A not-so-charming case of termites

The Charming House would have been mine a year ago were it not for a bad case of toothache and a family wedding. Between them they kept Sean McGovern, the court registrar on Grand Turk, "off island" all summer, back in Britain for dentistry and nuptials.

By June 2007, Valerie's signature, Mary Isabella's death certificate and all necessary documents, bearing stamps, were on his desk in Cockburn Town on Grand Turk, the Turks and Caicos capital. But there was still no sign of McGovern when I got back to Salt Cay for a holiday last August - and he was the only man who could process probate and thereby fix my deed.

Every Wednesday I clambered aboard the Buccaneer, Salt Cay's 34 ft ferry, to join the Belongers on their weekly shopping trip to the markets of Grand Turk.

The Buccaneer is an open boat and you take a sun hat because it is a 40-minute ride through seven miles of deep-water swell. On choppy days you get soaked but soon dry-off. Grandma Nettie gathers her skirts and gets up the rusty iron ladder at the Government Pier like a gymnast. Sometimes there is a Dominican banana boat trading at the dock. Picture-perfect Caribbean.

But there is still no news of McGovern's return. Instead I met up with Charlie Garland, an architect who has known the Charming House all his life, and he sketched a renovation plan on a napkin at the bar. When I said I wanted a verandah like the neighbouring Government House, he added it with a pencil.

He had the drawings made and stamped with planning approvals and permits within two weeks. This was efficiency, island-style: