Building VS Buying

When building expect to be behind schedule and over-budget almost from the day you break ground until you are ready to move in.

When building expect to be behind schedule and over-budget almost from the day you break ground until you are ready to move in.

That is definitely one thing everyone can agree on!! We built our house within 6 months here in the states. So its hard to fathom taking that long.

Anyone thinking of building should read:

http://www.bongobongostjohn.com/blog/

Granted, building on St. John offers more challenges since everything must come by barge from St. Thomas but you'll get the idea plus it's entertaining.

https://youtu.be/7na11-Ry2u8

The above video is an eye opener. Its been posted before, but if your considering construction options, its worth a viewing. Chock full of reasons to over build any structure in the VI.

I guess you could just buy one of these and make a cistern.
http://ebs-block.com/product.html

Maybe a potential business opportunity as a distributor here - particularly when they come out with the proposed model with solar panels. Not sure how it would compare cost-wise with a traditional build once you figure in foundation, septic, cistern and electrical supply (it basically plugs in like an RV with an extension cord) but it's an interesting concept.

Maybe a potential business opportunity as a distributor here - particularly when they come out with the proposed model with solar panels. Not sure how it would compare cost-wise with a traditional build once you figure in foundation, septic, cistern and electrical supply (it basically plugs in like an RV with an extension cord) but it's an interesting concept.

no cistern or septic needed needed if close to infrastructure. Like a trailer park.

https://youtu.be/7na11-Ry2u8

The above video is an eye opener. Its been posted before, but if your considering construction options, its worth a viewing. Chock full of reasons to over build any structure in the VI.

Just watching that gives me PTSD!
Marilyn was even worse...and of shorter duration.

I am so sick of this MY HURRICANE WAS WORSE THAN YOUR HURRICANE garbage. Just stop it!!

no cistern or septic needed needed if close to infrastructure. Like a trailer park.

We have trailer parks here? 😀

there is one on stx right by the hospital

Peppertree Terrace is a glorified trailer park... and that is the one right across our hospital.
😀

http://peppertreeterrace.com/Peppertreeterrace/Home.html

My video post was not a "my hurricane is worse than yours" argument. It's a video of what could happen nearly anywhere in the Caribbean.
I've searched the Web for the "20 years later documentary" but apparently it's never been posted in its entirety. From the few clips I've seen, it looks very intresting as well. One clip I saw was of a woman describing how the house blew apart around her, and her and her family had to jump into their cistern for protection. Very scarry stuff indeed.
Can't find a better argument for going with the heaviest construction technics available.

Peppertree Terrace is a glorified trailer park... and that is the one right across our hospital.
😀

http://peppertreeterrace.com/Peppertreeterrace/Home.html

Well, sort of but aside from the permanent homes for rent which are all hooked into water and electric and septic they don't accept even RVs, do they? The EBS units, like an RV, aren't conventionally wired and plug into an electrical source via an extension cord.

I am so sick of this MY HURRICANE WAS WORSE THAN YOUR HURRICANE garbage. Just stop it!!

That wasn't my intention.
Why don't you just stop it.

peppertree terrace is a trailer park and not an rv park

The container housing is something I have looked into to start a community with where I live now! Interestingly enough, my last trip to STX, on of the locals told me about them and that I should start that back in Illinois! Me personally, I want more space, and from what I understand, they are only 8 feet tall, no where for all the heat to escape! I would assume they would be really hot all the time. Definitely will build or buy as structurally sound as possible. Would a good house matter if it was water front or up in the hills if a hurricane came?

I prefer up on a hill with breezes for year round living.
Being on a hillside with some natural protection on one side of house is good.
In my old house that went thru Hugo and Marilyn, relatively unscathed, there was a small hill on the back side of the house that I never boarded up as it was relatively protected and never lost any windows or glass louvers, for that matter.

Salt air corrodes appliances, window parts and other metal products in homes if oceanfront living. It doesn't help hillside but not as maintenance heavy

High ceilings are really nice to diffuse the heat of the day.
No great roof overhangs to catch wind and rip a roof off.

There's really no rhyme or reason as to what damage hurricanes can do whether you're hillside or oceanfront. It really is luck of the draw as hurricanes spawn mini tornadoes.

If you're building, over build but that will cost more.

We build our home on STJ recently. You can check out our building blog here: http://www.seasthedayvi.com/#!construction-blog/egniu

Let me know if you have any questions. Building here is nothing like in IL.

Question to the group about trees in hurricane?

Are they offering protection from the wind storm or become a missails capable of damage?

To cut or not cut?

Both.
I remove coconuts from trees prior to hurricane season, or storm if they've grown back and prune weak or dead branches.
Coconut trees can take an incredible amount of wind force before they succumb.
Most trees can survive intact in an average storm tho there'll be lots of broken branches and leaf litter.

With a cat 4 or 5, all bets are off as you can see from the YouTube hurricane Hugo footage posted above by singlefin.

I called Hugo the Grand Pruning at my house - but after clearing away all the broken branches my fruit trees produced bumper harvests for the next few years and taught me a good lesson there.

Cool blog Ericw.
Very intresting.

We build our home on STJ recently. You can check out our building blog here: http://www.seasthedayvi.com/#!construction-blog/egniu

Let me know if you have any questions. Building here is nothing like in IL.

Beautiful! Very well thought out.

Just curious, as I have a small area I'm thinking about adding grass to. How did that work out? Do you mind telling me what kind you used?

We build our home on STJ recently. You can check out our building blog here: http://www.seasthedayvi.com/#!construction-blog/egniu

Let me know if you have any questions. Building here is nothing like in IL.

Beautiful! Very well thought out.

Just curious, as I have a small area I'm thinking about adding grass to. How did that work out? Do you mind telling me what kind you used?

Grass worked out great. It took a bit of water last year with the drought, but now that it's rooted it's pretty drought resistant. It's zoysia sod from Puerto Rico.