My husband and I have now been living in our newly-purchased house for 6 months. Of course, we have an overwhelming list of things we want and need to do. I’ll admit that of all the things on our list, I have been most anxious to start renovating the inside. Thanks to Pinterest and Houzz, I have a variety of grandiose ideas for “beach cottage style” cabinetry, tile work, paint colors, lighting fixtures, etc. Naturally, I immediately started calling contractors to get estimates on the price to take on these projects. My goal was to get estimates from contractors by September and begin work in October. Ha! Yeah… that’s not happening.
By the end of July, I had reached out to 5 contractors. Spoiler alert! None of them have worked out. The first contractor came right over, looked at the place, and shot out a very quick, arbitrary, and unreliable number for pricing. Disqualified. The second contractor was too busy to take on another job. The third contractor came over, spent a good deal of time looking at the place, emailed me back and forth a couple of times, then went radio silent. The fourth contractor came over, appeared to really want to work with us, took the blue prints of our house for measurements and never came back (with, or without our blueprints). We are still trying to track him down. The fifth contractor was also too busy, but said he wanted to help by referring some really good workers to us. I’ve still not received any of his “referrals”. Needless to say, we have reached a standstill and have put this project on hold.
Meanwhile, we have been working with a couple of solar companies to get pricing to install solar power. If you’re a VI local, or if you’re a regular follower of this blog, you probably know by now how expensive power is here, so we thought that if we could supplement the cost with solar, we would be doing ourselves a favor. Talk about a roller coaster of very unclear and mixed information with regards to setting this system up! Without getting into too many details, the local power company, which is government run for the most part, has been less and less willing to work with new solar customers. Luckily, we received our permit to install panels prior to their cut-off date. So, we are moving forward with this. In fact, we have some guys doing work on the roof right now, and soon the solar panels will go on. Progress. Yay!
Next up is the yard. Our lot is probably ¾ of an acre and the prior owner was using the house as a rental property, so he did the minimum with regards to landscaping. The entire lawn was pretty overgrown and needed some serious manicuring. My husband, along with 2 different teams of landscapers, and our brand new chainsaw, have worked countless, back-breaking hours in the Caribbean sun to clear off our lot and plant new trees, flowers, and bushes. We have gotten to know the entire staff at our local nursery, as we go there weekly. However, things thrive down here, and as soon as everything is in order… it rains. A few days later, everything needs to be trimmed back, and, again, there’s Kevin out there sunburnt and sweating as he trims everything down. So, the lawn is a work in progress, but it’s coming along nicely.
Of course, we’ve run into a variety of other chores and issues that have proven to take a bit more time to fix than if we lived in the states. I’ve had to call the gate guy, the pool guy, the generator guy, and the refrigerator guy countless times. Islanders, please enlighten me: why is it that you can’t simply make an appointment with repairmen and have them show up at the scheduled time? Why do I always feel like I’m inconveniencing them, or that they are doing me a favor by doing work for me? They do know that I will pay them, right?! Every single time I call a repairman, I get the same reply…. Call me tomorrow, or Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow (doesn’t happen), or I’ll be in that area the day after tomorrow, so call me then. Even if you do make an appointment, that doesn’t mean that they will show up.
Last week, I called a pool guy to come out to take a look at a chip in the diamond bright of our pool. When he answered (bonus!), he told me that he’d be in my area the next day, and asked me to text message him my name, number, and location. I told him I would be around in the afternoon, and I promptly texted him all of my information. I never heard from him. So I called him again first thing in the morning, two days later. He apologized and said he would re-work his schedule for me that day to come out and take a look. I didn’t hear from him until after 2:30, at which point I wasn’t home. This is a normal course of events, so it winds up taking longer than necessary for anyone to simply come out and look at the issue at hand, let alone fix it. I’m starting to realize why most of my friends that have lived here for any significant amount of time have become quite handy on their own.
Maybe it’s good that we didn’t start renovating this house right away because there are so many other things that we need to do to get the house in order that I can see the budget for cabinetry and tile getting lower and lower. The other day, I was showing our friend, who is currently staying with us, around our downstairs apartment. I kept catching myself saying, in as much a surprised tone as it was prideful, “…and, everything works!” I proceeded by turning on all the lights, the fan, and the air conditioning units by way of proof of our accomplishments.
I once read that when you’re feeling challenged or frustrated, you should ask yourself what this situation is teaching you. What are you learning from this experience? Well, it’s abundantly clear to me that I’m learning patience, but I wouldn’t simply apply this lesson to my house. I’d apply it to the entire experience of living on an island!
Now, I must go call the exterminator. The landscapers just knocked down a termite nest…
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