fall at 1025

On Oct. 1st we moved with the dog dogs and aging cat back into our home. Though we are here most Saturday's for the changeover of tenants, we forget how spectacular the view is; how light and spacious the rooms are; we cannot believe that we actually own this . The fall is always a busy time for us; pulling the rhodes out of the water (this year Jack decided it was time to varnish again) , putting up a rabbit proof fence around the garden, pruning back the pines that could grow up to block the view, doing small maintenance, etc.
A few weeks ago we got an e-mail from our sister-in -law Barbara that they were selling Owl. The Rhodes Reliant that Jack and I bought in 1997 but then sold to Dick around 2001 as she needed more work than we could do. Dick spent alot of time and money repairing and upgrading her. For the past few years we have gotten to sail on her for part of every summer. Jack was often off with Dick bringing her back and forth from the Cape to Maine, or to Nova Scotia. Barbara and I would join them for a few weeks . One summer we got to go through the reversing falls to go up the St John river. Sad for us all, but it is time for Dick and Barbara to move on.

WE are hoping that in early November to start our drive down to Ft Lauderdale with a trailer and from there fly over to the Bahamas.
A friend and neighbor who does not want to return to her slightly damaged house this winter, has offered it to us , if we fix the repairs. Close to Rainbow House, it is perfect for us.
Ned Ruykhaver, my nephew is designing a similar house for us... though we will make the living room slightly bigger and reinforce the roof. Though small and funky, the design of the original house worked for us. Plus we do not want the local building inspectors to get involved. ??? Now to line up a contractor and supervise, supervise supervise the building.
Though we do not have electricity to run the pump, Jack says the our pool looks ok. thank goodness.
Apparently our house this winter has 2 guest bedrooms down stairs. If you have any interest in a working vacation, do e-mail us.

rainbow house

Relieved to be home again, Jack and Ruyk returned last week; it had been a hot, humid bug ridden trip.
We suspect that a tornado came through our area as other buildings on the same ridge or built as poorly as we, survived ;only losing some roof and windows.
Jack hired 3 natives to help them take away truckloads of debris , they pulled out 6 solar panels from the fallen roof (the 1/2 of the roof with the 20 solar panels came down in one piece where as the other side just flew away!) and he talked to island contractors about what to do next. The front east wall and part of the north wall are gone,; though there are some cracks in concrete the other walls look solid.
My nephew Ned Ruykhaver an architect has offered to help us with reconstruction. I do not want to go through this again. We want a house that can stand up to another hurricane. We have limited funds. Ned thinks that we can rebuild a similar house using what is there;the new construction will have better materials and a stronger construction.
A neighbor, a widow from Germany has a house close to us which suffered minor damage, but does not want to invest in repairing the roof and windows. She has offered us the use of it, if we repair it.
Jack does not want to return to the island until there is electricity. WE are hoping that by early to mid November we will be able to return with our 2 doodles and aging cat; drive to Florida and charter a flight over to the island.

It is hard to believe that we have been here for almost 1 1/2 months now. If only I could stop the clock... or at least slow it down.
A week after we arrived...our 12 pallets of stuff.. more solar panels, batteries and their accessories; the makings if a swimming pool; a new refrigerator; food from Cosco; a rug; a small cement mixer; furniture from Ikea; plywood and 2/4's ; etc. arrived. We had to hirer an 18 wheeler truck to bring it out to Greenwood and then a forklift to bring each load up to the house! It took us weeks just to unpack.
When we received the customs bill , we considered for a brief second sending it all back. At first they tried to charge us 45% duty on the solar accessories (solar panels are duty free) .. Jack spent 2 frustrating weeks on the phone trying to talk to someone in Nassau that a solar panel with out the inverter would be useless.; it is part of a system. In the end, the powers that be.... understood. But with the swimming pool which is a 45% duty.... not only would they not acknowledge a 10% discount that we received (They would have respected a 2% but not a 10%. ???), but they charged us $500 for the shipping from Alabama to Florida... even though we had free shipping from 'Pool Man DAN'... and then another $570 for shipping from FL to Cat ! As our neighbor Gilly advises (she has lived here for over 40 years) there are 3 rules for living here.
1. supervise.. supervise ..supervise
2. never assume anything
3. do not expect them to be rational.

This is one of the irrational ones! I t all left us with little money to start the pool. Thus we put our Ikea furniture together... or should I say tried as it took us days and made me wonder how do we think that we can possible build a 'do it yourself' pool, when we can barely assemble a chest of drawers! ??? Then Jack started working on his solar ... pouring a concrete floor beside the S side of the house and then building a box for the numerous batteries and constructing a shelf for an outside water heater , etc. Always busy.
We are hoping that by mid-January we can start construction on the pool. I had not realized just how big a 12/32 pool is; it will take up our entire back yard... the beautiful royal poinciana will be cut down (I admit it loses it's leaves in the winter and blossoms in the summer when we are not here!)... other plants and trees will have to be moved.... OYE. But besides just moving plants and having a huge hole dug , it will be a complex project. I suggested to Jack that we hirer the only ... 'slightly knowledgeable' builder here... , but J feels more comfortable subbing jobs out and controlling the construction. Maybe time will slow down for me then!??

Dec. was one of the warmest months on record..day after day of hot, humid ,sunny. We walked Ella on the beach and swam . Life was good. With Christmas came cooler weather, wind and rain. I do not mind.

Enjoying the deck

 

 

view off the deck

 

side deck woth roses

 

living, dinning and deck

 

dinning to living ...

 

driveway to house

 

path to house

 

garden to house

 

side deck with roses

 

from living into kitchen

 

front hall into garden

 

dinning into living room

 

dinning into living & water

 

dinning to living room-water

 

dinning from kitchen

 

dinning room-spring& high tide

 

kitchen in blue

 

living room at high tide

 

dinning room-blue water

 

dinning room in winter