This is continuation of "Careful what you choose":
Our home has had its CO since 2014. During that time many things have happened, nothing substantially bad. We have been on a new learning curve. The first learning curve was building our home. Now we are learning what it is like to travel back and forth and maintain our vacation home in the Bahamas.
First, being able to have more time to surf and dive is fabulous but it is coming with a cost that we did not fully have a grip on. The cost has been the maintenace. At four years in, things have begun to need some constant up keep. That does not sound like vacation to me. This ties back into "Careful what you choose." This also ties back into "what we would change." We have several factors that are re-occurring and becoming more frequent. If you are truly considering having a vacation home near the ocean...pay attention. Ultimately you want to be on "vacation" in your home. We chose poorly for our railings on the upstairs porches. The railing are aluminum and to USA condo standards. They are sturdy and well built. The paint job is the problem. The paint started flaking off after the first year and steadily increased every year after. We are using a can of epoxy spray paint to fix the spots as they occur. I think we are close to repainting the whole thing by now. We want our home to look perfect. This railing is a giant pain in the ass! We are thinking of taking the railings down and bringing them to a local body shop for sanding and repainting. We are frustrated. We paid $6,000 for these railings and we don't want to pitch them in the trash. We are exploring our options. So we would definitely change these if we were doing this again and choose more wisely. Next, is our porches upstairs and outside lights. They have to be rinsed at least once a month. If you do not take off the salt and dirt, things begin to mold. If you go three months it will take bleach. Cleaning the porches is a two day project and fixing the railings is usually a two day project. Let's see 2+2=4. Yep, if you only have a week to be there you are now down to 3 days left. I hope you are reading and feeling my frustration.
As you can see I write this more for me than anyone reading it. It is therapy. I am asked many times by friends.....how is your house in the Bahamas? I answer "Oh it is lovely, nothing to complain about." Liar, Liar pants on fire. Now, you are probably thinking "can't you hire someone to do this?" Yes and No...We are in the process of making up a one month, three month, and yearly maintenance plans. We have had mixed success with hiring out the maintenance. Consistency is the major problem. Whether it be in the USA or the Bahamas, contractors have a trend of telling you what you want to hear and just not delivering on the promises long term. Of course it also costs more to have someone else do the work and to be truthful you will need to be there. This all rolls back to "Careful what you choose." Maintenance free are heavenly words. I do not believe that actually exists, kind of like unicorns but it is something to look and strive for.
We do have other maintenance issues that are constant. These things are not sexy or interesting. These things are extremely important if you want to live anywhere near the ocean, build and still try to be on vacation.
*Keeping the outside clean, includes: porches/rafters/outside lights/walkways/windows (keeping the salt off is constant) etc.
*The yard: grass/weeds/ cutting the bushes...fun...fun
*Houskeeper: Do you like to clean house? At least get someone who will clean when you leave. I do. It was mandatory. I am not cleaning house on vacation. I keep telling my self that maybe one day it will be true.
*Electrical equipment: Lights/appliances/ TV/ and the big one...AC units (maintance every 4 months people)
*Window and door maintenance in a salt environment is mandatory every 3 months.
There you have it, the majors of home maintenance. There are other things but these keep you hopping. We are on a mission for a Bahamian to start a business for vacation home management. No one does it on Eleuthera. They would make a mint.
That will be it for now. My therapy is complete. Getting it off my chest is cathartic.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Pieces and Parts careful what you choose.
Hi again. If you have been following this blog it is about building a home in the Bahamas. Let's jump ahead.
We will say your home is complete but empty. It is time to do the fun stuff, painting, plumbing fixtures, lighting, cabinets, appliances and furniture. You thought you were done when you got that CO....silly you. Decorating is a big job but a rewarding one. Tom did not leave this all to me. We shared the job all the way to moving in.
We will start with something easy ... Plumbing fixtures: sinks, faucets, shower heads, and toilets. This is a good place to start with style. Are you going modern, coastal, standard, antique. Each bathroom can be different and unique. The important part is water efficient. This was a wise decision to pick water efficient plumbing and appliances. They make a difference. I have found out since beginning this decorating section that picking appliances and fixtures that are easily replaceable is also a big factor. Our water heater is humongous and is in a tiny utility room. For three years all has gone well. As of this writing the water heater stopped heating, the computer display board blank. I save and attach all paperwork to major appliances. A serious good habit to have and continue. With the help of my saved paperwork we were able to contact AO Smith and narrow the problem down to the fuses or computer board. Guess which one it was.....the $370 computer board not the $5 fuse. Even the $5 fuse was a pain in the ass. I also new that when you take a major appliance outside the USA the warranty stops. I forgot that and opened my big mouth that this water heater which would have been covered under warranty was sitting in the Bahamas. Won't do that again. It is also a benefit to have brilliant friends who are neighbors. Our friend George helped Tom replace the computer board and spotted that our 30amp breaker was to large for our 25amp water heater and was most likely the reason the computer board took a hit. This will be replaced too. If we need to replace our giant water heater that is very energy efficient we will go to a tankless system. So we have learned that efficient is good but simple might be better. You do need to look ahead when you are purchasing and installing everything and say..."hey, what happens if this breaks?" Pre-planning never stops.
The whole decorating thing is cool and is similar to a 3D art project. Tile was a challenge for us. We expressed ourselves with color. We attempted to install the tile ourselves. We were partially successful. The showers we had to hire pros. Our design was to complicated for us. We had managed to do the kitchens, bathroom sinks and the base of the showers but the shower walls we ran out of steam and patience. We decided being happily married was more important than saving money. We have had our place up for vacation rental for 3 years and our tile is doing well except for the upstairs kitchen counter. The under-lainment was not level or even. We chose to attach the tile with a sticky membrane instead of mortar. This idea had worked well on the two bathroom counters but they were very small in square footage. This is what happened....We doubled up the sticky membrane under the individual tiles to make things level. This probably would have been fine if it were one or two tiles but there were more like 20 tiles in one corner. What we did not realize was this membrane allowed way to much flex. Mortar when it dries is not flexible. The reason this became important was the kitchen counter is constantly having pressure applied to it from different angles. You do not think about that until it becomes an issue. The constant flexing is not good for the grout. The grout cracks. So...what did we learn? The sticky membrane is ok for small areas or areas that are not having pressure applied to it and areas that are completely level....Lesson learned. We may switch the counter to concrete. Still processing that idea.
As you can see there is a domino affect to everything you do. It is a giant colorful puzzle. I suppose it is time to say....what would we do differently? We love our home but we are constantly re-arranging, cleaning, and sometimes re-doing. As of this moment we would change the following...One big thing is how we adjusted our porches from our original plan. Our original plan was for a rap around porch on the second floor. Currently we have a front porch and a back porch on the second floor. We do not have porches on either side. By cutting the side porches we made it difficult to work on the windows, AC units and roof overhang on each side. This has proven to be a regular maintenance challenge. It would have been well worth the extra money in concrete to have those porches. We would also change the size of some of our doors. None of our doors are standard. We would standardize our doors according to what is commonly available at local hardware stores. Our inside doors were hand made by the Gibsons. We love them but they are each one of a kind...a little hard to replace if the need arises. Our entry doors are also custom made...same thing hard to replace. It also made a challenge bringing some things in the building. We would also change the style of doors on our upstairs front porch. The breeze upstairs is fantastic from the Atlantic but it is harsh on french doors. We would change those to sliding glass doors. We do feel that overall our choices were sound. The things we would change are minor inconveniences. To this point we have not had any major structural problems.
Most of what I write is to remind ourselves of what we feel we accomplished and to give ourselves a check list for any future projects. I am at the point of what we would not change. We love the elevation of our home and the orientation to the sun. We open our doors to the breeze and we have beautiful natural ventilation. The sun rotates over our home and the hot afternoon sun ends up heating our stairwell but not the rest of our home. As we open the windows in the stairwell, the stairwell acts as a chimney and draws the heat to the top and out. On the same wave link as ventilation is how well the SIP panel metal roof has worked. Our home does not over heat. We have hurricane/ security doors and windows. Well worth the money. They also help with keeping our home cool. The thick window panes keep the heat out. We also have concrete walls through out our home. We do not have drywall. Two reasons: one...if we have a leak it will not affect the walls: two...concrete walls are tough. It is hard to put a hole in a concrete wall. We built a tough house and we are glad we did. We also like our in ground cistern. Our cistern is under our front porch. We do not have soil in our yard it mostly rock. Our cistern is incased in rock. The cement work for the cistern and the support of the surrounding rock has made for an extremely strong cistern, no leaks so far...yeah!
We will say your home is complete but empty. It is time to do the fun stuff, painting, plumbing fixtures, lighting, cabinets, appliances and furniture. You thought you were done when you got that CO....silly you. Decorating is a big job but a rewarding one. Tom did not leave this all to me. We shared the job all the way to moving in.
We will start with something easy ... Plumbing fixtures: sinks, faucets, shower heads, and toilets. This is a good place to start with style. Are you going modern, coastal, standard, antique. Each bathroom can be different and unique. The important part is water efficient. This was a wise decision to pick water efficient plumbing and appliances. They make a difference. I have found out since beginning this decorating section that picking appliances and fixtures that are easily replaceable is also a big factor. Our water heater is humongous and is in a tiny utility room. For three years all has gone well. As of this writing the water heater stopped heating, the computer display board blank. I save and attach all paperwork to major appliances. A serious good habit to have and continue. With the help of my saved paperwork we were able to contact AO Smith and narrow the problem down to the fuses or computer board. Guess which one it was.....the $370 computer board not the $5 fuse. Even the $5 fuse was a pain in the ass. I also new that when you take a major appliance outside the USA the warranty stops. I forgot that and opened my big mouth that this water heater which would have been covered under warranty was sitting in the Bahamas. Won't do that again. It is also a benefit to have brilliant friends who are neighbors. Our friend George helped Tom replace the computer board and spotted that our 30amp breaker was to large for our 25amp water heater and was most likely the reason the computer board took a hit. This will be replaced too. If we need to replace our giant water heater that is very energy efficient we will go to a tankless system. So we have learned that efficient is good but simple might be better. You do need to look ahead when you are purchasing and installing everything and say..."hey, what happens if this breaks?" Pre-planning never stops.
The whole decorating thing is cool and is similar to a 3D art project. Tile was a challenge for us. We expressed ourselves with color. We attempted to install the tile ourselves. We were partially successful. The showers we had to hire pros. Our design was to complicated for us. We had managed to do the kitchens, bathroom sinks and the base of the showers but the shower walls we ran out of steam and patience. We decided being happily married was more important than saving money. We have had our place up for vacation rental for 3 years and our tile is doing well except for the upstairs kitchen counter. The under-lainment was not level or even. We chose to attach the tile with a sticky membrane instead of mortar. This idea had worked well on the two bathroom counters but they were very small in square footage. This is what happened....We doubled up the sticky membrane under the individual tiles to make things level. This probably would have been fine if it were one or two tiles but there were more like 20 tiles in one corner. What we did not realize was this membrane allowed way to much flex. Mortar when it dries is not flexible. The reason this became important was the kitchen counter is constantly having pressure applied to it from different angles. You do not think about that until it becomes an issue. The constant flexing is not good for the grout. The grout cracks. So...what did we learn? The sticky membrane is ok for small areas or areas that are not having pressure applied to it and areas that are completely level....Lesson learned. We may switch the counter to concrete. Still processing that idea.
As you can see there is a domino affect to everything you do. It is a giant colorful puzzle. I suppose it is time to say....what would we do differently? We love our home but we are constantly re-arranging, cleaning, and sometimes re-doing. As of this moment we would change the following...One big thing is how we adjusted our porches from our original plan. Our original plan was for a rap around porch on the second floor. Currently we have a front porch and a back porch on the second floor. We do not have porches on either side. By cutting the side porches we made it difficult to work on the windows, AC units and roof overhang on each side. This has proven to be a regular maintenance challenge. It would have been well worth the extra money in concrete to have those porches. We would also change the size of some of our doors. None of our doors are standard. We would standardize our doors according to what is commonly available at local hardware stores. Our inside doors were hand made by the Gibsons. We love them but they are each one of a kind...a little hard to replace if the need arises. Our entry doors are also custom made...same thing hard to replace. It also made a challenge bringing some things in the building. We would also change the style of doors on our upstairs front porch. The breeze upstairs is fantastic from the Atlantic but it is harsh on french doors. We would change those to sliding glass doors. We do feel that overall our choices were sound. The things we would change are minor inconveniences. To this point we have not had any major structural problems.
Most of what I write is to remind ourselves of what we feel we accomplished and to give ourselves a check list for any future projects. I am at the point of what we would not change. We love the elevation of our home and the orientation to the sun. We open our doors to the breeze and we have beautiful natural ventilation. The sun rotates over our home and the hot afternoon sun ends up heating our stairwell but not the rest of our home. As we open the windows in the stairwell, the stairwell acts as a chimney and draws the heat to the top and out. On the same wave link as ventilation is how well the SIP panel metal roof has worked. Our home does not over heat. We have hurricane/ security doors and windows. Well worth the money. They also help with keeping our home cool. The thick window panes keep the heat out. We also have concrete walls through out our home. We do not have drywall. Two reasons: one...if we have a leak it will not affect the walls: two...concrete walls are tough. It is hard to put a hole in a concrete wall. We built a tough house and we are glad we did. We also like our in ground cistern. Our cistern is under our front porch. We do not have soil in our yard it mostly rock. Our cistern is incased in rock. The cement work for the cistern and the support of the surrounding rock has made for an extremely strong cistern, no leaks so far...yeah!
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