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

Monday, May 07, 2001 Permalink

Gingerbread For the Gazebo.

The Rotozip is the amazing tool that cuts out this gingerbread.
The white gingerbreak is actually plastic wood (no painting or maintenance), while the pattern-guide is plywood.
I bought one length of plywood gingerbread from St. Martin and used it as a pattern. The material is better than plywood--no maintenance---- it's plastic foam board. They use it a lot for sign boards. It is available in interior, and exterior grade and even marine grade. We ordered ours from a company we found on the Internet. I know someone in Anguilla who has made their hurricane shutters out of it. The product comes in 4' by 8' or 4' X 10' and various thickness. It was very fast to work once we caught on how to use the RotoZip tool. We clamped the pattern to the bottom of the foam board that had been ripped to size. Using the pattern to guide the roto zip we cut all the bottom "tails" first with one continuous motion. Then drilled small pilot holes and cut the "inside" portions. eventually it was possible to do a 10' length in 30 minutes and the pattern was fairly complex.