Final structural pour went great!!

I wanted to start the blog with a picture of the view, it's just amazing and the constant breezes are such a  welcomed reprieve from our mostly warm and sunny days.  Caribbean Palm Villa survived its first tropical storm, Bertha. This picture was taken from standing up on the roof.  All of our roof framing is 3 x 8 and 3 x 12 pressure treated lumber to resist rot and termites.

This is the view from the street, the pour went very good using the boom pump truck.  The pour consisted of 71.5 yards of concrete.

Another view of the roof framing, this is the ceiling of the large living room.

3 days after the pour we began to strip the forms.  This view is of two kitchen windows to the left and the front door entry between the two pillars which are on top of stone columns.

This a picture of the kitchen, powder bath and laundry room exterior windows.  The wood framing inside the window and door openings need to stay in place for two to three weeks.  As you can see this is a good shot of the rafters which are cast in the concrete wall.

This is always a good picture of the back view of the villa.  The top right corner is where John spent most of his time last week.

This is a view of the scaffolding off the covered veranda which wraps on three sides of the villa.  The wrap around covered veranda offers a lot of shade and retreat from the sun.

This is another view of the covered veranda from the pool deck.  Once all the scaffolding and supports are taken out one will be able to appreciate the architecture. 

The above picture is a closer view of the entry area to the villa.  Over the next couple of weeks we will be final sanding and staining of the beams.  Next will be the cyprus tongue and groove ceiling followed by treated plywood, then covered with a membrane to resist water penetration.  Our clay tile from France is currently in Florida and will be arriving here within the next two weeks.  Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Below are a few pictures of the covered wrap around veranda and the last picture is a shot of the great room, the interior door way which leads to the powder bath, laundry and all three internal bedrooms.

Roof is Framed and Container with windows and travertine is on its way!

Been a very intense 3 weeks since our last post getting ready for the next and final structural concrete pour. Over the past few weeks all of our roof framing materials arrived on site as we planned ahead and ordered the material from Florida long before it was needed on site.  The "curb appeal" is beginning to materialize!

In efforts to keep the job on its lightning pace we have planned ahead, the general contractor should  always be thinking three weeks ahead.  This way you have what you need when you need it as opposed to being "down".  Below is a picture of the 3X8 rafters being set in place in the concrete forms.

Once the rafters are in place and all electric, plumbing, and AC work is complete, the remainder of the forms are set in place and braced.  We will notch the top of each rafter and lay rebar in the notch and then "hook" that piece of the rebar with another piece of rebar to the beam made which is also made out of rebar that will be cast in concrete called a "ring beam".  The picture below is the ring beam which ties all of  the arches of the veranda/lanai to the colums which anchor the roof to the slab below.  Pretty impressive if I must say so myself.

Below is a picture showing our crew hard at work to meet our July 24th 80 +/- yard pour.  If you look closely at the bottom of the columns you get a glimpse of some of the stone work that will accent this  beautiful villa.

 Below is a pretty impressive view from below the villa looking up

Backing up a few steps..... the picture below represents some of the rafters for our roof.  We stand them on edge to allow the wood to dry for a week or two before we plane the boards to "clean" the boards up so they look nice once in place.

This is a picture of the power planer which makes the appearance of the rafters really crisp and clean.  

Overall we are two months ahead of schedule.  Our concrete is looking to be below budget as we thought this project thru thouroughly and budgeted properly.  Our entire project is actually under budget.  We may be the first to ever say that on island!  Our final picture is one of our doors that was loaded in the container that was shipped out of Chicago today. They should be on island over the next couple of weeks and we will be ready to install all of them.  Thursday the 24th is our concrete pour.  We will update the blog most likely friday evening.

Forming up main level, moving along at a good pace.

Another two weeks have gone by and we are moving along at a good pace.  About two months ahead of schedule we have begun framing up the main level and began the stonework on the lanai columns.

The picture above and below are taken from the pool patio area.  This is the main level great room which will open to the spacious covered lanai.

These pics are of the framing work being done in the great room and dining area.  These picture don't show it, but the villa great room, dining room and kitchen will all have dual views of Fish Bay and Rendezvous Bay.

The picture below is the front of the house to the left of the front door area.  There are two nice size windows in the kitchen area then as you look left, the window for the powder bath and left again is the window into the laundry room.

The front door is pictured above and will be covered by the wrap around covered lania.  Below we have begun building the stone columns which will have pillars placed on top connecting to the roof.

The picture below shows a good view from below up to the great room.  Below is the lower level window openings from one of the ensuite bathrooms.

There are five french door openings in the great room and dining area, with the great breezes Caribbean Palm Villa will always enjoy comfortable trade winds.

 We excavated the front walkway around a series of rock outcroppings and cactus to allow us to keep some of the existing natural landscape setting. (picture below)  We have decided we will need a stone wall along the brick covered walkway which will add a lot of nice island character since we will be utilizing the island native stone, commonly called Bluebitch.

Over the next few weeks we will finish framing up the walls and roof beams.  Once thats complete then we will have last major concrete pour for the villa.  The roofing material has just arrived so we will then move on to the tongue and groove for the ceilings. 

3 more weeks 3 more concrete pours including the pool!!!!

Its been 3 weeks since our last post.  The progress continues at lightning speed.  Since we posted on May 22nd we have finished the majority of the earthwork including cutting for the sidewalk to the main entrance.  Below is a picture looking up at the villa.  Rather impressive don't you think.

Once we backfilled around the lower level and cut the footings for the remainder of the main level, we decided to step the pace up even more by digging the pool and prepping for the 24 by 30 pool veranda. Since this area is only a 4 inch step down from the veranda it made sense to pour the entire main level as well as the pool veranda at the same time.  This picture above shows all of the rebar used to form to pool floor.

 We poured on a Tuesday and erected the pool walls and poured two days later on Thursday.

Within 2 weeks of pouring the pool we had the entire main floor formed for concrete.  This includes roughing in the remainder of electrical, plumbing and air conditioning.  All of this entails an enormous amount of labor and material to support the concrete floor from below with plywood, 4X4 posts and metal jacks that must be left in place for 3 to 4 weeks after the pour.  

This is a picture of the pool patio.  As we suspected we have the southwesterly view we expected over Rendezvous Bay and Klien Bay.

This is a view from the street above.  You can see the pool in the right hand corner.  To get an idea of the size of this entire slab, it measures 96 feet long by 38 feet wide.  

Because of the size of the pour we hired a pump with a boom to assist in pouring the concrete more efficiently.  This pour totaled 76 yards.  That is 8 completely loaded concrete trucks 9 yards each and one "straggler" at 4 yards.  The pump allows the concrete to be put in place much faster and when pouring such a large slab we do not want any cold joints.  Add to the equation that all of theses trucks are barged over from St Thomas so timing is so critical.  

Awesome picture with the ocean in the background.

Everyone busted their rumps today! 12 guys plus two from the pump truck!

This is the last bit of concrete that was poured as the day came to a close on Monday of this week.  This area in picture is the pool veranda.  It is going to be very nice with plenty of room to relax!

This picture was taken yesterday, Tuesday.  This is the view from the living room looking over the covered veranda.  We have almost 800 sq ft of covered veranda. this is one of the most desirable attributes of this villa.  Being able to sit outside any time rain or shine to enjoy the wonderful trade winds and yet be sheltered from the elements.

This is our Kitchen lol.  We started forming walls yesterday.  Our roof rafters arrive on the 24th of June so looks to be another crazy few weeks.  Hopefully we will be pouring the walls by the end of the first week of july or perhaps the second week.  Later next week we begin the stone work that will serve as the base at the bottom of each of the 12 columns on the veranda.  

Another successful concrete pour, #4 in 6 weeks

It has been another busy two weeks at Caribbean Palm Villa.  In this time we have formed all of the lower level walls both interior and exterior.  On this level there are two bedrooms with en suite bathrooms both of which feature ocean views to Rams Head and outdoor showers. The picture above is the morning of the pour.  The pictures below will give you some idea as to the work and preparation needed to get to this point.

To begin the process of forming the walls, all of the interior forms are erected first.

Snap ties which hold the two plywood forms together are then inserted into the forms.

Next, literally tons of rebar and all window and door openings are put in their respective places.  Once secured, this areas will displace concrete and once the forms are removed the openings will be ready to install the respective window or door.  Simultaneously the plumber and electrician visit the site and layout and secure their mechanicals to the rebar.

 John and the AC contractor, Daryl installed the line sets for the air conditioners that we most likely will rarely use due to the awesome trade winds this Villa receives.

Yes john is getting a good tan but that is not him in the forefront.  Its one of our hard working concrete men they call Blanc.

 View from the street.  We had to use a pump truck this time around.

This picture was take yesterday after the forms were stripped.  This view is from one of the lower level master suites.  Looks amazing, the views keep getting better.

With this last pour we finally have reach the elevation of the upper floor.  Standing on the top of the forms this is the view from the upper Bedroom.