Watch us build our dream house!
The last big ticket item in the budget thankfully…We hired Matric Enterprises to do the driveway…They are known for doing quality concrete work and are not cheap but we wanted this done right…Curb appeal is important as is proper drainage of the driveway away from the house…Interestingly, Matric was the other contractor we considered to build our house…We had a gut feeling about Cap but clearly Matric would have done a great job…
And heading home again…The aero bed has a major leak and the cheap canvas chairs we bought from K-Mart are broken so there is no place to sleep or sit…We have a late afternoon flight which gives us the morning to get some things done…Spencer Browne and his mother stop by to check out our progress…While they’re at the house other people show up… ALL AT THE SAME TIME…Lets see, we have the guy who is going to finish the driveway, a realtor, a pool service company, and the electrician…Almost enough for a good poker game except there is no place to sit and we don’t have any money…
Mounting the pool ladder…We special ordered it from S.R. Smith in Oregon who had to custom make it…Nothing off the shelf would work for us so we get to pay extra for a custom ladder…And, we have the added enjoyment of clearing it through Customs, which takes the better part of an afternoon…Fortunately it’s actually made in the US so we don’t get stuck paying duty…With the ladder installed we are finally finished with the pool…Now, if only I had brought a swimsuit…
This is a notice in the window at the DPNR Building Permits Office at the airport. I doubt you would see something like this at your local permits office but its encouraging to know that the new director of DPNR is taking corruption seriously…Anyway, Cap fixed the front steps over the weekend and we put up a new handrail and the door alarms…Mr. Peters returned and APPROVED THE FINAL INSPECTION…I then went to the Permits office to pay the $50 fee for the CO…They give you two letters at that time, one addressed to the homeowner/applicant stating the home has been approved for occupancy and a second letter to hand carry to WAPA stating that the electrical passed final inspection. After leaving the airport I stop at WAPA to drop off the letter and then on to First Bank to give them the CO…Believe it or not WAPA showed up the next day to hook up the permanent power…Now we can get the electrician to switch the pool pumps back to 230volts…I love progress…
Another first for us but it turned out surprisingly well once we figured out how to cut the glass tile without cracking it…We went to Allied to rent a wet saw with a diamond blade… When I told the salesman that I needed the saw to cut glass tile he said to save my money because the saw will just crack the glass…As proof , he told me to bring a sheet in and he would show me…Not believing him I took him up on his offer and brought in a sheet to test cut…Well, HE WAS RIGHT! AND despite the installation instructions for the tile that specifies the use of a wet saw with a diamond blade to cut it!…Frustrated, I went next door to MSI Interiors to ask the girls if they knew how to cut glass tile…NOPE…Next stop Home Depot for advice and NOTHING…So I give up and head back to the house…Then it dawns on me to give Chaz a call…He’s the guy who tiled our floors and showers…Chaz is off island but offers the solution…drumroll please…WD-40…Yes, according to Chaz you just spray WD-40 on the blade as your cutting the tile and it will cut the glass like butter…Ok, so I jump in the car with a can of WD-40 and head back to Allied to try another test…The salesman looks on in disbelief as we cut the glass while I spray the WD-40, but then the salesmen starts to crack a smile as he notices it is actually working…He’s in awe…You’d think he just discovered the secret formula for Cola Cola…As for us, we can now hit the ground running…
He is the inspector from DPNR whom we’ve been waiting to approve the final inspection and authorize the issuance of the Certificate of Occupancy…We called him first thing in the morning the day after we arrived to schedule an appointment and he offered to stop by later in the day… Mr. Peters has a reputation for being a stickler when it comes to enforcing code requirements so we were on pins and needles during his inspection…He was pleasant enough and as we stood outside exchanging introductions he looked down at our three unfinished entrance steps and noticed the obvious difference in the height of the step risers…Code requires the risers be the same height he says…Next we move inside the house and Mr. Peters looks at our stair railing …He turns to me and asks if I have a tape measure and to measure the perimeter of the hand rail..I fetch a tape measurer and as I begin to measure the perimeter he says “It can’t be more than six inches!”…Well the hand rail is almost the size of a 2 x 4 so their is no point in even measuring…Mr. Peters then informs us that our 36″ tall stair rail meets the code for a guard rail, but not a hand rail…Upsetting to be sure, in particular since our contract with the builder of the stair rail, Bulldog Properties, was to insure it met code…So what is the code for a hand rail? 34″-38″ tall with the hand rail being no more than 2″ in diameter if the rail is round or no more than six inches in perimeter if it is not…Next, we move on to the swimming pool and another problem…Either we enclose the front of the pool with a guard rail or alarm the doors for child safety…All and all a pretty painless inspection but it nevertheless delays getting the CO while we correct things…The door alarms and hand rail we find at Home Depot but we’ll have to wait for Cap to re-caste the steps which he says he will do over the weekend…
Yep, that’s the name of this glass tile color pattern…During our last trip to St. Thomas we searched high and low for backsplash tile for our kitchen but nothing seemed to match our cabinets…So, we resumed our search when we got back to Florida and stumbled across this at our local Home Depot…It was the only 1″ glass tile in stock but exactly what we were looking for, and at less than $10 a square foot a great deal…So we bought two boxes of it and brought it down in our carry-on luggage…Confused TSA screeners flagged it going through security at Orlando and opened our bags…Heck, even they liked our tile…
Just returned from another couple of weeks working on the house…At least this time when we arrived something had been accomplished in our absence…The swimming pool was finished…And it turned out great with the coral tile on the ledge…Our pool contractor actually filled the pool the same day we arrived so we could handle the curing process…Although the curing process takes a full month the first couple of weeks are especially important and requires a daily brushing of the pool along with maintaining the proper ph level with heavy doses of muratic acid…And of course the skimmer needs to be running which had to wait a day until the electrician returned to switch our pumps over from the factory-set 230 volts to 115 volts as we were still on temporary power…Once this was accomplished I could then turn on the pumps, but only after figuring out what valves to open…Not easy for someone who knows nothing about pool-plumbing anatomy that is even more complicated by the infinity edge…I turn to the electrician for help and he hasn’t a clue either…So, I make a quick call to the plumber who says he will stop by…impatient, I call the pool finisher who says “open everything except the drain!” I do, and lo and behold we are up and running…Next up, Home Depot for pool supplies…test kit, pool brush, chlorine tablets, muratic acid…A very productive day so far until the building inspector arrives, yes, the same inspector we have been waiting for to approve the final inspection and issue the Certificate of Occupancy or CO that has held up everything else, like permanent power, loan conversion, contractor payments…But that’s another story..
So here it is four weeks since we applied for permanent power and after repeated calls to WAPA we finally found out why nothing has been done…Turns out that although we passed the final electrical inspection AND the inspector affixed a sticker to our electric pole informing WAPA that we passed…NONE OF THIS MATTERS…Nope, not until DPNR faxes over to WAPA authorization to install permanent power…Which we discover will not occur until the safety inspection is completed and the CO issued…Now, you’d think that someone would have explained this to us at the time of the final electrical inspection or when we went to WAPA to apply for permanent power…Someone like say…our electrician or customer service at WAPA…No, we find this out from DPNR last week when we called to ask why they hadn’t faxed WAPA the paperwork…And since we’re still waiting for the safety inspector to show up it looks like we’ll be on temporary power on our next trip down…Now let me see, how many electrical devices can we run at one time off a single 120 service?
We should have accomplished more in five weeks…Nothing seems to work out as it’s supposed to no matter how hard you try or how much you plan ahead…disappointed, yes…we had hoped to have the shutters up and the pool and driveway finished but no such luck…We couldn’t get anyone to hang the shutters and the pool finishing had to be put on hold until the pool plumbing and electric was finished…And we just didn’t have time to deal with the driveway…Oh, and the building inspector never came by so we didn’t get our CO…So much for converting the loan…As for us, we need to recharge our batteries before heading back down again…Hopefully, WAPA will come through and we’ll have permanent power for our next trip, but then again as a great philosopher once said, You can put hope in one hand and s#%t in the other and see which fills up first…Yes, words to live by…
