Building a Caribbean Home

Caribbean timber frame home under construction

Prior to Hurricane Ivan (September 11, 2004), Phil and Nancy lived in a four bedroom house on the Caribbean Island of Grand Cayman that they were happy with; however during Hurricane Ivan, the roof came off and the house's metal frame twisted. Phil and Nancy were immediately homeless after the storm, but not property-less; they moved into a 3 room cottage where they have been living for the past 7 years.

After some time passed by, they decided to look for a new house, but after spending time researching many homes on the island, they couldn't find a home that suited them, so they decided to build. But the question was, what were they going to build?

Phil and Nancy hired an architect friend to design their new home and came up with a 3 story design that passed through planning. But prior to submitting to the Island's Building Control Unit (BCU), they sat down with a Quantity Surveyor and he showed them that they were standing on a financial precipice, so they backed off. More time passed by and eventually the couple decided to come up with an alternative design. Nancy spent time researching small house plans on the Internet and one of the first plans that popped up was Davis Frame's Japanese Tea House. Nancy thought, "Oh, that's nice," and continued her research.

Original Japanese Tea House rendering

Phil and Nancy drew, printed and adjusted many self-designed floor plans. They wanted to get their thoughts and ideas in order before again involving an architect to design their home. The first time they began the design process, they were not sure what they were looking for, but this time they had a pretty good idea. Phil and Nancy spent many nights tweaking many of the plans they found online. They would sit down and discuss the plans they tweaked, put the plans away, and look at them a couple of weeks later. Sometimes after revisiting they would tweak again and other times they would start all over. Finally, they chose the Japanese Tea House and decided this was the plan they wanted to work with..........

To read the rest of the story,visit our website! If you are interested in learning more about our timber frames or this Caribbean timber frame home, call 1-800-636-0993!