2008

November

The new tool shed has come along very nicely, its very almost finished, but we have had to stop that for a while and get on with Corries place. We officially moved in to Corrie a few days ago, (when I say move in I mean us start work in there). The last few days dad and mum started tiling the floors, I started on the walls painting, yes and all the ceilings so you can imagine what state I was in by the end of the day. Corries been sanding down all the door frames ready to varnish, and Danie even joined us to help out for a few days so we had the whole family on it, and Dean I must say is the official carpenter now. He's being getting on with all the woodwork that needs going in the building.

In fact he's done so much woodwork the past 6 months that I think he deserves a certificate in it.           

Dad liked the woodwork on the old building which burnt down, so when it came to this one he decided to clad the outside in wood as well to give it character. If you are wondering why we painted the walls such a strange colour, its because they match the colour of the windows that will eventually go on the main house.  

The inside is painted and all the new machinery has been bought and fitted so it looks like a proper workshop now.

Me and Corrie have been painting nearly the whole time since we got back from the UK, its amazing what a coat of paint can do though, totally transforms what ever you are painting, whether its a building or a wall.

A beautiful rainbow crossed over the whole building site the other day, I had never seen this happen before so I crabbed my camera, ran up to the top of the land, clambered up the roof of the wood shed, ran to the top, got my camera out..........and it was gone. I did manage to get this little snap though.

The stoners officially finished the stone walls around the pool and they look beautiful. All they need to do now is put acid on them and it gets every bit of dirt and mortar off revealing their true colours. The view below is looking into Corries Bedroom, right through to the other side of the room, which you can see the other end. Notice the shells in the wall.  

A nice curved wall was built outside Corrie's bedroom to keep the ground out and to have privacy from when the main house is built.

More exciting pics of the workstation. Everything ever made for the house has been made in an area like this. Its amazing what you can do with some simple woodwork machines.

And More pics of working in Corries place.

Ohh and a video.......

or if you have problems with the video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV7KSlm7k1c

September

Thought I'd better update you on what's happened the last month or so because I'm off to the UK for exams and I know I wont have time when I'm there to update this page.

Well the cat pen is practically finished so any day now the Bengals will move into their new home. This will be their permanent place, they are free to roam around during the day time but at night time they have to be put in because of the stray dogs and cats that roam the area. We have had to put up bars on the windows so the cats don't escape but at the same time get a nice breeze through.

We have several guys working on the stone wall around the swimming pool and they are doing a beautiful job of it. Dad asked them to add some local conch shells into the walls, and it does make it look really pretty.

More guys are working on the BBQ area, the inside of the walls have been stoned and so have the tops, they have also added a table inside which will eventually be stoned.

Dad asked the question to where the stone came from the other day and was quite amazed to hear where it came from. Basically a piece of rocky land on the north of Bequia fell into the sea not long ago, local divers have then been going down and picking this stone up, raising it to the surface and then transporting it by boat to the main town in Bequia of Port Elizabeth. Its then took up to our place by lorry, before being hand picked from the lorry so not to damage the stone and then chosen to go on the walls.

The path to the cat house is coming along nicely. It has been complicated though, so many pipes and electrical lines have to be put underneath the path first, to carry water to and from the pool and electricity to the path and BBQ lights, then a wall has to be built along side this to keep the soil in, then its filled, the soil is stomped down, steel is put on top and then concreted in for strength. The path is finished off with more stonework on top.

You can see the cat pen off the end of the path and the construction of the new steps that lead from the pool and patio above.

Every time it rains the pool starts filling up, sometimes as much as about 18 inches, we have to get rid of it straight away though because mosquitoes are attracted to it and can breed in it within a few hours.

Take a look at corrie shower in her extra large bathroom. It has yet to be plastered and tiled and then a sink is to be added on the front of the wall. It can be accessed from two sides which is certainly going to be different. The shower is behind the wall if you haven't already worked it out.

So then I bet your eager to see how the new stable block is coming along, (you know the one that burnt down), well after the guys cast the beams in, we started to lay tongue and groove boarding across them, we had to leave them a few days in the sun first so that they shrunk to their proper size. We had a huge yellow sheet ready for when it rained, because the water stains the boards on the inside.

We screwed these timbers down with very long screws, the longer the stronger, dad wanted this building to be as strong as possible and he didn't want the roof to come off in a hurricane. We then felted it, but it wasn't like our normal felt that we just tacked down, it was felt that was sticky on one side, so we just rolled it out, clever stuff really. Another 6 weeks and we should be getting the tiles.

The outside of the building is looking very pretty indeed with the protruding blocks, here Salo a Rasta below is plastering them.

 We have put some grates on the centre wall between the tool shed and open shelter to let light and air through. How do you like my funky facia boards below, yep that is me on the centre of the roof, bet u missed that.

Before we can paint the walls the guys come in and plaster them with mortar, they slap it on, wait for it to dry then smooth it to a perfect finish.

July and August

Wow you should see how fast the new tool shed it going up, check these pics out below. The guys have been working extra hard on it the past month or so. Yesterday we put all the roof timbers on, then its the plywood, then the felt, then in about a year some metal tiles will come in (they look like orange shingles, except they don't burn.)

This is where we were last month, check out how much the guys have done since then....

We did have about 11 guys but now we have 16, so hopefully things will speed up a bit. They have all been split off to different parts of the site. Some are plastering the inside walls of corries places, others are working on the new tool shed, others are digging trenches, others are stoning the wall around the swimming pool, and a couple of guys are working on the new bbq area above the cat house. Yes we actually have a cat house as you can see in the pics below. We've decided that its better to keep our four Bengals in at night to keep them out of mischief, so they are getting a nice new house which corrie and dad have been decorating and finishing off.

Here is the cat house in the making.

Above the cat house is the bbq which is located right next to the pool, the steps in the pic above lead from the pool patio to the bbq. The stonework on the outside of is is looking gorgeous, its took them about 2 weeks to stone as much as you can see in the pic for a couple of guys, so I reckon another month or so and the rest of the pool walls will be finished.

Below is the bbq area with nice stonework on the inside. Its going to have a shingle roof over it which overhangs part of the pool, so that will be a nice bit of shade for when the sun is too hot. Then here below we have a view of corries bedroom and balcony. The walls have been plastered so they are ready for painting, all we are waiting for is for the doors and windows to come in from the States now.

This is an interesting view. It's looking straight through corries place right through to the other side. It's a very slim long room, a lot larger than the chalets and lovely views from either side. One looking at the bay and the other out to sea.

Having the windows at the ends of the building means that a nice breeze will flow through the whole place keeping it cool.

Behind the concrete wall to the right of corries place in the swimming pool literally....let's just hope those wall are extra strong.

The pool bar is coming along nicely too. This will also have a shingle roof to offer some shade to the pool. Its also going to have underwater seats around it so you can sip on a cold beer whilst being sat in the water. This was the wood shed that dean had to put up when we first got out here. We had nowhere at all to put any new tools that came in so a temporary building had to be put up. I think the plan now is for the guys to have it as their tool shed as soon as our new concrete one is built. Dads got this idea that all 16 guys are going to be able to lift it up and move it about 20 metres to a new area, that will be a good photo when that happens....if its possible.

There has been so many lovely sunsets the past few weeks, every night I have had to get my camera out and snap them all. This one evening after the sun had gone down there was a huge circle in the bay caused from the currents, it looked ever so strange as though a world pool was forming or something.

We have all been working on the roof timbers the past week, dad mum and corrie cutting and me and Dean fitting them up. 23 each side, so that's 46 in total. A lot of heavy beams to position and screw in place and a lot of muscle building. These timbers are concreted in at the ends for strength. One of dads worries with the last building was that the whole roof may lift off in a hurricane or tropical storm. When bad weather came we had to literally strap the building down to the concrete with ratchets. There is no way this new roof would do that. On top of these timbers goes some plywood sheets, felt and then some metal shingles.

Last week I was on the facia boards again. In Bequia they call them gingerbread and the majority of the houses facia boards have pretty patterns in them. I decided to stick with our old design with boats, bubbles and the traditional Bequia Whale. I drew the pattern on, cut the shapes out with a jigsaw, sanded the boards and then slapped some green paint on (dads favourite colour). It is these boards that the gutters fix onto.

 I keep forgetting to take pics of the new cars we have out here. Well they aren't brand new they are over 10 years old, but they are new to us I guess. Here's the back of dads with pop bottles in for the guys. Every day at 3pm we give a cold soft drink to the guys. The empties are took back to the shop and exchanged for full ones. Great because they don't cause any waste and are only about 20p to fill per bottle. Some shops have stopped selling these glass bottles and selling plastic ones instead, which is a terrible shame because all the rubbish on the island just gets buried. And the more plastic rubbish, the more land that is took up by rubbish heaps.

And some more pics of the guys working and the site.....

March, April, May and June

I only thought It had been a few months since I last updated this page, but was shocked to see it had been four months, doesn't time fly. But I'm happy to say that I have loads of pics for you guys, and loads more work has been done. The pool and corries place have come on very nicely. Not long now and she will be moving in.

Unfortunately though last month we had a freak fire which burnt our tool shed with every single tool and piece of machinery in for the building site. The whole thing went up before anyone could really do anything. Luckily Dani had not gone out that night, and noticed the fire from the chalet. She immediately called for help, and within a few minutes there were loads of people to help. The fire truck came up but it was too late to rescue anything from the building, because of the heat and the speed it went up. Even Deans poor car blew up and burnt which was parked next to. Luckily dads car was moved in time. There was petrol containers, gas cans and gas bottles which went up and caused huge noises, luckily no one was hurt. Unfortunately dads world collection of beers were in there from out travels, and out 5000+ phone cards that me, Dani and Corrie had collected on our travels, those were things that meant the most to us and could never be replaced. The chalet roof nearly went on fire, so there was lots of people helping to smother it with water so it didn't catch. Luckily there was no wind at all, so the flames just went up. If there had been wind though, they we would have probably lost the chalet and our other storage building full of wood for the main house.

Dani moved from her old place where she was running her spa, to her own new place, where she is now renting and can be her own boss. She employs a local girl who does the manicures and pedicures. The funny thing though is that her name is Dani too, so it does get very confusing sometimes.

Dani's new spa is located next to the gingerbread in Bequia right on the water front, where she offers, Manicures, Pedicures, Massages, reflexology, Sports massage, Aromatherapy, facials, waxing, eyebrow and lash tinting and many more things which I cant remember.

This is Danie's old Spa below. A few weeks back she also treated her self to a 5 week year old puppy called missy. Can you get what it is, yep a Rottweiler......Well at least she has a good guard dog now.

I'm currently building a site for Danie which should be up and running shortly, so if you take a look soon at www.danispa.com then you can learn what its all about and what she offers. Its more recently changed to www.bequiahealthcentre.com so take a look at that.

When it comes to the pool area and Corries place, the pool is pretty much finished, it's been cast with all the steps in, all that needs doing is for us to come in and tile it with these beautiful small blue and green pebbles from India. They make the water look blue and tropical.

Corries place has a roof on, all the rooms are in place, its now waiting for us to come in and do all the electrics then the walls can be plastered and painted. The doors and windows haven't been put in because they were in the building that burnt down, so we are having to order new ones in from the States, which may take some time. 

This pic is of the inside of the pool looking back towards the main house. You can see the left side is the shallow end and the right side is the deep end. Straight ahead, central to the pic is the pool bar. And there are various ledges around the pool which allow you to walk around the edge and get a good view of the view.

Now the roof is on corries place, the guys can actually spend their lunch break in the shade out of the hot sun. Here they are entertaining themselves with cards and movies.

Below left is the patio on top of corrie roof, and then middle and right pics are of the pool, so Corrie literally lives along side the pool.

Of course we didn't get to this stage straight away, we had to build the internal walls and supports in Corries place, and put in about 500 cables and pipes along the walls, floor and ceiling to carry electricity and water to all the parts of the house that needed it. Here are some pics of before the rood was put on and some of the work that tool place.

Putting in electric cables and drilling holes in the block work for plug sockets....and do you realise how many plug sockets she has in her place, like 100, so that's a lot of drilling and a lot of dust.

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Before corries roof was laid, a whole fake plywood roof was constructed, with lots of supports underneath. There were so many beams holding the plywood and weight up from underneath you couldn't even walk through it. The top of the plywood was filled with concrete, which took the guys about 10 hours to mix and fill, and then a week later the plywood was peeled off from underneath to reveal the new roof.

Above right is one of the arches going in leading into corrie's bedroom.

Any arches that needed putting in were measured exactly to the mm and was constructed out of plywood too. Every concrete wall, floor, ceiling and arches needs to be strengthened with steel rods, so we have a full time steel man called Steel man, well that's what everyone calls him, his real name is terry, but he doesn't go by that.

The infinity edge is coming along nicely and taking shape. This not only looks really nice from the main house, but it also acts as a kind of cleaning system, because any leaves or bug that land on the surface of the pool get swept over the end of the infinity edge, like a water fall. Saves having to get one of those really long pool vacuums to suck up dirt from the bottom of the pool.

At then moment looking over the edge of the pool you can see Dani's chalet very closely. Notice how all the brightly coloured orange shingles that we put on a few months ago,, have now turned a horrible grey. Now they look about 10 years old.

We have about 15 papaya trees just a few metres from my chalet, which are constantly growing the fruit all year round, so there is always one there to eat, however lately they seem to be going faster than we can pick them. I went to investigate one night and to my surprise there was a Mr P, taking them from the tree, breaking the skin open with his hands and then scoffing the fruit and seeds down. After about half an hour of watching Mr P, another 2 came along, they really don't get on with each other though, because they were constantly hissing and fighting with each other. One things that I did learn was that they sprayed the Papayas to put their scent on though because after they left, the Paypas were dripping in a smelly substance, similar to cat wee. Yuk.

Think I'm gonna have to scrub them next time I take one. Well that's if Mr P actually leaves us any.

And here are another few pics which I liked of views and things.....

A beautiful sunset took from the pool base and the view from my chalet, hey check out my cool balustrades.

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