Moving in on Friday

I kept telling myself that we weren’t moving in until we were completely finished with everything.  I didn’t want to live in the house during construction.  But, we have decided to do just that.  We aren’t far from being complete, but there are some things that will take some time.  Our interior doors and 2 of our gates arrive next week.  The granite for the main kitchen arrived today and that will hopefully be installed in the next day or two.  So as of today, we lack interior doors, countertops (everywhere), and sinks (everywhere).  We do have power, water and internet, which are all the essentials.  In the end, it made financial sense for us to do this now.

Needless to say, the stress has kicked up a notch over the past weeks.  We have had some bad experiences with some of our suppliers and some of our hired contractors.  Hired help goes missing, scheduled deliveries do not show, etc.  But soon this will be over.  One of our friends, Jouni, has been helping finish quite a few things on the house since early November.  Without him we would probably another month away from moving in.  He has helped so much.  Jouni is a jeweler by trade, but decided to take some time away from that business and has become my utility guy.  I had the hardest time trying to find somebody with experience installing garage doors.  In the end I handed it to Jouni.  He figures things out.  Thanks Jouni for alleviating some of that stress.

Also a shout out to Mike and Laura for stopping by in August and again last week on their trips to St. Croix to check on our progress.  That bottle of champagne will be opened on Friday. 🙂

I had promised to post photos from October through December when I got some time, but instead of doing that right now here are a few photos from this week.

Desperately waiting for that sigh of relief.

1/20/2012 - Emily cleaning the newly finished pool

1/20/2012 - Emily cleaning the newly finished pool

 

1/20/2012 - AC units being installed

1/20/2012 - AC units being installed

1/21/2012 - Plants

1/21/2012 - Plants

 

1/21/2012 - Front entrance

1/21/2012 - Front entrance - no grass yet, but we did plant it

 

1/23/2012 - Main living area

1/23/2012 - Main living area

 

1/23/2012 - Main living area/kitchen

1/23/2012 - Main living area/kitchen (still missing countertops and island light)

 

1/23/2012 - Yoga room

1/23/2012 - Yoga room

 

1/23/2012 - Master Closet  (missing countertop)

1/23/2012 - Master Closet (missing countertop)

 

1/23/2012 - Master Bedroom

1/23/2012 - Master Bedroom

 

1/23/2012 - Entry Way

1/23/2012 - Entry Way

1/23/2012 - Guest Bedroom

1/23/2012 - Guest Bedroom

1/23/2012 - Office

1/23/2012 - Office

 

A few older photos:

1/14/2012 - Spent a large part of two weekends getting the grey water system operational

1/14/2012 - Spent a large part of two weekends getting the grey water system operational

 

1/10/2012 - Appliance Delivery

1/10/2012 - Appliance Delivery

1/6/2012 - Rainbow from the pool

1/6/2012 - Rainbow from the pool

 

 

1/24/2012 - Water purification system, solar hot water tank, and water pump

1/24/2012 - Water purification system, solar hot water tank, and water pump

Weeks away from moving in? + September photo catch up

We are still slogging along trying to get this house finished.  We didn’t quite make Christmas, but now are shooting for mid to late January.  We have to move out of our current rental at the end of this month, so a bunch of things need to happen quickly.  The major items left to accomplish are 1) interior doors  2) vanity and guest kitchen cabinet install (scheduled for this week) 3) main house electrical fixture installs (scheduled for this week) 4) Garage Doors (still need to order), 5) granite fabrication and delivery from San Juan 6) plaster pool.   Plus tons of minor items.

Emily and I both took last week off from work and worked on the house basically for 10 straight days, usually 10 hour days.  We got a bunch accomplished.  The guest house was powered on Friday and most of the fixtures installed which was a major milestone for us.  The electrical room was also powered which means we now have running water to all the toilets, showers, and hose bibs (no sinks installed yet).

We have on average gone to Home Depot three times a week since they opened September 15th.  It has been a blessing to St. Croix, but they are having issues keeping items in stock.  The supply chain needs reworked.

We made it through hurricane season unscathed.  Hooray.

We are over budget, but not horrendously.

We used 620+ yards of concrete during construction.

We just surpassed the year mark.

Emily and I are still married and don’t have any plans of divorcing.

The US Virgin Islands soccer team didn’t fare too well in the second round losing all six of our games, 2 each to Haiti, Curacao, and Antigua & Barbuda.  But I did manage to play in 5 of the 6 games.

 

Anyway, here is a random sampling of photos from September 2011.  I will add additional photos in future posts.

9/11/2011 - Fill Dirt - Some of the 900+ yards of fill dirt we hauled in. And we had a relatively flat lot. I still don't understand.

 

9/11/2011 - Still staining cypress, almost done.

9/15/2011 - Home Depot arrives and changes our purchasing habits dramatically

 

September 2011 - Our plumbers Frenchie and Pete

September 2011 - Guest house roof work

September 2011 - Drywall work begins

September 2011 - Plaster work on guest house and garage

September 2011 - Plaster work on guest house interior

September 2011 - This trailer hadn't been moved in 9 months

September 2011 - What we looked like at the end of September

September 2011 - Future walkway and yard