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 04, 2001 Permalink

Test the Vanishing Edge Pool.

We filled the pool with water before the final finish and tile work, in order to check for leaks.
Here is how the vanishing edge looks when viewed from the living room/pool pavillion.

Sunday, April 29, 2001 Permalink

Wood Work.
The living room contains some interesting wood work, as does the rest of the complex. This keeps the carpenters busy.
Here is Mary Ann discussing details with the staff.
Here is the centerpiece of the room, from which will hang a fan, in the same colour scheme.
Garo is a multi-talented worker who does wood work, stucco, even fixes cars. He is the one who built the centerpiece of the room.
Johnny, a helper with a big smile.

Shopping in San Juan.
Puerto Rico is the closest place to Anguilla with a wide selection of building supplies, doors, windows, tiles, appliances, etc. But getting around and finding suppliers can be very stressful. After renting a car and trying it on our own, we now hire a driver with a van and leave the driving to him.

We use Rafael "Ray" Fonseca as our driver. He speaks perfect English, has an authorized tourist taxi (which means he knows where all the tourist things are), drives a full-size van so you can buy lots of stuff, and gave us a break on the rate (the government rate for tourists is $30 per hour, but Ray gave us $20 per hour for shopping). He can find any address, and when we wanted to look at patio furniture but didn't know a store name, he called his wife on the cellular and used the grapevine to get some suggestions. WIth his help we found the outlet for Brown Jorden high-end patio furniture, when we couldn't find it on their web page!
Cellular: 787.249.1872. Home: 787.762.2326.