(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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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, 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

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

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 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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!