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

Saturday, April 07, 2001 Permalink

The Living Room Ceiling and Roof
The living room pavillion has a wood beam ceiling with tongue and groove cypress boards. The beams are painted purple, as will be the window frames. The board sticking down in the center is for a fan.
The roof beams are tied into the ring beam around the perimeter of the building, as is normal.
Two of the walls have 12 foot arched openings. This one opens onto a walled courtyard garden that is surrounded by the living room, kitchen, master bath garden and garage.
A second roof is applied after the wooden one. First a shiny radiant barrier is added to the wooden roof (it looks like aluminum foil). Then 3D panels are added and fastened with rebar and stainless clips. Finally, concrete is poured over the entire roof. This leaves an airspace above the radiant barrier which acts to keep the building cool.

Tuesday, April 03, 2001 Permalink

October through December 2000.
Our personal schedule fell off a cliff in September 2000, so there haven't been any posts to this web site since. Construction, however, did continue and we have pictures of much of it. So, starting in April 2001, this site will now attempt to catch up on the last 6 months.
The Living Room

We have started on a "final" building for the project. This is a a living-room, entry-room, and pool pavillion, located in the open space between the guest bedroom and the kitchen. With the addition of this building, the pool will now be enclosed on 3 sides, while still being open to the ocean.
The picture above shows the foundation base being poured and the picture below shows the slab being prepared.
This zoom shot from up the hill shows the location of the living room relative to the other two buildings.
The view through the front door of the house.
The walls of this building are concrete block rather than Insteel panels.

The roof beams are framed in.
The 12 foot opening from the living room out to the pool. When you enter our house, this is what you will see.