“The Mermaid” AirBnB on the Island of St. Croix is Finally Finished!

 

I apologize for the time lapse since my last post.  After two straight weeks of working on The Mermaid Villa to finish it for one of my companies’ superstars, Sebastian, and his big move down to St. Croix, I was so dead beat tired from “working on the house” that I switched gears physically and mentally and went back to focusing on my day job for a bit.  The timing couldn’t have been better either as I really needed to focus on the Backwoods at Mulberry Mountain lineup announcement which happened November 30th.  If I haven’t mentioned it before, I own a large multi-stage music festival in Arkansas, which sees up to 10,000 people a day who come for camping, art, and music in the Ozark National Forest for four nights a year. It’s a ton of work, and our lineup announcement requires a ton of focus to secure the right acts and get it distributed to the masses.

Anyways, we finally snapped a photo of Terry painting! She was such a huge help and we couldn’t have finished the place without her.

Terry
Terry

Dave also came down for another visit and we busted out the final plumbing in the bathroom, tile, ceiling fans, and electrical.  The place really came out great.  The bathroom was the most work, as we literally stripped it down to bare concrete walls, and redid all of the plumbing and electrical, framed out new 2x4s and installed concrete backer board so we could tile up the walls and cover the plumbing and electrical.  I bought $350 worth of travertine “pebbles” to create an interesting look on the back wall and floor of the small shower we built from scratch.  It needed something else given it’s size to make it unique and make it pop.  I think it turned out great.  After 4 weeks of waiting on Sears to get our fridge delivered (it can take a long time to get things on the island sometimes) it finally arrived after Sebastian did, and the place was complete.  Well, after a tad more painting… We couldn’t let Sebastian get out of adding a bit of his own touch to his place.

I still want to replace the ceiling in there at some point, and of course when the windows and doors that we ordered 6 months ago finally get here, those will get installed as well.

Check out some of the Before and After photos!

After New Kitchen
After New Kitchen
Shower Handle
Shower Handle and Pebble Backdrop

This blog wouldn’t be complete without showing a bit of our lifestyle on the island.  We’ve done a bunch of fun things in the last few weeks since Sebastian arrived.  My brother and a couple of his friends also came down for Thanksgiving.  Here’s some of our adventures!

Point Udall at Sunset
Point Udall at Sunset
Jeep Trail with View of Buck Island
Jeep Trail with View of Buck Island
KC and Sebastian on Their First Scuba Dive
KC and Sebastian on Their First Scuba Dive
Sebastian with a Moko Jumbie
Sebastian with a Moko Jumbie
Jeep on the Jeep Trail
Jeep on the Jeep Trail
Brother Chris on a Rain Forest Jeep Trail
Brother Chris on a Rain Forest Jeep Trail
Sebastian Sailing to Buck Island
Sebastian Sailing to Buck Island
At Lunch with Terry at EAT
At Lunch with Terry at EAT
Our View is Beautiful
Our View is Beautiful

Our Official Move to St. Croix

Today is the day. We arrived in St. Croix as official residents. But first, before I talk about that, here’s a quick update from the last couple of days.

Kaden Going to St. CroixOver the last week we have been frantically packing and going through YEARS of stuff, each item deciding whether A) we really need it anymore and B) if we do, whether it is cheaper to ship it or rebuy it, once we’ve arrive on island.  Our other dog, Kaden, finally made it to our going pile.

My car officially sold to a nice man in Bradenton, and she now has a home in a covered garage. I think the A7 found a great home, and I got my full asking price. I couldn’t be happier about that transaction and her new owner.

We also found a good home for BC, our 25 year old snake whom I’ve had forever. Our friends, who are really into reptiles (seriously they have enough to be a mini pet store in their house) have volunteered to care for him. Brittany and Cameron already had another ball python and were surprised to see just how big BC was. Needless to say, I don’t think we could have found a better home. (Fun fact: BC stands for Billy and Christopher, named after my brother and I as kids… but now it very well could stand for his new owner’s names, Brittany and Cameron). 

We literally have purged 50% of all the things we own. All of the things we kept, we are shipping via USPS. 16 boxes total so far, and we probably have another 10 to ship when we return for the next part of our move. Pricing out our options, UPS wanted $900 for the same box that USPS wanted $90 for, which includes $50 insurance and 3 Day priority shipping with tracking. When it comes to the Virgin Islands, USPS can’t be beat for non-furniture items. Our total move looks like it will cost us less than $1,800.

Yesterday, we had our giant yard sale. We made $1,700!!! Incredibly, it looks like we are paying for our move by having sold all the crap we couldn’t bring with us anyways. A very special thank you to my mom, Sue Royall, and our good friend Valerie Whitehurst Kuliberda who really killed it for us, and assisted us with the sale. We worked from 5am to 3pm and got rid of so much stuff.

This morning, we got up early and headed to the airport. We were tired and I think it shows in the photos. Construction at MCO meant ridiculous security lines today. Even though checkin was smooth, we missed our flight. That never happens. The gate door shut in front of us. The great people at JetBlue however, (shoutout to Di at the Just Ask Desk) took care of us, as they always do. Even though I had to book another airline and pay for the tickets, JetBlue (via my Twitter account) was willing to give us that as a credit, so our net out of pocket ($450) was credited in a combination of points for future flights and a cash refund, even though they aren’t affiliated with the other airline we booked on. They are the best. I always recommend JetBlue. And, I always recommend reaching out to any airline via public social media if you have an issue to get it taken care of. (Disclosure: I am long on JetBlue’s stock.)

Cape AirNow, I’m not sure if you’ve ever flown Cape Air whom we booked for our second flight, but they more or less give you a plane and you fly it yourself.  It wasn’t quite the smallest aircraft we’ve flown in (Shaleece and I were in a single prop 4-seater when we flew into the Amazon in Venezuela), but it definitely was an adventure. This is not how we normally get into St. Croix, but it was the last flight of the day and we had to jump on it. Shaleece took the helm (she’s always wanted to be a pilot) and landed us safely. I’m still unsure how she landed so smoothly while looking at my camera.

St. Croix from the AirShaleece Flying Cape Air

Since the second flight was a bit later than the first connection, we arrived 2 hours behind schedule. That means we were going to miss our mattress store appointment and be sleeping on the tile floor tonight. No matter though, our realtor Doane Dariah came to the rescue again and went out of her way, letting the delivery people in early for us! I seriously can’t recommend this woman enough!

Rupert RossRupert Ross, our awesome friend on the island arrived to pick us up in our new Jeep. He is amazing and helped pick up the Jeep from port when it was delivered on the Norma H. (A car delivery service between St Thomas and St Croix.)  I had a small issue with Norma H in that they lost one of the two $400 keys, but they found it a couple of days later, and we can pick it up on Wednesday… that is if Hurricane Irma doesn’t delay them further.

So let’s talk about that for a minute. Our first few days as official residents and we have a huge hurricane headed towards us. Not sure why, but we don’t really have a worry in our minds about it, with the exception that we may get rain our first few days in paradise as we try to take care of a bunch of moving errands. This blog may get interesting in the next few days.

The house is much nicer than we actually expected, believe it or not. It’s very large and has a huge outdoor balcony with multiple seating areas outside. The dogs will love this place. There is no AC (but the breeze is fairly cool/nice and we will probably get a small unit in the bedrooms), but other than that this place was a winner from the start. Although I have no idea why you would ever need it on this island, there was a surprise sauna in our master bathroom. Cool, I guess.

Tomorrow we go to look at the final list of land parcels we’ve narrowed it down to with Doane! We can’t wait!

 

Boat Gone, Car Sold, Loan Update, New Jeep, Concrete, Rebar, and Packing!

Super Air NautiqueJust a couple of days ago the boat left the backyard. It’s now at Nautiques of Orlando. Ask for Jason who is selling it for me if you’re interested.

I sold my Audi A7! (Not officially, but we are supposed to finalize paperwork this week.) $30k to someone I think will love and cherish the car as I did.

The day before the car sold, we bought a Jeep! A 2015 4 Door Sport Wrangler with less than 15,000 miles. It’s white. It will be delivered on a boat to Gallows Bay just a couple days before we arrive, which will be a week from now! Scored this about $7k under book value.

Both Bank of St Croix and Banco Popular are willing to do land loans  Banco Popular’s terms are looking way better though.

I spoke with Timoty Francis of St. Croix who is going to possibly help us with the concrete and rebar work. Speaking with him he quoted in line with what my research was telling me on material costs. Concrete is $160-$170/yard depending upon its strength. (GREAT because another blog I read about a Villa build on St. Thomas said it was upwards of $900/yard when they built 10 years go, which sounds absolutely crazy.) Rebar is best shipped from Puerto Rico and is running somewhere around $675/ton. I can’t wait to tell you how many yards and tons we need… it will be a lot, and the total price for these two materials alone could build a framed house in the states on the mainland.

I sold a bunch of my studio gear to friends I made while I owned Venue 578 before we sold out of it today, as well as a big carved wooden fish I liked to my neighbor. You never know how much stuff of value you have until you start selling it all.

PackingAnd finally we’ve started the dreaded task of packing. So much stuff! Our dog, Tate, made sure he was in the “going” pile. We are in the mindset that if we don’t need it in St. Croix, then we probably don’t need it in our lives at all anymore. The good news about this move is that the furniture is staying with the lake house, since we are going to rent it out fully furnished, so the “things” we’ve collected over the last 10 years is really all we’ve got to deal with. Much of it will be at a HUGE yard and moving sale this coming Friday and the rest is getting packed in boxes and shipped via USPS to come with. We worked on it all day, and although we feel like we accomplished a lot, it doesn’t look like it. There’s much more to do.

First on the packing list, Scuba Gear.

We Signed a Lease!

Wow, this is all happening way faster than we expected! We just signed a year long lease on a property in Queens Quarters (central to the Island) that starts Sept. 1st! Cheers!

We were really just looking and didn’t expect to lock up anything for another month or so, but with the limited rental inventory, the fact this place accepted our dogs, the low monthly rent (relative to other places available), central location, and 1 bedroom apartment we can sublease for extra income… we couldn’t let someone else scoop this one up!

It’s all a little surreal.

TateYesterday I was actually a little in shock and a little sad that we’re leaving this beautiful lakefront property. We hung out with the dogs on the dock to watch the sunset with a couple of glasses of wine.

We are shedding everything we’ve worked so hard for over the years right now, and moving into a smaller place without the luxuries we currently have. It sounds like the answer to the title of our first blog “Are we crazy?” is an astounding YES! However, the end goal in mind is that the home we build over the next 12-24 months is going to be even better, and worth it if all goes well. A step back to take a step forward I guess. The good thing is we’ll be motivated to get the hell outta this place and finish the new house as quickly as possible. Man this sunset on the lake is beautiful though.

Jeep on STXWe’re looking at Jeeps and hopefully we will have one waiting for us there by Sept 2nd… got our eye on a 2011 and a 2015 4 Door Wrangler. Leaning towards saving the money and going for the 2011.

We have a lot to figure out with the move over the next couple of months. There is so much to do. Plan for the dogs. Move out. Put things in storage if need be. Buy furniture down there. Get the Jeep. Get the lake house rented out. The plan is to have it all done by October 1st. I can’t believe we’ll be there that soon already!

Our Realtor Doane Dariah has been amazing by the way. My favorite of them yet! I would recommend her to anyone. She’s going to help us rent out the 1 bedroom to save money by showing it for us while we’re out of town. She also said we could store stuff at her house if we need to while we prepare to build if we find sales and deals on things. That’s so nice!

The house is a 2 bedroom 2 bath home with a separate 1 bedroom apartment that has it’s own entrance. We’re going to rent out the apartment to a Barry University student (where my brother went to PA School) since we have some connections there.  We’re super close to where the study hall and classrooms are, and over 14 students were turned away from the area due to housing not being available.  Should be a pretty easy place to rent out to lower our monthly liabilities even more in prep for the build. Best part is we’ll have a guest room for friends to visit. Here’s just a couple photos of the place:

Living Room

Kitchen