(If you missed the first installment of our patio construction story, click here.)

It’s now early March, and Michael’s family is arriving late tomorrow afternoon. We need every minute to be ready.

The day before Michael’s family is to arrive.  YIKES! There is still a lot of work to be done.

Since I last wrote, the roof addition has been constructed, but we don’t have the metal roofing that goes over the wood.  Apparently, the roofing guy didn’t order the metal because he didn’t have enough quantity to place the minimum order.  Of course, he didn’t let the contractor know this little detail.  In general, Grenadians don’t like to deliver bad news, so they don’t say anything. He suggested that we use another color roofing with the rationale that only planes will see that there are two different colors.  We are not impressed.  We are now going with a thicker material.

Manual labor takes on a whole different meaning in Grenada. These six men will lift the heavy form for the ring beam. They are at the edge of our patio with a 10-foot drop off the back. Mandy, the foreman on the left, is in flip flops. Most of the other workers are in sneakers today for this difficult work. Where is OSHA?

Success and smiles all around!  Now they are securing the form so they can pour the concrete.

Concrete made with a hand mixer, then workers hand carry the heavy buckets through the house and hand them up to be poured into the molds. These guys do not need to go to the gym to be in great shape.

For a few months all the patio furniture, our artwork and just about anything moveable has been stored away to protect it from the concrete dust.  A couple weeks ago, Nadica and Sheila began cleaning all the ‘closed’ rooms, getting ready for the final cleaning push once the construction is completed.

Michael power washing the ceiling and walls of the living room. Can you see the dirt streaming down the wall under the wall sconce?

Michael power washing the floor. Look at the dirt! He did this almost every day for 2 weeks, trying to keep the dust to a minimum. Otherwise, the high winds would blow the dust all over everything. My mom’s beautiful Asian furniture is under plastic for protection.

Michael using our leaf blower to push the water out of the living room onto our outdoor patio so the floor would dry quickly. Clearly, Michael is a creative genius!

Last week, the new windows finally went in.  When they delivered the windows, weeks ago, I could immediately see that the windows had tinted glass instead of the clear glass we ordered. These are custom windows, so I’m not sure why this happened.   In some situations, it might be okay, but these windows are going between two other banks of windows that are both clear.

The new huge, multipart window waiting to be installed. The beautiful ‘bronze’ finish on the glass was an unexpected and unwelcome surprise. This bank of windows will be placed between two sets of clear windows so the glass needs to match. This was a custom order duplicating a previous order – in theory.

Our contractor is ready to pull his hair out trying to deal with the window guys.  Finally, they agree they will come back another day and replace the glass with clear glass.  They do this and neglect to put some the rubber back around the windows which mean they will need to come back again to fix this.

I think that people often get so fed up with shoddy work they just let things slide. It is incredibly frustrating to see the same work having to be done over multiple times just to get it the way it should have been in the first place.

When they come back – again – to install the window, they realize the opening is slightly too small.  They chip away at the concrete and finally decide they have done enough and try to jam the windows in.  First, they are banging on the metal edges trying to force the set of windows in.  Then I see one man come back with a pry bar and a mallet.  I am hyperventilating and can’t watch.  I’m sure they are going to torque the metal and break the glass.  Somehow, they get the window frame in, leave all the windows open and rush away.

Michael heads over to inspect their work and can barely move the panes of glass. He is then on the phone with the contractor – again.  As the wind picks up, I try to close the windows, but I don’t have enough strength to pull them closed.  It’s just a matter of time before they ultimately don’t work or the glass breaks.  The contractor gets a commitment that the window guys will be back Wednesday to take the window out, resize the opening and put the window back in. Michael’s family is arriving on Thursday.

I’ve personally installed windows with Michael in another house.  I know this isn’t hard work, but it needs to be done correctly.  This back and forth is driving us both crazy, especially Michael because he is the one who must deal with the issues.

March is traditionally the windy season, but the wind started early this year. The wind has been vicious – 20 plus miles an hour every day. This is driving all the dirt and dust into the house. Just about every night, Michael has been power washing the living room and patio floors. Last weekend, Michael power washed the living room ceiling and patio walls as well.  There are definite advantages to living in a house made of concrete with tile and stone floors.  This is one of them.

On Monday, the pool guys came to finish installing the new pool heater and to switch some valves that were put in backward  …. no comment. Our pool has been covered for a couple of months which kept out the bulk of the debris.  It is finally uncovered and all last week, and over the weekend Nadica and Michael have been vacuuming the pool and cleaning the filter daily.  The water is starting to look clear after days of being cloudy with concrete dust.  We can finally see the bottom!

Michael covered the pool to reduce the amount of concrete dust that got into the water. Even with all the large rocks, the wind was blowing the cover off. we finally had to put long metal pipes across in between each rock to try and keep the tarp secure. You can see the columns beyond the newly poured deck that will support the new railing.

The view from the new patio. You can see the roofing pulled up where they will attach the new metal roof to the existing one. You can also see the stone floor starting to be installed.

Clifton and Andy laying the stone floor. They meticulously cut and spaced the stones while making sure everything was either level or sloping so there were no dips for water to gather and stand. Andy mixed all the concrete by hand, no mixer.

On Tuesday, Andy is desperately trying to complete another section of the floor and works until almost 6:30 PM.  The electricians are here wiring in new lights and moving switches.  Since our house is concrete, this means drilling into the walls and, yes, creating another concrete dust mess.

Wednesday morning. This is a great picture of the extension ‘mostly’ complete. Walls finished and painted, window opening ready for the glass to be installed, electrical in walls completed – just waiting for fixtures & fans to be installed. The stone floor over 50% complete. The stonework is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Look at that view!

Wednesday, one day before Michael’s family arrives, the house is crawling with workers.  The plumber is here, electricians are back finishing up their work, the window guys are back to redo their work, and the contractor’s workers are here to pick up the pieces, paint and do whatever else needs to be done.  Our stonecutter is trying to complete the floor. He has to work around all these guys doing their thing in the same space.

Meanwhile, all week Nadica and Sheila have been absolute superstars and are cleaning EVERYTHING – walls, ceilings, wiping out all cabinets, washing everything in each cabinet – in every room.  They are smiling and happy to be getting things semi back to normal.

Can you imagine this project if we had been off-island while the work was completed?  Me neither.  Michael deserves a medal, and gin and tonics on a silver tray, every day, for life.

Here is a series of pictures showing the progression of the work

Completing the ring beam and building the scaffolding so they can lay cement blocks on top of the ring beam. You can see the old wall in the foreground.

Here, they have taken out all the old concrete block that formed the original wall. All that is left is the support beam and the old ring beam. This stayed in place until close to the end of construction to hold up the current roof.

Cutting away the old ring beam – standing on a small platform about 8 feet off the ground. These guys aren’t scared of anything!

The concrete block wall is almost completed, the new wooden roof is on and they just need to block between the ceiling joists.

Plastering the concrete blocks. You can now ‘see’ what the finished area will be like.

The final coat of white paint on the ceiling and the original windows back in place.

Stay tuned for the final post when I can hopefully report everything is completed and we are actually getting to enjoy our new addition.

Beautiful Mount Hartman Bay. The patio extension will bring us 14 feet closer to the water and give us a more panoramic view

Construction in the Caribbean has all the challenges of building anywhere (sometimes on steroids) and then add a few additional challenges like narrow roads, steep inclines and few options for equipment.  All this generally makes any work an adventure and this addition didn’t disappoint in this regard.  After all, if everything went smoothly, there would be no stories to tell.

We have a beautiful and spacious covered patio with a pool off the back of our house facing Mount Hartman Bay taking advantage of the gorgeous view and the prevailing trade winds.  We literally spend all our time out on the patio with the limited exception of cooking, sleeping, and air-conditioned computer work. We decided to extend the patio another 14 feet so we would have a more substantial living, eating and lounging area.

The view is already amazing, but the extra 14 feet really pushes us out to a more panoramic view.  We met with our contractor, discussed our plans and his team began work in November.  Some of Michael’s family are coming to visit in early March, and I remember thinking, I hope this is complete before they arrive.  It shouldn’t be a problem, right?  It’s just a simple extension ….

The original patio ended right at the pool edge. The extension will give us a large, wide-open space to entertain.

The main work activities include pouring footings, building a support structure to pour beams and the concrete floor, adding stone on top of the concrete to match up with the current floor, extending the roof line across half the addition, taking out the existing windows, removing down the old wall and moving those windows to the new wall.  When it is completed, the patio should look basically the same – just longer with a new, large area in the sun.

The original plan was to leave the back wall of windows intact until the addition was completed and then pull down the original wall and move the windows into the new wall.  This would be ideal for a couple of reasons.  We’d still have full use of the regular patio, we could close the windows when they were working to divert some of the construction dust, and we could control the amount of wind and water on the patio.

Originally, we thought we could leave the original wall with the windows intact while the new construction took place but we had to modify that plan to attach the extension correctly. The windows have already been removed and I loved the huge ‘picture window’ effect.

Very quickly, we determined that to correctly tie the new floor into the existing floor that the back wall would need to be removed first, instead of last.  The first day after they took down the wall and stacked our windows aside, I was giddy.  Imagine sitting and looking out a new 10 by 20-foot ‘picture window’.  I hardly wanted them to replace the windows when they were done.

Then the wind started.

I quickly realized that sometimes it was so windy we couldn’t comfortably sit in the ‘living room’ area of the patio.  I love a gentle breeze but getting pummeled by wind? – Not so much.  It is hard to believe how much wind is blocked by the windows even when they are all open.  Right now, sometimes it is hard to cook in the kitchen which is in the front of the house and off to one side. Sometimes we have 20-mph winds whipping through and cooling the gas flame under the burners!

We were able to store the windows and reuse them in the new wall.

And then there is the rain which can blow horizontally in ‘ideal’ conditions.  Even with the wall in place and all the windows closed, our indoor living room can get wet halfway into the room if we don’t close the hurricane door. Without the protection of the wall, everything gets drenched.  Most of our furniture and cushions are piled into a bedroom right now, only to be brought out if friends visit, and quickly returned after their departure.

The workers did an impressive job building a support structure to pour the floor using Bamboo poles and concrete piers to hold up the infrastructure. They then laid a plywood floor. Now we could walk out and really see what the finished view would reveal. WOW!  Because the land drops off so severely behind our house, we tower over the top of the house below us.

Freshly cut Bamboo from the rainforest will be used as supports to hold up the floor until the concrete hardens

Digging the deep holes for the footing.

The footing holes waiting for rebar and then concrete to be poured.

Positioning the bamboo poles to support the floor of the extension which will be about 10 feet off the ground.

Next, the workers took out the rest of the wall so they could tie together the old and new floor with rebar.  All that was left is the support pole anchoring the existing roof. Tying the rebar was fascinating to watch.  First, the workers laid down an intricate mesh of rebar. Then they created little concrete ‘spacers’ with wires sticking out.  They put the spacers under each place where the rebar crossed and wired the rebar together.  This provided a stable framework that would hold its shape when the concrete was poured and would prevent the rebar from slipping.  They also formed square shapes out of rebar that secured the rebar in the existing floor to the new rebar.  This was done to make sure the floor would be durable, act as one floor and not separate.

Building the ‘floor’ structure.

The small, handmade spacers tied to the rebar so the mesh would stay stable when the concrete was poured.

Then came the actual pouring of the floor.  The contractor couldn’t use his regular concrete company because the truck is too large to get up the driveway, so he had to contract with another company. This put us at a disadvantage because he had no leverage to get the pour done quickly and we were racing the clock.  Many people take off the week before Christmas and don’t come back to work until after the new year. Concrete needs to cure for 21 days after it has been poured so getting it completed before Christmas was essential to try and keep closer to the original schedule.

Both the contractor and Michael spent a lot of effort trying to get the new company to come to look at the site so they could determine if they could get the truck up our winding, steep driveway or to see if they could use a concrete pumper to go over the roof to get to the back patio.  Time after time, we heard the person would be here the next day, only to have a no show.  When they finally came, they walked the driveway and said there would be no problem.  I’ve seen these big trucks maneuver into the most impossible spaces, so it seemed like a real possibility that this would work.

Finally, the day arrives, the workers come, the truck pulls down the road, then he turns back and leaves.  He doesn’t even want to attempt to try and get up the driveway.  And that is that.

The company has another truck that is smaller, but it’s not available until Monday, Christmas Eve.  Now we are getting worried.  If the guy doesn’t show on Christmas Eve, nothing will happen until January.  The stonecutter, who thought he’d be working weeks ago and be done by Christmas, has another big job looming that he can’t put off. This this is placing pressure on him as well.

Sunday night, Michael doesn’t sleep.  Bright and early on Christmas Eve, our nine workers show up. They are a great crew and are in a festive mood even though they know they are going to have to work hard manually wheelbarrowing truckloads of concrete through our two courtyards, living room, and patio to get to the new section because the concrete guy is missing a part to the pumping arm. They quickly lay down plastic and create makeshift ramps to go up, over and back down 4 different sets of steps.  Fortunately, none of the floor heights are more than 2 steps, so the incline isn’t too steep in either direction.  Then they relax and wait for the cement truck to arrive.

The cement mixer backing up the driveway. The driver manages to take out about 20 feet of our wall in the attempt.

Two hours pass, and then three, and our shaded courtyard looks like a resort with men sleeping all over, waiting for the truck to arrive.  Finally, the truck comes, and work can begin.  There is a massive flurry of activity.  The men fill the wheelbarrows and push the heavy loads up and over the ramps, taking care not to spill the concrete. They maneuver through an outer courtyard, an inner courtyard, through the living room, the existing patio and then pour it onto the wooden structure.  As soon as the truck is empty it rumbles off, and everyone lies down, waiting for the next load to arrive.

These are the makeshift ramps that were made to roll the wheelbarrows up and over the steps.

The workers made countless trips to bring all the concrete out to pour the extension floor.

The cement truck needs to make two more trips to complete the pour.  Each time the driver leaves, I’m worried that he won’t come back or that we will run out of daylight before they can complete the pour. As they wait for the last truck to arrive, beers are passed around.  It’s getting late, after 5:00 PM, it’s Christmas Eve, and I’m sure these guys would rather be home with their families or out on the town doing last minute shopping and celebrating.  AND, they are still in great moods.  I’m forever thankful and appreciative of the Grenadian culture of happiness and ease – even if it can frustrate me sometimes when I want something done.

The truck rumbles up the driveway one last time, the workers offload the concrete, smooth off the new pour as the sun is setting and we’re done!  In five minutes it is totally dark and we are elated and exhausted.  Merry almost Christmas.

Stay tuned for the second installment

                                  Down To The Wire ~ Finishing (?) the Patio … !

When I got up this morning, I saw a message on my phone from New York that was left at 5:43 AM. It was from Donette, Sheila’s daughter. Sheila is one of our wonderful workers (and good friend) who takes care of the outside of our house – landscaping, painting, maintenance, etc. It’s Sheila’s birthday today and Donette has contracted with Dream Cakes, here in Grenada, to make her a birthday cake.

One of Sheila’s other daughters is in on the birthday cake surprise and was planning to pick it up and bring it to their house but her college class changed their schedule for today and she won’t be available to get it. So Donette has WhatsApp’ed me to see if Michael or I can pick it up. (WhatsApp is a free phone, and text messaging app). Michael is already out for the morning and we both have afternoon appointments that can’t be broken. I’ve got time this morning, but I need more information and I can’t call Donette back because it is after 8:00 AM and she is working at a school where they are not allowed to use their phones during classroom hours. In her original message, she says she will see if she can get permission at lunchtime to call me. This is going to be too late, so I begin to investigate on my own.

I look up Dream Cakes on the internet and find that they have a Facebook page. I learn they are located in Mt. Parnassus but I’m only vaguely familiar with where that is – somewhere in the middle of Grenada, HA! I get their phone number and make a call.

I get the baker and try to explain the situation. I don’t know what name it is under – Donette, Sheila, Shenell, her other daughter? Actually, it’s not under any name and no cake has the name Sheila on it. The baker then wants to know the phone number that was used when the order was called in. I don’t know that either. I make a guess that it will be Donette’s number so I tell her I think it was a call from the USA with a 917 area code and that the cake was supposed to be ready today at 11:00 AM. With that information the baker figures out the right cake. Of course, it’s inscribed, Happy Birthday, MOM!

The mystery cake

Next, I have to find the baker. Do I know where Mt. Parnassus is? (No. In fact, I needed to look up the spelling for this post) but I do know where the Tempe road is and she says that Mt. Parnassus is close by. I ask for directions, hear a long hesitation and then the baker asks me if I have WhatsApp. I say yes and she asks me to send her a message and she will reply with directions. I spend 10 minutes, or more, trying to figure out how to send a message to someone who is not already in my WhatsApp contacts. I try adding a new contact, typing the number directly in the new message bar, but nothing is working. Finally, I add a new contact into my Outlook contacts, the apps synch and THEN I can send the message. I also WhatsApp Donette so if she does get access to her phone, she will know everything is in the works

Since it is already 10:45, I decide to head out and I’ll pick up the directions on the way. I drive through town, get on the Tempe road and drive until I see a sign that says welcome to Mt. Parnassus. I haven’t received directions yet. I drive a little further, hoping the house I’m looking for is on the main road and has a sign (dream on, Candi). I see some men working on the road but I don’t stop because I figure they are not from the area so I keep going, looking for someone to ask. I see a couple of young men on the side of the road and I ask them. They look uncertain but one guy comes to the car and tells me to back up to the road workers and talk to the man in the blue shirt. Now I look uncertain and he says, ‘No, do it. He knows cakes.’ Whatever that means! He shouts down the street to the man and I start to back up.

I pull along the side of the man and ask him if he knows where Dream Cakes is located. He smiles and says that is his sister. I guess he does know cakes. Then I ask how to get there. Another uncertain look. This time it’s one of – ‘I know how to get there but how do I tell you so you can get here.’

If you’ve read my blog, you know Grenadians are famous for saying things like – go up two gaps, turn right at the mango tree, go over a bridge, etc. and think these are perfectly fine directions. He’s not even telling me that!

Instead, he looks around and calls a young boy over. He tells the boy to get in the car and drive with me to his sister’s house. Then he looks at me and says, ‘Bring him back on the way down’. Well, OK. I look at the boy and ask him if he can get me there and he says yes. We drive a bit up the road, come to a fork and he tells me to go left. We drive for a bit more and as we turn up a dirt road that I didn’t even see, I’m certain I would have never found this place. We drive past a few houses, turn right and he says to park the car. We walk by a field and come to a house – no sign or anything.

I walk to the door and meet a woman. She is not the person I talked to on the phone so I tell her the info and she disappears inside. Maybe 10 minutes later the baker comes out. She’s surprised I found the house so I tell her about my copilot and she breaks into a huge smile and says, ‘That’s my nephew.’ She shows me the cake (which is beautiful) and I head back out.

Sheila’s beautiful cake, in all it’s glory

I drive back to the road construction and give the boy a couple of dollars for being my guide and he beams. He definitely didn’t expect anything but I’m thankful that I didn’t have to drive around and around trying to find the house. I stop by the man and thank him for his help as well.

As I’m driving home, I hear a WhatsApp ping. I pull over and get a thumbs-up from the baker. She has just read my message asking for directions. As I drive on, Donette calls. She’s on her break, she’s called Dream Cakes, knows I’ve picked up the cake and thanks me for helping out. It’s no problem, I say. And it’s true, because I’d do most anything for Sheila and making her birthday surprise happen is my pleasure.

Sheila posing with her cake

I love being part of a community of people who help each other. Helping a stranger by letting your son get into a foreigner’s car, trusting that he will be well taken care of and saying essentially – just bring him back – THIS is why I love Grenada!

Sheila and her youngest daughter during her birthday celebration at our house. This is the chocolate, flourless cake I made for Sheila. Cakes galore for Sheila this year!

I’ve been blogging since 2014 and have written a lot of posts about Grenada, our adopted home. Because of that, I’ve been approached from time to time by people who are thinking about moving to Grenada. They contact me through the comment section of my blog and then we correspond via email and phone conversations. I even met one couple when they came to Grenada to explore building a house in Carriacou. We had a good lunch and a great conversation. I love being an informal ambassador for this beautiful country that we call home.

Recently, things went to the next level. I was at the Fish Market in downtown St. Georges to get some fish for dinner. I was on the lookout for Shark or Barracuda, so I was strolling between all the tables looking to see what the fishermen had caught that morning. I saw a couple walking among the stalls, checking out the selection as well, and so of course I said hello. The man had a tee shirt that said Canada so I assumed they were visiting from there. They said hello back and that was the end of the encounter.

Smart fruit and vegetable vendors set up right in front of the fish market on Saturday to catch shoppers attention and money as they pass to buy fish.

I kept strolling and saw numerous subspecies of Tuna, as well as Mahi-Mahi, Swordfish, Butterfish and a few fish I didn’t recognize. There was no Shark for sale, but there were a number of lovely looking Barracuda that were being displayed at a particularly busy table. I jumped into line to be sure I could purchase what I wanted before they were all sold. The prior week I had come around 11:00 AM and almost all the fish vendors were sold out so this time I arrived bright and early at 8:00 AM.  The market was already bustling and some vendors were almost finished selling their catch.

Each vendor has their own stall and sells the fish that was caught that morning. This woman is selling fresh Tuna, right off the boat.

A little while later, I was over at the cleaning tables waiting for my Barracuda to be scaled, cleaned and filleted. I saw the man again as he waited for his fish to be cleaned and we stuck up a conversation.

We asked all the usual questions – where are you from, where are you staying, etc.  Keith said that this was the 9^th time they’ve been in Grenada and they had rented a villa for a month. It was the first time they had been in Grenada for an extended amount of time. As his wife Christine came to join us, I started asking them about places they have already seen and suggesting things they should consider doing while they were here.

They were especially interested in what I thought about driving in Grenada. I told them that I’d finally gotten over being terrified after the first year and am now very comfortable driving here. (See these posts if you want to relive my terror trying to get comfortable driving in Grenada  Proceed at Your Own Risk ~ Driving in Grenada Part 1; Proceed at Your Own Risk ~ Part 2; Proceed at Your Own Risk Part 3)

I know our guests are often terrified of The Seat of Death – sitting shotgun in the front seat of our cars.  Driving on the ‘wrong’ side, with small roads and crazy drivers – not to mention the pedestrians, goats, dogs, etc. all trying to claim a small part of the narrow, hilly, windy road is not for the faint of heart. We chatted for another couple of minutes and then they got their fish, said good-bye and walked away.

For a few extra dollars, you can have your fish expertly cleaned and filleted.

After they left, I was disappointed that I hadn’t given them my business card with my local phone number in case they had more questions while they were ‘on island’. As I continued to wait for my fish, I saw them standing outside the market. I told the fish cleaner I’d be right back and rushed out to catch them before they disappeared into the rush of people. As I handed them my card and told them to call if they had questions or wanted to get together for a drink, Christine squealed “I know you. I read your blog all the time!” She started excitedly taking about our renovations, then about our refrigerator purchase and we all had a good laugh. They said they loved my blog and I got a thumbs up for starting to write professionally. What fun!

They talked about living in the US right now, but were in the process of being transferred back home to Canada for work.  They were trying to decide if they should just rent there and maybe figure out a way to buy something in Grenada. So now, the offer to get together turned into dinner at our house for a more in-depth conversation.

The man’s name is Keith Mitchell which just happens to be the name of Grenada’s Prime Minister. Our parliamentary elections were just barely over a week away so he was seeing lots of posters with his name on them, lots of advertising and of course hearing all the general conversation on whether Keith should be elected for another term. I congratulated him prematurely on his expected win and we laughed some more.  I didn’t ask them if they have a local phone number so I was just going to have to wait to see if they believed me when I extended the sincere invitation to get together.

Fast forward a couple of days – I got a message from Keith and we planned to get together for dinner at the end of the week.  They don’t have a car, so I offered to pick them up in exchange for a chance to tour their villa.  (I’m always interested in seeing new villas and their floor plans.)  Keith and Christine had selected a great villa with a nice layout, a pool, beautiful furnishings and a great view.  For first time renters, they hit the jackpot.

We got back to our house and I gave them a tour of our house.  We had a fun and lively conversation over dinner.  I was impressed with how they have integrated themselves into Grenada and have made local friends during their trips.  Hopefully, Michael and I are now added to that list and we look forward to seeing them again either during this visit or their next visit to Grenada.

If you are thinking about visiting or moving to Grenada, I’m always happy to share about our lovely island.  I can give you suggestions on fun things to see and do, great local places to eat and list all the pro’s and con’s about island life.  Reach out and let’s have a conversation!

The other day, a tourist asked me “what do people here do all day?” and I laughed. Things that are simple, easy to do, or can be quickly done in the US, can be challenging here. A simple example would be grocery shopping. In the US, I would go to one store, maybe two if I was looking for a specialty item.

Here in lovely Grenada, grocery shopping can take on a life of its own (or day of its own). Michael or I usually start out by going to our favorite fruit and veggie seller, a sidewalk vendor, because she always has the freshest produce and the money goes directly to her and her family. Then I go to the local IGA supermarket because it is the one that has the most complete stock. After I’ve checked off what I am able to buy, there are 3 more grocery stores I can (and often do) visit to try to complete my shopping. Often, none of the stores will have everything and the offending items just get carried over to the next shopping list – and sometimes stays on the list for a month or more.

Once, I had powdered mustard on my list for 7 months. When I flew back to the US, I had mustard on my ‘to buy’ list. I bought a tin to bring back and wouldn’t you know it, all four Grenada grocery stores had mustard stocked on their shelves when I returned! Anyway, this is an example of a regular shopping experience. A major shopping trip can take 3-5 hours depending on how many places I need to visit.

And then there’s the specialty shopping event – like purchasing a new refrigerator ……

I started off by driving to five local stores to see what they had in stock for refrigerators. These local stores may have a website, but it doesn’t necessarily have everything that they have in the store. And the stock is usually pretty limited. They may have 3 to 5 refrigerators on the floor. If something sells, they may not have a replacement for a few months. I was looking for a French door refrigerator with a freezer on the bottom – only one of the stores had one in stock. Some never carry this model. One store said they sometimes have one in stock and thought there was one on order, but they couldn’t tell me what manufacturer or model it was or if/when they would get it in. IT CAN BE VERY FRUSTRATING!

This is the inventory of the store that has the largest selection.  Note:  This is not the demo inventory, this ‘is‘ the inventory.  Once the ‘floor’ model is sold, you then need to wait for another refrigerator to arrive (and they will not order a new refrigerator until the current one is sold – so who knows when the new one will come in.)  The price on the French/American model $8,499 isn’t too bad ($3,175 USD) except it was from an Asian company I never heard of and I didn’t get a warm fuzzy feeling when I researched their website.

At this point, we started researching online with the expectation that we would import a refrigerator directly. The voltage in Grenada is UK 220 – which is different than US 220. We found this out the hard way when we purchased our oven last year. Our oven uses 220 volt UK current for the heating elements (for cooking), but the electronics (for setting the temperature, etc.) are powered by 110 so we needed to rewire it to get the controls to work while still powering the oven elements with a different voltage! (Clearly another story, but one Michael will have to tell because the relevant details are way beyond my understanding).

We planned to buy the refrigerator in the US because we already have a relationship with a company that ships containers to Grenada. I began by talking to the companies you would normally buy appliances from – Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc. None of these companies carry UK 220 appliances but they gave us info on another company that does carry them. We spoke with them and then I researched other companies that also sold UK 220 appliances. In every instance, they had large type on their websites that said these models were for export only and they wouldn’t work in the US so I was confident we were looking at the right appliances.

During this research I was checking models, features and prices, of course, but I was also checking shipping costs to get the refrigerator to Brooklyn where it would then ship out to Grenada. Almost all the companies were located in the Chicago area which I thought was unusual. I never figured out why they were clustered there, in the middle of the country when they were being imported. I expected that they would be clustered on one of the coasts, near a port. I did find one company that was in New Jersey and they had free delivery to Brooklyn. This was a big bonus but they only carried one model. I updated my spreadsheet and decided to check the UK as well. If we were going to pay shipping charges to get the refrigerator from Chicago to NY in addition to shipping to Grenada, then shipping from the UK might be an option.

I emailed my good friend in England to ask her where she would buy a refrigerator and she gave a store name similar to a Best Buy in the US. She asked me what I was looking for and after I described it, she said ‘oh, you want an American refrigerator’! Funny that we call it a French door refrigerator but Europeans generally don’t buy that type appliance so they call it an American refrigerator.

The American/French model selection is much more limited than what you’d find in a US store as most Europeans have smaller houses and kitchens, so the fridges are smaller too – but they definitely had enough to make a selection. She said there would be no delivery charge to the shipping company and she gave me the name of the company she uses to ship things to Grenada. The shipping cost to Grenada was actually less expensive than shipping from Brooklyn which is surprising because the sailing distance is almost twice as far. My good friend went to the store and asked questions so she could recommend the best brands for me to consider.  This was very helpful since some companies do not do business in the US and I wasn’t familiar with all the brands.

I now had 17 models to compare between so I created a spreadsheet and started checking sizes (to make sure it would fit in the space and through the doorways), cubic feet for the refrigerator verses freezer (I was looking for the largest refrigerator compartment as possible) and noting the differences between models like icemaker/no icemaker, size and number of drawers, width of door shelves, etc. and I was able to narrow the list to 10 models. For example, we don’t need an icemaker because we have a separate ice machine. It looks like a small college refrigerator and churns out that essential frozen delight in larger quantities than any regular refrigerator can. And, believe it or not, it still just barely keeps up with our ice consumption. One of the crazy things is that some manufacturers list ‘full’ cubic feet and other list ‘net’ cubic feet. Full cubic feet is the interior size of the space but it’s not necessarily usable space and the difference between full and net storage can vary by up to 25%. Buyer beware!

I began checking the manufacturer websites of each of the target appliances to look at consumer reviews and found out that all but one model being sold in the US were already discontinued. Now I started to feel a little uncomfortable – We’re buying an international appliance built in the Middle East or Africa that has been sent to the US after it has been discontinued, to then ship it to Grenada, and the big question is ….. What if it doesn’t work? That eliminated 5 of the 6 US models and the other 4 models were from the UK store. I checked reviews and opened a subscription to Which?, a UK version of Consumer Reports, and found 2 models that had great reviews. I revisited each of the 5 models in detail and then presented each to Michael so we could make the final decision.

We picked the model we wanted and now all I needed to do was order it. Easy, right?

Maybe not.

I called the shipping company to get their exact address and then tried ordering the refrigerator from the store by phone but was told since it was shipping internationally that I had to purchase via the internet. Ok, no problem, except when I tried to order the refrigerator off the store’s website, the site wouldn’t accept a US phone number for their required contact number. I finally just entered my friend’s UK number and I alerted her that she might get a call and not to question or cancel the order.

After completing the order and getting a screen message saying the order was completed successfully, I got an email a couple hours later saying the order was cancelled because my credit card company declined the charge. I call Capital One and they said there was no problem on their side and to try again, which I did and I got the same result.  After the third failed attempt, I called the store and again they said they could not take an international order over the phone.  UGH!

They suggested I try ordering via the website again, to call them after the order was placed and they’d see if they could force it through. I did this and, of course, it didn’t work. I’d now been trying to order this refrigerator for 3 days – 3 days! Finally, I spoke to someone who was willing to take a phone order AND they were actually able to put my phone number on the order so any calls would come to me. Hallelujah! I waited, holding my breath, for the confirmation email to come through and finally it did.

Now, I contacted the shipping company to place the order authorizing them to ship the refrigerator to Grenada and to let them know the fridge would be delivered sometime in the next month. Next month? Where is our US next day delivery? Do people really wait a month to get an appliance delivered? What if their old one dies in the meantime? I’m guessing it was because it was a specialty ‘American’ style refrigerator and the company doesn’t stock them in their stores.

Everything was in place and now it was just a waiting game. Finally, I got an email from the store that they were going to deliver the refrigerator but before I could call the shipping company, my friend called to say she had gotten a call that the fridge was being delivered. Don’t you wonder how they had her number when MY number was on the order? The original internet order was obviously floating in their system somewhere.

My friend suggested I call the shipping company because she said she had seen instances where product was delivered and it just sat around in the warehouse until someone called about it – even when the shipper’s order number was clearly marked. I called the shipping company and alerted them to look for the delivery. The next day, my friend called me again because the driver was calling her to get directions to the shipping company. Good friend that she is, she directed them to where they needed to go but it got me thinking about the line – it takes a village. I’m just glad that I can reciprocate by handling things for her here, in Grenada, when she is in the UK.

Now, the next part of the waiting game began.

Our old refrigerator is now set up in our garage.  Its cooling isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough.  (Dependent on the temperature setting, it was either freezing our tender vegetables or not keeping other foods cool enough.)  Now it is filled with semi-perishables like flour, nuts, oils and other foods that tend to spoil/rot/mold or attract vermin in our tropical heat.

Once we got notified that the refrigerator would be delivered to our house the next day, we emptied the current refrigerator, moved it to a different area of the kitchen and filled it back up.

We had changed part of the counter and only had about ¼ inch of clearance to get the old refrigerator through the reduced opening. I’m sweating, hoping I checked carefully enough that the new refrigerator would fit through the opening, ran to get the tape measure and whew! we’re fine. I was almost hyperventilating for a moment or two.

That night our old refrigerator wasn’t cooling right. The door wasn’t sealing and I think it was because the floor isn’t quite level. (This is an understatement) We made an adjustment and checked the frozen food and things seemed to be ok.

Our beautiful, new, BIG French/American door refrigerator.  I LOVE it!

The new fridge arrived the next day, as promised.  Michael and the driver muscled the monster through our arched doors and into the kitchen. It fit through the narrowed opening and mostly fit in the vacated space. We needed to pull off 2 minor pieces of wood and it slid right in.

When we went to transfer the food into the new fridge I noticed most of the frozen food had defrosted so we’ll be feasting on an abundance of shrimp, lobster and pork the next few days.

I think the new refrigerator was installed just in time.

So, if you are wondering, what do I do all day?    Now you know.

I’m living the dream.