Tropical Building: The Big Dig

 
 

Well, we're all set and ready to build our tropical home in Anguilla.

"Our home." Wow, it's beginning to dawn on me that this is actually going to happen...

Home plans done.

Licenses and permits secured.

Team is in place.

In other words... the "theory" is over.

Time for the tropical building rubber to hit the road.

Well, maybe not "rubber," more like great big treads hitting a small, bumpy dirt road coming up to our property...

It's time to dig a hole.

A biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig hole.

The home site sits on a sand dune that varies from 4-6 feet to bedrock (explained on Tropical Building page).

And here comes our friendly, local neighborhood excavator to do the job.

What a thrill to see theory become reality!

I stood transfixed, watching that lumbering machinery steadily inch its way closer, closer, closer...

From here on in, I'll let the pictures (and a movie) tell this first tropical building step.

Not Too Close!

The Scooping Begins

Pushing Tons of Sand

Greig Leading His Excavation Team

The Hole Deepens

And Deepens

The Front End Loader Arrives

Anguillian Teamwork

We piled the sand all around the hole, saving the natural foliage as a future perimeter and windbreak. (I'm not a big fan of fences and like using what nature has taken decades to grow.)

We ran out of room to put the sand, though. So I called my good friend who originally sold us the land and Jackie Pascher to get their OK to store some temporarily in the low-lying land behind our property.

They said "sure, go for it." That saved us tons of trucking back and forth, since we'll have many uses for the sand later. So here's the front end loader, moving the sand behind our lot...

Yet More Piles of Sand!

Almost Done!

The Finished Hole And A Happy Mike

Mike And Jim Contemplating A Job Well Done...
And A Victorious Star, Wizard of the Excavator