Supplements: Surf Sound Cottage is a masonry home, construction completed in 2006. It was built with durability and ease of maintenance in mind. There are intentional redundancies built in, to assure smooth operations. Some examples: the wooden hip roof, built to maximize water collection, sits above a concrete slab roof. So, losing the roof in a hurricane is NOT a serious concern. Also, each cistern has its own stainless steel submersible pump, rather than the typical single household centrifugal shallow well pump. Therefore the house will not be without water if a pump should fail. We use a combination of solar and electric power in heating water and providing light. And each floor provides completely independent living space, with separate entrances, separate bathrooms, separate kitchens. Extensive outdoor lighting and security lights operate on timers and motion detection; half of which are solar powered, half are low-voltage electric. There are additional tanks holding 600 gallons of water for the gardens, and the drip irrigation system operates on timers. The property has been financially self-supporting. We've rented an average of 24 weeks per year. Greater than 50% of those weeks occupied by repeat guests. The Surf Sound Cottage property was hit by Hurricane Irma, the damage sustained was to outdoor structures: the single car port blew away, the wooden back deck sustained minor damage, and the outdoor shower was damaged. Gardens were torn out and the mahogany trees snapped off. In the time since, the deck was repaired, garden terracing and plants were replaced, and outdoor shower replaced. The mahogany trees survived and regrew! The car port will not be replaced.
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