The Final Home

Join us as we build this exquisite home on North Ridge perched above the Road Bay harbour and the cove at Sandy Ground. The villa

captures the essence of traditional West Indian style design whilst making generous use of courtyards and outdoor showers creating relaxed indoor-outdoor living. This home is inspired by an open tropical atrium which comes alive with palms, ferns and exotic plants. The vanishing edge pool lies between the living area and the sea…the continuous stretch of blue water inspires a peaceful setting. This villa features two master suites with private patios and a guest bedroom which opens onto the pool deck.

Phase I: Planning, Design & Model Construction
Floor Plan - First Floor. Designed and drawn by Ian “Sugar George” Edwards using Autocad software.

1. Floor Plan - First Floor. Designed and drawn by Ian “Sugar George” Edwards using Autocad software.	2. Western Elevation	3. Construction of Villa Model. Sugar George used the floor plans of each floor as a basis for constructing the model.
4. Model Complete!	5. Spectacular views of Sandy Ground and Road Bay from proposed villa site.	6. Euclid Niles surveys the lot
7. Cleve Richards surveys the lot

Phase II: Excavation and Laying of Foundation
Breaking Ground - January, 2002

We’re pleased to say that we just broke ground this month. We built a wooden shed with two partitions…one the office section with phone, desk space and architectural drawings of the house pasted to the walls. The other side is a storage shed, less cozy but more spacious to house materials, tools etc.

We did the materials shopping for the first phase of building project. It made financial sense to purchase the following items in Anguilla: cement blocks, rebar, cement, aggregate and sand. For other items we decided to make a day trip to Home Depot in Puerto Rico and have the company ship the goods down via Lady Romney which comes here weekly. These materials included the roughings for the plumbing and electrical work, the plywood and the 2X4 lumber.

We quickly got the office hooked up with telephone and electricity. Excavation of the site was next…which went quite quickly. We were pleased to learn that the soil was not very hard and rocky which made the job easier and less costly. After this we had a backhoe dig the foundation of the house. As we write, we’re in the process of laying out the house and doing rebar work.

1. Excavating the site	2. Excavation work	3. Backhoe in action
4. Tying rebar for the foundation	5. Laying Out the Foundation

Phase III - Preparing the Footings for Casting
After digging and excavating the foundation, we worked on preparing the footings for casting. That process involved the following:

i. Forming up the sides of the footings. The footing size is 30” wide by 8” deep.

ii. We laid plastic sheeting on the ground to act as a moisture barrier between the concrete and the soil, to allow concrete to dry and harden at the right pace so as to retain its strength.

iii. We placed the matting rebar over the plastic sheet.

iv. We then put in place the rebar for the columns.

v. We erected starter bars (standing upright), placed two feet apart. The blocks would be laid to allow the starter bars to come through the block holes. This helps the walls keep in place thereby strengthening the foundation walls.

vi. We then cast the footings.
Our next step was to start laying blocks. While part of the crew worked on the block work, a couple others prepared the cistern bottom for casting. We formed the cistern bottom with wood, laid down the plastic sheeting and then tied the rebar. ½” rebar was used and placed 8” apart. We cast the bottom and then formed up the sides of the cistern. We poured the cistern walls in one shot to enhance bonding. The four walls took 20 yards of concrete. Some others use concrete blocks to build cistern walls but we chose to use one pouring of concrete to minimize the risk of leaks in the event of tiny land shifts.

Currently we are laying the block walls in the lower level basement. Our next goal is to lay the blocks of the basement and pool up to floor level so that we can cast the floor slab.

1. Preparing steelwork for cistern	2. Casting foundation footings. One crew member is vibrating concrete as it is poured to reduce air spaces. Concrete strength 3,500 PSI.	3. Preparing cistern walls for casting. Laying blocks for foundation walls.
4. Pouring concrete for cistern sides.	5. Basement foundation footings being prepared.

Phase IV - Continued Development
While laying the blocks for the basement level we put in columns and beams thereby making provision for a lower level basement area in case we wish to utilize this area for living space in the future.

We laid out the pool and built up block walls and columns, suspending the pool bottom 7 - 8 feet above the ground. This form will create space under the pool for housing pumps, generators and other stored items. We then built up side walls of pool with poured concrete 8" thick and beams a up to main floor level. After the beams were cast we decked the main floor and filled in the foundation with soil.
For reinforcement purposes, half inch steel (6" X 8") will be used the decked area and BRC steel matting will be laid on compact filled areas.

Plumbing and electrical roughings will now be put in place in preparation for the casting of the main floor.
Filling basement with soil. Base of pool formed.

1. Filling basement with soil. Base of pool formed.	2. Installing pool drain and making necessary preparations to cast pool bottom.	3. Pool key dropped 2" below pool bottom so that vertical walls lock into floor, thereby reducing the potential for leakages where the walls meet.
4. Thoroseal powder is mixed with water of an equal volume to form a thick paste which is brushed onto cistern walls to reduce the possibility of leakage.	5. Basement roof and cistern have been decked. Foundation area gaps are filled in with soil to prepare for the casting of the main floor.

Phase V - Casting Floor Slab/Laying Blocks
We finished up the plumbing and electrical preliminaries and when all was double-checked and in order, we happily casted the first floor slab. This was an important milestone! We cast the floor slab and vibrated the concrete to reduce air pockets to ensure maximum strength. We wet the cast floor regularly to reduce the possibility of having it dry/harden too quickly under the sun, which could give rise to cracks.

The casting and curing of the concrete was successful so our next step was the laying of blocks, a process which went very quickly. We took a short break on the job and then returned to form up and then cast columns. Our next step will be the forming of the beams.

1. Laloo (Lawrence Carty) doing the plumbing	2. It's critical to do the plumbing pressure test before casting floor slab. (Laloo puts air pressure into pipes to check that there are no leaks)	3. Vibrating the concrete to reduce air pockets and thereby strengthen
4. Block laying	5. Forming up columns