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

Sunday, March 30, 2003 Permalink

Mosquito Magnet
We have acquired several of these amazing machines, which we acquired from Home Depot in Florida. Click the link above for their web page, which also has the user manuals in PDF format. Here is how the manufacturer describes it:
The Mosquito Magnet� mimics a large mammal by emitting a plume of carbon dioxide (CO2), heat and moisture, which when combined with an additional attractant, octenol, is irresistible to female mosquitoes (the ones that bite), no-see-ums, biting midges, black flies, and sandflies.
Our patented scientifically proven Counterflow Technology� allows the Mosquito Magnet� to emit a plume of carbon dioxide, heat, and moisture to attract biting insects, while simultaneously vacuuming the insects into a net where they dehydrate and die.
The Mosquito Magnet� operates 24 hours a day in order to capture day-biting, as well as night-biting blood-seeking insects.
We have had these for about 6 months and they work great.

The operation of the Magnet is quite simple, but when you are out of propane, or something else goes wrong, it communicates with you by lighting and/or blinking 3 lights (green, red, yellow). If you lose the manual, you have no idea what the codes mean. When that happens to you, refer to this excerpt below from Magnet manual:

Marbletite Coverage
We use a product called Marbletite as the stucco for our exteriors. It comes in several colors (white, tan, yellow, sand, peach, pink etc.) in premixed bags of cement, marble dust and pigment from Florida. The advantage is that you never have to paint your buildings. One bag covers 64 square feet of wall space.
A Supplier of PVC Windows
Here is a source of PVC windows that has a number of houses in Anguilla:
www.pvcwindoors.com - ask for Gaston Boudreau, President.
Prefabricated Wood Homes from St. Lucia
Recently we received an interesting email from Michael Hinds ([email protected]) about hardwood homes:]
I have been following the construction of your beach house for a while. It has taken very interesting form and the garden is beautiful. This should be a real inspiration for others like you who want to enjoy a piece of paradise. I too live in the paradise haven of St. Lucia. I an native to the island. Presently, I have established a unique business in St. Lucia that involves the design, construction and supply of complete hardwood homes of prefabricated components and also included the entire interior fiinshing kit, with all very high quality materials from Brazil.
My company is called Tropcon Enterprises Caribbean Limited, and we are located in a Duty Free Zone Trade area in the Southern Town of Vieux Fort, St. Lucia.
We are the only company in St. Lucia to have acquired a franchise from the largest supplier of prefabricated hardwood homes in Brazil.
We have a portfolio of over 50 pre-designed homes in our collection, namely the Louvet Collect, Chabot Collect, Moule-a-Chique Collection, La Borne Collection, Amazonas Collection and more to be added in the future. We provide our clients a unique and complete approach to building hardwood homes, in our unique tongue&groove, Post & Beam building system.
We are interested in introducing our products to Anguilla.
Best regards.
Michael Hinds, Managing Director, Tel # (758) 383-0679 cell (758) 468-2227 (w)