Tag Archives: Hurricanes

Weeks away from moving in? + September photo catch up

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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

 

 

 

The Rise of Island Girl – St. Croix

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After checking out the Green Cay beach area with the dogs we decided to stop at the Brew Pub on the way back through town. Shortly after arriving a salvage boat showed up in front of us to rescue one of the 40+ boats that had been sunk during Hurricane Omar.  Here are a few of the photos:

If that is going too fast for you you can also check out the photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.p.walter/IslandGirl?authkey=0adOEra0-I0#


Hurricane Omar Update #5 Friday at 3:30pm

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Just wanted to let everyone know our power just came back on a little bit ago. Much of the island is still without power however so the 6:00pm curfew remains in effect.
The real reason for this one last update is to let you know that I added additional photos to what I put out there yesterday. Emily and I went into downtown Christiansted for lunch today. The “protected” harbor was a bit of a mess to say the least. According to the newspaper there were more than 40 boats that had sunk. The paper also mentioned reports of power lines snapping in half and most trees being uprooted on the southeast side of the island.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.p.walter/Omar?authkey=RQGAbo15uNQ#


Omar Update #4 12:30 pm (day after)

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The damage from the storm doesn’t seem to be to terribly bad from my vantage point. I drove around a little while ago and there are many trees down all over the place, blocking roads, knocking down fences, etc, but that seems to be the extent of it, at least on my little area of the island.

I still don’t have power, hopefully later today. I saw crews out fixing downed lines.

Here are the photos I took this morning: http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.p.walter/Omar?authkey=RQGAbo15uNQ#

Omar

Omar Update #3 3:30am

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The storm has passed and we are all fine. It picked up speed and moved through the area quicker than I initially expected. Omar turned into a category 3 and things were extremely loud and noisy from about 10:30 – 1:00. I was questioning whether the windows were going to hold with so much pressure put upon them. We got a bunch of water through our water facing windows (because they are crap), but other than that no issues inside the house. It is no longer raining so I walked down to the water (the sea is extremely loud at the moment) but it was hard to tell anything. Lots of palms and coconuts on the ground.

I lost phone service around 11:15 or so. Surprisingly that just came back up a little after 3:00.

No power yet but likely tomorrow at some point. Curfew in effect until 11:00 am.

Thanks for all the concerned emails and calls.

Maybe some aftermath photos to come tomorrow.


Hurricane Omar Update #2 8:30 local time

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The high winds have begun and the rain is coming in sideways. The power has also just went out this very minute. But my sprint wireless card appears to be functional. I had just started watching the US Soccer game too, so that is a bummer.

They issued a 6:00pm curfew and called in the national guard earlier today, but I doubt many folks would be out in this weather. Emily just lit a few candles and the kerosene lantern which should be bright enough to read by actually. The battery operated fan is now going too. We have also moved into the interior room with no windows.

It doesn’t appear that I will be able to get any storm photos this evening as it is pitch black outside. Forecast is to get worse over the next 4 hours and then hopefully be gone by early morning.

The photo is from late this afternoon. Tons of rain and more to come.