Info-to-Build-On House In Box by Raoul Hennin June 10, 2004 They bought a vacation house. It blew away in a hurricane. What did Pat and Patsy do then?

Shelter Institute Founders, Pat and Patsy, have done it again. They built another house. This may not sound like news to anyone who knows them, but this house is different. Several years ago, they bought a vacation home in the caribbean. Bank financing becomes impractical for such risky far away locales, and insurance for hurricane-prone areas is extremely expensive. So, when the house did blow away in a hurricane that same year, it was a total loss!

The barren foundation, one wall, and a tiny bathroom waited patiently on the hillside while Patsy underwent chemotherapy and Pat carefully designed the successor to the victim of Hurricane George. On one quick visit to the island, Pat and Patsy put a replacement roof on the small remaining wall section to continue water collection into the cistern. The island department of water quality supplied guppies which maintained the ecological balance, clarity and quality of their water supply for five years while they prepared to rebuild.

By this winter, the pieces began to fall together as Patsy regained her strength and Pat began ordering the materials. Each piece of the house, each tool required to build it, all appliances, furniture and finish details would be included in a 48' container that would travel to Philadelphia train station to Miami dock to the West Indies in two weeks. No mistakes allowed in packing...or Pat and Patsy would be stranded on Saba, unable to build their house.

By loading day, every timber, crow bar, mallet, roofing screw, kayak, and lounge cushion were assembled in the Shelter Shop. Raoul, Gaius, Blueberry and six of Shelter's finest timber framers were present when the the container arrived at 10:00am. Technically, the carrier allows 2 hours to load - a virtual impossibility. After two hours, the container appeared 1/2 full - which actually seemed to impress the driver. He acknowledged that we were working hard, and made a note to this effect in his log.

Perhaps the single biggest challenge of the project was how to ensure that this new house would not suffer the same fate as the original. Clearly, the site is exposed. Pat was determined to build the new house to withstand the intensity of the severe hurricane-force winds on the windward side of the island. Patsy's uplift and overturn calculations set a very high standard for the construction. Warm humidity, ocean salt, voracious termites and vegetation all conspire against common building materials on the island.

Pat treated every exposed endgrain, freshly drilled hole, and covered side grain with borate and M-1 mold inhibitor. The shape of the house is streamlined into the side of the hill. The slick metal roofing surface will encourage the wind to continue on its path without grabbing onto the house itself. For this project, a red roof matches all the other architecture on the island and McElroy's galvalume treatment with Kynar paint promises maximum resistance to the elements.

The first day on the island, Patsy guarded the house site while Pat opened the container and began ferrying the materials on their flatbed Mazda truck. One load ended up taking close to 2 hours. On his second trip to the loading dock, a ferry operator climbed down off his boat and walked over to Pat with a bottle of water, "hey mon, you look like you need this." The second week of construction, Gaius and Clayton flew down to help with some heavy timber lifting. Aside from this one week of help, Pat and Patsy literally built the entire house alone. You can gain some insight into their determination in the photos below.

Cedar framing, pressure treated sheathing and cedar siding make up a practical termite resistant wood structure fastened with stainless steel threaded rod, nuts, and screws. Reflectix in between 2x3 roof sleepers provides protection from baking mid-day sun. Heavy aluminum angle brackets fasten the structure down to the foundation and protect against severe overturn, shear and uplift forces.

The entire project took just over 6 weeks of hard labor, sunrise to sunset. We are still waiting for the final photo processing. Pat was alone with the house for two weeks after these photos were taken, so we know there is more to see... we will be posting the new pictures to our photo gallery in coming weeks.

Learn to build your own house at the Shelter institute. See our entire 2004 class schedule online at:
http://www.shelterinstitute.com/classchedule.htm