulated Concrete Forms. They are panelized styrofoam block that snap together like Legos. Concrete is then poured in the middle with the reinforced steel. They are all white and glow in the sunshine. By the time we are done it should look like we are building an igloo.

9th
Another long and productive day. By the end of the day we have the third level up. We are hot and exhausted so we head to Francis on the way home for 30 minutes of swimming and cool down.

Carnival

7-3-07
We pulled some forms and what else did we do? Attended the music festival at night. Every booth was a bar! It’s not your typical hometown country fair! Great music. Got a CD From Ah We Band. Started at Paradiso. Saw chef Paul, who we have met years ago and he is AWESOME! Great 1/2 price appetizers in the early evening. It's an awesome place with awesome people.

July 4, 2007

CARNIVAL!!! What an experience this is. The night(s) before they have the Carnival set up in the BVI ferry dock parking lot. There are lots of booths (all selling booze) and lots of excellent music. On July 4 @ 4am is J’ouvert. This is the pre-parade of party-goers who have stayed up all night the night before, listening to Bunny Whaler. Sorry, no can do…we’ll sleep in and get into the “real” parade. It started around noon and lasted for at least 3 hours. There were jumbies, princes and princesses, Cruzan rum truck (chuckin’ samples), Virgin Island brewers pouring, steel drums, Zulu dancers, you name it. It’s an event that is not to be missed! Plan on taking a nap afterward, as we did. We attended the incredible fireworks display in Cruz Bay harbor. They shoot them from one of the car ferries. Impressive.

Our first POUR

July 2, 2007

OMG! WE ARE A’POURIN TODAY! We now have a foundation!>?!?!?!?
We heard that you can get NOTHING done for a week before and a week after Carnival.. Not so, my friends.


You must make it happen yourself. Lucky for ourselves, we do this for our second career, so we don’t have to rely upon anyone except ourselves (and the graciousness of our good friends). It didn’t take us long to learn that our crew didn’t have what we needed to keep them. So after the initial pour, we let them go. Not to say we wouldn’t hire locals to help us, the Scorpion was not the man for us! We had been stung enough. We saw his name at the gas station as “Don’t take checks from…..” and there was his name. Not surprising..

June 25th-28th

We got some great recommendations on an electrician, but at this point all the plumbers that we tried to contact were busy and couldn’t help us out. Even if you are the general contractor on the job, you still need a licensed plumber and electrician to obtain the permit for you and to request an inspection. This meant that before we poured the floor we needed a plumber. In desperation, we tried a new tactic. We went to DPNR(Department of Permits and Natural Resources) to ask the plumbing inspector for advice. It turns out he had a friend that was a plumber that could help us out. Hopefully this would also make our plumbing inspections go smoothly.


June 29th

We figured out that our great connection in NJ (a relative) got us a bum truck. Transmission was out. Not an easy concern, esp. in the islands. We made it over to St. Thomas to have it redone. We had a rental reserved, but wait….WHAT? I DON’T HAVE NO STINKIN’ RESERVATION! WHAT?! It’s amazing what you can do when you are a “local”. Suddenly, out of thin air, a car appeared! Who knew. It’s really hard to get a car with no notice….especially when Carnival is on the horizon.

June 23, 2007

Scott’s Birthday! Received Formtech block at the job site. These are the Styrofoam forms we will use to build the structure. We then went to Vie’s to snorkel. It was VERY murky. Saw a 5’nurse shark swimming by. Had an incredible meal at Asolare.

June 24, 2007

Beach day – Won’t say where we caught those lobsters! They were legal!

JUNE 21, 2007

WE HAVE WAITED AND WAITED FOR OUR ARCHITECT TO GET OUR BUILDING PERMITS! SOON COME! SOON COME!! It took US all this time to secure OUR OWN PERMIT. He was worthless in this regard. So, TODAY WE GOT OUR PERMIT THROUGH OUR OWN INITIATIVE! Sometimes, like we’ll say again and again, YOU HAVE TO RELY ON YOURSELF if you want things to get done in a timely manner. If you have not experienced this, plan on LOTS OF HARD WORK – BUT, DON’T GIVE UP!!!!




June 22, 2007

The building inspector, Carlos Nicholson approved our foundation and its ready for concrete. He said “APPROVED!” Very nice experience dealing with the St. John DPNR! They are very courteous and friendly. After the first conversation with Mr.

15th
We slept in and then hiked Reef Bay trail from 10:30-1:30. The architect called while we were on the trail, saying DPNR couldn't find our CZM. What else could possibly go wrong with getting our permit? Much of the process of building on St. John and being successful is planning well in advance and developing a great deal of patience.

17th
Still no permit. We are waiting around killing time. It is a lot of fun going to the beach and relaxing, but at the same time it's unnerving waiting for the stupid piece of paper to continue. We finally get the news on the 20th of June. Our PERMIT is ready for pick up!

6-9-07

The Scorpion King and crew worked from 8-130. They showed up late due to a flat tire a short distance from our build. We put the crew to work while I helped the Scorpion King get his tire off. He still charged us for an eight hour day. Man I need to talk to my boss about getting these kind of benefits. We went to town at 8 to get another tire for his exploded one. We worked until 3 or so tying rebar.

Over the next week we’ve continued to call DPNR diligently trying to get our permits so we can pour concrete. It has truly been a waiting game. Architect, whom we asked to initiate this process MONTHS in advance, has been no help whatsoever. Won’t even return our phone calls.

June 6, 07

Today we finish the forms and cleaned up getting ready for rebar.


June 7
Professional killers sprayed for pests. Its one of those things you need to do if you plan on keeping out unwanted small creatures living with you. They pump 50 gallons of chemicals into the foundation with a guarantee of being pest free for one year.

The St Thomas Experience

June 4, 07

In the morning we went to STT to buy a generator. It was obvious that we were going to need one for a long time.

When we came to the Caribbean, we decided to use people that had built here and therefore had some idea of the codes for the region. We found that this did not always work to our advantage. The Scorpion King talked us
into deviating from the blue prints. That was a mistake! After many misgivings and a discussion with the Steve the excavator, two of the forms under the cistern were incorrect and they had to be filled in and compacted. This meant another trip to Allied for a jumping jack compactor and another expense. At the end of the day we took a beach break @ Maho.


June 5, 07

The generator we bought in STT had a manufacturer defect and would not start! With it broken, it’s back to STT to replace the pig. This time we put gas and oil in it at the Home Depot parking lot and started it to make sure it was functioning properly. It started in one pull. We went back to STJ and continued working on building forms. At the end of the day we took a break @ Francis Bay.

June 1, 07

Paid the scorpion king today and it was pouring. Had a day off. No beach, no accomplishment. We didn’t work the next day as well.


June 3, 07

We are still waiting for our building permit which was supposed to be taken care of by our architect. We found out it was not submitted until a few days before we arrived on island. With nothing to do, we decided to go to the beach. It was a gorgeous day. Very few people were there.

May 30, 07

We had no traditional power in the neighborhood so we needed juice. We had to go to Allied equipment rental to rent a generator, jackhammer, and rebar bender. We dug out footers and built wooden forms. Every time we picked up a hammer or used a saw, it freaked out the workers. They thought we would break a nail or cut a board out of square. Excavator Steve worked on excavating the slab area. Because we left without checking the exact foundation dimensions, we needed to hire a backhoe to increase the footprint of our construction site. We hired a local named Steve who was knowledgeable at his job.


May 31, 07

Our crew started rebar work, bending and cutting pieces. We started pouring the bottom of two of the footers. The locals mix concrete on a piece of plywood and mix by using hoes. It’s very labor intensive. In the back of our minds, we kept thinking, “Where is our cement mixer?” Soon come.

Starting

May 29, 2007

We began the building process with a “crew” of “experts”. Whatever. The main guy was like a puffed-up rooster walking around telling everyone what to do (in a dialect we did not completely understand). We’ll call him The Scorpion, which was a nickname he got because of the huge gold scorpion necklace he wore. He was ‘DE BOSS. Turned out he had little to no structural building knowledge. I guess at first we didn’t have the confidence we have at home to know that we know how to do this sh%t. When you are new here, it’s easy to back down and wait to learn….but, you know, it’s the same as anywhere.

May 26, 2007

We left Alaska for the island for the next 80 days and had no idea what to expect. Excavation should be completed for the cottage, but we had to leave before it was done. We have no idea what it will look like. Our hopes are high and we are both excited and nervous. Back in March we secured housing for the summer at Bob and Karye Carney’s house. The flight down from Alaska is a long one. We always take Alaska Airlines to Seattle and then Miami. Once we reach Miami, we make a bee-line to the American Airlines Admirals’ Club. For a mere $75 you can get a quiet place to rest, snacks and even a shower. It’s amazing what a shower can do after about 12 hours traveling. It’s a beautiful oasis.


May 27, 2007

So….here we go…we hit St. Thomas. . It’s the usual hulabaloo, but this time we have luggage. It takes an extra 45 minutes to get our bags. This experience has never happened to us before because we have always been carry-on travelers to the Caribbean. We finally get to the ferry. We made arrangements for our truck to be at a friend’s business in Cruz Bay since we would be arriving so late. I went up to get the truck while my wife stayed with the bags. When I walked up the hill I found a huge sign in the window of her business that said “Take Bob’s truck.” When I looked in the parking lot, there was her husband’s vehicle with another huge sign across the windshield saying “Scott, use Bob’s truck.” When I went to the truck, there was a West Indian man by the parking lot that looked at me and said ‘Ah mon, You must be Scott.” It appears our friends had misplaced our keys so they had to make other arrangements. We head up to Gifft Hill to crash. It had been a long day.

May 28, 2007

Happy Memorial Day!!! We relax at the beach to catch up on rejuvenation. Reality…later.

Transportation

To start our project, having transportation that enabled us to haul building supplies was a must. We had purchased a used Ford Ranger with a funky cap from NJ and had it shipped down to St. Thomas. The process of actually picking up the truck was, in itself, to say the least, a red-tape experience. We hired a local guy named Arliss to help us through the process. He was very helpful. In fact, if it wasn't for him, I'm sure the process would have been much longer and more painful. The first step was to go to Crowley to pick up the paperwork and pay shipping fees. From there we had to go over and pay customs fees on the other side of town. Before we could move the vehicle over to get tags and plates, we had to purchase insurance at yet a different place. Next we had to go to the title and registration office, which is not part of DMV, in order to get temporary plates to move the vehicle to the actual DMV. Finally, we moved the vehicle to the DMV and got squared away. After being finally finished, in what Arliss told me was mock speed for this process, I arrived at the car ferry dock in Red Hook to a sea of waiting vehicles. It appeared that the Coast Guard had shut down two of the three car ferries traveling to St. John. I sat waiting with many frustrated drivers for about three hours. Phew! The local paper photographer actually asked me if they could stand on top of my "funky" cap to get a picture for the paper of all the vehicles waiting for transportation across the pond. Of course, I obliged. It's not the truck that's bad, it's the cap!! What a day! However....now we had OUR OWN vehicle on the rock. After going through all this trouble, I think I'll keep this vehicle on St. John FOREVER. p.s. - I'm sure I missed a few other pieces of red tape we had to cut. It's all over now....or......is it?

Excavation

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We went to St. John for spring break and made plans for groundbreaking on our property. We needed a large track hoe for this part of the excavation. After some research of the available equipment on the island and prices (All of which were EXPENSIVE), we went with Majestic.

There is a building going up below us and the site manager, named Mustache Mike, hooked us up with some contacts and before we knew how it happened, we had a large hoe cutting into our hillside for the driveway. At this point all we we're hoping for was not to hit blue bitch. If you run into that, your expenses just went up. The track hoe needs to be changed to a jack hammer fitting to break through. When this tool is put on the machine, all the excavators on the island charge an exta $100 an hour. Luckily, we didn't run into much of that.

Our biggest dilemma was what to do with the excess material that we were removing from the hill. The island had a soil dump site on the Coral Bay side at one point, but people were using it to dump all kinds of unnatural debris. Needless to say, the authorities shut it down. Now the only place to go was hauling it to the other side of St. John. Each trip took almost an hour round trip. There was also only one dump truck available at the time and it wasn't keeping up.

We started searching for solutions to the problem. Several people mentioned a local business man that had land for storage and a small dump truck for rent. The good news was that it was quicker. The bad news was that he charged us $75 a load to dump the dirt and the same amount again per load to haul it.

In the beginning...

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Two elementary school teachers from Alaska found themselves on the pristine island of St. John circa mid 1990s. Escaping the frigid winter, warm weather beckoned. It was love at first sight. Once you experience this awe, there's going back...again and again...both for you, and for us.

You wouldn't believe it, but St. John and Alaska have a lot in common. They both have incredible natural beauty. The amazing blues you see in the St. John ocean can be seen in the glaciers and rivers of Alaska. The verdant, lush greens can be seen on the cascading hillsides in both locations. The harrowing driving conditions is another commonality. While St. John has steep cliffs, goats, donkeys, cattle, and tourists driving on the wrong side of the road, Alaska has snowy conditions, immense winter darkness and lots of HUGE moose playing hopscotch in the middle of the road! Which place do we like better? It's impossible to decide. So....it'll be both. We will spend our winters in a warm paradise and our summers in the land of the midnight sun.

We've kept up with the other popular building blogs and decided that we should make our own. The big difference is...we are actually building this cottage ourselves....meaning, we are doing almost all of the labor ourselves. Yes, we get a little help now and then, but the vast majority of this cottage is pure sweat equity construction... and we LOVE IT!! It's not the first house we've ever built, and we're hoping it won't be the last.

So...we hope you enjoy our blog of the trials and tribulations of the construction of Anchorage Aweigh Cottage. Thank you for taking the time to check it out.

It all began by buying a sweet piece of property on Sea grape Hill from our realtor and friend, Karye Carney of Islandia Real Estate in March of 2003. It was a new subdivision. We looked at many lots, but we kept coming back to the one we originally looked at. It has incredible views of Coral Bay harbor and the Moravian church.