The Cock Inn Barbados (BLOG)

A new year AND a new decade. A great time to review where we have been and where we are going.

It has been a very busy few months, and only be reviewing the progress will we really appreciate what we have accomplished.

Great to be here, particularly after all the build up and the stress of the move.
Not so great to find out how much work was left to be done, and the largely poor/unsafe nature of that that had been completed.

We had a balustrade on the gin deck to the rear though, so at least less risk of falling off the roof, and the building was sealed with doors and windows. A lot of the internal was complete chaos, and there was nowhere outside that wasn't covered in broken glass and rusty nails - first jobs were trying in vain to protect Etta.
You cannot stop that girl's curiosity, and she was in everything as fast as we could clear it.

Floors were rough and walls were patched - we had a lot of work ahead of us, but many contractors to work with before we could really take control.
Firstly the "project manager" who had been looking after the renovation while we were overseas.

We weren't too impressed with his delivery of late, and his demands for money were getting out of hand, so we opted for a mutual separation.
It was like an awkward break-up - he kept coming back to collect his belongings, and we are still not clear, but a long way from reliant and making big steps ourselves.

First thing - safe area for Ets. The gin deck, complete with sunshade, outdoor carpet and furniture.
Exposed to the sun, but with a gentle breeze (and out of the way of the builders!).

And then all efforts on getting some paint on that large grey exterior.
We couldn't confront the expanse just yet until the masons completed renovations to the patio at the front, but we could test paint on the rear.

Project paint begins..............

This stage even saw me putting up and using a scaffold for the first time.
Given the amount of working at height that was going to happen we had bought rather than rented - canny accountants.

So we jettisoned the PM and then spent some time lining up works ourselves - brave but necessary.
Ultimately we would have in masons, carpenters, electricians, kitchen fitters, painters, plumbers, etc - normally all at once.

But first the masons working on the most visible and dangerous side of the house.

They were a large team, part Vincentian, part Jamaican, and none of them with any concept of health and safety.
They worked hard though, with pneumatic drills and angle grinders, wearing flip flops and drinking all our beer and rum at the same time.
But early on we realised that a slightly drunk work force was a happy team that stayed on site, sometimes even past dark (drinking Campari and beer?!).

And then the plumber - rasta Jeffery.
Friendly and firey, I had to referee between him and the masons for a bit, but then they made friends and the Bajan banter flowed loud and unintelligibly.

He said it would take 2 days to fit the bathroom, but after delays and floods it was more like a week and still needs revisiting........shower to be raised for starters.

After a long day Jeffery turned the water back on so that we could wash downstairs and went home.
It was only in the morning that we found the leak, and it had been running into Apartment 2 all night long.
Through the finished ceiling, and on to all the carefully stored flat pack kitchens. Ouch. Jen cried.

Obviously though Barbados is HOT - so we scrambled and spent hours drying everything out the best we could.
Some of it may still be damaged beyond use, but hopefully nothing essential.

Electricians, power and ceilings?
Here we had to make some allowances, since this had all been handled badly by the previous PM.

So I managed to negotiate the bare essentials to get the power on upstairs, and we will have to deal with the rest in due course.

So water AND power upstairs - big steps.

Next jobs, and ones that we could handle.
With all of those people working on and in the house we had to look elsewhere - we had already done some gardening, so what next.

The wall at the front had looked bad for ages, so after buying some dodgy looking bleach product I set to that in the sun for a day. Before and after below.

We had been fighting for ages to get the costly rentals removed, the unsightly container and toilet.
With burglar bars fitted we eventually got a crane round to remove the container, equipped with a dangling Rasta - island health and safety.

The charming portaloo took a little longer, but clearing the container allowed us to open up the carport! Another space to clear.

Obviously we were working hard, but so was our 20 year old Mitzi - still to be named, suggestions welcome.

We also made time for some more feel good tasks, like replanting a palm when it collapsed, and making a shoe rack out of offcuts.
Pretty sure that the palm was and still is dead, but the shoe rack is still standing somehow.

In our absence large holes had been left in the corners of the front terrace, meaning we couldn't use it for fear of Ets falling and dying.
Quotes to fix were high and the work excessive, so could there be a cheaper, faster temporary option?

Jen found someone selling their old balustrades on line, so a trip to a millionaire mansion on the East Coast, some cutting and a beer and we only had to get the thing home.

Fitting them in turned out to be harder than predicted, particularly with bare tools.
So we resorted to rope - it may not be pretty, or able to stand up to much, but it keeps a toddler safe and opens up another area of the house.

So, the daunting task of painting the most visible side of the house - one night I had an epiphany.
Apart from the fact that it would take me forever, did I really want to lift up 3 stories of scaffold on my own?
Queue the 55 year old legend Sylvester, with me as his painting apprentice - in 3 days he was done.

Painting the front was something we'd been wanting to do for ages, but had to wait for other jobs to clear.
And if the feedback from the passing public is anything to go on, then it's made the world of a difference.