Beachshack: Tropical Building Page

St Barts Renovation:
Azu Villa

Anguilla Construction:
Guest cottage.
Tech center.
Residence.

Mary Ann's Tropical Building Page

This is the web site for the three villas that I built on Anguilla and the villa that I am renovating in St Barts (see Azu Villa Renovation Page), plus tropical construction tips and resources as well. These construction projects started in 1997, although land acquisition and architectural planning started in 1995. Every stage of the construction is recorded here.

We rent the villa in St Barts and the guest cottage in Anguilla (La Vanda) and the villa at the top of the Anguilla property (Mimosa), but we keep the beachfront house and pool for our own use. And we have created a name and web page for the overall completed property: Bellamare

For details on the main Anguilla beachfront house, visit the Residence Construction Page.

For the technology center, visit the "Clubhouse" Construction Page.

And finally, for the guest cottage, our first attempt at construction on Anguilla, visit the La Vanda Construction Page.

-- Mary Ann Green

Construction Tips

Friday, May 12, 2000 Permalink

The Houses of Old Cuba. Published in October 1999, this book has excellent photographs and essays about the colonial houses of Cuba, including how they adapted to the climate: Click Here.

Thursday, May 11, 2000 Permalink

The Finished Technology Center. For pictures around our completed technology center building, Click Here.

Wednesday, May 10, 2000 Permalink

Kitchen Doors. We used a lot of these louvered doors in the main house. They come from lumber yards in Puerto Rico, but are manufactured in Brazil. The bedrooms have 12 foot openings consisting of four 3'x8' louvered doors. These kitchen doors are 2'x8' each and have the bottom louvers removed. The bottom panel will be a solid panel of a complementary wood.

Tuesday, May 09, 2000 Permalink

The Garage. We decided to put a small one-car garage near the main building. Why? Because cars that are garaged last a lot longer in Anguilla and besides, you can always use more storage space. The garage has a flat roof of poured concrete. Here are the forms to hold it up while the concrete is curing:
For the front of the garage, we were inspired by the Dutch colonial buildings of St. Maarten and Aruba:

Monday, May 08, 2000 Permalink

Laundry Goes Up Quickly. The laundry and garage are on the right side of the driveway leading to the main villa. We couldn't think of any reason why these two buildings needed an ocean view. Here you can see the concrete block walls completed and ready for the roof.
And here you can see the poured concrete roof of the laundry. Notice the pineapple at the top!

Sunday, May 07, 2000 Permalink

Pantry. There is a corner missing out of Bob's study which is given over to a pantry for the kitchen. It is insulated and will have a small air conditioner so that it can be used for bread, etc.