Christmas party on the construction site!

Mary Ann's Tropical Building Page

Since our Dec 9, 1997 report about building on a Caribbean island, we have:

• installed the Brazilian wooden windows in the villa,
• planted our first palm trees,
• painted the villa,
• received our first curved, louvered teak doors from Trinidad (more on them later).

Hints: Click on any small picture below to see it larger and visit the Site Map for previous and future progress reports, house plans, bookstore and references.

Nowell Rogers, Jr and Sr. Palm Importers

Nowell Rogers Jr, palm importer and computer programmer!

With the fence finished and the goats at bay, we are ready to start putting in palm trees.

We put some shade cloth up in the gazebo to make a temporary house for our new palm trees.

These palms came from the Dominican Republic, brought here by Nowell Rogers, Junior and Senior.

Christmas palm trees waiting to be planted.

Nowell, Sr is the Chief Engineer for Anguilla. And his son Nowell, Jr. is a computer programmer who has worked in the Dominican Republic, Houston, and Miami. He has even worked on the Hewlett-Packard servers that my husband Bob works on.

Nowell Jr. still has ten of the Christmas palms left. He only plans to bring in more when someone requests. The Rogers have access to several types of palms besides the Veitchia Merrilii (Christmas Palm), and other trees such as mangos, limes, tangerines, or eveb something unusual such as Pinus Occidentalis.

Their telephone number is 264-497-5468 and the email address is [email protected]

Nowell also brought in "Sugar Soil". This is waste from the sugar cane production, mixed with soil form a wonderful rich compost. He still has a few bags of this left if you want to try it.

Nowell Sr with a thatched palm they can provide.

Web Sites about Palm:

• Mike Maxson's Palms Site in Southern California has the best links.
• The Palm Centre in England, with a list of recommended books.
• The International Palm Society.
• University of Florida Palm Page with nutritional and disease information on palms.

Help the soil retain water with magic crystals.

Enhancing the Soil.

Books on Palms.

"Now reprinted, this compact, hard-cover book by Martin Gibbons is the best selling palm book in the world! With 80 pages, and covering 120 species all in full colour, it not only aids identification, but covers cultivation (both indoor and outdoor), plant pests, etc. and represents excellent value, much of the information being based on the author's personal experience both as a nurseryman and palm grower, and international explorer." (quoted from The Palm Centre)

Elvis planting the first palm trees.

On the Internet we found recommendations for a much more detailed book: Palms Throughout The World by David Jones. It is about 410 pages and is a very complete reference book, covering the entire world. Unfortunately, it did not prove that useful for our immediate task of selecting palms common to Florida and the Caribbean which will tolerate Anguilla's salt spray and weak soil. It is also available from Amazon.com on the Net.

GreenFingers in Phillipsburg has a big selection of palms, but we haven't purchased any yet so we can't report on price and service.

We plan to order from Florida some larger, more mature palms through a palm broker. You can get the species you want and the size you want, for a price!

Painting the Guest House

Outside is purple-blue and inside is yellow.

Now it is time to paint the guest villa. The roof is white and the windows are brazilian walnut, oiled to a dark color.

But the walls have color! We used Glidden "Ultra" acrylic latex paint, exterior grade, for both the inside and the outside. The inside of a Caribbean home is exposed to as much wear and tear as the exterior of a home in a milder climate.

Richardson Paints mixed our paint.

The colors for the house were concocted by Mary Ann with the help of Daphne Richardson of Richardson Paint Centre. Not content with the thousands of color formulas available standard from Glidden, Mary Ann picks a color that is as close as possible to what she wants, and then Daphne adjusts the color manually until Mary Ann is satisfied with the results.

Richardson Paint Centre is located in North Hill village and carries a full line of paints. They also have a pressure washer. It is important to remove mildew, dirt and old paint from the surface of concrete before applying new paint. Telephone: 264-497-2819.

Elvis applying exterior paint.

Before painting, the house was first sealed with water proofing sealant, then undercoated. Finally, two coats of exterior grade acrylic were applied.

The formula for this invented color is then carefully recorded by both Mary Ann and Daphne, and maintained in separate locations to ensure it is not disturbed by fire, wind, or other mishap.

The inside is painted yellow, with white ceiling.

The interior is yellow -- not a green-based yellow but a nice warm yellow.

The ceilings and beams are painted a bright gloss white. Other colors have been selected for trim, shutters, cabinets. More on that in later updates.

The Samantha-Teron Gazebo

Mary Ann holds Griffin's girls, Samantha and Gabi, and presents Arne Harrigan with Certificate of Appreciation.

Arne Harrigan built our beach gazebo at Beachshack. During the construction, his son Teron was born. And our project manager, Griffin Webster, had a new baby girl, Samantha.

So, on Christmas eve we had a party on the construction site. In the gazebo. The structure was dedicated as the Samantha-Teron Gazebo with a brass plaque honoring the occasion.

Site Map: Links, Plans and Other Info

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Past and Future Progress Reports

Plans of the Main House

Plans of the Software Center

Plans of the Guest Villa

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