St Croix – Building a House in The Caribbean – Waitiki at Windchime Estates – St Croix

Windows Replaced Throughout The House – CHECK!

Day 474
Total Spent So Far: $146,501.80
30 Yard Dumpsters Filled: 5.5

We’ve finally gotten most all of the windows replaced in the house, save a few in the small studio AirBnB Windsor’s Rest. The priority now though has switched to finishing the flooring in the kitchen area (we are half way there having already done the living room) because the kitchen is literally sitting in boxes right now. It’s taking up our entire living room waiting to be installed. What a mess half our house is – rendered completely unusable right now. Very soon, by the end of November, this place will be so much nicer as the flooring and kitchen gets done – and we can put our lives back together.

The windows were a huge job! And of course, Dave came down to save the day again. He may have earned himself a second lifetime timeshare week without on-going expenses at The View this last trip. I will say I’m not sure how I would have done this part of the remodel without him. It’s literally impossible to put some of these windows in by yourself. You have to have someone hold it while the other person screws it into the wall.

Removing Hall Window
Takes Two to Tango
Upstairs Windows
Working Late
Demo Dave
Demo Dave, Again
Checking Out the New View
Prepping The Casement Window

We used 4-5″ tap cons throughout the installations to ensure these were solid and secured deep into the surrounding concrete walls. We put 3-4 up each side (depending upon the height) and at least one in the top and bottom of each window. Afterwards, we are plastering up the gaps and space around it to finish it, before painting.

One thing to note on jalousie type windows is that they only come in fixed height sizes. While you can order them to whatever rough opening width you’d like, height wise is dependent upon fixed sizes that divide evenly by your window pane height. For example, a 3″ jalousie comes in height adjustments every 3″ or so… a 4″ jalousie every 4, and so on. Ours were 6″ jalousie panes to ensure the most view – but it also gave us the largest vertical gap to fill at times.

Freshly Installed
Wood & Caulk
Plastered & Painted

We built up the windows that were shorter than the rough openings with treated lumber, all tap-conned into the concrete. We then sealed any gaps with caulking for water intrusion, and then covered over with plaster and paint. After painting, the finished product looks great.

Liam’s Room After (Well, before caulk, plaster and paint) – BUT LOOK AT THAT VIEW!

These windows and screens are very easy to clean. It changed the view from the bedrooms and hallways in a major way. Before – we literally had wood window slats, you couldn’t even see through… A cheap way to allow ventilation in, and protect against hurricanes, all while completely blocking the view. Who does that!?!? lol.

Checking Out The Never-Before-Seen Master Bedroom View

I commented previously, but the quality control process at AirMaster windows completely sucks out of Puerto Rico. While the finished product is of quality it seems, the manufacturing process is shabby. For example, the glass has fallen out of a few windows because they didn’t put enough silicone inside the metal bars that hold them in. We’ve been waiting for a couple months now for replacements. They forgot the connecting screw hardware in our windows, a $180 credit Home Depot had to give me to buy more, and they were even missing some of the window cranks and such. All fixable things I guess, but annoying none the less. They need someone checking the quality when the product comes off the line, so not to inconvenience the home owner or installer. I wouldn’t recommend these windows after our hassle ordering, waiting, installing and fixing, although I have to say I’m happy with the final product once it’s installed and has all the missing pieces replaced.

Demo Demo
Caulking Windows
Installing Windows
Removing the Wood Panes That Blocked The View

This process took us about 20 days of work in total, about 15 with two people working, and we installed 42 windows and doors. It would be much faster if this wasn’t a concrete house. I’ve got another 5 windows to do, which will probably add another 5 days worth of work once it’s all plastered and painted.

New Master View (Before Caulking, Plaster and Paint)

Finally, I’ll end with Liam – who is growing up incredibly fast. So far, he enjoys driving, and sailing as his main hobbies, other than eating, sleeping, and pooping.

Stay tuned! Flooring and kitchen is almost done!

On the Hunt for Granite – Blue Bahia

Day 458
Total Spent So Far: $131,622.64
30 Yard Dumpsters Filled: 4.5

We’re getting pretty close to “caught up” on these blog posts so I’m going to start including where we are budget and dumpster bin wise again since it more or less aligns. The above includes the kitchen cabinet order and cupola repair as well which we’ll talk about in the next couple of articles.

On the way back from our annual music festival trip in Arkansas, Liam, Shaleece, and I stopped in South Florida before flying home to hand pick some granite slabs for our kitchen and bathroom counter tops. We knew that we wanted “Blue Bahia”, which is a rare deep blue granite out of Bahia Brazil to pull in the ocean view we have even more. Our floors are sand colored, walls white, and with the counter top a bright blue – we really feel our ocean view will pop and we’ll bring the outside in.

The reason we wanted to hand pick the pieces though, is because we could see from online, and were told, that the granite could vary greatly depending upon the lot it was cut from, anywhere from a light blue-green to a deep dark blue. We really wanted the deepest darkest blues with the least amount of green – so making sure we saw what we were getting was key. At $4,000 a slab – plus $400 in shipping down to the island, you don’t want something showing up you aren’t happy with, especially when you are buying 3-4 slabs.

Blue Bahia Color Variation
Blue Bahia Color Variation
Blue Bahia Color Variation

We stopped by four different granite places, which varied wildly not only in price, but in color as well. At our most expensive quoted place, we played a little golf in their waiting room. Liam was helping me to read the green. No wonder why they are so expensive.

We LUCKED OUT when we hit the last spot we checked out. A small warehouse with some very helpful people. Immediately we knew it was the right color we were looking for as soon as we saw it (love at first sight) and could only hope their pricing was going to beat out the other places we had already stopped – and they did! After negotiating with the guy a bit, we got what one company had quoted $22,000 for, for just $15,000 – and in the right color mix we wanted too! This included 4 slabs total (3 Blue Bahia for the kitchen from Pantai Granite) and a 4th slab we actually purchased from one of the other places we checked Blue Bahia at (named Blue Bahia Marble and Granite). The fourth slab is for the bathrooms and is called Blue Imperial.

Our Final Blue Bahia Selection — Blue Bahia for the Kitchen

The Blue Imperial is supposedly some of the last of its kind. The mine is closed now and they are no longer pulling any from the Earth. There were only a few slabs left and it was EXPENSIVE. However, we found one with cracks in the top and bottom, making it a harder slab to sell for the vendor… but for us, our bathroom counter pieces were able to fit within the usable areas of the slab still. We got a steal of a deal on this giant slab after they knocked down the price 30% to $3,600. Even with the non-usable areas of the slab, we will definitely have some of this left over (it’s a big one) and I’m trying to think of other places we will get some use out of this beautiful stone. I will probably add some details in the shower and on the bathroom window sills to tie in the counters, for example.

We paid a crating company in Miami $780 to put all four slabs in a giant crate for shipping down to St. Croix. I was shocked at first at the price, but after seeing the crate, I totally get it. It ended up being a lot of wood, and it safely transported 3,300 lbs of granite standing on end from there to here, without issue. Don’t underestimate the value of a great crate! The same thing was important when we shipped our doors from California. The last thing you want is something you spent $10k-$20k on arriving to the island in shambles. Not only does it set you behind weeks, but recouping the funds may be difficult as well. We shipped them down via VICargo which ended up costing us $1600.

After it arrived on island, I had to hire a trucking company, Bates Trucking, who did an amazing job at getting it here with the right crane truck down our mountainous, bumpy, steep, dirt road. I can’t recommend these guys enough as I can never believe how they get these large Mack trucks down my road and turn around in my drive way. If you saw what they were working with here, you’d understand.

So, now these beautiful pieces of granite are sitting in our driveway, along with 5 more pallets of travertine stone flooring ready for install. It will probably be a few months before we’re ready. The floors need to be finished upstairs, and cabinets installed first. The cabinets have been ordered and are on their way. (Not here yet as of this writing.) In the next post, I’ll show you the kitchen design we put together with the help of my friend Dave and Home Depot super star Bibi. We are SO excited about the kitchen. Until then…

Happy Birthday, William Robert Royall III

One of the best days of our lives. <3
1/29/19

First Time Holding Him at the Hospital
Liam’s Birthday
Mom and Liam
Seeing Us for the First Time
Learning How to Relax
Learning How to Be Cool
First Trip to the Beach
First Time at Sandy Point
Sandy Point with Mom
His Favorite Book
Lady Killer
Definitely Learned How to Be Cool
Grandma Royall and Liam
Grandma Martin and Liam
Uncle Chris and Liam
Sebastian with Liam
Royall Family
Liam LOVES Bath Time
He’s a Ham
He Still Lives with His Parents
Born to Sail
Mom and Liam Sailing
Liam’s First Sail to Buck Island
Sailing Suits Him
Royall Family at Buck Island
Chilling on the Boat
Liam and Tate
Always Happy
Definitely Learned How to Relax
First Family Photos
Sugar Mill
Precious
Now There are Three
My Son
Liam Taught Us How to Be Cool

Preparing for “Liam” – Nursery Remodel Begins

Day 353
Total Spent So Far: $85,814.47
30 Yard Dumpsters Filled: 3.5

It’s been a while since I last posted. But a lot has happened. The next 4-5 blog posts will be “catch-up” for everything I haven’t written about over the last three months. We’ve been incredibly busy, not only with the remodel, but also with our precious new born son (don’t skip ahead readers!) To top it off, our annual music festival, Backwoods, is quickly coming upon us. All of this combined with our software company PromoJuice growing as fast as it is has stripped me of any free time to write really. So, catch up it is. I owe it to myself, and to our readers following along.

As with the rest of the house, Liam’s future room hadn’t been updated since the 70’s or 80’s. The room needed to be done from floor to ceiling, electrical and all. As with every room, we started with the demolition, removing the fan, the old closet doors (that were being used as doors to the room), pulled the mirror off the wall, the bathroom light fixture, and prepped the walls for painting.

Removal of Fan
Removal of Folding Doors

We decided to move forward with remodeling the hallway at the same time as Liam’s room since it connected our bedroom, which we had already painted, completed electrical, and ceiling work in. So the very first step was painting both the nursery and the hallway.

Covered from the Sprayer
Painting Hallway

To speed up the process I used a paint sprayer, which is messy as hell, but gets the job done incredibly fast. You really have to make sure EVERYTHING is out of the room which you don’t want paint on, or at minimum covered. Don’t be surprised if it gets under the cover still. We plastic sheeted off every opening to the other rooms we didn’t want paint on.

I decided I would build some floating shelves in Liam’s room, after Shaleece presented me with the idea, and as with everything told me, “Come on, you can do it. It will be easy for you!” They actually turned out really awesome, and I documented the entire process; so, I’m going to put up a post dedicated to “How to Build Floating Shelves” in case any of you want to try your hand at some carpentry for the next article as a side bar to our remodel progress.

After the shelves were done, and room painted, besides some minor electrical and fixtures work, the flooring was the next major job to tackle. I learned a thing or two in my day about laying tile (this isn’t the first house I’ve laid tile in) and the best advice I can give is to spend the extra money on a Floor Leveling System. It keeps any “lippage” from occurring by simultaneously lifting the tile from the bottom, and squeezing down on it from the top, at the corners where multiple tiles meet. Basically, if you’ve ever seen a room where the tile edges are at different heights (causing edges) it’s because they didn’t use one of these systems and probably used the good ol’ regular spacers. It’s almost critical in a house like ours where you have multiple types of flooring meeting up in different areas at slightly different heights.

Sebastian learned a thing or two about tiling and helped as well. He got an opportunity to use the tile saw, lay some mortar, and throw a few tiles into place. He did great for his first go-around.

Sebastian Laying Tile
Using the Self Leveling System
Sebastian on the Tile Saw
Half Way Done in Liam’s Room
Tiling Down the Hall
Tiling into the Master Bedroom
Still Going…
Half the House is Tiled!

We more or less finished up in Liam’s room with the exception of the windows and the barn doors which have been on order. The photo doesn’t show the grout, but that’s been complete as well. I’ll be sure to post some final photos of the room once the barn doors are up and the new windows are installed… “Soon Come” as they say on the island. Liam will be here soon, and we can’t wait…. well actually I’m playing catchup and most of you guys know he’s already here… but that’s what I was thinking at the time I actually took this photo… 🙂

Liam’s Room (Minus the Barn Doors and Grout.)

Caribbean Pool Design with Infinity Edge & Balconies for Windchime Estates

We recently invited Shane LeBlanc of Selective Designs to fly out to St. Croix and spend the afternoon with us discussing the design and our dreams for our outdoor living space, pool, and major remodel to the structure of our house by adding a wrap-around gallery style balcony. We had all sorts of ideas, infinity edge on the cliffside, lowered bar on the cliffside with multiple levels of decking, fire pit, lounge space – lots of lounge space, wet deck, outdoor grille and kitchen area, and a room for my scuba gear easily accessible from our Jeep for cleaning, rinsing, drying, and storage.

Shane is an award winning globally known pool and landscape designer. His work is simply incredible. When he saw where we were, he immediately wanted to do the project because in his words, “With this view we can create an award winning pool, and that’s what I do, award winning pools.”

When he got to the house, Shane seemed to grab our vision immediately, and snapped some photos of the house and surrounding views. I sent him our survey so he had the setbacks and exact dimensions of the current structure. Honestly, for as short of a time as he was here (maybe an hour or so), I was a tad worried he wasn’t going to be able to have all he needed to create the design.

Boy was I wrong.

The design he sent over captured our vision almost perfectly! Sure, some doors are going to look a little different, maybe a plant or two, and who knows on the colors, but more or less everything is sitting in its place! It literally IS our dream backyard! He not only did the 2D drawings, which we’ll now be taking to contractors to bid the project, but a 3D model of which we got lots of still shots and a fly-through video to really show off the idea. We now have our eye literally on the prize. If only we could speed up the next two years that it will take to build it. So, who’s coming to visit?

Pool and Balconies 3D Video Fly Through

3D Rendering Still Images

“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.

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!

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!

KC and Sebastian on Their First Scuba Dive

Brother Chris on a Rain Forest Jeep Trail

The Mermaid in St. Croix Remains Elusive, But Progress Was Made.

Day 155
Total Spent So Far: $52,558
30 Yard Dumpsters Filled: 3

Well, just two weeks after Dave left St. Croix, we flew him back down. I’m not sure if he’s coming for the Rum, the beaches, or just to hang out, but he was happy to play a big roll in getting the middle apartment “The Mermaid” further along this time around. One of my partners I work with is coming to live in St. Croix for our new software product, PromoJuice, and he arrives November 10th. Since I’m gone for a few weeks during October and there is limited time between now and then, we really needed to focus and move this project along. And so we did.

We didn’t finish though, and I’ll be able to get quite a bit done myself the end of October. Dave has another trip already booked for the first week in November to help me wrap it up, and possibly start on the upstairs again if there’s enough time. There is a ton of tiling to do still in the apartment before then. Terry is still helping us with the painting there too, which there is also a ton to do. I need pictures of Terry… She’s always working in there when I’m too busy to be doing so during the week, so I never seem to capture her all painted up. I will though at some point and make sure to include it in this blog. We can’t thank her enough for what she’s doing for us recently. Dave too. We’d definitely be a lot further behind without them!

One week ago, I completed the demolition of the bathroom in the apartment in preparation for last weekend when Dave would be here to help. I had a lot of comments last time on my “demolition in flip flops” and here again I see in the photos I didn’t learn my lesson. It’s just so natural here not to wear shoes. Besides a recent trip to Vegas for work, I literally think I’ve been wearing flip flops now for over a year. Once you get into that mode, it’s incredibly hard to wear a pair of socks and shoes. Anyways, I tore out most of the wood walls in the bathroom to expose the plumbing and electrical we were planning to redo, and removed the toilet and bits of tile that remained. We did leave a wall and a half of the wood, which we’ll paint to tie into the bedroom of the apartment and give it a beach feel. The rest of the walls will be tiled all the way floor to ceiling.

I also leveled the floors with self leveling concrete both upstairs in the kitchen, as well as downstairs in the Mermaid Bathroom before Dave got there. It is allowing us to tile smoothly, without the imperfections that existed from the demolition.

When Dave arrived our first order of business was to get the shower wall framed out, drain hammered out so we could put a new one in, and start pouring the concrete which would eventually hold our new shower pan. We wanted a day for the concrete to dry so we could finish the shower pan and drain by the time Dave left. The old shower was literally a plastic insert from an RV, so we were building this shower from scratch.

After completing the shower wall and pan, we started replacing all the copper piping and electrical in the walls, including the first proper installation of a GFCI outlet in the house. Yay! Believe it or not, none of the outlets in the house have protection on them in the places they should currently, and when we removed the shower we literally exposed a live outlet that was installed behind the shower wall! Needless to say we removed that before replacing the walls with concrete tile backer board. All copper piping was removed and replaced with CPVC, which will help prevent leaks behind the walls in the future.

If you are building a custom shower, go with the PVC shower pan we did, and use concrete to build it to your custom size:

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We did start to tile some of the flooring but didn’t get incredibly far. While I tiled and rehung the cabinet doors with new hardware in the kitchen, Dave worked on reversing the bathroom door to add some additional space to the bathroom, as well as hang a new solid door on the pump room which will drastically cut down on the noise from the pump. Unfortunately that door got the best of Dave before he left this weekend as the frame was never built square to start with, so we’ve got a bit more to do on that in November.

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The last day we switched to building the bedroom wall. This was a project completely from scratch, made with 2x4s, 1x4s, and 1x6s. We modeled it off of the wall that already existed in The View to help tie the apartments together in the house a bit. I like the wall in the View because it breathes and allows airflow through while creating privacy that one cannot see through. The one we built came out beautifully. It was incredibly easy actually, with the exception of hammering in the panels into the wall’s frame at the very end. It was a very tight fit so it took some strength to get them in their slots. If you want to replicate a wall like this, it is essentially the following process. I’ve included larger pictures below as well:

Build a 2×4 frame which will hold as many panels as you need. Size it appropriately so that the panels will fit in the wall frame.
Measure out your 1×4’s for the outside edges of the large panels, and cut them to size.
Mark the lines with a pencil where you will install the angled 1x6s on them 1x4s. The 1x6s, if marked and spaced at exactly 4″ apart along the 1×4, can be installed at a 59 degree angle to get the other side of the 1×6 to lineup on the back side of the 1×4 border. You may have to look at the pictures to see exactly what I mean.
Screw the frame together for the panel, and then screw on your 1×6 pre-cut pieces on the pencil line at the 59 degree angle at 4″ apart into the frame of the panel.
Once you have the panels done, insert them into the larger framed wall you pre-installed. A couple screws will hold them in. Caulk, paint, etc.

We did a ton this weekend and made great progress. Super happy to be doing it with Dave as well as he’s got a great positive attitude and is super easy to work with. He’s got a place to stay in the Caribbean as long as we’re here… that’s for sure!

Can’t wait to update you in November with completed photos of The Mermaid!

A Shot of our Granite Counters with Travertine Flooring

Concrete Backer Board Installed with Floor

Our First St. Croix AirBnB, Windsor’s Rest, Is Complete!

Day 81
Total Spent So Far: $42,709

Yes, it’s true, our first St. Croix AirBnB is now complete, and our first booking happened within 12 hours of the listing!

Before (Windsor's Rest) — Before (Windsor’s Rest)

After Windsor's Rest — After Windsor’s Rest

I’m falling behind in keeping up with the writing though… We’ve just had so much going on in the last couple of months… To start, WE GOT MARRIED! Around 85 people came through, most from the states, to visit us for one of the most magical weeks of my life. Our wedding guests (family and friends) enjoyed much of the island’s offerings, but left much to do for their next visit as well. The wedding day was one of the best days of my life (and Shaleece agrees luckily!)

Together our entire group of guests went snorkeling and diving off Cane Bay Beach, drank beer with the pigs in the rain forest at the Domino Club, had a pig roast on the beach, sailed to Buck Island on the Terroro II Trimaran with Captain Carl, toured the Captain Morgan Rum Distillery, partied at Rainbow Beach, scuba dived the Butler Bay Wrecks, and so much more. It was a really beautiful time spent with friends and family… but boy was it a lot of work!

After everyone left, Shaleece and I took 10 days which we spent in Punta Cana at one of the most relaxing and beautiful resorts I’ve ever been to for our honeymoon. Needless to say this kept us from working on the house for a bit.

However, we’re back at it in full swing now as we approach the end of the first 90 days, and since the last writing a lot has happened. A major milestone occurred this week as we finished the smallest apartment and launched our first AirBnB! It’s listed on both AirBnB and the Homeaway family of sites including VRBO if you’re interested in coming to see the rest of our progress. I’ve still got a few minor things I want to do to Windsor’s Rest, including an upgraded custom drop ceiling in the front entry way to replace the standard tiles, but nothing that would prevent us from renting it out. I’m sure there will always be things we want to do here.

See it on AirBnB

See it on Homeaway

We’ve come across a leak which has alluded us from upstairs in our master bathroom. I’ve had two plumbers out to the house and both have scratched their heads as to where to start. Neither want to give me a quote, and they come up with suggestions from “Add a little caulking there” to “Let’s tear out this entire wall.” It’s frustrating to say the least, and it’s incredibly hard to get them to even show up. It’s a common theme here actually that you can’t get anyone to do anything unless their right in front of you, and most of them don’t want to give you a price until they’re almost done with the job. It’s one of the reason’s we’ve done most of this work ourselves. We think it’s coming from the upstairs shower.

The sinks and granite counters were put in, in all three downstairs apartments. I did have some help here as I wasn’t about to risk breaking or miss-cutting $4,500 worth of granite counter tops. The company, Italia Marble and Tile on St. Croix has been great to work with. I’m working on our design for the upstairs kitchen remodel now.

A word of advice if you’re in Home Depot, get an XPro account to track all your purchases so you don’t have to save receipts, and always send your orders ($1,500 or more) at a time to The Bid Room. I saved $3,000 on my windows by sending it to the Bid Room. I’ve saved $500 here and there several other times as well. Basically they will take your order, send it to corporate who analyzes it and discounts anything with big margins for you to try to win the business… just because your order is over $1,500. Anyone can do it too, but most people don’t know about the program! Ask at the Service Desk.

My skill sets have increased greatly in the home improvement category. I’ve been doing a lot of electrical work myself, including swapping outlets, switches, light fixtures, fans, and more, both re-wiring and breaker replacement at times. I’ve plumbed a few sinks, and replaced about 5 faucets with new water lines so far. Replaced a toilet too. I’ve done a ton of backsplash tile work (a skillset I’ve had from a previous home) and of course I’m getting better at painting (now with a professional sprayer at times.) The truth is, none of this is that hard, it just takes some patience and know-how which you can learn easily online or with a few conversations with someone who knows a bit more than you do. Really it’s about having the time, but if you consider how much you’re saving when you do work like this yourself, many times the hourly rates are worth venturing on your own rather than bringing in a plumber, electrician, painter, etc.

Obviously it doesn’t go as fast as when you have a team, but if you’re trying to stretch your budget, or make money on the remodel – doing a lot of it yourself is definitely the way to go. One day’s worth of plumbing projects I just did saved me about $1,200 I calculated. I really have no idea to tally up all I will save in the end in labor, but I know it’s going to be a lot.

The View (our largest apartment) is almost complete, and looks like it’s on target for August 1st. Our friend KC is moving into that apartment on a longer term rental for now while he’s here still working recovery efforts from last year’s storms. It’s really beautiful. If we weren’t renting it out immediately, Shaleece and I would have definitely moved down there while we completed the upstairs remodel. I completed the bathroom remodel there (minus new tile which will come down the road), and the only thing left in the apartment is some painting trim, a bit more backsplash in the kitchen, some outlets and switches to replace, and a new fan to be hung in the Master Bedroom. That’s such a small list from when I started in there! I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Not much progress has been made on the middle apartment as of late, the wedding and honeymoon took up much of our time, and I realize my target dates in the last article to have all three apartments done was way off. So goes it with construction projects though, right? I did rebuild the top cabinets with a friend Vaughn on the island since the previous ones were destroyed by termites. We’ve also put in the new granite counter tops, sink, faucet, and I’ve started on the backsplash here. More photos of that to come when it’s complete.

We ordered our windows, but not from my Uncle Bob after-all. The main reason behind this was because PGT doesn’t offer any windows that “breath” like jalousie style louvers, which are critical in our open air breezy home with natural air conditioning. This house was designed to stay cool throughout the summer months with no AC due to the way it breathes. Replacing our windows with side-sliders would kill the natural ability to get constant breezes without having to have the windows all the way open, all the time, which isn’t feasible when it rains. We plan to add AC to the bedrooms since we won’t need to cool the entire house in the near future. Although it’s not completely necessary with the breezes up here, I think from a an online AirBnB marketing prospective, people stateside will be “looking” for AC.

We found a company in Puerto Rico, called Airmaster, which our Home Depot down here carries and sells due to their geographic area. I measured them all out, and put the order together over the course of two weeks. Every one is custom made. The order includes over 46 windows, three sets of french doors, and three regular entry doors. This house is massive. It’s going to take 12 weeks before they get here, and I have no idea where I’m going to store them all while I await them getting installed, but my friend Dave from the mainland who helped with my Lakehouse’s kitchen said he would come down a few weekends to help me install them and show me the ropes of putting them in a concrete house. That was the big addition to the expenditures this time around and has put us over $40k now.

My cousin Kira also came down and helped us paint our master bedroom and start on The View right before the wedding. She is definitely a weekend warrior! She is the reason we were able to move into the house so quickly! THANK YOU KIRA SO MUCH! <3

Hopefully I will get to updating this blog a bit more often. Some other big news to announce soon, stay tuned.

The Story of Windchime Estates and the Start of Our Remodel

Day 11
Total Spent So Far: $11,920

Before I dive into this next post, I wanted to put it out there that I’m going to start consistently adding the above heading with the “day” since we started the remodel (May 3rd) and the total spent so far. Should give you some perspective at how fast, or slow we’ve been moving since the last post. The above amount already includes backsplashes (material only for downstairs apartments), granite (material only for downstairs apartments), a ton of yard work to clear our view even more, paint for most of the interior of the house, random tools, doors, new cabinet hardware, several faucets, three new ranges, a new washer and dryer, and probably several other things I haven’t thought of yet.

We’re actually almost done (minus the sink/granite install) with our first apartment out of three. While I feel like we’re moving slower than I’d like, it’s only been 11 days and we’ve been spending more than $1k/day on average… so I don’t know how we’d go any faster really and I’m actually happy with our progress so far.

Besides the intense amount of “demolition” I’ve done on the old kitchen cabinets and counter tops preparing for the granite and backsplash install, and the painting and new hardware installed throughout the first apartment, the other thing that’s been done that has been very impressive is the amount of “bush work” that has been done along the sides of our cliffs (both the Eastern and Southern cliffs) .

These guys have been at it tirelessly for three days straight and have cleared out about 15′ down the mountain side to open our view from the 20′ tall Tan Tan trees that grow like weeds. I thought our view was amazing before but now it’s really impressive.

We also have quite a bit more yard than we expected after we cut back the overgrown bushes and grasses on the land that had been previously cleared out.

This was a pleasant surprise as the dogs have a lot more room to roam.

It’s All in the Name: Windchime Estates

Originally our plan has been to name our property Waitiki Villa all along, in honor of the place Shaleece and I first met. The story can be found here on our blog. After purchasing the property however, we had the opportunity to speak to the previous owner, Tom, who told us the rich history of home and it’s previous owners, including the man who built it.

We’re now planning to name our happy abode Windchime Estates, although plans for Waitiki’s inclusion on the estate still exist.

In 1972 the home was originally built by a sail maker, Ralph. Ralph’s son, Ralph Jr. later inherited the property from his late father, whom much like his father was a sailer through and through. Ralph owned a boat named Windchime, which was a 39′ Trimaran that he sailed the world twice with, and where he met his best friend Tom (also a sailer) in the South Pacific. One day, in the late 80’s Ralph had taken Windchime on a charter with nine people out to Buck Island (viewed from our home.) Upon the way back the wind died, and without power, Windchime drifted into what is known as Round Reef, the reef that protects Christiansted Harbor (also viewed from our home.)

Ralph lost the boat that day on Round Reef, within view from his own home. He saved many parts from the boat in hopes to rebuild her one day. Shortly thereafter in 1989 Hurricane Hugo ripped through the Caribbean decimating St. Croix and tearing the roof off of Ralph Jr.’s home as well as a wall built for his outdoor living space.

Ralph later used the masts from Windchime as the headers for these walls in the re-construction of his home, which are still seen today. Ralph willed the home to his best friend he met in the South Pacific, Tom, who 10 year’s later sold the home to us. Besides this amazing story rich with history, the wind never stops blowing at the high elevation where we are at. We thought it only right to name the property after the boat for multiple reasons since we know the history, can see the masts in it’s construction, can literally see the place it sailed and wrecked, and more than likely will hang windchimes from them since the breeze will always play us a tune.

Windchime Logo on Letter Head

We also found on the back door of the generator room a hand written note, taped to the back of the door. Simply put it said “Do Not Lock! We Don’t Have a Key for This Door!” – Why is this important you ask? Well, it was written on a piece of paper from the early 80’s it appears with a header that included the Windchime Trimaran’s logo from Ralph’s chartering business. So cool to find this vintage piece! We plan to pay homage to this logo now and have a sign created with it at our front entrance gate to identify the property.

We decided to keep going with the names since we’re planning to rent out the bottom apartments as short term rentals for easy identification of the three apartments; we named each of them based on additional ideas which we thought made some sense.

Apartment 1 is on the South West corner of our property facing a large mountainous view with a deep reaching valley, covered in forest. This forest is called Windsor’s Forest. Well past Windsor’s forest you can see the South shore and at night, the twinkling lights of houses across the forest on the other side of the island beneath the stars. This apartment is a small efficiency which we feel most who stay there will only come home to “rest” rather than to hang out. We named this apartment, Windsor’s Rest.

Apartment 2 is in the middle, facing South. We’ve gotten many comments that Shaleece looked like a Mermaid in our underwater engagement photos which lead to many other mermaid discussions, items for her bridal shower, and well – quite frankly mermaids are everywhere on St. Croix… so we dubbed this apartment The Mermaid.

Apartment 3 is on the East end of our home, and has what we consider the best view, with the most ocean and a clear central (almost framed) look at Buck Island. It will also open up to our infinity edge pool over the cliff when we finish with it, so rightfully so we named this, the largest apartment, The View.

Finally, last but definitely not least, we decided since we met at Waitiki (a bar in Orlando) that our Pool Bar, which will be held right on the cliff, with seats in and out of the pool, will be dubbed Waitki. I’m sure Shaleece and I will wander down at times and have a drink, to celebrate “us” the way we did the first night we met. Today we actually found “his and hers” Waitiki solar light up statues. They are awesome and we weren’t sure if we’d find them again later so we bought them, even though their final resting place won’t be finished for quite some time. We’re keeping them in the box put away until the pool bar is done.

That’s all for now. More to come soon! For Now, More Photos!

Giant 40 Yard Dumpster - We Filled It and Need Another! — Giant 40 Yard Dumpster – We Filled It and Need Another!

Ripping Out Old Sinks, Backsplash, and Cabinets

We’ve Arrived in St. Croix, and Our Move is Finished

We finally made it.

We’ve finally finished moving out of our Orlando home, and down to St. Croix. We’ve got boxes upon boxes that should be arriving soon at the post office. But, it wasn’t easy getting here.

After an evening with my parents, and afternoon moving boxes to the post office to ship off to the island, we packed ourselves and the dogs in the car to head to our friend Val’s for a ride to the airport. Unknowingly (since the app wasn’t up to date) our flight had been canceled, but we pushed to head on anyways at the CheckIn counter. Upon arrival at the counter, the gate agent told us we couldn’t take our chainsaw as checked luggage, even though it was brand new and in the box. Val, our angel of a friend and ride, offered to mail it down for us. I’m going to need it in our yard.

The farthest we got that day was Puerto Rico, where the next flight to St. Croix wasn’t until the next morning and on a different airline, Cape Air. We spent the night on the sidewalk under the stars, outside of the airport, with both Tate and Kaden. No hotels were available until November (a month from now) since many reservations were now long term tenants who didn’t have homes to go back to since the storms. A nice man from the NY Port Authority, there to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s airport, gave us a pillow and blanket. He was there with a team sleeping on cots upstairs. Several grueling and tiring hours later, we were almost told that two dogs are not allowed on the Cape Air flights since the planes are so small. Luckily it was a completely empty flight with the exception of our new friend Matt (also moving to St. Croix with plans of building a home), so the pilot made an exception for us. Thank God, because another night in Puerto Rico on the sidewalk would have been a nightmare.

We arrived home to find our friend Rupert in our drivable Jeep. We had a flat tire, and he got it fixed for us while we were gone. What an awesome friend! To top it off, our other amazing friend Virgil drove over to the house to help us unscrew the front doors so we could get in. He had come over the day after the hurricane to nail shut our doors since the storm had blown them wide open and we weren’t around at the time. Did I say our friends are amazing?

Upon opening the doors we found a 20′ long piece of galvanized steel sheet metal roofing that had actually slammed into the doors like a battering ram, opening them to the elements of a Cat 5 storm, before proceeding to spin around in the living room like the blades of a blender. After removing it, we found a ton of leaves, mud, and debris everywhere in the house. It’s literally taken 3 days of sweeping, scrubbing tiles, walls, ceilings, and everything else you can think of by hand, to get it clean. We are almost there though.

Now, back to a semi-normal life, we are only without power. The rains are bringing plenty of water. Our landlord has made it down from Missouri. His plan is to repair a leak in the cistern, clean the yard, and get a “whole house generator” installed so we have power the next few months while the island’s infrastructure gets rebuilt.

All in all we are happy to be here and are excited to start our journey. In the interim we’ll be focused on work as we wait a few months to see how the real estate market shakes out. We think we may find a great deal on a fixer upper, to cut down the build process and cost. This blog may turn into “Remodeling in the Caribbean” instead of building from scratch. Only time will tell.

Day 474Total Spent So Far: $146,501.8030 Yard Dumpsters Filled: 5.5

Day 458Total Spent So Far: $131,622.6430 Yard Dumpsters Filled: 4.5

Day 353Total Spent So Far: $85,814.4730 Yard Dumpsters Filled: 3.5