Upstairs rooms. Walls were sheeted in Hardie board planking
Always storing wood some where.
The owner wanted to build the second story on top of the old house. I said no as it was too weak.
When he left to fly back to Europe I dug out and built proper foundations, collums and support perimeter belts. So he had a new foundation inside the old one. He did not notice this till after the whole project was finished.
My main wood worker Etteane and me on Friday party day seeing who could stick their belly out the farthest. Etteane is from Dominica. He is a fantastic craftsman. I believe he was stoned smoking pot every day he worked for me. Most guys smoked pot all the time. We never had an accident during the entire build. But I had to keep pulling the pot plants that were growing from the seeds that were falling out of their joints.
Mr Rolle and I this trip catching up on old times. He is a master carpenter from Dominca. Does not drink or smoke. He worked building the house with his girl friend doing all the detail work, like all the stairs and scarf joints. Here we are this year with me hiring him to rip and cut rough teak for my current project redoing a teak deck on Wild Bird in Antigua. I sailed to Grenada to buy the teak and get Mr. Rolle to help me make up all the planking as he is as fussy as I am about details and he has all the big tools needed to do the job. When we were building this house I was flying back and forth to Miami to buy supplies. I could bring in everything without duty. Duty is so high there that most workers could not afford tools. I bought Mr. Rolle a table saw, joiner, thickness planer, chop saw and other hand tools. These are the tools we used to shape up the rough teak. All being used everyday but in like new condition. Its no big deal to sail 700 miles to get supplies and stuff done right.
LAnse aux Epines house today.
I love this pool but with the trade winds blowing over it it loses 1/2" of water a day through evaporation.
The front drive way
Today with the owners latest boat.
Rachel a few months ago enjoying the morning where Victor the mason was a few years ago
Kitchen
Dining room
Stairs going up to the five bedrooms. All wood is green heart and is all bunged.
Living room being cleaned by the house keeper. See all the collums I put in while the owner was gone to support the second story better.
All the beams are open and all finished bright
Owner wanted this bathroom set up. Floors are oak. Walls cypress.
8,500 feet of Italian marble throughout
Pool pump room.
Starting the hill climb looking up at the Sugar Mill
Marvin the grounds man. He worked for me as a general helper. When the house was finished I recommended him to stay on as the maintence man as he was 19 at the time and I could see that he was very bright and hard working. Hes been there now 11 years. You can just see the Hogfish off to his right.
A dormer I installed five years ago on a trip down island to race and work. These let the heat out in the evenings. The house is very cool but the owners tend to lock all the doors at night as they worry about crime. The air cant flow so it gets hot. I like living on a sailboat as I have a moat around me at all times.
The porches are 7 wide
Cabana. Lots of slippery Italian marble tile about.
Sunset
With so much rain in Grenada its easy to landscape.
In the pools infinity edge I put a 4" ledge down 4 for your toes to hang onto. Its 10 deep here as the owner who is just to my right wanted to say he could float his 60 sloop in this pool.
Iam at the left in this picture. The mast you see comimg up in the middle of us is his 60 sloop. The mast is 85 tall.
During the build of this place I had at times men from Montserrat, Antigua, Dominica, Guyana, Cuba, Nevis, and many Grenadians all speaking their version of English. The deal I made to all my men was that if they stuck with the job till the end they would receive a 10% bonus in the amount of their wages for the project. They wanted to work 10 hours a day 7 days a week. They were used to the local way of the boss showing up in the morning for a bit and then disappearing the rest of the day. That left lots of time for slacking off.
They had never had a boss like me though. The house site was a two mile walk for them to get to in and out of after a 1-2 hour local bus ride from the other side of the island.The local contractors let their men find their way to the work sites.
I picked up everyone at the two mile bus drop off site and drove them all back and forth each morning and evening starting at 6:30 in the morning and ending at 6:00. So they saw me first and last. I explained to them that in order to get 10 hours of pay they had to work 10 hours but at a nice even pace. All the work I delegated everyday to each crew I knew from my own experience what and how long it would take. So I never asked more than what could really be done. This they picked up on real fast. I also explained and showed them many new ways to build things that were much faster than what they had been doing. This they liked as they learned stuff that they could apply to their own houses. Most West Indians want to work but will try and drag out a job with the idea that it will last longer if it takes longer. This system I had to change. I did it by example of showing them how to nail up a stud wall 55 long in one day as opposed to the week and a half they would have taken. I hired everyone that asked for a job explaining that they had 3 days to prove their worth. I also gave everyone a raise after the first week if they could do what they claimed. When they got better more raises. If they were seen slacking off I fired them. In no time at all I was seen as being fair and hard working. I got a good crew of 20 guys moving along enjoying seeing this house going together so fast and built like no other in strength and details. The other local builders saw this too. I started to get offers to build more houses.
At any time I would have my core crew of about 30 men working with at times another 15-20 subcontractors doing electric, plumbing , rock work , etc with me having to oversee all they were doing to stick to my standards.
There was every shade of black, brown, redish brown, chocolate and tan working. To these guys if you were the blackest black and were a Rastafarian from Jamacia or Dominica you were the coolest guy. Then it was all about shades of black and brown. So when saying to me to " Go don a speak dat dark skinned mon"
What ? They are all dark skinned. Not really when you look about. Lots of shades going on. They said I was a red skinned man between us but when an official came to see the boss they always said," He da White guy over der" pointing at me.
West Indians do not want to work alone so will always pair up with a friend so they can talk. They talk continually. Most all do not want to be put in charge at all even for more pay. So you have to get them sorted out into working groups and give them a doable goal with the alpha guy telling the other guys that they were not doing it right or to hurry up. They became leaders with out knowing or asking. Then you can leave them to it and go on to the next group and project. This has worked well for me in building boats too.
At times during a pour with 8 guys yelling at each other in their own local version of English with most of them not understanding each other I would step in and yell " Please speak the Queens English!"
They all in their youth went to British schools so can speak clear English if they want. But its not so cool so most just go on with their local version of talking like a Jamaican. " Ah boss, de Conch be stuck in de hose, wa to do?"
It was a daily challange to keep things moving along at a good steady pace. Most foreigners that get to the island that are used to first world order look at everything down here as chaos. I look and see a way to try and steer and control this chaos. To survive you have to be able to punt, kick and weave every day like its a soccer game. No day will be alike or unfold as you planned and hoped for the day before. It will pour rain for two hours, then be hot as hell with no wind, the pump you need for the days pour is broken, the crane you can hire has no dump bucket but his rival company does, so how to make it all happen.
Knowing the local mind set and customs helps. You have to greet everyone with a good morning or good afternoon before going on about business. You have to find out where all your main suppliers hang out so when they are supposed to show up you instead track them down and make sure they know you want them and get them to come to the job site. They want the job but most are in no hurry to do the work. Paying your bills right after the job is done does wonders. Now they know you mean business. Dont ever give money in advance. You buy the materials on your own and when so much is done then you pay. The going pay rate for the top carpenters was $ 45.00 a day, $30.00 for masons and $25.00 for laborers. It has not gone up much since then.
Looking back I still cannot belive that I was offered this job with only Tim and Gayles reference after only a few minutes conversation. Such is boating life. The owner is a very successful Irishman that was very frugal with his money. In the end I built the place at a cost fully furnished for $138.00 US a square ft. I got everything in duty free because the Chinnese were building a new Cricket stadium for the Grenadians for the up coming world Cricket match to be played there. The island needed hotel rooms. I counted up 11 bedrooms and bathrooms so that it fell into the hotel act and enabled me to save about $400,000 in duty. They never came out to count up the rooms or inspect the building for code. The third world has lots of loop holes you can wiggle through.
When rachel and I sailed into Prickely bay this winter the owner had just left to go to his other houses in St. Barts. He graciously offered the place to us to use while we were there. Tim and Gayle were sailing back there after ten years absence in their new Boat Wild Bird. They had not seen the place since I started the project.
Along with them and other new friends we had some great parties around the pool looking out over the bay and our sailboats at anchor below over the next few days.
This project has been one of many that I have taken on or been a part of in our sailing travels about the Atlantic basin. I have never been lacking for a job or work while sailing. Thats why I carry so many tools with me and need a vessel that can carry this load. You to can do the same thing if you have basic work skills, energy and good common sense.
The big boats are really amazing in the outlandishly huge sail area they carry
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The face frames are solid cherry and have a width of 2"..jpg)
All the face frames were built using the Kreg pocket screw gizmo. I cant say enough good things about this method of building face frames, and its become my number one choice when applicable. .jpg)
The doors are the style and rail method and because I want a nice looking job, I decided to use a raised panel. I went with a traditional raised panel which is a 15 degree angle. I have an ogee cutter for my shaper, but I wanted something more in tune with what one would find on an older boat, and the 15 degree raised panel suited my thought. I cut the style, rails, and raised panels on my old Delta shaper. Ive posted about the shaper before, and Ill again say that caution is for sure the preferred attitude to have when using this tool. When the panel raising bit that weighs about a pound is spinning at 10,000 rpm, and you need hearing protection from the noise it make, a serious amount of respect quickly builds. When raising the panels, I use the table saw and remove a lot of the waste before starting with the shaper. I take light cuts, and always do the end grain first. The end grain is the hardest material to cut, and in case I have some chipping or a minor blow out, the next cut going with the grain will usually fix any end grain issues. The cutter is carbide, and sharpened to 600 grit so its nice and sharp..jpg)
The shaper has a great device to raise and lower the bit, and along with the micro adjustments on the fence, the level of precision is fantastic. When finished with shaping the panel, I sand it to 220, and give it a light coat of Cherry stain. Having some color on the panel before assembly will help prevent seeing a line at the style and rail joint once the panel starts moving with seasonal humidity and the wood naturally darkens. .jpg)
I expect the Cherry wood to darken five or ten shades once it starts seeing some sun. The natural darkening is one reason I like Cherry. .jpg)
Ive been mocking up some of the structure in the salon. For the galley, I mocked up the bulkhead wall, and the engine room chimney. I also mocked up the ceiling above the fridge. The finished ceiling is going to be a bead board which is 5/8" thick. Using 1/4" plywood for the ceiling is not ideal and makes it hard to get a good scribe joint against the face frame. I left an inch of material to scribe for final fit against the real ceiling. Im being pretty accurate, but Im also giving myself lots of wiggle room in regard to extending face frames past the cabinet boxes in critical areas for plenty of room to scribe and fit to the finished wall and ceiling material once those are installed. Mocking up is not something Ive done in the past, but Its the only way I can do this job. Ive found a few issues during the mock up and was able to easily change some things that would have been a pain to do later down the road.
Because I am swamped with paying work, Ive taken a few days off of the build. Hurricane Sandy has changed that, and caused major slow down in my work, so Im back to the important things in life... the boat build. I have to say that while we are four or five hundred miles from Sandy, we had 25 mile per hour winds sustained last night while she came ashore. 
The barn is about as full as it can get and the only place to set up my table saw is under the roof of the aft deck. I had to position the saw so I can make long rips through the door of the salon. 
. The cut put the saw in a bit of a bind, but it was not too hatefull, and thats what tools are for. Once the roof side was cut to shape, I re clamped the board to the frame, set the scribe for 5/16", and scribed the interior side of the cut. Once again, I used the circular saw ( vs the band saw ) and made the cut. All the boards are being held proud of the steel frame about 5/16" so foam remains on the frame flange after the foam is trimmed. With the board now cut to fit, I applied a bead of polyurethane adhesive and re clamped the board. I then use my right angle air drill, and drill through the existing holes in the steel frames. Next I use a hammer to drive the 1/4"x2" carriage bolts home, followed by a flat washer and a nylock nut, then tighten all the bolts using a 3/8" air ratchet
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