Wellstead - 15. WSD Chapter 15

At dinner time at the end of their first week on the island, Anne said that she was finding her new job challenging but rewarding, and although it was difficult at first, things were going well, especially now that new guests had arrived. Quinn said he was also enjoying the work, but he was having some troubles with one staff member who was not liking working for a much younger boss. Quinn said that he had spoken to this worker and given him the choice to change his attitude or go and find a new job.

“I suggest you speak to the resort manager and tell him what is happening. This is the sort of thing that needs to be discussed at the senior staff members meeting,” I said to Quinn, who nodded his understanding. “I have put an offer in for the private land next door, which has a staff cottage and a bungalow. I will know the result of the offer by noon tomorrow at the latest, so if it goes ahead, Anne and you two boys can have your own quarters in the cottage, and Elspeth, Lloyd and I will have a new home, which will make these two bungalows available for more guests,” I announced to all at the table. I described the small details of the property that I already knew.

Early the next morning I had a call from Frank saying that the owner was a widow who had owned the land with her late husband since they retired fifteen years ago. He said that it would be an excellent addition to the resort, considering that the shed contained an underground cyclone proof shelter, apparently with all the comforts of home added. About an hour later I received a call from the lady next door, who invited me over for morning tea to discuss the final terms for the purchase of the property. I happily accepted the invitation.

Twenty minutes later I was at the cottage. The lady was seated on the bench seat on the veranda with a tray containing two china cups, a tea pot and a tiny jug of milk waiting for my arrival. After the morning tea was consumed with a lot of small talk, mainly her asking me questions about myself and the family, she suggested that we take a walk to look at the rest of the property.

Firstly, we went to the front shed, which was very solidly built and I was informed that it should be able to withstand Category 4 Cyclonic winds easily. The shed contained an old ute that looked like it hadn’t been used in some time, and a small car. There was room for at least another two more vehicles.

In front of the vehicles was a 1 ½ metre high solid concrete wall, with a solid steel door in the centre. Looking over the wall, I saw that there was a solid concrete roof that looked like it had the slightest of a slope downwards towards the back wall of the shed. I noticed two more solid steel doors in the wall, one at each end of the wall.

I was informed that the steel door on the left contained a diesel generator, with a diesel fuel tank built into the floor of the shed, able to keep running continuously for three straight weeks before needing to be refuelled. To the right were two air-conditioning systems that supplied the fresh air required for the underground cyclone bunker that was located behind the centre door. She added that the floor of the shed also contained two underground water tanks and if emergency oxygen was required, due to contaminated air outside, there was enough air for three weeks.

Below in the bunker there was a long central passageway with a small passageway to the left that had 8 large and 6 small bunk rooms to the left, and 6 large and 9 small bunk rooms to the right. Each bunk room had its own bathroom. In the centre, at the rear there was a large kitchen, scullery and huge food storage pantry. To one side of that there was a large dining room. This area would be used only for functions and was able to be kept separate with just placing a lock on the double doors from the main passageway that leads to this area.

In front of this was a recreation room, and to one side there were two lounge rooms and a large conference room. On the other side there was a library, an office and a small meeting room. The recreation room would be an extension to the function area but would also act as an entry lobby for the main area, as it was the first main large room to enter from the entry passageway.

Everything was very basic inside the bunker, and as I looked around I quickly did some maths in my head. The bunker could accommodate a staggering total of 112 people in all the large bunk rooms and 60 people in the small bunk rooms, that being grand total of 172 people. The beds were basic, with 8 beds in each large bunkroom and 4 beds in each small bunk room. The pantry had a small amount of food stocked up, and the kitchen was well supplied with all the cooking equipment required. I was very impressed with the facilities.

I was told that she and her late husband had informed the emergency services of the existence of the shelter when it was built over twelve years ago, but she feared that since then it had been forgotten about. It had only been used twice since it was built and only by her family who were on the island at the time of cyclones being in the area.

After looking at the shelter, I was shown the cottage which the widow had been living in since her late husband’s passing, and then the very large bungalow in the centre of the property which was very well built and able to withstand medium level cyclones, up to category 3 level.

Once the tour was over, all the documents for the purchase were produced, all of them prepared by her lawyers. I handed her a large cheque for the amount that I had offered, but I had added another 5% to that amount as a token of goodwill for such a fast transaction.

The widow said that she would be moving out of the cottage in less than two days, and then it was all mine from that point on, and that I could move into the bungalow at any time I wanted too, as she had not used that building for a few years now, but had it well maintained for when she eventually decided to sell.

At lunch time with everyone home for lunch I made an announcement. “I have good news to announce. As of today I now own the property next door. The bungalow is very comfortable, and the cottage is surprisingly comfortable. What is a big surprise is the shed at the front. It has room for 4 vehicles at the front, while the rest of the shed is a well-hidden underground cyclone shelter.

“So, on the weekend we will be moving into our new homes. I have already asked Frank to arrange for removals to pack up and bring everything over from our original home. This will happen on Friday,” I announced to everyone.

Three and a half days later when the 8 removal trucks arrived, I called Anne, Kyle, Quinn and Elspeth, to let them know the trucks had arrived. Lloyd was still at school and would be back in 2 ½ hours’ time. Thankfully the removals people were happy to assist with moving everything indoors, and four hours later everything was out of the trucks and placed in the cottage, bungalow and the shed.

The following day the two families got to work getting their homes in order. Anne and her nephews were busy in the cottage getting the furniture and belongings in the right places, while Elspeth, Lloyd and myself were very busy with the bungalow, which had a master bedroom with en-suite bathroom, guest bedroom with en-suite bathroom and two bedrooms with a semi en-suite bathroom. I decided to let Lloyd have both those rooms, with one as his lounge and computer room.

The bungalow had a small library/study, so most of my books were able to fit into our new home. What wasn’t able to fit, which was some of the fiction novels, would be placed in the library down in the shelter, which I was planning to have renovated so it could be used as a convention centre. By Sunday both families had moved into our new homes, and this made the two bungalows that we had occupied for the past two weeks available for guests.

While Kyle was waiting for the new university semester to begin, he was given part time work in the restaurant. He was enjoying the work even when it was long hours, serving meals, doing dish washing and serving in the bar. On Monday morning I went for a walk through the numerous walk trails through the tropical forest of the new property. It was so peaceful and relaxing, and I spent a good hour there before returning to the bungalow.

Once in my new office I began organising for a renovation stylist to look at the underground bunker, and after a few phone calls I had arranged for two people to come and look at the place the following day at 11am. Once that was finished, I found Kyle who had a day off, and asked him to join me for a proper look at the bunker.

We put together some ideas for the complex. Firstly, a passageway would be made in the centre of the shed with a single doorway made between the two large shed doors, so there was a separate entry directly into the bunker from the front, without having to walk between the vehicles. Next Kyle suggested making it look a bit more homely with hard wearing carpet instead of concrete floors, and some variety with colours on the walls. Kyle was very impressed with the size of the complex and my idea of using it as a conference convention centre.

The following day when the two ladies came for a look at the bunker, they were very surprised about the location of the complex that I wanted them to recommend ideas for renovating, and for the next two hours I allowed them to wander around the complex and take notes. I asked them to provide a quote and an estimated time frame for the work for the entire building by the end of the week.

Once they had gone, I went to the admin of the resort to look for the manager. When I had found him, I informed him of the proposed plans for the conference centre, and asked him to look into ways of marketing the new facilities once the renovation work was completed.

I also asked how the guest bookings were looking now that the resort was fully operational again. With the new bungalows currently in the process of being constructed I suggested starting to look at new marketing methods to promote the expansions for the whole resort.

After this meeting, I returned to my office in the bungalow, which I was really enjoying as a new home. Although it didn’t have the views of the ocean, the beach was only 50 metres away and the sound of the waves could easily be heard from inside.

On the Friday, I received the two quotes, which included a portfolio of colours and samples of what it would look like with each room, and at dinner time with Anne and the boys having dinner with my family, I let them know of the quotes and after dinner I showed them all the two portfolios. After some discussions, a selection was made of the best quote that would suit what I wanted for the complex.

During the next 6 weeks, the whole property was full of activity. There were the many guests that were staying at the resort. The building work went ahead for the new bungalows, gazebos, spa pool, jetty and the underground complex, and all of it was completed on time and on budget. I also had some garden benches built and placed in the lawn clearings in the tropical jungle for some places to comfortably sit. Once it was all done I looked at the new buildings and was very happy with the results.

When I looked at the results of the changes to the underground complex I was very impressed with the results. It looked very homely and was well worth the huge investment that I had put into the project. The following day I travelled over to Townsville with Kyle assisting, and we visited a number of book stores including 2^nd hand book stores, to look for some good quality novels and various non-fiction and reference books.

We returned to the island with 4 large boxes full of books, and we had another 12 boxes that would be delivered in the next two days. Elspeth collected us in the new 4x4 land rover that I had purchased the other day, which had been delivered earlier in the day via the barge. Kyle and I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting and putting the books in their right place in the new underground library.

Once the library was fully stocked, and the complex was fully refurnished, I organised a photographer to take a series of photos of the improvements as part of the new marketing strategy for the resort.

Once this was done I sent a message to Frank, inviting him to attend the special event launching the new facilities at the resort. His return message said that he would be in Townsville in three weeks’ time, as it was the earliest that he could get some time off. So that is when I set the date for the launch party to occur. I decided to invite as many of the business owners of the island to attend as possible.

I asked the resort manager to try and have the resort free of guests for the two days before and the day of the party. Luckily there were no bookings for the weekend that I had selected, so those three days were kept free. There would be only one special guest staying in the resort, that being Frank.

When the invitations were sent out to every single business on the island, a total of 72 businesses, I received 62 acceptances, 4 non-acceptances, with the remaining 6 businesses saying they were not sure if they could make it.

When the big event was just a day away, at about 10.15am I received a call from reception, informing me that Mr Frank Hills and 3 other guests had arrived. I informed the receptionist that I would be there shortly. When I arrived in the reception area of the resort I was pleasantly surprised to see not only Frank there but also Judge Samuel Andrews, his wife Kathleen and their nephew Christopher.

When the manager appeared and saw my surprised expression he just laughed and said he knew of the extra guests arriving and that they would be staying in the two bungalows closest to my home. I greeted my guests happily and I asked the staff to bring their luggage to the bungalows while I showed them around the property.

Once the guests had been shown the basics of the place, I led them up to where their bungalows were located and let them settle in. I said I would meet them in the restaurant at noon for an early lunch, guessing they would be hungry from all their travelling.

Returning to the reception area, I called Quinn and Karl and asked them to come to reception, where I informed them that not only had Frank arrived but also the Andrews family including Christopher, and I suggested that they try and adjust their work hours so they could keep Christopher entertained during his stay.

Once this was done I went back to my bungalow office to make final checks for the party. One of those was ringing all of the hotels on the island to check on the request the manager had made a week earlier to hire any spare hospitality staff that could be spared to assist with the party. After all the calls were made, I had a list of thirty-seven extra staff available for the full day event.

While all the staff were very busy preparing for the big day I gave my special guests the full tour of the property after lunch, including the hidden underground complex, which was now officially a conference centre but was also an emergency shelter during storms and cyclones. Judge Andrews was very impressed with the facilities and suggested that I have the office and meeting room fitted out with emergency communications equipment in case there was a need to have a central emergency centre. I thought that it was a good idea.

I let my guests rest and enjoy the surroundings for the remainder of the day with the boys taking over looking after young Christopher, so he didn’t have to hang around with the oldies. I went to the reception to check on how preparations were going with the next day’s big event. Later we all had dinner together in the restaurant as a pre-celebration meal.

The following day, starting at 10am we had the official opening of the new facilities at the resort, and tours of the property, including the conference centre, followed by a very delicious buffet lunch. I was stunned to see so many people had come to see the facilities, and it was during lunch that I was informed that all 68 invitees that had accepted were present at the event, along with a partner or guest, making it over 130 people in attendance.