The Journal

Most outdoor projects here do not fail on design. They fail on the calendar. A pool deck quoted for six weeks becomes four months, and nobody lied to you — they just didn’t tell you about the parts that were never really theirs to promise. The honest answer: budget three to six months for anything

Working outdoors sounds wonderful right up until the trade wind lifts an invoice off the table and lodges it in the neighbour’s frangipani. Almost everyone in Aruba, Curaçao or Bonaire has tried the outdoor-office fantasy at least once — laptop on the patio table, coffee within reach, ocean somewhere in the frame — and most

Everyone here multiplies the US price by three. It is a bulky-goods rule, and for most of what you actually buy it is wrong.

Salt, wind and reflected light do not stop at a border. Three exposure zones, and why the right product in one is a costly mistake in another.

How to tell a contractor worth hiring from one who isn’t — the three things to ask for before you pay any deposit.