RENOVATION UPDATE: The Countdown Is On!!!!

The FLOORS are finished! For the wooden section I decided to stain the floors with two colors. The first was a red mahogany stain. And the second was two coats of a walnut stain with polyurethane. I used a stain pad. The results are decent. I am quite satisfied with them. I did spend a lot of time sanding them (using a palm sander since we don't have big sanders on island). 

 I used a combination of glue and sawdust and the commercial wood patch material to fill in the gaps between the floor boards. That part I am very pleased with. It came out great!

 For the cement floors I used a concrete latex stain with two colors. First a light grey and then a brownish color. I used a sponge and a rag to give texture. I wish the floor could have been smoother, but I have satisfied with the outcome. I topped it off with two coats of a concrete sealer with a gloss finish.



















We also got some simple CABINETS installed in the KITCHEN! Huge. We used what they call baboon plywood to make them. I don't need anything fancy for this space. I will stain them a similar color to the wooden floors and call it a day.




















Now what remains is doing the final touches of painting the walls, the door trims, etc.
I also need to install kitchen sink and faucet.
Tile the kitchen counter-top and back-splash.
And the interior will be pretty much FINISHED!!!

I have a strict deadline for Sunday, November 23. WHYYYYYY? Because, I was invited by the St. Croix Landmarks Society to give a "House Tour" for their "Places That Matter" event. It coincides with a Regional Genealogy and History Conference that they are hosting. It will be the first time that the public will be invited to the space. Yes, pressure. 

Painting, painting and more painting. Oh, and caulking too.

Now with the shutters in. I am finally ready to finish the interior. Caulking the ship lap siding is a lot of work. The gaps are wider than they should be because we made the mistake of not letting the wood cure in the building for a few days. One has to let wood dry out a bit before putting it up as siding because after we installed it, days later, it did dry out and left gaps in both the floor and the walls. I share these mistakes so you don't make them. And I made a lot.

So, the caulking is almost complete and the painting is almost done too. 

 

My intention is to finish the painting of the walls and the floors by the end of September. And then finish the painting of the exterior. The shutters are half primed and the walls are half painted. Oh my goodness, aahhhh-lmost there.  

 

 

Almost there: SHUTTERS ARE IN!!!

We spent the summer in Cuba visiting my husband's family. After returning in late August and getting kids back into the back-to-school groove I have been able to reassess this project. It's been three years since I first acquired the property and it has been quite a journey. My life has made unexpected demands on me and that there have been long stints that I could not work on either the renovation or the documentary. But this is the first time where I really do see that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I am really almost there.

In July I was able to put together some funds to get the shutters made. I made it a point to get the historical hinges. They cost me almost as much as the labor and materials for the shutters themselves. Luckily, the vendor is someone I know and who believes in the project. They gave me a discount, but even with the discount it was definitely a pricey item: $25-$30/ hinge. Notice there are four per window opening. That adds up fast!

 

I had some disappointments with the quality of the work on the shutters, and even considered getting them redone. But, I am going to live with it. Perhaps by looking at the picture you can see what the issue is:

 

 ........see it?........no?.....

They are uneven. The carpenter made one side bigger than the next so they can lap, or fold over. It is true some people do shutters this way, but for the most part they are supposed to look even when they are open. It's part of the aesthetics. I considered having it redone and then let it go. They serve their function. The person who installed them also had a little mishap when installing the ones in the bathroom.

 

He underestimated the width of the wall and the bolts came through and damaged the tile. Still waiting to have that fixed. These disappointments are part of construction: things happen, there is miscommunication, different expectations and mistakes. With experience and better communication you can keep these to a minimum.

What the shutters have afforded me is the ability to finally finish the interior of the building. We removed all of the bars and can now secure the building properly against weather and theft. That means I can finish the painting, stain and seal the floors and ......actually begin to put things in the building, like tables, and chairs and art supplies!

 

On moving into post-production

Transitioning into post-production has been an exciting but challenging process. I have the story of the previous owners, almost a dozen interviews, the story of Free Gut, issues with the town and it's current state of abandonment and the renovation of my building forge into one coherent and engaging story. "Mr Bill" aka William Stelzer came over from St. John to work on the project with me again for a week and it was so helpful. We did some filming but a lot of what we did was talking, thinking and sorting. 

I really wanted to have a strong outline for the film developed by the time he left. I had been working on a script on and off using a spreadsheet format. It was so difficult using a computer screen. You had to scroll up or down to be able to see what came previously or after and its was hard to see the whole picture, both literally and figuratively.  Bill suggested that I used index cards, which at first I was skeptical because it reminded me of taking note cards to write papers in the eighth grade. However, he was right, by jotting down my ideas on the cards and tacking them to the wall in a large timeline I was able to overlay the various components of the film and literally and figuratively see the whole picture. It was so interesting to me thinking about how amazing and essential of a tool a computer is, but the confines of a screen posed such a limitation on visualizing the project that it was useless in creating an outline. At least for me and the way my brain works, but I suspect it has less to do with me and more to do with film as a medium.  

So here was the process:

1. Put on a separate notecard each owners of the house from the 1777 to present day.

2. Put on a separte notecard key dates in VI history, including certain relevant dates from US and Danish history.

3. Make notes on what the key items that I want people to know in the documentary. For example. Where is Free Gut, who lived there, or that Freed Colored owned slaves, etc...and insert these into the timeline.

4. At this point I could then go into the interviews and pick out quotes that would correspond to these key ideas.

5. I then inserted different aspects of the renovation.

And...voila, you have a rough outline of a film.

Renovation Update: Bathroom Complete

The bathroom is complete. For the most part. We need to still caulk and paint the bathroom ceiling and place a few tiles that are missing. I have also cleaned out the space and moved all construction materials and tools into the other building.
















Next step is to get the shutters made and installed. I have hired a new carpenter for this job and am nervous. I asked him to bring me a sample of one to see what he would do and there were some issues with how he constructed the shutter. In short, he took the easy way out. I had to ask him to redo the routed part. He may be finished by this weekend. Very exciting. What that means is that I can then secure the building properly from the elements, but most importantly from the hen who has decided that my Queen Anne chair would make a perfect nest. With the shutters in I can:

stain and seal the concrete floor,
get kitchen cabinets installed,
get small appliances,
finish paint ceiling,
fill and stain wooden floor,
caulk and paint wooden walls,
and of course, paint the shutters and doors.
And then,
damas y caballeros,
the interior would be finished.

wow.

My goal is still to be moved in by the end of the summer. I'm considering having a work/fundraising party, since a lot of these last details are more work intensive than funds intensive. I've had a few people along the way who have asked if they could help in any way. Be ready, I'll be calling! :)

Agua!!!!

Renovation has begun again. Getting plumbing to the building became paramount. My daughters are often with me and I got tired of sending them to the bush when they needed to use the bathroom.

The bathroom was an addition to the house made in the early 1900's, I'm placing it between 1920-1930.  It appears to have been done by cutting a hole out of the side of the building and adding a concrete block structure that is supported also by concrete blocks. Unlike the elegance in proportion of the original structure, this bathroom was done in a way that left it awkward. You have to step down 3 inches when you enter it. The ceiling is very low. The toilet is a little far from the wall. There is a window above the face basin. All this to say that we gutted the bathroom and made some minor adjustments in positioning of the toilet.

My original idea was to have a white bathroom, but when it came time to buy the materials at HD nothing of what I had looked at before was there. There seems to be a serious ordering problem in that store. So I settled for travertine tiles, 18"X24". Stone is a beautiful material. I'm satisfied but not thrilled.

We installed completely new plumbing in the walls and in the ground. I don't know if I would have changed even the sewer line if I didn't have to, but since the "Copper Thieves" stole most of the cast iron pipes that were partially exposed due to erosion, we had to. It cost $1200 in labor and another $400 in materials.

I never imagined how exciting it would feel to see water flowing into a toilet. It was surreal. Water in a toilet, in this house, that was so abandoned and neglected for years. It made me think of how amazing that must have been for those who also saw indoor plumbing for the first time. The foundation for the outhouse/privy/latrine is still located to the back of the property. I'm not sure what I will do with it yet.

In the interviews I did with residents of the area, many commented that up to the 50's when most people still had outhouses, that men would come in the nights to empty them out. One of the interviewee's said the she was a girl at the time and it was a bit scary for her because they would come in a big noisy truck and be dressed in dark clothes, long boots and gloves, and masks. I think she said they were called the "Night Soil Men". I have to go back and look, but regardless, I like the name and see it fitting.

My next civilizing feat is to get electricity to the building. The process has begun, but is incomplete. More on that later. For now I'm enjoying running water.

Precipice

So...I haven't posted in awhile and it's not for the typical reasons. It's not because of family demands, or because I started back teaching at the University, or because I couldn't find the time. I have a very, very busy and full life, and lot's of people depend on me. But, in all honesty, that is not why I disengaged. So here is why...

Sometime in July, in the midst of full-on renovation I lost my way. It has been a constant struggle while doing this renovation these questions of; how much do you keep? what can be saved? what is within your budget to save? and then, how do you do save what you truly want and can afford to keep? When I say afford I mean this in many ways. Can you afford the technical expert who knows how to restore 200 year old wood that is rotting? Or even if you researched the methods can you afford to pay someone the time it will take to do the work? I am doing a documentary about a historic renovation (not restoration) but felt/feel/felt and sometimes still feel like I failed. The oldest part of the house, the wooden part, in the end got almost completely replaced and in the end, when I looked at all this wood that I could have tried to save I felt/feel/felt and sometimes still feel so defeated. My answers to so many of these questions were not what I expected or even wanted. But in the end, they were mine and this is my story and I hope that in telling it, others will learn from my mistakes.

In all great drama there is a turning point, so it was with me that in late July, a builder (who will remain nameless) came to visit the site and lambasted my contractor as he was trying to convince me that I needed an entirely new roof. At that point, he had convinced me that the floors were wood rotten, the beams too, and he also changed most of the siding, even the interior ones, that really just needed sanding and scraping. Watching her question him on why he didn't use this technique or the other to reinforce the beams instead of replacing them was shocking.  It made me realize how ignorant I was and how trusting.  I believed my well-intentioned contractor when he said I had to replace beams, or wood or siding. I made him explain to me his rationale and it made sense. Most importantly though this female builder reminded me, that as a woman you have to really push what your vision is. There will be men, cyaan done who will tell you what you should do with your building, but that you need to stand firm with your vision. I felt/feel/felt and sometimes still feel that I wasn't able to do that. My vision was not to have a new building, but if you replace four walls and the floor with new materials you come pretty close to having one. Some would be thrilled with that, I am not.

It was also challenging because in the middle of doing the renovation I was also filming interviews at other locations and each time I would return to the building site, more pieces of the building were gone, replaced and discarded.  I was loosing more and more control and in the end just stopped. Stopped working on the renovation, stopped working on the documentary. I needed time, to think and regroup. It was not a conscious decision to stop, but it was a needed one. When I look back at my last post in July I think "How did it get to be November already?" But during this time I was able to reflect. I have been working along the edge of a precipice for quite sometime and coping with the anxiety that brings.  I had to go back to this question: Why am I telling this story? I realized that I had projected myself as some sort of heroine that was going to save this building and save it's stories. It never occurred to me that I would also make un-fixable mistakes, and that even though someone can be well-intentioned, being not well-informed can cancel that out.

So some things I learned:
1. Know your lane. Expecting a carpinter/contractor to be knowledeable about restoring a historic building is like expecting me, a painter, to be knowledage about restoring a historic painting. It's a specialty field, with specialized knowledge.

2. Know your vision. It wasn't until the contractor asked me " This building must be really old?" when I realized he really didn't understand what I was trying to do. When I asked him, "Yes, of course it's old, why do you ask like that?" He responded that when he had taken out some of the beams he saw the mortise and tenon wooden joints holding the building together. This technique is rarely used anymore since nails and screws are cheaper and easier. This is a thousands of year old building technique that he ripped out for the sake of having something new. He didn't get that "new" wasn't the look I was going for.

3. Know your limitations.  I admit it.  I have a complete superwoman complex. I think I can do anything and everything. And that is just simply not true. There are limits to my time, my energy and my money and those limits need to be respected. If I had a better assessment of my limitations I would have had better direction and less disappointment.

So in my despair and these realization my daughter Isolde said something to me, that made things clearer. She saw me crying and asked me why. (Yes, I admit it, I did cry over this project.) I tried to explain to my five-year old about the renovation, and about throwing away too much of the material that could have been saved and she looked at me puzzled and said, "So you are crying about...rotten wood?" Kids don't tell the truth, they are the truth and the truth at that moment I had catch myself as we say. Forward and onward. I still have the bathroom, kitchenette, shutter, interior and exterior painting to do, but I have a renewed vision. My goal is now to be finished by the end of the year. Excited!

Interview: Gerard Emanuel, retired history teacher, former resident of Free Gut

I have known Gerard Emanuel for over twenty years when I first met him in 1990 when I worked with him on the US Census. I was 16 and worked as an enumerator. It was my first job ever! I had to beg my parents to do it as they thought that having a job and earning money would have made me think I was "grown". It was an amazing experience to have at that age, to walk into people's homes and ask them such personal questions about family, work and ethnicity. I remember that experience fondly and as I write this, I realize that I am doing that same job again, just in a different way, on a different scale, using a different medium.

Gerard Emanuel on Market and East St. Christiansted, reminiscing about his boyhood in town.

Gerard is a retired history teacher and a social sciences professor who has long ties to St. Croix, but especially Christiansted. Like many of the people I interviewed he talks about walking the town and in his case carrying messages for his mother. Reminding us once again of a time without cell phones, without landlines, a time where face-to-face interactions were the basis of communication. A time where like today, when you passed someone on the street you greeted them, "Good morning" or "Good Afternoon", and stopped briefly to exchange pleasantries and inquire about the well-being of mothers, grandmothers or children.

Gerard's family member's house on East St.

We also talked about the "untidiness" of slavery and its legacy, how race dynamics were not as neat and clear-cut as some might want to envision. Freed Blacks might have owned slaves. Whites masters might have fallen in love with their slaves. Freed Colored women might have used their sexuality to advance their position in society. And White Danes might have also exploited them. There were so many unanswered questions: What was the relationship between the Free Black community and the still enslaved community? Did the Free community see themselves as advocates for the enslaved or did they only seek out to create a way for themselves to have more rights and be more equal to Whites. Who is this figure of the "Housekeeper"? Was this simply a legal term to try to legitimize a romantic relationship with Black and Colored women? Were these women exploited or did they actively seek out these relationships with Danish men?  How did the enslaved see the Freed Blacks? Did they aspire to be like them? Or did they see marroonage as a more desirable option considering the restrictions that Freed Blacks were also placed under? Many parts of this interview were less "interview" and more conversation, wonderings, as even my cameraman Tristan Jones jumped in with his own ideas.

Gerard also relayed some fascinating interpretations of how he felt culture operated as a form of social control. He commented on how jumbie stories worked as ways to keep children off of the streets, how discipline was often accompanied with proverbs that were not explained, but that you had to figure out the meaning to and how even the architecture of the buildings, like the jalousie windows, allowed one to observe the street and its "goingon" without the person on the street knowing they were being watched.

Jalousie window on home on East St, Christiansted

We also talked about the tension between celebrating and preserving a historic town, but still allowing for each generation to make its mark. He questioned the validity in wanting our town to only look the way it did in the 1800's especially considering that it represents a time where so many of the people were living under duress. He yearns for this generation to be also given the opportunity to use their imagination in fashioning our town. I hope that this work can open or inspire a path to making this happen, even if what this generation imagines is preservation.

Interview: Dianne Canegata O'Reilly

At the turn of the twentieth century my house was owned by James C. Canegata, a shrewd  businessman that over the next decade would own over twenty properties in town, have over 200 tenants, own a dry goods store and even a soda factory. I was able to interview his great-granddaughter, Dianne Canegata O'Reilly, an enterprising woman in her own right as she is the owner of Shay's Boutique on the corner of Company and Church St. The fact that her great-grandfather's store was on the same street as her own is only one of the many ways that this family has left an interconnected legacy in the town of Christiansted.

Dianne Canegata O'Reilly, great granddaughter of one of the previous owners of my house, James C. Canegata

In the Virgin Islands perhaps the most famous of the clan is the beloved Dr. David C. Canegata whom the Christiansted ball park is named after. Dr. Canegata was the first Crucian to become a physician, was a member of all three branches of government and was an active humanitarian. Although coming from a rather privileged background of going to exclusive boarding schools in Antigua and being educated in Montreal, when he became a physician he is often described as taking a chicken for payment of medical services or not accepting payment at all.

Dr. David C. Canegata, son of one of the previous owners of my house

However, there is perhaps an even more famous Canegata that many Virgin Islanders know nothing about. Lionel C. Canegata, better known as Canada Lee, was the son of the first born son of James C. Canegata. It appears from baptismal documents and Census records that James C. Canegata had a son before David with a woman by the name of Fanny Levy. At 17 James C. Jr. left for NYC and became a part of the Harlem Renassaince movement with other notable Virgin Islanders like Hubert Harrison and Casper Holstein. His son, Lionel, born and raised in NYC became a famous jockey, boxer and then later an actor in both theater and film. Nicknamed Lee from childhood, it was during a fight as a boxer where the announcer mispronounced his name and Canegata became "Canada" and stuck.

Lionel C. Canegata aka Canada Lee, famous boxer and actor

And what is even more amazing about this process of researching the Canegatas is that we believe to have uncovered a younger brother to Dr. David C. Canegata, James Albert Canegata, apparently born in 1895 according to the St. John's church records! It was exciting and incredible that as we searched for better clarification on Canada Lee and who his mother was, we discovered indeed another brother. This was an unexpected surprise to the surviving Canegatas on St. Croix.

However, separate from the family discoveries, Dianne relayed a fascinating image of a strong and united family. One with beautiful traditions and a strong sense of place. She recounted memories of family gatherings at "The Hill" as her grandparents house was affectionately referred to, where all the Canegatas gathered for dinner on Sunday, Easter or Christmas.  Unfortunately the beautiful historic home she describes was destroyed in 1989 in Hurricane Hugo. What remains on this large property are the steps she remembers using to enter her grandparents home.

Steps to Dr. David C. Canegata's home on Fisher St. Christiansted, the remains of Hurricane Hugo in 1989

View of Canegata property on the corner of Church St. and Fisher St.

One of the other reflections she shared that stood out to me was a comment about what it felt like to recognize a particular brick on a street that you have canvassed your entire life. Having walked these streets as a child and now as an adult, she said it gives her a tremendous comfort and sense of self to be able to do that. It was a small but profound description of a true sense of place and belonging. It is that same sense of place and ownership that I hope my documentary can inspire.

Interview: Sonia Jacobs Dow, Executive Director of the St. Croix Landmarks Society

Sonia Jacobs Dow, Executive Director of the St. Croix Landmarks Society

This week I had the opportunity to interview Sonia Dow, executive director of the St. Croix Landmarks Society. It's an amazing organization dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage. They run two museums, a library and have great programs, exhibits, concerts and tours. Ms. Dow also has connections to Free Gut and the larger Christiansted, so she was a natural choice for an interview subject that deals with the town, the buildings and the story of its former residents.

Sonia Dow, Executive Direction of St. Croix Landmarks Society in front of "My Granny House"

We interviewed her on the property of the Estate Whim Museum. I have actually had an exhibit there. You can see a link here and here to view some of the images from that show.

Iron Bed as a part of the "My Granny House" Exhibit at the Estate Whim Museum

However we chose to interview her in front of a beautiful wooden house that was constructed about 20 years ago that has been recently converted into an exhibit entitled "My Granny House". The first time I entered the house it brought back so many memories of both of my grandmothers houses. My grandmother in Barbados and Tobago have similar homes. The kitchen, the bed, the grip, the dollies, the crochet doll, the rocking chair, coal pot all made me think of my Granny and how my parents grew up. Both of them in one and two room wooden houses that they shared with 6-8 people.

What was most memorable to me about our interview was Ms. Dow's commentary on the effect of uncovering one's family history. She talked about the varied emotions that surface when someone finds that first African born ancestor or the first ancestor that was a slaveholder. Due to the meticulous Danish accounting of property taxes, and we remember that slaves were considered property, it is possible for many Virgin Islanders to trace their family history in their library. The process, she says, is incredibly healing, the stories are healing. And for me, although I am not related to anyone that owned my house, we agreed that the stories are powerful enough that they transcend bloodlines. It was a great reminder of one of the many reasons that I am doing this documentary.