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 - AC units being installed
1/21/2012 - Plants
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/kitchen (still missing countertops and island light)
1/23/2012 - Yoga room
1/23/2012 - Master Closet (missing countertop)
1/23/2012 - Master Bedroom
1/23/2012 - Entry Way
1/23/2012 - Guest Bedroom
1/23/2012 - Office
A few older photos:
1/14/2012 - Spent a large part of two weekends getting the grey water system operational
1/10/2012 - Appliance Delivery
1/6/2012 - Rainbow from the pool
1/24/2012 - Water purification system, solar hot water tank, and water pump
Wow, it looks beautiful!! Can’t believe I will soon be there. YA!!! Can’t wait.
The house looks amazing. And you guys should write a book about how to deal with contractors in St. Croix…looks like the patience is starting to pay off!
We really enjoyed our visit last week! Congratulations on finally moving in!
-Mike & Laura
Wow! It looks amazing!!!
Chad, I am so excited to be able to come with your mom to your house. Thanks to you and your wife for having me come along with your mom. I can hardly wait..I have never been to an island. This will be quit an experience for me. Can’t wait to see you. Your pictures are beautiful.
See you soon, Deb
I love it! Someday I will make it there for a visit. Everything is beautiful! I especially liked the picture with the rainbow, you are quite a photographer.
Looks awesome, so happy for you and Em’ So glad my sista is coming down soon. I love her so much!!!!
Just would like to know how are things still. I am looking for a way out of the rat race and before I sell off everything would like to know how’s it going so far. As far as building cost are they still resonable?
Hey J, everything is good. You want to know if building costs are reasonable? Well, like I have mentioned before, reasonable is relative. We had a price in mind before building that we thought was reasonable. We went above that. $350 a square foot may sound unreasonable to many people, but you have to understand what you are getting with that $350 before you can decide if it is reasonable. You may spend less, you may spend more, depending on many factors.