ANTIGUA NEWS.

Hope everyone is doing well. It’s been a nice winter so far with less than average rainfall. A lot of activity in the Village with several new residents, quite a few new boats and some great new property values for these units. You can tell it’s spring by all the new growth on our plants and the longer days with higher tempters. Can’t wait for summer to get here.

OK, time to do some updates of the things going on in our Village. This may run a little long, just to catch everybody up. You’ll be happy to know I’ve learned how to insert pictures to help tell the story.  

GARAGE ELECTRIC. We do now have a set of plans and blueprints that we believe SDG&E has accepted. We are getting bids from three electrical contractors to do this work, before we pull permits. This is a very frustrating subject that we just can’t seem to move forward, but there is some movement now.

LANDSCAPING. We have completed the winter turf seeding and fertilizing. The results look great. The major trimming has also been completed and the plants are responding well. Should all look fantastic for this summer. We have also done some replacements and additions throughout the Village. Those efforts will continue over these next few months.

The majority of our irrigation, except the turf areas, has been reduced or suspended over these past few months. We will be resuming, as well as checking each station and timing as the weather warms in the coming months.    

RAINS. Well, for the first time, these past rains have produced no roof leaks. It’s a good sign we’re moving in the right direction. We did have a roof drain leak, and one upper deck leak, but thankfully those were caught quickly and resolved.  

FRONT LANDINGS. We have completed removing the tile and restoring the surface on 5 of these tiled landings. We also completed several special, but related projects on waterside decks at the same time.  We still have a few to go, however we stopped when funds ran out for this year’s budgeted amount. Planning on completing this next fiscal year.   

BALCONIES. (waterside patios) We are scheduled to reseal all 54 of these, next year (Starting July). We are currently getting bids for this work and plan to start asap so as to get the work done during the summer months. When you’re dealing with epoxy, it’s best to do it when the temperatures are up.

WEEP SCEEDS. As part of the balcony work, we will be installing a weep screed along the stucco edges of some decks. The “weep screed” is the metal break between the stucco and the patio surface. You see these weep screeds throughout the Village at the bottom of the stucco and above the concrete or dirt. More to say later in this newsletter.  

DOCK BOXES. Still looking at vendors, cost and quality. I think we have a few solutions which I will keep you informed of as I get more information.

BREEZEWAY LIGHTS. We have completed this project throughout the Village

POOL. The replastering is complete. The pool has been refilled and the pumps and heater turned on. We continue to monitor the temperature, as the cost of gas can cause us to spend thousands of dollars a month to keep this pool warm.

PALMS. We have again fertilized the King palms and are seeing results. I’m trying to get them to turn much greener like they are at the nursery. Our current plan is to add some additional iron as this is a very sandy complex.

DUES. We have completed not only for the Antigua budget but the “Common” area budget as well. A big “Thank You” to Mark Metzger from Antigua, for taking on the role of being our association treasurer, but also participating in this year’s budget cycle. I know it was an eye-opening experience for him to work with all the directors (much less me) and the many issues in each of our Villages. He brings a new energy and approach to a number of our financial issues. He’s already had an impact and helped move several issues forward.

Having spent many hours on this matter as well as numerous meetings with Henry, Sergio and Mark, amongst others, I am happy with the final product. The dues for Antigua will be increasing next year by approximately $64.41 per month. There are, of course, some variations based on square footages of each unit in Antigua. The Common area dues will also increase by approximately $7.45.

OK, now for some explanation and information on the issues we are confronting. I want to emphasize, these are not hard to fix. They don’t require some new technology or advanced thinking. In fact, I don’t see them as problems at all, they are just issues we need to address. It really comes down to having the funds to make the repairs.

As an FYI, I’m a guy that makes lists. A lot of lists. And I just keep checking things off and adding others items. I have a list for Landscape, buildings, docks, you name it. So, I wanted to share a few of the issues, so you can see what we’re dealing with.

These are all very current pictures.

DOCKS. Always a fun subject. We have plans to improve the care of this major asset for our Village. If you see, or have a problem with your dock, please call the CCHOA and report it. Recently we replaced a few cleats on the docks. I think we were surprised to find the bolts holding those cleats (and boats tied to them) were rusted away to almost nothing. In fact, some were down to less than a ¼ inch. Another project we will be addressing.

GARAGE PAINT. You will have noticed the black dirt and algae on the tops of the garages. It’s worse on the garages facing north. We tried to clean it off, but that only resulted in removing the paint. My intent is to clean and treat these areas as well as paint the garage stucco. This does not include the garage doors.

Black Algae                       Staining                      Old and not great construction

DOCK GANGWAYS. This is a continual issue, as we try to keep these assets in working order. We have improved massively the construction process we use in making any new gangways. However, these structures require a lot of care. Old iron bolts rust through. Rails break and rot out in the marine environment. The plywood walking surface also will get rot.

I intend to have this wood repaired, hardware inspected, and have all gangways repainted.

Gangway                  Iron screws                   Wood rot                 Deck rot                                

PLUMBING ISSUES. As usual we continue to have plumbing issues throughout the Village. No where near the levels of years past. But these are 55-year-old buildings and these things are just expected. That is why we have increased our budget item to cover any needed repairs.

-No need to show pictures of old pipes. We’ve all seen them.   

ROOFS. The new surface has held up well. But like anything it requires some repairs and maintenance. We continue to have issues with some of the roof drains.

WATERSIDE PATIOS. I spoke about this earlier. For some reason, a number of these decks were built without installing a weep screed. Now, some years later, this is causing a real leak problem we need to address.  These are a few photos of that issue and our repairs. It’s a big issue, not hard to solve, just costly. We’ll just continue to resolve them as funds permit.

     Weep screed                                No weep screed

TILED FRONT LANDINGS. We only have two more of these to resolve. This will conclude this matter and we can just move forward with getting these areas on a regular re-seal program.

STAIRS. A new California law (SB900) has begun dictating some requirements we are going to need to address. Forgetting this new law requirements, we have a couple of staircases we need to address now. The area where the stairs attach to the cement, stair pad replacements as well as checking the rails.

Base of stairs                      Bottom of stairs

NEW RAILS. We have begun replacing some of the old wooden rail systems. This is when we redo the landings or waterside patios. The idea is to remove all of the penetrations into the wooden stringers running across the front and back rails. Each of these pickets had at least 2 screws if not three into the stringer. Each of these screws adds another place for water to get into the wood. The new system removes these penetrations as well as providing a much stronger rail.

Old rail system (attached)                new rails

ELECTRICAL PANELS. These are the panels inside most of the trash areas. They contain your master breaker as well as the SDG&E meter. They are the HOA responsibility to maintain. And now with this new law (SB900) we need to include them in our reserve study. We already had this item in our study, but we have completed a more extensive review. There are some that need replacing, some for just repair and others that just need some maintenance.

  Rusted hinges             Top of box rusted out       Broken boxes

Well, that’s the latest. (I think) Any suggestions or items we are missing, feel free to get in contact. It’s still an amazing Village, located in a wonderful neighborhood, in a very unique City.

Just a great place to live.

Dennis