Painting, Stomach Bug, Beach House Updates...
Welcome back, here is an update from last week!
Monday morning I woke up feeling not quite right; not nauseous, but not right. Something was "off" with my stomach and I wanted to SLEEP. No fever, no bird-flu symptoms, just super-fast digestion if I ate anything - and I wasn't very hungry. Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday, I easily took 3-hour naps AND slept 8-10 hours at night. Nathan was entirely fine, so either I picked up a bug in town, or maybe had a reaction to a bug bite, or...? Who knows. So the first half of last week was a blur.
By Thursday I willed myself to get something, anything, done - fresh air and sunshine should help, right? So I went to work finishing the woodwork repairs (filling nail holes, caulking seams) and also caulked our windows and a little of the wood planters out front, when I - once again - forgot you have to relieve the pressure on a caulk gun and blew out the tube. I painted the bodega doors a dark blue color to give some contrast, and fortunately, Nathan knew I wouldn't get it done before sundown and came out on a work break and after work to assist.
Friday, I felt well enough to do some light grocery shopping, and I apologized to the bridge attendant from our Monday encounter - a wise friend in AZ pointed out that he likely sees thousands of people a day, and was just doing his job...she was right, I shouldn't have been upset or expected to fly past, even when he usually just waves me through. Maybe his boss was there that day, who knows? Then I tried to catch up on housekeeping. Sickness aside, I don't understand how a house with two full-time workers could keep up with grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, AND work 40+ hours a week here, so hats off to those who are somehow getting it all done!
On the beach house front, the ICF company owner in MN who was so stoked to engage with us has now entirely ghosted us...which is a major kick to the gut. We've held up construction drawings for a month waiting on him to provide costing, to see if ICF was feasible for our budget or not. Alex our architect supplied everything the ICF guy asked for, and now...crickets. So begrudgingly on Friday, we told Alex to move forward with block construction, and please find an affordable way to make our home more energy efficient and waterproof...like ICF would have been. We can source ICF inexpensively, but the cost of the concrete core is what gives us pause - and we need a crew that understands and has experience building with it, which we are not finding on-island. Alex expects to have final blueprints, a construction cost estimate, and CBA (Central Building Authority) approval around the end of February. This means we have to find a builder that is licensed, trustworthy, experienced, and not gougy, who is willing to build on a boat-access-only lot AND has crews that do great finish work. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! A literal unicorn.
We did get a cost for a perimeter fence, but have put that on hold - it doesn't make sense for the walls to go up until the bulk of construction is complete.
On Saturday, we drove out to see how the clearing crew had come along, and they had completed a considerable amount of work!
Nathan surveying the work via video to send back to family
All the big, non-poisonwood trees remain!
Having the underbrush cleared out and nuisance trees removed should give our "good" trees room to grow and not compete for sun, nutrients, etc. We're super excited to see the final product! Here is a video if you're interested: Land Cleaning at Secret Beach
For reference, we did not have them touch the mangroves at the east of the waterfront lot - they are removing all trees and brush from the footprint of our home, and removing poisonwood trees or ones competing with our gumbo limbos, palms, sapodilla (didn't even know we had those, but we have a few!) and other desirable trees. The lot is 1.34AC and they charged $8,000BZE.
Saturday afternoon, we painted the front door and a double chair made of wood bright yellow—both my dark blue. This isn't a great photo, but wow, what a difference! I also painted the lower-level rails true white. I still have to do the rest of the rails, the planter boxes, and the fence—I have a paint sprayer inbound for that level of work!
Saturday night we watched my Lions absolutely collapse upon themselves.
Sunday was our "relax day" and we started it off at Mesa Bistro - sadly, we were there too early for "bottomless mimosas" for $50BZ from 12-2, but I did have a delightful mimosa with pomegranate tea!
After brunch, we drove north of Caribeville and found a dock to relax on - I saw eagle rays breach the water FOUR TIMES over the span of a few hours! Nathan missed every one of them. They are so magical to watch!
We finally stopped to see Shaggy at his new bar, which is BIG and welcoming, of course—it's Shaggy! He said the food was amazing, but we were still full from Mesa Bistro. Next time!
Then we went out to see our lot, as the crew told David they would be finished that day. They were not. Much like many of the trades we have engaged, "finished" is a very loose term, open to interpretation. They still had brush to move, a few trees to fall, and a bit of grass to rake out. The last time we had the lot cleaned up, it was $3,000BZ - granted, that was 2019 or 2020, and they didn't remove any large trees, but still, for the uptick in price, we were very clear in our expectations. I am going to meet the foreman out there this afternoon, who was pushing for the 50% balance to be paid yesterday. No, sir, not until the job is complete per our written agreement! (I don't care how small the job is, always get the scope of work and payment in writing!).
Time to go be productive - have a great week!