Reef Madness

Part III: Now what? page6

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

August 22, 2007

All one has to do to get good news is to leave town and head in the opposite direction of the Caribbean. The Caribe gods hate that! We got some great shots of progress that has been made at Reef Madness. The tilers are now working on the outside spaces of RM, the inside being completed. Wahooo! The electricians are nearly done and the plumber…well he might just be our next problem. When will he show up? We have been told for several weeks now that he would be here “by the end of the week”. I hear that phrase and my hair stands on end. He was to be here by the end of the week about three weeks ago. Where do plumbers go when they are on vacation? I hope not Jamaica or we may never hear from him again. Rumor has it that it got a bit windy down there. Yes, RM dodged the Dean bullet and for that we are eternally grateful. We saw on the Coral Bay web cam that a few boats pulled into Hurricane Hole for shelter. No use waiting for the last minute right? So while Dean is sucking up all the bad Caribbean karma and handing it off to Mexico, here are some shots of RM good karma.

August 23, 2007

We are now in the process of shipping what we hope will be our final load of “stuff” down to St John. We have had loads of tile, sinks, toilets, faucets, and of course the mother load, furniture. This last shipment will be household goods. We will be trying to fill a 20 foot container. I haven’t a clue whether we have a 20 foot container of stuff, more than a 20 footer, or less than. I suppose that is where the pros come into play when one moves. We can’t afford a pro so we will wing it. Tropical Shipping is quoting us about six grand to get it from the bustling metropolis of Shady Side, Maryland to St John. OUCH! There goes another credit card balance. We are trying to get this coordinated to arrive in St John and released from Customs in time for us to meet up with it while we are on St John on the 20th of September. So far every time we have tried to get something done at RM based on Sunny Rocks assurances that the villa will be ready for us, the villa hasn’t been (ready for us). Yes, it is good to hang out at the beach and be tourists, but we are way past that point in this project and we need to get some real progress made on the next two trips. Our next visit will be over Labor Day and we plan to do that which we had planned to do on our last trip (but were thwarted by lack of progress). So repeating our last trip’s objective, we hope to finish up all the inside painting and place the furniture is the appropriate places. Our villa will then look like what it is supposed to look like, a classy, eclectic, relaxing place to hang one’s hat for a week, or a month, or a lifetime. Oh god, what if it doesn’t? What if it all just doesn’t work? What if everyone hates it? What if no one want to stay here? Is this some variation of buyer’s remorse on steroids? Well here goes another nights sleep. This seems to be happening a lot lately. My best sleep comes around noon at my desk at work. We will survive all this…please….

August 24, 2007

We received more pictures today. Things are moving at warp speed! How very un-St John like! The Total Wall (stucco) has been started around the house and the changes taking place are startling. People working, yes, that’s a good thing! One part of me is delighted about the hustle-bustle happening at RM. The other side of me says: How are you going to pay for all of this? And then I break out in a cold sweat... We are, however, in a good place to soon be able to market RM visually which should help our cause. I don’t understand why people don’t run out and book up our villa on my expert and unbiased opinion that it will be unbelievably fantastic! Why bother with pictures of a finished product? There’s just no accounting… Anyway, we are still waiting for our new favorite contractor, that fun loving, happy-go-lucky, free spirited guy, the plumber. Where the heck is he? We will be there in just over a week. Can’t stay there if there is no running water! I wonder if the Leona goddess could help with this one? Here’s one of the pictures Lewis sent this morning showing guys who are hard at work at RM. All the pictures we got show the stucco a tad bit pinker than it really is, but I kind of like the pink! Makes me want to order a frozen mango daiquiri with an umbrella in it!

August 27, 2007

All weekend we had visions of warm, soothing Caribbean rainwater flowing through the pipes of Reef Madness. Hmmm… Should have used a different pipe... No plumber showed on Friday (the “by the end of the week” curse) so I guess maybe by the end of this week… next week… maybe…? The tile guys however, are moving right along. The outdoor tile has been started and maybe the grouting will get done this week, but I won’t bet the farm on it. Sunnyrock just got around to ordering the pool tile last week. This is the tile that goes around the top of the pool. They said they were waiting for us to make a decision on what kind of tile we wanted. It seems they mislaid the e-mail we sent in early July detailing exactly what kind of pool tile we wanted. Another missing e-mail! Perhaps they need a different ISP, a new filing system, or perhaps I am going to have to start using the telephone? What am I saying? They forget the phone conversations just as readily, and then we have to remember what we told them - or if we told them or... never mind. Oh well, without a plumber we can’t swim in the pool anyway so who needs tile - right? I have to say though, Reef Madness is starting to look more like a respectable villa and less like the ugly gash in the side of the hill that it once was. I wonder if the Caribe gods have noticed?

August 28, 2007

Speaking of stone masons… They’re still here and we are still putting their kids through college. I think one of them is now in dental school! We can see from the recent pictures taken of RM that the infamous stairtower is nearly completed. Hallelujah! Had we known at the get-go that this stairtower was going to be such a pain in the patoot, we would have taken a different road to the second floor. I guess the masons have been spending all their time on this silly tower thingy as we have seen no chinking done. Someone, anyone – please tell me this stone is worth it all, because it sure has been a long, expensive, slow, (did I mention expensive?) test of patience. Who knew we’d spend enough to buy us a stairway to heaven? And it makes me wonder… If this goes on much longer, the chinking will have to go – unless they will do the work for free (oink/flap). As for the plumber… soon come!!!

August 29, 2007

Building a house anywhere at any time is not easy. The place becomes almost like one’s child and every little detail somehow takes on monumental importance (only to be forgotten down the road a piece). Having built a house in Maryland some years back, we learned how this can happen and how, if you let it, you can drive yourself crazy. Lots of decisions need to be made, some need to be answered NOW - on the fly. Being in Maryland, we talked to our builder every few days and were on site at least every weekend. But what if you are building a house three thousand miles away. What then? Do you visit every weekend? Nope, can’t do that. Do you chat on the phone every other day? Yep, but it still is not enough. We get questions like what color should the grout be, what kind of tile do you want, where do you want this placed, how high should that be, do you want this or that, the electrician will be here tomorrow and wants to know… and the plumber wants… and the satellite provider wants and the wireless… and on and on… Don’t get me wrong, questions like these are good, very good. But sometimes we haven’t the foggiest notion of what the answer should be. “Gee, we never thought about that. Can we think about it and get back to you? ” Sometimes you just need to see what they are talking about in order to make a good decision. It is now becoming somewhat humorous that our builder will take a digital picture of what he is talking about, emails it to us and we yea or nay it in an email response. Take the range hood, something simple like what height should it be. Like I should know this? Isn’t there a standard? No. There is a minimum height, but no real rule that I can find. It is a combination of efficiency and aesthetics. So here is what Lewis sent us! Gee it looks good to me… no too high…no wait, lower, I guess…maybe…?

August 30, 2007

Our plumber is on site and working. Wahoooo! We are even being told that we now have some running water. So for our trip next week we can paint, then clean the paint brushes, and mop floors, and - use the privy! Ahhhh, it’s the simple things in life… We need to get things clean so we can set up the furniture and take a bunch of pictures. This is very important to us because our management company, VIVA, has not had any photographs of the inside of the house to show perspective renters and most people do not want to rent a villa sight unseen. Amazingly, pictures are quite helpful in this matter. Needless to say, we will be taking quite a few pictures showing RM at its best…well maybe not its best as it still has a ways to go to be completed and we have no artsy dust collectors lying around to give it the lived in look. The dust collectors come on the trip after this one. Speaking of lying around, recently, people have been telling us that many of the pictures we have been showing appear to have men’s clothes lying around the villa. It has been asked if RM is a clothing optional villa? As for future renters, I can not advise. As for the workers at RM, well let me just say that I have met the plumber once and… well it’s just too scary to talk about…. I know it gets hot up there, but guys, PLEASE!!!! The Total Wall is going well as shown below in this very pink picture. Only one stray article of clothing is apparent hanging on the door (except for the dimly seen clothes covering one of our more modest workers).

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August 31, 2007

As previously mentioned, we are getting ready for another working trip to St John (what do I mean another working trip? We have yet to accomplish anything we have set out to complete on any previous working trip). We leave Sunday and are ever hopeful of a productive visit (oink/flap). The logistics change a great deal during this time of the year when traveling to and on St John. First, there is the fact that it is low season in the Caribbean - few tourists, low prices. That is a good thing for the locals as they speed around the island, traffic free and lineless. It is not so good for the “tourists” who want to eat at their favorite island eatery. Many places close down during the months of September and October. Bless Ruth, from St. John Spice, who posted a list of local eatery closings for us low season travelers. Yep, this is when the tourist trade folk on St John go away on vacation. Hummmmm, I wonder where they go? Second, the biggest reason why it is low season and really cheap to fly, is because it is the height of hurricane season! Now let me just say one thing (maybe two or three things) about hurricanes. They scare the begeesus out of me. I have always been fascinated with weather and have followed hurricanes with great zeal. However, having my home on the Chesapeake surrounded by water during Hurricane Isabel and having to move our furniture from the first floor to the second at midnight with no light, no air conditioning, no nothing, all by myself, has given me a slightly altered perception of these storms. They truly scare me. I have become obsessed with them. And now, with a villa on St John, my stress level has surged. Not only do I follow potential storms that could meander up the east coast, but I have my eye on every single wave that flows off the coast of Africa. I closely monitor every web site I can find where meteorologists discuss, forecast, measure, define, and dissect, every solitary event that could even remotely turn into a storm heading west in the Atlantic. Not only heading west in the Atlantic, but we could always get that condition "Wrong Way Lenny" where the damn storm turns around and comes back at us heading EAST!!! ARRRGGGHHHHHHH!!! I’m a mess. So there are two waves off Africa, one is very close to being named “Felix”, but should stay south of St John (they say), another… who knows? What if they close down the ferries and we are stuck on St Thomas? What if we get there and have to evacuate? What if Miami gets hit and we are stuck there? Quite frankly, it’s all way more than a poor boy from western Maryland (no interesting weather in western Maryland donchano) can handle! So off we go and we will post our newest life’s lessons when we return (September 10th). So, au revoir and…wish us luck…we need all the luck the gods can spare!

September 10, 2007

We are back and we are exhausted. How did this trip go you might ask? Well, not as bad as some, not as well as others. We only made it to Maho one day – and that is a good thing if it was real accomplishment that kept us away. Sadly, that was not the case. Arriving late Sunday and being way too tightly wound, we both tossed and turned all night anticipating the work that awaited us on Monday. It was our goal on this trip to paint both bedrooms (if needed) and the greatroom and then set up all the furniture. One look at the greatroom told us that no furniture would be set up in there. We thought the plumber had water in at least part of the villa. Not so. The workers were using a sump pump to draw out water directly from the cistern access which, of course, is in the floor of the greatroom. Water and mud everywhere. Not the ideal environment to place furniture. OK, now what? Let’s check out the bedrooms. The paint in the bedrooms looked nothing like the paint chip we sent down to have Paradise Lumber match and mix up. It was almost a lavender color. Yech! Now mind you, I have nothing against lavender. There are some very nice flowers that are lavender and I suppose that in the Caribbean scheme of things, lavender is quite appropriate. But with the upper bedroom furniture being in the golden orangey range the wall paint looked, well… hideous! Ahhhh, the magic of glaze painting. Rather than repainting the entire bedroom, we thought we would be clever and sponge on some gold and brown tones mixed with a glaze base (that we wisely had the forethought to buy and bring over from the St Thomas Home Depot) and nip this problem in the bud! One gallon of glaze opened and one gallon of glaze older than an aged Galapagos turtle. The stuff was full of little chunks of dried up glaze gunk. The filth that spewed from my lips at that was only equaled by the filth that lay on the greatroom floor. Tired, depressed, with no glaze, and ready to pick a fight with the first person who walked in the door, we threw in the towel and headed to Maho. Have I mentioned how much we love Maho? It is easy to get to, always calm, always beautiful, usually peaceful (particularly in low season); it soothes the soul of an angry, tired, depressed, former cockeyed optimist. We spent the rest of the day at Maho grabbed a bite and went to bed at 8:30 to start this trip over again on Tuesday.

September 11, 2007

It is now Tuesday morning (a week ago) and we still have no glaze, so after a good night’s sleep, we head on over to Paradise Lumber hoping to find a stockpile of it. We are in luck! They have two quarts! We bought a gallon of this stuff on St Thomas, but the prices are a bit higher on St John and…what if this is Galapagos turtle old as well? We decided to get one quart and see how far that would take us. We then headed down to Chilly Billy’s for breakfast as the Donkey Diner (and most every other place on the island) was closed. After a great meal, we headed back to RM to resume our sponging project. Alas, as victims of a severe case of brain fog (undoubtedly a result of some blender experiments the night before), we discovered that we were missing a backpack that must have been left way back in Cruz Bay at Chilly Billy’s. Ratz! In a hurried state to recover our “packed with important stuff” backpack, and with our brains still incapacitated by heavy fog-like conditions, we stumbled back to the jeep and in the process dropped the can of glaze. In slow motion, the lid cracked open wider, wider, wider, and this milky white substance, rarer than on-time plumbers, flowed onto the dirt. So back to Chilly Billy’s and to Paradise Lumber we go. Distracted by all of these events, we nearly drove off the cliff while backing down our driveway (a short-cut to Skinny’s donchano). We weren’t sure which was more distressing, nearly dying or wasting a can of glaze! So after our hearts stopped pounding we righted our course, retrieved the pack and bought the last remaining can of glaze existing anywhere on St John. Well as it so happened, one can was not quite enough and our bedroom was 2/3 done. Hey, the 2/3’s looked pretty good! Now what do we do? We already bought every can on the island! And by the way, where is the plumber?

September 12, 2007

Speaking of plumbers, I have seen ours twice. He showed up at 3PM and left at 5PM two days in a row. Did a lot of work in two hours and one can only imagine what he could accomplish in 8! As I am typing this, the plumber has not shown up since Tuesday of last week. He is holding up the finishing of the kitchen cabinets, the pool equipment installation, the finished electrical work, in fact, the whole process is jammed up because of this one guy. Apparently he likes to juggle multiple jobs all at once - all around the island, and rather than completing one project or what can be done on one project at a time, he bounces around running from job to job. A lot of time wasted when one considers traveling to multiple sites, trying to remember where one left off, pulling out tools, putting back tools, etc. I see a career opportunity here. Classes in time management (on St John? Yeah, right…). We have one week to get this done. I am trying to put my foot down here because on our next trip, in 8 days, we are bringing along some help by way of our niece from Seattle. We expect to receive all our household goods in 8 days and we cannot be drawing water out of the cistern from our living room access hole for our entire water supply. On a rosier note, our stone mason, Mr. Johnson (yes the stone work is still going on and should be done some time this millennium) has shown up every day and works very hard every day. The stone work is beautiful. He is on the chinking part of the project and his work is exceptional. Not only is he working hard and getting things done (albeit very slowly) our greatest hero, Rudette (who works for Sunnyrock) is performing miracles. Rudette has put in the upstairs railings, finished the entire outside tile on the second floor, most of the outside tile on the first floor, has trued up the door hinges and locks on the outside doors and almost single-handedly carried our bedroom furniture on his back up the stairtower to the upstairs bedroom! Is there anything he can’t do? Wait! I wonder if he can do plumbing? We should be so lucky. So we have some pictures of our progress to show. Notice the railings match the roof beams. How cool is that!

September 13, 2007

So thanks to Rudette and others we got all the bedroom furniture moved into the appropriate bedrooms (ready or not). Once everything was unboxed it became clear that the lavender/pink (that was supposed to be mauve/beige) would not work upstairs but perhaps could squeak by in the downstairs bedroom. In fact the more tired we got, the better the color looked. Glazed eyes trumped glazed walls… By late Wednesday, that pinkie/lavender/mauvish-brown color became the absolute height of chic! “This looks OK with that mahogany bed, don’t you think?” “Yeah, I think it looks great. Best choice ever…” So I started out Thursday morning bright and early on the St Thomas car ferry in search of a can of glaze to finish off the upper room. The 50 buck round trip ticket for a quart of glaze (assuming I could find any that was not dried up and gunky) seemed a bit steep on my fragile, debtor’s prison budget, so I thought I would pick up some other vital St Thomas stuff (hey how about a thousand dollar pool pump – no problem, just charge it to this shiny new credit card!). So on this whirlwind trip across Pillsbury Sound, Lewis and I got to spend some quality time spending more of my money. There in a paint store across the road from Home Depot (the scene of my first paint purchase disaster) I found a very nice quart can of beautiful, perfect glaze. Yes, there is a god… So back to St John with a credit card full of charges (had to make this trip worth my while, ya know) and up to RM with glaze firmly in my grasp I trotted with renewed optimism. As the tropical sun set over Bordeaux Mountain and all the locals (no tourists left on island) sat around enjoying happy hour we sponged on our last bit of non-pink colors and quit only when it became too dark to see (no electricity for lights donchano). Friday morning, the bedroom was all done. By late Friday afternoon we had finished all we could. We think it looks great. Ahhhh life is good. Lets celebrate; where’s that blender?

September 14, 2007

We returned stateside with mixed feelings about the way things went. On one hand, we did everything we hoped to accomplish (OK, almost everything). On the other hand the plumber was really holding up the works and we were getting ready to ship household goods down to a house where our workers are getting water by dipping into a hole in the living room floor like ancient nomads in a desert oasis. We also came back exhausted late Saturday night knowing we had to hit the ground running Sunday in order to get ready for a container that was going to be dropped off Monday morning at 7AM (yeah right; as if anyone would ever show up on time - particularly 7AM on a Monday). We still had to purchase more things for the villa and we had a ton of customs documentation to get ready and only one day to get it all done. Blurry eyed and jet lagged we dashed off to buy a barbeque grill, lamps, and miscellaneous fixtures and raced back to pull everything together. We did it and we were left with a huge mound of boxes filling our garage. Good thing we got this big ol’ container coming, look at all this stuff! At 6:58 AM, in rolls the truck (oh, yeah, this is the good old U.S. of A.! I forgot. Sometimes they do what they say they are going to do… Something about work ethic or some such nonsense…) Anyway while the strapping young driver took a nap in his truck, poor, old, decrepit, jet-lagged us set out to heave up all these boxes (some of them weighing at least 10 tons) inside this container that sits 4 feet off the ground and then arrange everything so that the ocean swells from Tropical Storm Ingrid or whoever didn’t sail that grill into our lampshades. We had 2 hours before we paid the driver overtime (overtime – for napping?). Well, we did it, with 2 minutes to spare and all of a sudden that huge mound of goods stored in our garage was dwarfed by the insides of that container. We could have shipped twice that amount down and had room left over. As soon as the truck pulled away, we found more boxes we forgot to put in the truck and so far this week 4 more boxes of goods have shown up at our door for delivery to RM. Hey, it is only costing us about 6 grand for this shipment. Where’s that blender we packed – I need it NOW…

September 17, 2007

Well our household goods have left Miami and are en-route to St John via a sturdy Tropical Shipping vessel. I am sure it is most seaworthy. OK, I hope it is seaworthy, but since tropical wave or depression (or whatever it is) Ingrid is falling apart, perhaps it can be less seaworthy. I have dreams about this, nightmares actually. In this dream everything I own is afloat on a leaky scow that lists frightfully from one side to the other and has her bilge pumps running non stop to keep her afloat. Everything is on this boat, from my childhood bed to my office desk and my next door neighbor’s tiki bar. Every time the ship bounds over a swell and my sight goes from horizon to the low base of a wave and back up again, someone pops up on the horizon, smiles and waves at me. I am sure all will be lost, but no one who waves to me from the horizon seems the least bit concerned. Why am I so unnerved? Is this project turning me into an alcoholic? Could this be the beginning of the DTs? Do I need to sign up now for a liver transplant. Will the plumber ever show up?

September 18, 2007

Rumor has it that the plumber has shown up. Those in the know say that he thinks he will be done and off to his next mission by Thursday. Does that mean he will be done by the "end of the week"? I hope not, I mean… I hope so, I mean… geez. That phrase just sends shivers up my spine… We just want running water and a toilet to call our own. The pool doesn’t have to be done – just the basics! The word on the street is that we will also have electrical power, fully installed, as well…ah…”by the end of the week…”. Should we laugh or cry? Should we believe? What choice do we have? Mere depression-era subsistence is all we ask. We are staying at Reef Madness this trip, even if we have nomadic stone-masons dipping well water from our living room floor, come hell or high rum drinks. We shall camp out if need be and suffer the sword of Damocles, we will march into hell itself: searing heat, raging storms, famine, pestilence, plague, and swarming mosquitoes - we will face them all… or perhaps stay at the Westin…

September 19, 2007

So here we go again. Tomorrow morning, once again, before the crack of dawn, we will get up and stumble on down to National Airport and climb aboard a jet plane which will be winging its way to Miami. If the gods are willing, and the winds don’t rise, we will be on St John before dark. We have no idea what we will be in for once we get to RM. As I have mentioned before, this time we will have company in the form of our niece, who will have the questionable honor of being the first official guest at Reef Madness. Our intentions are to unload the container that we shipped from Maryland last week, and get everything, or at least as much as possible, organized. Organization, now there’s a concept. Of course the big question is, is Reef Madness ready for us? The truth is, we are not sure if there will be a light or a flashlight on for us when we get there. Do we pee in a port-a-potty or will there be a beautiful porcelain flushable work of art awaiting our former rum drinks? Will there be a lamp or a candle to read by? A fan…? Of course air-conditioning is undoubtedly out of the question, but dare we anticipate a working ceiling fan? OH, I could go on and on, but I guess we will just have to wait until we get there to be pleasantly (or otherwise) surprised. They have showers at Cinnamon, and coffee at Mosquito Bites, but that damn port-a-potty is clear down at the bottom of our road…

Back next Wednesday with our trip report!

September 26, 2007

So off we went and back we are. So much to say, I can hardly contain myself! So here I go. Firstly, the picture of the airplane on our last blog entry was so prophetic! The plane from Miami to St Thomas was filled to the rafters with dreadlocks, and some of those Rasta faces seemed very familiar to us. Wait a minute! I know those guys! “Hey aren’t you guys from Innervisions?” Yep, just returning from their European tour, all but two of them were on our plane, winging their way back home to St John. I pulled my “Street Corner Musicians” CD out of my backpack and told them “I carry this with me everywhere!” I am sure they were impressed (or perhaps bemused as I was either a fortuitous fan or an obsessed stalker). Wow, what a great way to start out this trip. Maybe luck is with us? Could it be? We deboarded the plane and ran over to the duty free liquor store in the airport and snagged some rum (for medicinal purposes) and proceeded to the only rental company on either St Thomas or St John that rents pickup trucks: Budget Rent-a-Car. Up until that time, things were going way too smoothly. It was time for the CGs (Caribe gods) to get their daily chuckle in and the Budget counter is the perfect venue!
“May I help you?”
“Yes, we have a reservation and confirmation for renting a 4-wheel drive Ford Ranger pick-up.”
“We have no Ford Rangers.”
“But I have a confirmation right here that says we are renting a 4-wheel drive Ford Ranger!”
“We have none.”
“You mean, you have rented all of them or you do not have any Ford Rangers in your inventory?”
”They are gone.”
“Are they rented out or do you not carry any?”
“That’s right.”
“Hummm, so do you have any trucks at all?”
“Yes, we have for you a Ford F-150.”
“The F-150 is too big. Don’t you have anything smaller?”
“No”
“OK, I guess an F-150 will have to do. This is a four wheel drive F-150, right?”
“No”
“No?”
“No”
“But it says right here on my reservation confirmation that we are getting a 4 wheel drive vehicle; we can’t make it up our driveway without four wheel drive!”
“No”
“We are unloading a container. We have to carry big boxes up and down very steep hills. We have to have a four wheel drive!”
“Yes.”
“So we can get one with four wheel drive?”
“No”
“ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!”
So we trundled off to the upper airport rental car parking lot and there was this Ford F-150 two wheel drive truck that apparently we had rented. This truck was almost too big to scrape past the other vehicles as the exit lane got more and more narrow as we neared our Budget escape route. Geez, am I going to wreck this thing before I even get out of the lot? Wait a minute, this piece of crap looks like it has already been through its share of near death experiences. What have they done to us? So off we went to St John in a huge Ford F-150 dinosaur, and back we came to St Thomas the very next day to return the POC. No, it would not make it up our driveway and probably couldn’t even if it were a 4-wheel drive. They forgot to put tread on the tires!!!!

September 27, 2007

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the truck. We swapped it for a Jeep Liberty. That was the largest 4-wheel drive that Budget could provide us. The container did show up a day and a half late (after the truck broke down on Bordeaux Mountain) but still, a day and half late is efficiently on time in island time! Saturday morning the two of us and our niece from Seattle (remember our niece?) started to unload the container hoping that the largest of the boxes would fit in the Liberty. For two days, we emptied the container, filled the Jeep, drove up Seagrape Hill, and unloaded the Jeep. I have to admit, that Liberty handled it all, was easy to drive, and took our goat path of a driveway like a…well…like a goat! It also was very easy to get in and out of four wheel drive, unlike some other vehicles where after struggling to get into four wheel drive, it becomes a test of patience to get back out! So now all those months (years actually) of shopping for villa stuff came to an end (does it really ever come to an end?) and all the stuff that makes a house a home has finally arrived at Reef Madness. One problem. The great room still looks like the carnival has not quite left town yet. The kitchen is still missing a working faucet and drain, the stove and dishwasher are sitting off by themselves in the dining area, the cabinets are mostly done, but not completely finished, and there are no fans or lights installed yet. The furniture sits in the center of everything with a big black tarp protecting it, looking a bit like a deflated big top at the circus. There is an extension cord that runs from the powder room to the water pump outside that supplies RM with its precious water (it actually became unplugged while I was fully lathered up in the shower and Sunnyrock had to be called to give us the location of the water pump outlet so we could plug it back in – soapsuds be damned!). In other words, the great room does not look so great (yet) and until the workers have completed all their dirty, dusty tasks, it will remain looking like a gypsy camp. The good news? We actually spent our nights at Reef Madness, under the spinning bedroom fans, with one bathroom working and one mostly working. Yes, this is a major milestone!

September 28, 2007

The first thing we plugged into the one working outlet in the kitchen was the blender (how did you guess?). If the truth be known, what we really wanted to plug in first was the coffee pot on our first morning, but finding the little devil was a problem. We cataloged what was in each and every box and cross referenced it on a master list; we just didn’t know where in the stacked confusion each box was. As it turned out, finding the blender was a snap, not because we so wisely placed it where it could be easily accessed, but rather the inexplicable fact that we somehow ended up with four blenders, each in a different box loaded in different areas of the container. Our odds at a great happy hour were decidedly in our favor! I guess we took to heart the villa management’s warning that “blenders were typically the first casualty” in a rental villa. And I know how vital they are to our fragile stressed out states of mind, but four blenders? Anyway, we had perfect mango daiquiris our second night at RM and blessed hot, great Caribbean coffee the following morning. Our niece (remember our niece?) toasted the villa, the island, the Caribbean blue waters, the donkeys…(this apple didn’t fall far from the tree). Ahhhhh…Life is good.

October 1, 2007

Well, we unloaded, we painted, we cleaned, we organized. We also made it to Maho twice and snorkeled at Honeymoon once. It was Caitlin’s (you remember our niece Caitlin?) first time snorkeling and she loved it. We ate at Island Blues mostly every night (it was the only game in town). There was one notable break from the food sameness. The September migration of tourists and the tourist supporting island personnel, leave the island bereft of places that serve food. Surprisingly enough, Karen, the owner of Mosquito Bites (which is a day time deli/bakery), took pity on those of us left behind and cooked up an amazing Sunday dinner served from 2PM (when it came out of the oven) until 5PM (when they close). This was like the Thanksgiving dinner we all dream about, turkey stuffed with savory dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn pudding and for dessert, an apple cranberry brown betty - all home made. It was to die for and we ate off the sizable portions for three days! It was one of the best meals I’ve had on the island, and it came from this tiny deli! She might keep it up if it proves popular enough. I sure hope she does. Even with the work we did, all the great room furniture is still piled in the center of the room and any pictures we could show of it would be less than appealing, so let’s stick to the bedrooms for now. We dressed up the beds with light weight quilts, set up the lamps on the night stands and the result is the appearance of a nearly completed villa (OK, we can pretend can’t we?). We took some great pictures artistically avoiding the boxes stacked up just outside camera range, which belong in the great room or on the patio, but must remain inside and protected from the hammer and saw wielding workmen and the dust they manufacture. No we are not ready for prime time yet, but the rooms are inching their way toward certain perfection… OK, perfection in an island sort of way…

October 2, 2007

So, how was your trip, you might ask? It was, as all of our RM trips have been, a bit strange. Perhaps this trip was stranger than most. Did you get everything accomplished that you wanted? Yes, yes I believe we did. Did you have fun? Absolutely - swimming, snorkeling, having drinks by our empty pool, meeting and socializing with the people who call St John home all year long. Yes, we had a good time. Then, what was so strange? Well, Caitlin, (you remember my niece Caitlin?) She had a very good time. She loved snorkeling; she loved the warm weather and the beautiful beaches. She drank rum drinks and got up the nerve to sing karaoke at Island Blues with Ralph (from Sunnyrock). She met new friends. She worked hard - she played hard. This was the first trip we actually stayed at Reef Madness - the first trip we took someone along to help out, and enjoy the pain and joy of building on St. John. And what happened? Her aunt and uncle had to go home, and she decided to stay behind. Yes – let that sink in a minute - she stayed behind. She told us right after she finished wailing with Ralph, right at the bar at Island Blues, the night before departure that she was NOT LEAVING. Oh man, what do I tell my sister? Caitlin’s mother is small, but she can kick my butt all over town – she’s like a momma bear with cubs and though her cub is quite capable of taking care of herself, momma bear might not see it that way. Just what we needed - more stress…

I am practicing this look in the mirror before explaining to "momma bear"

Caitlin (she caught the dreaded reef madness disease)

October 3, 2007

Well, here we go again. We leave today for yet another trip to St John. “So soon?”, you ask. Yes, things are happening rather quickly right now. When we arrive tonight, the stucco should be finished on the back of the house, the porch tile will be done, all the appliances will be in place, the lighting fixtures will be installed, and cool AC will be flowing through the villa –and pigs will be flapping their wings left and right!!!!. We have learned to temper our expectations, however, we ARE getting into crunch time here at Reef Madness. We also have some more help on this trip in the person of our neighbor, Craig, who is a builder himself. He has some down time and is willing to give us a hand doing some of the time consuming and potentially expensive “small stuff” such as mounting all the brackets, shades, mirrors, shelves, etc… (going up on concrete and stone – yow!), and, well, you know, all the stuff that needs to be done and no one remembers to put into the “budget”. Craig volunteered and has the know-how. So it’s back to the airport, and we’ll be out of touch for another week. When we get back we will start another blog page, have more exciting pictures and perhaps a couple of broken legs if in fact Craig refuses to return as did our niece. His wife, though perhaps not quite as formidable as my sister, could potentially cause us some bodily harm should Craig catch “Island Gravity” and choose not to leave. Wish us luck, and we’ll update you upon our return!

We will see you on page 7 (7? Wow) on Wednesday the 10th.

Do you have comments about our Reef Madness?