Tropic of Sunshine (ePub)

When Patrick Youngblood and his partner Michael Wiack bought a rambling, dilapidated house on Vieques Island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, they could hardly believe their luck-or how much work lay ahead of them. "e;Relax,"e; their realtor assured them. "e;Six months, tops, and your place will be perfect."e; Three adventure-filled years later-their bank accounts depleted, their patience stretched to the breaking point on a weekly basis-they hung the last picture, fluffed the last throw pillow, and popped open a bottle of vintage Champagne to celebrate the completion of their Caribbean dream house. Tropic of Sunshine is a lighthearted account of the longest, happiest, most frustrating thirty-six months of their lives. From the first day they had set foot on the island they'd been smitten by its frozen-in-time charm. Thanks to the mixed blessing of fifty years of occupation by the U.S. Navy, Vieques had happily escaped the over-development that plagued many of its Caribbean neighbors-its stunning beaches were all but empty, its narrow roads lightly traveled, its residents friendly and welcoming. In a word, it was paradise. And now that the Navy was shipping out for good, they had decided to buy a piece of it. But taming their little corner of Eden proved to be a crash course in how Vieques works-and how it doesn't. Almost nothing went according to plan, and lots of projects went seriously off-track. Their renovation budget doubled and then tripled. Their property manager fired them. Their contractor became gravely ill. The Navy haltingly withdrew from the island, leaving a legacy of discord and mistrust in its wake. Along the way they learned a number of unforgettable lessons: concrete houses can have termites; five-foot iguanas aren't necessarily more afraid of you than you are of them; a property manager who paints your house orange instead of yellow may resign in a huff when you point out his little mistake. And that was just the beginning. But by blustering, ad libbing and laughing their way through the process, they survived the ordeal with their love of the island, and of their dream house, firmly intact.