To our surprise and our architect’s pleasure, Sea Grape House has won the Governor’s award for Design and Construction Excellence in the Cayman Islands. All architects submitted designs covering any commercial and residential properties and I am told the seven judges unanimously put us in first place. It seems that care for the natural habitat, cultural tradition and the renewable energy features counted for a lot and tipped the balance in our favour.

Our architect, John Doak, our project manager Alan Veeran and all the consultants got a framed certificate. Everyone connected with the project is proud to say they were a part of it. They all think it’s good for business and we are delighted that they should get this recognition.

I was in England at the time of the awards ceremony so Janet attended and made a brilliant off the cuff speech to praise and thank all those involved. Of course what was unsaid was the credit due to Janet who conceived the design and master minded the project.

There was a lot of media attention with press coverage and TV and radio interviews, which was fun. It has provided good publicity for all the environmental issues we believe in and I think it has made an impact. We are not so happy about the higher public profile we have now.

See the photos that John Doak took and submitted. They are excellent. Also of Janet at the awards ceremony

Here is a selection of photos from the Cayman House Photo Gallery. If you would like to see more please refer to the Gallery.

We moved into Sea Grape House on Wednesday 7 September. The house is absolutely perfect. As we walk around the outside and then the interior it is hard to believe the thousands of decisions that we made over the last three years that affect every aspect of the design and construction of the house and the choice of the fittings. It truly is Janet’s house in every sense. She is quite beside herself with excitement!

The garden is looking well established already. It is remarkable how quickly plants grow in a Caribbean climate. We were also fortunate that the planting has been done in the rainy season. No doubt in a year or two it will be a profuse display of tropical plants and flowers. Probably not even that long, Janet has already booked the first visit of the Gardening Club for September next year!

Living here has made an immediate impact on our lifestyle. We get up in the morning and take a leisurely walk along the beach and come back for an exercise swim in the lap pool before breakfast. Gazing out over the shallow turquoise water of Frank Sound from the verandah wastes endless minutes.

Of course the house is not completely straight yet. That will probably take another couple of weeks. We have men coming in every day to sort out minor problems, but they are only minor: things like no TV reception, a weak Internet signal and we are still on temporary power until CUC, the utility company connect us. That should have happened today but the cable that our electrician left for them was three feet too short to go to the top of the pole. Until we have full power we can’t connect our solar panels and we can’t use the lift. The interior plantation shutters will be fitted next week and the new furniture we have ordered for the outside living areas arrives at the end of the month. We are getting there!

Janet has so enjoyed unpacking paintings and other possessions that we have not seen since we were at the Old Parsonage. It is lovely to look at her Victorian water colours and owls in a new setting.

The air conditioning using the geothermal system is working perfectly after a minor glitch in the first couple of days. It is very silent and provides a constant cool temperature. The only system which is causing some concern is the water maker. The reverse osmosis plant is working perfectly and water is desalinated, but it has a bad odor, almost certainly caused by hydrogen sulfide in the well water. We don’t know the answer to that yet but I think that’s our only remaining problem and of course we are using mains water in the meantime..

Naturally we have lots of manuals to read to find out how to operate everything and we have a daily list of things to do. We are preparing a snagging list for all those little things that tradesmen need to come back to fix but that’s par for the course…The project has been a wonderful experience and we have no regrets about undertaking it. But now that it’s done we just want to enjoy living here.

Like a long distance runner reaching the tape we thought we had made it: we were ready to collapse in exhaustion and relief. Then an inspector called. To our dismay and the fury of Alan Veeran, the inspector failed the house which means that he was not prepared to issue the Certificate of Occupancy and we can’t move in until he does. Actually it’s not as bad as it sounds. He was very nitpicky about a lot of minor issues, mostly to do with health and safety, and most which seem very irrelevant to us. Example: he has made us move a smoke detector in the guest living room which is 16 feet away from the cooker. Now it is 3 feet away from the cooker and the alarm will go off, setting off all the smoke alarms, whenever a piece of toast burns! (Easy solution to that problem!). Example: we have had to add a secondary thin handrail on the steps leading up to the front door because the attractive wood capping on the rail cannot be completely enclosed by the hand!

Alan has been working through the 14 point list all this week and, fingers crossed; we should pass his re-inspection which is due on Monday. Other work which is not required for the certificate of occupancy has been going on this week, including completing the chip and tar drive and the installation of our solar panels. Our moving in date has been set for 5 September, but we are not so naive as to believe that there won’t still be work going on; snagging the various problems that we are going to find. This is beginning to sound a rather negative picture. It isn’t. The house is beautiful. Do see the photographs in the picture gallery.

As a diversion: I thought you might all like to see that Peter Heir, who bought our last boat, ACE OF CLUBS and also bought the book ‘Islands Times Forgot’ is now following in our footsteps…

From: Peter C. Heer [mailto:p.c.heer-ruedi@bluewin.ch]
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 12:46 AM
To: ‘Graham’
Subject: news from TeApiti of Chriska

Hello Graham,
after 19 days, a breakage of the clew on the main sail on day no 7 that forced us to go on with 2 refs in the main an a reduction of speed of 1 -2 kn and a complete shutdown of the engine on day 17 because of a shortage in the electric cable that connects the stop knob at the engine control and the solenoid at the injection pump we finally had to bypass Fatu Hiva because it was too dangerous to go at anchor in this bay with once no wind and then all of a sudden a gust of up to 30kn and finally went at anchor in Nuku Hiva in the Saturday morning of day 19. (as normal in France nobody was working on weekends) So together with another sailor we met, we searched and found out that we had no electricity on the engine to open the fuel valves. On Monday the mechanic finally came to the same conclusion and told me that we could proceed with what we already had begun to do. The next day we rented a 4×4 and made the same tour to Yvonne as you described in your book. The Taxi driver we asked at the airport where the junctions to this road is looked at me, hesitated and said “mais c’est très special” finally told us to follow him and showed us the turn of….that it was special we expected according to your description but it was all very dry and I would not wanted to have missed it! Chez Yvonne we had lunch together with the crowd of the Aranui 3, later went to visit the archeological sites and came back to take a nap in the bungalow and then had dinner with the only other guest at that time, a Lady from Basel, Switzerland whom we invited to share dinner with us. Yvonne was very pleased when I showed here her picture in your book and the next morning she even presented to Gisela and myself necklets you may notice on the photos. Tomorrow I have to repair the fixing of the main and then we are ready to proceed towards the Tuamotus. All the best from the Islands time forgot. Peter and Gisela

We have been wondering about a name for our new house. We’ve been thinking about Sea Grape House or Crab City. It is amazing how crabs of all sizes find a way to come in and share our new home! I expect repelling them will be an ongoing battle. Actually Sea Grape House is a serious name contender. It seems appropriate because of the profusion of Sea Grape on all sides of the house. Comments please!

‘So near and yet so far’ sums up how we feel after our regular Sunday visit today. Almost everything appears to be finished and yet the progress each week seems minimal and we have a feeling that it will be another month before we can move in. Actually that fits in quite well because it would be too hectic to move in whilst the grandchildren are here and they leave in mid-August. The main things that need to be completed are the external hurricane shutters, the internal plantation shutters, the railings around the balcony, which would then allow the tiling to be completed, the solar panels, the internal staircase and the final touches to the cabinets. When everything is done the drive— gravel on tar— will be laid so that it doesn’t get spoiled in the final stages.

One area in which rapid progress is being made every day is the garden. A great deal of planting has now taken place and the lawn has been laid. It is an ideal time to be doing it because it is the rainy season and we have welcomed heavy showers on several days. The green grass has a wonderful cooling effect and is easy on the eye in the bright sunshine.

Today I unpacked the RIB (rigid inflatable boat) inflated it and installed the outboard engine, so we will be able to explore Frank Sound by water when the grandchildren arrive on Tuesday.

We are coming down the home straight now. We’ve been told that we will be able to apply our certificate of occupancy around the middle of July. That doesn’t mean we can move in: we will be in the hands of the government departments responsible for approving the building. It could take two to four weeks. Still, it makes an August moving in date look quite possible.

Looking around today though it seems hard to believe. Railings around the verandah have only just begun to be installed; the wooden treads and balusters for the internal staircases have to be done and quite a bit of tiling is still needed in some external areas.

We have also run into some problems. The company fabricating the railings has been very slow and difficult to deal with and have held us back. The local agent for the company providing the colonial hurricane shutters told us this week he asked the factory to stop production because he wasn’t happy with what we agreed! (Janet and Alan Veeran are having a meeting with him on site on Monday morning to sort out the problems.) We are not entirely happy with the interior doors. I think we are at fault in having chosen a closed louver instead of an open louver, and for some reason the paint finish is not of the quality we wanted. So that has to be sorted out.

Today we have spotted a number of finishing problems that need to be resolved, which although irritating to us, are not important enough to mention in any detail here.

We have made good progress on the renewable energy front. We signed our agreement with the local utility company and ordered the solar panels which will probably be delivered in about a week’s time. We had some problems with the supplier of our water maker because the low energy pump we ordered was no longer available, but that’s now resolved and on its way. Our geothermal engineer is booked to come from Florida to hook up the air conditioning on 19 July.

The wood floor has been laid in the study/library/office, where we have a beamed cathedral ceiling and they look lovely. The internal window treatments we are having are plantation shutters and they are being measured up next week.

So on paper we nearly there, but in reality it still looks as though there is a lot to be done.

Like a thousand piece jigsaw the final gaps are being filled in. Bathroom fittings, toilets, kitchen cabinets are all about three quarters done, making it seem more like a home and less like a building. The interior doors are mostly fitted. Still to come on the outside are the railings for the wrap-around first floor balcony and the colonial hurricane shutters. Until that is done the exterior continues to look undressed.

Inevitably, I am sure, this is a time when minor snags appear; mostly to do with suppliers making mistakes in what they send. Four interior doors have the louvers the wrong way up: some faucets (taps) do not have the porcelain handles that were specified: a marble kitchen counter top was cracked when it was cut and installed: a closet was put in the wrong way round. Janet visits the site almost daily for meetings or to check for snags like this. Like a jigsaw the pieces finally slot into the correct places.

Now the landscaping has really begun and the WW2 bomb site is being replaced by top soil and many large trees that have miraculously appeared. Janet is beside herself with excitement. Unlike me, she can see the finished garden clearly.

The finish line is in sight—probably the end of July, but many a slip …

This week the site has looked like a World War Two zone. See all the photos! The drillers came in to bore the holes for the geo thermal system that will provide our air conditioning.

The drill rig came on a big truck, supported by a backup power lorry. The drill rods are 40 ft long, and when they get that far down they bring the rod up, add another 40 ft length, and go down again until they finally reach the 150 ft depth specified. On Monday there was a problem. The first hole bore into a large cavity/cave, and so different locations for the six bore holes had to be agreed. Janet was called up to be consulted, as she doesn’t want bore holes where trees are going to be planted.

After that the work went smoothly, although sea water gushes up and has to be directed via dams to a lake to soak away where it can do minimal damage to vegetation. The drillers fell behind but finally caught up by Friday night, giving Jeff, our geo-thermal engineer, all Saturday to complete his work before catching the early Sunday morning flight back to Tampa. Today he used a back hoe to dig six foot trenches to connect up the cooling pipes that run through the bore holes in a continuous loop. It was hard and dirty work.

Next week the driller will continue to bore the seventy foot hole to draw up the sea water for the desalination plant, and another two hundred foot well to dispose of the brine after the desalination process, as well as the effluent from our septic tank.

It is hard to believe that this devastated area will soon be a beautiful landscaped garden, and that it is our contribution to a greener environment.

This week’s blog has more photographs of the house from the outside and the splendid 20 ft palm trees that have now been planted on the beach—the beginning of the garden action. The external areas are a tip, a typical building site even though it is supposedly cleared up. Next week it will get even worse! The drillers are coming in to make 6×150 ft bore holes for the installation of the loops in the geo thermal system: sea water will gush up everywhere! Then they will bore two more holes for the Salt Water Reverse Osmosis system—one to abstract the water and one to dispose of the brine and effluent. When this dirty work is done, Tom, our landscape gardener, can get to work in cleaning up and landscaping, although planting will wait until the rainy season begins.

Inside the house, floor tiling is about half done, and the bead board ceilings—which look lovely—are about three quarters done. On the ground floor lighting and ceiling fans are in. Bathrooms and interior doors will be in the next big container to arrive from Miami.