Welcome to Colibri House! If you like living among trees in a natural forest setting and don’t want a pool because Smuggler’s Cove is just a short footpath away, this house will be great for you.
It is located in one of the best settings of Belmont Estate, on the North shore of West End, Tortola. Belmont Estate is one of the best locations on the island because it faces North, meaning it is partly protected from the sun and gets more rain than the South shore. It, therefore, has more trees and is shadier. People come from other parts of the island to walk or jog on the estate.
Colibri House is high enough above sea level to view Jost van Dyke, Sandy Cay and Green Cay, and the small Western islands above Gun Point. Yet it has a short path to one of the best beaches on Tortola, Smuggler’s Cove. The parcel is 0.7 acres with much of the quasi-tropical forest left around the house, so that none of the neighbouring houses is visible, providing perfect privacy.
As you enter from the parking behind the house down a few steps, you find yourself in a central partly-covered patio with the living area to the left and master bedroom to the right. The living room opens to a covered and tiled veranda for outdoor dining, extended with an open wooden deck. Adjacent, across a serving counter, is the well-equipped kitchen and a small storage room. The furniture is mainly Balinese, made of solid teak wood, most appropriate and resistant to tropical climate. There are three ceiling fans in this area.
The master bedroom is reached through a gate with a small corridor. It is 268 square feet. It originally consisted of two separate rooms (and could quite easily be separated again into two rooms). It is cooled by two fans and an air conditioner. Here too, the furniture is Balinese solid teak wood. The main bathroom has a sunken bath with a shower. It is separated from the bedroom by a glass panel, with stained glass work showing a marine environment that will stay with the house. There is also a second bathroom with a toilet and sink. From the bedroom, two louvred glass doors open onto a wooden deck with a beautiful view.
In the lower part of the house, there is the second bedroom with its own bathroom and shower (as well as an outside shower) and a slightly elevated alcove that provides cosy extra living space.
This lower area is reached from the central patio by a flight of stairs. There are three water tanks (providing over 18’000 gallons of rainwater storage), a pump and storage room, a laundry (with a hot water heater and gas dryer) and a workshop.
Colibri House was built in 1976 following drawings of well-known BVI architect Roger Downing. The central wall across the two sides is a marking architectural feature; it is decorated by a hummingbird painting of the Nazca lines. The house has withstood all hurricanes without damage up to Irma and Maria in 2017, when parts of the roof flew off. It has since been rebuilt even more solidly. Hurricane Irma led to installing a 22 kW generator run on liquid gas, which can easily power the whole house.
