Floor panels are installed

Fitz and Jason along with the other crew completed the placement and foam seal of both floors by 9:30am Friday. Amazing.
















Next step is to set the fasteners












Views of and from B building deck


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July 29, 2010 The Eco-Panels have arrived

The panels arrived after a challenging day of customs and excise clearance bumps. Many thanks to Sharon at Boynes Trucking and Customs Brokerage who expedited and saved us a full day of paperwork and travel. Compliments also to Lucien Sylvester (you may remember him pulling the lumber rack from the side of the road) he picked up the 40' container at 4pm and set it perfectly off our drive on a side parking area by 6:30pm Wed night.


The plan was to unload each floor panel and put it directly in place but the panel plans didn't ship with the container so while waiting for emailed copies of the floor and wall plans the crew unloaded all floor panels and moved them into approximate position.







Gary of SOL carpentry made fast work of moving the floor panels from the upper road to the upper slide.








Segundo, Gary and John Fitzgerald, owner of SOL Carpentry.








The corner panels were first to come out of the container, they will go under tarps until we need them next week.


For more information on the Eco-Panels please view their website at eco-panels.com

July 23 Site Shots

Sweetwater Pond is visible to the west of the lower building. It is overflowing due to heavy rain last week. We're seeing egrets, ducks, deer and donkeys enjoying the fresh water.













The site is ready for the EcoPanels which are due to arrive next week. The slides are in place from the road to the upper building and from the upper to lower building.

Floor framing

Lower building floor and deck



Slide from upper to lower building to be used to move the EcoPanels. Keeping all possible vegetation during construction creates challenges but is so great when the project is finished.


Upper building deck & view



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July 16 Boardwalk coming on...

We're setting temp decking on the landings and steps so we can use the boardwalk while awaiting the trex deckboard delivery.

July 16 Column Details Lower Building

July 16 Problems with ES1 cork flooring

The cork flooring on the EcoStudio first phase has failed. While this product is used successfully in many commercial applications our Concordia units, exposed to wet beach goers and generally high humidity are too much for them. We also erred in using it in the bath and kitchen areas, not realizing how delicate the seams would be. A broken shower pipe in one unit added to our floor woes. Most recently we had a few days of high wind and heavy rainfall which drove under the entry doors on several units and lifted up the flooring. We will be replacing all the cork floors in August with the new flooring selected for phase 2.

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Both buildings now ready for EcoPanels

While we await the Eco-Panels arrival on island the Fitz crew are completing the porch decks and the scaffolding, while the Segundo crew continue work on the boardwalk.

First Floor Beams, Columns & Drying out the new Ply

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Last Pour Your Own Day

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July 7 & 8 2010

Floor joists in on Thursday








Box beams on Wednesday.

July 1 & 2 Trailer woes

Our 20' flat rack was MIA; when we found the rack and driver he was stuck about 1/2mile down the road from Concordia, claimed the lumber was loaded incorrectly with too much weight in the back end and he was unable to make the final hill to the property. He agreed to back it down the hill to a flat lot but then left it at a steep angle on off the road. Bad for us. Not our property, and we're unable to unload this without risk of losing the load or worse, someone getting hurt. Our guys made those braces to stabilize the load.

Fortunately Lucien Sylvester of Enterprise Trucking came to save the day, driving out on a Carnival Week Holiday Friday afternoon with a stronger tractor to pull this rack to our yard so it could be unloaded.





Alex Brooks of Creative Builders arrived, 4pm on same holiday Friday, driving it himself since his crew left early on Fri and he had promised to help. He seemed to be ready to make fast work of this when...




He got stuck in the soft soil (lots of rain the past month). Took almost and hour to get him out with help from Lucien. They both stayed until almost dark to complete the job. Amazing people to work with.

Thanks to Lucien, Alex and Segundo, who put in a 12 hour day including a concrete pour. Amazing.


We end this long day with Alex's beautiful daughter, keeping busy while dad does his superhero work. Looks like she'll be ready for the Carnival parade next year.



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July 1 Pouring again

The Thursday pour went so well we decided to try it again on Friday to complete the boardwalk footings. 3 yards this time but no buckets, we could shoot it right down the hill into the footings.

Pour your own - June 30, 2010

No concrete available this week to pour our columns so our new Carpentry Contractor John Fitzgerald (Fitz) brought over his mixer, sand, gravel, sand and cement and the guys batched it themselves. Thanks to our regular crew, Fitz's crew, four wonderful young guys from our Maho Bay 4hr worker program and lots of buckets the columns are poured on building 1 and we're still ahead of schedule.

Had a bit of a scare when we discovered over 2 dozen eggs in the sand. Fearing they were turtle eggs, we collected them carefully and buried them on a nearby beach. We checked with the head of natural resources for the VINP and he confirmed they were iguana eggs, very likely laid after the sand arrived on island. With luck, these baby iguanas will start life on the beach.