Candi and Michael ~ On The Move

Tales from Grenada and Beyond

One Roof On, Another Roof Off ~ And Other Changes

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Finally, we are ready to finish the living room roof. YEAH!

We put up scored plywood for the ceiling (so it looks like individual boards) and then a layer of aluminum metal roofing is being applied. The metal cleared customs a week ago Tuesday so, fingers crossed, we’ll have a finished roof by the end of the week.

Our new ceiling.

Our new ceiling. Here, you can easily see how much higher the walls are and the roof goes up to as peak from there. We now get plenty of wind in the living room so this has been a huge success.

Our regular team put on the wooden ceiling and they are doing all the work to prep the roof for the metal that will go on top. The company that is providing the metal will also provide the team to attach it to the roof. This is great for two reasons – they have the most experience installing these roofs and will guarantee the workmanship AND it means our regular team can keep moving their parts of the project forward.

Ecstatic Note: We had a large rainstorm recently (the first and only one since the end of December) and the only evidence was a small puddle in the hall where the roof and wall haven’t been sealed yet – the living room floor was DRY!

Our custom made louver for the front of the house was delivered and it looks great. I love the dark mahogany finish.

Our new Louver which will be placed in the front of the house above the Arched doors.

Our new Louver which will be placed in the front of the house above the Arched doors.

It was quite the experience watching it get installed.

Lifting the louver into place was a simultaneous combination of pulling and pushing.

Lifting the huge louver into place was a simultaneous combination of pulling and pushing.

One man was on the outside of the building on a scaffolding, three men were on the inside on a different scaffolding and two men were on the ground. Thick, long pieces of canvas were tied to the louver and the other ends were thrown up to the three men. They pulled the canvas “ropes” tight and then they pulled up while the men on the ground lifted the louver as high as they could. Then, with poles, the louver was pushed up so the bottom sat on the scaffolding. With the great teamwork, this heavy louver was set into place in about 5 minutes. Then the louver was leveled and held in position while it was screwed into the concrete. Ten minutes later, it looked like it had always been there.

View from the courtyard.

View from the courtyard.

View from the inside.

View from the inside. The living room is so big, that the louver almost looks small. That is unless you compare it to the size of the men lifting it in the picture above!

Now, our team is split.  Some workers are focusing on prepping the roof for the metal and the rest are focusing on the patio area where we are removing part of a wall to square off the space. We are also completely removing the patio roof and supporting structure so we can put up a new roof that will be mostly flat with a minimal pitch for drainage, removing all but one floor post and then replacing the stationary glass with windows that will open. If you remember back to the start of this project, the two primary goals were –

  1. Raise the living room roof up so we’d have great airflow to cool the room and
  2. Reconfigure the back patio to make more usable outside living space (by bumping out part of the side wall to make the room rectangular) and to change out the funky triangle, fixed glass with larger windows that open to allow for controlled air flow.

The back of our house faces a large bay so we can get a tremendous amount of wind if the prevailing wind is blowing, but it can also be very calm on some days. We are putting in tiered “walls” of awning windows.   We think awning windows will be best because we can control the angle and amount of wind that can come into the patio and we will also be able to keep the windows open during rain storms. These windows will need to be able to withstand strong winds that will be pushing against them when they are open so Michael is committed to purchasing local windows in case we need warranty replacements or repairs. It’s enticing to think about purchasing windows in the US where they will be less expensive but then we are essentially on our own if anything goes wrong. There is always the consideration of buying local verses importing from abroad for any large dollar purchase.

Here is what the patio area used to look like. Notice how the room is "bumped in".

Here is what the patio area used to look like. Notice how the room is “bumped in” about 5 feet next to the bar. We will square off the room, giving us more covered space under the new patio roof.

As soon as the windows were taken out the view really opened up. We’re trying to have as much glass as possible to retain unobstructed views but need the windows to be functional and strong enough to withstand the torque from the strong winds so no one window can be too large.

This is a similar shot after the windows were taken out. The concrete pad will be incorporated into the living space.

This is a similar shot after the windows were taken out. The concrete pad will be incorporated into the living space. The new windows will give us a much bigger view.

We are also cutting down the back wall, facing the view, to about 16 inches. We will continue to have a rail at waist height and will run wire cables between the wall and rail for safety. I can’t wait to see this part completed and to have a fairly unobstructed view to the water.

These are the old supports that held up the patio roof. The new roof will only have one support.

These are the supports that held up the old patio roof. The new roof will only have one free standing support.

And this is how the railing area looked. We're cutting down the peaks and will have cables run between the upright posts.

And this is how the railing area looked. We’re cutting down the peaks and will have cables running between the upright posts.

By Friday, the roof should be completed and the living room can start being prepped for painting – YAHOO!

 

 

 

Walking the Plank ~ to Dinner

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Saturday, January 30th at exactly 8:43 AM the jackhammering began.  We had already planned to be at the beach most of the day to watch the Sailing Festival but the noise and activity was a great impetus to get up and out early.

The start of the jack hammering. Check out the jackahmmer. Can you believe they are walking on top of the rebar? YIKES!

The jack hammering begins bright and early, dropping the rubble into the cistern below. Check out the jack hammer. Can you believe they are walking on top of the rebar? YIKES!

The living room floor is about 8 inches higher than the patio floor so as we move the wall to shorten the living room space, we need to lower the remaining floor to match the patio floor.  The living room floor is tiled and underneath the tile is a water cistern that captures rain off the roof and stores it.  Therefore, we need to jackhammer the tiles free, remove and then replace the “ceiling” of the cistern in order to lay down a new floor.

By removing the floor, we have effectively temporarily cut off access to the second master bedroom, as well as the patio.

By removing the floor, we have effectively temporarily cut off access to the second master bedroom, as well as the patio.

As expected, the jack hammering ends up being an all-day process.  There’s thick tile to cut through, heavy cement holding the tile in place, plus a cement floor underneath (or ceiling above, depending on your perspective)  and lots of rebar.  When I left a short while into the demolition, a medium sized hole had been created.  This cut off the access to the second master bedroom and started to cut off access to the patio from the house.

All this rubble which is filling up the cistern needs to be lifted out, wheel barrowed away and then trucked away.

All the floor rubble completely filled up the cistern. It needs to be manually lifted out and then wheel barrowed away.

Since we spend most of our time on the patio, having no access would seriously cramp our lifestyle.  The workers promised to build us a bridge to provide access to the patio while they work on recreating a new floor.

There is a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done to accommodate this “small change” of moving the living room wall.  We expect it will take 2 to 3 days to remove all the rebar and cement rubble that now resides at the bottom of the cistern.  Then they need to put in new rebar that will reinforce the new floor, build a temporary wooden cistern “ceiling” under the rebar so they have a foundation on which to pour a new floor.  The new cement floor will take 21 days to cure.

In the meantime, we have a “bridge” to the patio that is made out of the large rafters that were saved when the living room ceiling was removed.  And if this doesn’t feel like I am walking the plank to get to the patio, I don’t know what would.  The rafters are pretty solid, but it is a fairly long opening and remember the two floors are at different heights so there is a fair amount of flexing as I walk the plank.  Doable, but you definitely want to be paying attention because each plank flexes independently!

Our "bridge" from the living room to the patio ~ hence the walk the plank feeling.

Our “bridge” from the living room to the patio ~ hence the “walk the plank” feeling.

The wooden frame hasd been designed to made a molding at the top of the roof line to nicely finish off the new wall.

The block wall has been completed to the peak. The cut out is for the louver which will be installed later. A wooden frame has been designed to made a molding at the top of the roof line to nicely finish off the new wall. I can’t wait to see it unveiled.

We’ve made a lot of progress this last week.  Demolition is great because it’s so fast.  Construction on the other hand can look almost the same, day to day, as internal infrastructure is created or shored up before new work is visible.  The front wall has been completed – the ring beam has been poured, with lots of buckets of cement hoisted up to the peak filling in the concrete block, plus a mold has been poured to make the roofline look nicely finished.  The back wall ring beam has also been poured and is curing.

This is the ring beam which will make the house more hurricane proof. It will be completely filled with cement and tied into the other wall's ring beams.

This is the ring beam which will make the house more hurricane proof. It will be completely filled with cement and tied into the other wall’s ring beams.

Here they are starting to build a wooden box around the ring beam that will be the form for the concrete.

Here they are building a wooden box around the ring beam that will be the form to hold the concrete.

Now most of the focus is on building the infrastructure to pour the floor.  This is the critical path since there is a long curing period.  While the floor cures, work will resume on the roof.  And I’m hopeful that we will at least have the wooden ceiling in place by next week.

~ So long to the moonlit living room, hello to shelter.

Taking the Inside-Out Concept to the Extreme – No Roof ( … for now ….)

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(Inside-out is a design concept where your living space feels like you are outdoors)

Believe it or not, this is the view standing in the living room and looking up, between the rafters, at night. At the full moon, the moonlight was so bright, we didn't need any additional light to see.

Believe it or not, this is the view standing in the living room and looking up, between the rafters, at night. At the full moon, the moonlight was so bright, we didn’t need any additional light to see.

It’s all in the perspective, isn’t it?  Dancing in the moonlight that filters through the rafters, feeling everything from sultry breezes to howling wind rushing through the living room space, loving the open space concept so much we shrink the living room length by a third and significantly expand the outdoor patio area OR complain that there’s too much dust, rain, disruption in our house and in our lives right now.  What would you choose?  I choose to dance.

After making the decision in October to raise the living room roof to facilitate more airflow, we hoped to complete the project before we arrived in early December.  However, coordinating all the moving parts – design, engineering, figuring out demolition and actual construction times took longer than we anticipated.  Therefore, we chose to wait until after the Christmas holiday to start the demolition and construction.  I’m really glad we did.

Once the rafters were put into place, the side walls were built taller, the front wall was built up to meet the new peak and the old roof was removed.  The team then demolished the complete back wall of the house so it could be rebuilt to accommodate a large opening (16 ft. by 10 ft.) as well as support a huge hurricane shutter.  This now opened up the living room space from the front door all the way to the back patio railing – about 65 feet long.  Dangerous activity – now we had a huge open space and I was loath to close it off again and wondering if was heading to divorce if I suggested we change our design plans.

This is a view of the front wall, all blocked up. The big opening at the top will have stationary louvers to let air flow through the room. The prevailing wond comes from the other direction so no concern about rain getting in.

This is a view of the front wall, all blocked up. The big opening at the top will have stationary louvers to let air flow through the room. The prevailing wind comes from the sea so no concern about rain.

Fortunately, Michael was thinking the same thing and when I merely mentioned that I hated the thought of closing up the space again, he suggested we rethink the design. Brilliant! One of the very best things I love about our relationship is how aligned we are in our thinking.  Again and again, we navigate this fun and crazy life easily as we dip and turn through challenges and changes.

The original back wall of the house.

The original back wall of the house, shown here, had an 8 foot sliding glass door and two windows. The new wall will have a 16 foot opening plus two 3 foot doors allowing for a lot more air flow.

We had until early the next morning to make the decision because, in theory, the new wall construction would start the next day.  Changing the design to make the outdoor space even larger is more challenging than you might think.  Placing the back wall in a new spot was not a big deal but we would also need to lower the existing floor to match the patio floor height, try to find new stone to match the existing patio floor (the quarry is no longer in operation), work around an underfloor cistern and rethink electric sockets and lighting.  And, of course, these changes would add more cost and construction time to the overall project.  We bounced around a bunch of ideas, decided to sleep on it and decide in the morning.

Michael woke me up around 6 AM and we walked the space one more time, decided to bite the bullet, authorize the change and then figure out the final details later.  Michael placed an urgent message into our Contractor, Antonio Fields, asked him to call us ASAP — “no problem, but a major change” – and to be sure to be in contact with us before his team arrived and started working.  Antonio looked at his phone shortly after, saw Michael’s phone number pop up and wondered what Michael could possibly want that he was calling so early in the AM.

Here is a shot of the new wall going up. Everything on the other side will be added to the patio space.

Here is a shot of the new wall going up. The floor on the far side of the wall will be lowered to match the patio floor height. This will create a much larger outdoor living area.

Antonio arrived shortly after, Michael outlined our thoughts and they started to discuss options.  The team arrived and his key workers added their thoughts to the discussion.  Soon they had the cover off the cistern and were peering into its depths trying to figure out the underground configuration and its impact on our desires.  At the end of the conversation, we had a new plan to shorten the living room by about 8 feet.

Most of the work here is done manually. All the cement is hand mixed, poured into buckets and moved by hand. By a smiling worker!

Most of the work here is done manually. All the cement is hand mixed, poured into buckets and moved by hand. By a smiling worker! To the left, painted ceiling panels covered by plastic and on the right construction rubble which is swept up and removed every day.

Since they had already built roofing rafters all the way to the “original” end of the room, we looked at keeping the original roof line intact which would now provide shade to the “new” part of the patio.  Caribbean house roofs generally don’t overhang too much beyond the walls because it provides too easy a way for really heavy wind to tear off the roof.  Generally, they rely on a secondary roof to extend out, under the original roof, which can be broken off under high winds without damaging the full structure.  Once the wall is built and the hurricane shutter is installed, we’ll determine the best way to add the secondary roof to cover the rest of the patio and tie it into the house.

ANOTHER load of construction debris. Even with the workers saving a lot of wood, there is a huge amount of rubble that is getting trucked out on a regular basis.

ANOTHER load of construction debris. Even with the workers saving a lot of wood, there is a huge amount of wood and concrete rubble that is getting trucked out on a regular basis.

Now the “fun” begins as we blast out the living room floor tiles to see what is underneath, figure out how to reconstruct the cistern and decide how to pull together this new, larger outdoor space.

Confession: I’ve sort of been at loss about how to use the huge living room space since we first purchased the house.  A 30 by 30 foot space is big and would be delightful in a traditional home, but we spend all our time outdoors, if possible.  Even when it is raining, we generally are out on the patio that is covered.  The only time I expect we would use the living room is if it is raining so hard (plus strong winds) that you’d get wet being outside, even if undercover.

The questions that had been running through my mind were – Do we basically leave the living room empty?  Do we fully furnish it – (time, money and energy) when we expect to barely use it?  Would we really ever use it as a dining space (probably only if a large dinner party had been scheduled and it rained hard) and, if so, wouldn’t we just carry  the large dining table inside?  Now it will be a much more manageable space, with just the essentials necessary for horrific, rainy day living.   I’m going to keep count of the number of days between when we arrived in December and mid June, when we leave, that we need to stay inside due to overwhelming rain (zero so far).

Now the rainy season, July through December, might be another story but we plan to be traveling during that time.

And So It Begins ~ Raising the Roof, Literally!

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We are going to salvage the heavy rafters to make a outdoor trellis. The new ceiling will be white (and peaked)

A “before” picture – Dark ceiling, slanting from 10 feet to about 8 feet over 30 foot span. We are going to salvage the heavy rafters to make an outdoor trellis. The new ceiling will be white (and peaked)

The New Year is here and so the workers are returning from a long holiday break to take off our roof.  Our house is essentially three pavilions with separate but connected roofs.  The living room is in the middle.  Currently the living room walls are about 10 feet tall and there is a low, slanted roof that traps a lot of heat.  The walls are going to be extended to 12 feet high, including a ring beam, which will make the whole structure much more hurricane proof.  And then on top of the ring beam we will have a new, peaked ceiling with louvers on each end.  This will make the house much cooler and allow many more breezes to flow through this large, 30 by 30 foot space.

Grenada is located 12 degrees north of the Equator and hurricanes typically form at 15 degrees and higher so we have a much lower chance of hurricanes occurring here than most Caribbean islands.  In fact, Grenada is the first island where boaters can get insurance for their vessels.  Every island north of Grenada is 15 degrees latitude or higher and no hurricane insurance is available for boaters.  This is one reason Grenada has such an active marina business.  Many boats dock here during hurricane season either for protection or to get repaired during this turbulent time.

As you may know, Grenada got hit by a fierce hurricane in 2004 – Ivan.  The worst part was that the storm was tracking quite a bit north of Grenada, as would be expected, and turned suddenly – right as it aligned with Grenada and came south.  People had less than 2 hours to prepare and it devastated much of the island with 98% of the buildings being damaged.  Miraculously, only 2 people perished.  The only buildings to pull through relatively unscathed were all newly constructed and had been built to hurricane standards – with ring beams, for example.  Prior to Ivan, the last hurricane was Janet, in 1955.

Here we are trying out different colors so we can decide what to paint the ceiling and the rafters.

Here we are trying out different colors so we can decide what to paint the ceiling and the rafters.

We debated a lot of options before deciding to raise the roof because of the cost and disruption to the house.  Every other alternative that we explored would only partially address the heat issue – maybe – and we thought ultimately we would not be happy with the result so we just gulped and went for the “right” solution.  Originally, we hoped to have the new roof completed before December but by the time we got a solid design, coordinated it with some patio work we wanted done and had an Engineer check everything out, we ran out of time to have it completed before we arrived.

The tricky part was connecting the three roofs so there would be no leaking in the future.  The roof on the two side wings will be at a different height than the new ceiling roof.  The timing concern was that the break for Christmas holiday would interfere and we’d be stopped mid project (with no roof) for a couple of additional weeks.  Plus, the rainy season has been going later and later into December in recent years.  I think it ended up being a good decision because it rained – a lot (multiple times, every day almost) in December.

Now it is January and the work has begun.  The first couple of days were slow as everyone figured out how to do this major construction without completely removing the roof since we are living here during construction.  Fortunately the walls are cement and the floor has heavy tiles so we should not have any floor damage from water.  We were wondering how level the floor really is and how much water would stay in the room after each rain.  The courtyard, kitchen and bedroom entrances to the living room are all 2 steps up so we knew the rest of the house would be protected and there is a straight out exit to the pool and patio and we were hoping, fingers crossed, that the water would run right out the big sliding glass doorway to the patio.

Another "before" picture - you can see the tiled floor, concrete walls and the step up to a bedroom - all good things for a room that will not have a roof for a couple of weeks..

Another “before” picture – you can see the tiled floor, concrete walls and the steps up to a bedroom – all good things for a room that will not have a roof for a couple of weeks.

Here you can see the roof cut away so they can extend the walls to 12 feet, capped with a ring beam to make the structure more hurricane proof.

Here you can see the roof cut away so they can extend the walls to 12 feet, capped with a ring beam to make the structure more hurricane proof.

The first major piece of work was removing the asphalt tiles from the roof and removing about 4 feet of roof off either side so the side walls could be made taller.  If it rained, we’d get minimal leakage over the bulk of the roof and the room was only totally exposed the length of the room on the 2 sides.  Piece of cake, right?  We had a small rainstorm on Friday afternoon and there was only a little standing water after it was over – no problem.

Saturday evening was a different story.  We were out on the covered patio having dinner with Nadica and Mikiah, my best Grenadian friend and her daughter (my Goddaughter), when a big storm blew in.  I jumped up to close our bedroom windows and started laughing as I approached the living room.  As predicted, there was only dripping throughout most of the living room as rain came in between the cracks in the planks but the 2 sides where there was no roof, the rain was pouring in.  Plus, because the 2 roofs for the other pavilions are already peaked, all the rain was running down those slopes into the living room on either side.  This meant that to get into the bedroom wing I had to walk through the waterfall that was so beautifully cascading into the living room.  I was soaked and laughing.  Caribbean rain is warm so it is an entirely different feeling to get wet here – no problem.

Most of the water did run out the doorway as we had hoped, but there were a few low spots that collected a good bit of water.  Of course one low spot was right in front of the bedroom wing doorway so we had to slog through about 3 inches of water before we reached the steps up.  This gave plenty of time for Mick’s webbed feet to soak up a ton of water that could then be dripped everywhere – first order of business for week two was making a platform that would cover any water.  This worked perfectly for us but Mick just walked around the platform and through the water to approach from the side.  HMMMM.  Ultimately, we were worried about having the standing water sit for any length of time because of potential damage to the floor, so we ended up just sweeping out the low spots.  Problem solved.  Fortunately the rainy season has ended and we have and very little rain since then.

Lots to see in this picture - temporary door so we can lock it at night (since living room is no longer secure), the platform that was built to cover the low spot in the floor (that collects water), clean up every day (so the house is livable during construction).

Lots to see in this picture – temporary door to the bedroom wing (on the left) so we can lock it at night (since living room is temporarily not secure), the platform that was built to cover the low spot in the floor by bedroom wing door (that collects water), and daily clean up so the house is livable during construction.

Construction is such messy work.  Lots of breaking up of concrete which means lots of little pieces of rock lying all over and dust everywhere.  I hadn’t processed that in order to make the walls higher, they would have to pull off a little of the roofs on either side pavilion so we have had openings into the kitchen and both master bedrooms that lets in rocks, dust and mosquitos.  Delightful!  The mosquitos this year have been the fiercest I’ve ever seen and I’m hoping as the area dries out, they will die or head elsewhere.  In the meantime, we’ve been camping out in our air conditioned office during the day that does not abut the living room so all 4 walls and roof are intact.

The workers have been really diligent in cleaning up the site every day.  Everything is carted off, stacked up and swept before they leave each day.  I was thanking one man about the clean up one day and he said something interesting …  He said of course they were cleaning up so it would be as nice as possible for us but, even if we weren’t on island, they would do it anyway because it was much more motivating to arrive at a clean job site each morning.  Makes sense to me AND I really appreciate it.

The workers also worked Saturday to keep the project moving. All the rafters went up in one day. YEAH!

The workers also worked last Saturday to keep the project moving. At 9 AM the first rafter was lifted into place. By 4 PM, all the rafters were completed. (Note the “staircase” erected so workers could get to the top of the peak). YIKES!

Work has steadily progressed and after a few days of lots of activity, but not much visible change, we are now seeing the skeleton of the new roof going up through the peak holes of the roof.  YEAH!  It’s really exciting to see the progress.