Burns and Bells

Yesterday turned out to be a very eventful day, quite unintentionally. It all started with FL Remodel Guy (FR Guy) when he put some hamburger buns in the toaster for a sandwich. Unfortunately, the buns are closer to the heating elements than bread and may have a lower burning point. Anyway - Burn, baby, Burn! Thankfully, it didn't set off the smoke detectors or fire alarm, but the house did smell of smoke most of the rest of the day.

Later, I decided to make tomato, goat cheese and onion tarts for dinner. I saw the recipe on Food Network from Ina Garten and they sounded delicious. Now, the oven in our house is quite old. I don't think it is the original oven from 50 years ago, but it's not that far off. The thermostat doesn't work properly and the broiler doesn't work at all. (I am really looking forward to having a broiler!) Well, the oven must have known that I went to the appliance store yesterday to look at new stoves! Long story short, the tarts are made with puff pastry, and the ones on the bottom rack burned. Not quite as badly as the hamburger buns, but burned, nonetheless. The two on the upper shelf survived, and although they were not cooked thoroughly, they were really delicious. I highly recommend the recipe. Here is the link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tomato-and-goat-cheese-tarts-recipe/index.html

Little did we know that was only the beginning of our excitement for the day... Much later after dinner, morning person FR Guy had already gone to bed and night person FR Gal was watching TV. At 11:25 the door bell rang. Since all of our neighbors have our telephone numbers, I seriously doubted it was one of them. From the front door, which has glass panels, someone could see that the TV was on, but could not see me sitting on the sofa. There was no way I was going to answer. It rang three times in succession over a minute or two and then stopped. I assumed whoever it was went away, but nooooo. It started up again at about 11:45. Long story shorter, the wonderful police officer in our small town came to the house and looked around. He said that some kids were gathered not too far away and it may be them. Shortening the story further, this kept up for almost an hour and a half. The wonderful police officer drove and walked all over the neighborhood and I called him each time the bell rang (at his request). He could never see anyone, though. FR Guy gave up and went to bed, but not before saying "it's probably a frog or we have a short in the doorbell". The policeman finally hid in the hedges next to the house and had a clear view to the front door when the bell rang - and there was no one there pushing it! Unbelievable and totally embarrassing! It was almost 1:30 a.m. by then and he left, probably thinking we were loony tunes! Now, I have never thought we had a ghost, so that wasn't it. A frog could perhaps accidently hit the bell once as a fluke (there are lots of frogs around) and I know the snake didn't do it, so that leaves only one solution. We have a short in the doorbell!

I now owe the Town police some killer brownies. Actually, I love the Bobby Flay recipe for blondies, so that is what I will probably make to take to them as an apology. Here's the link to that recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/blondies-recipe/index.html

Thankfully, we cannot hear the doorbell from our bedroom so we never knew if it kept ringing. Interestingly, we have been home most of the day and have not heard a peep from the offending door bell! Hummmm. Maybe there is a ghost!

I hope you try the recipes, but I promise this will not turn into a cooking blog! However, after the burned buns and tarts, FR Guy said we can start counting down the rest of the meals we have to have in this house! I can assure you, there will be no more tarts in our retarted stove!

The door bell incident reminded me of a problem we had recently with the alarm system, but that is a post for another day.

Stay Tuned!

Timing is Everything

Many of you know we have been talking about this remodel (well, not exactly this one) for several years and you are wondering if it is ever actually going to happen. Well, it really is! Really! It just takes forever. We finalized the architectural plans a few weeks ago and once they were finished, I naturally presumed we would be under construction in no time. I really do know better, but hey - I'm impatient - it's been years and years! I'm beginning to learn that "island time" has nothing on "construction time".

We met with our contractor this week and got a pretty good handle on timing. There are many things yet to do. We are still waiting on some final bids. We have to have to get the truss drawings finished before the engineer can work his magic and sign and seal the drawings. THEN, we can submit the plans to the Town. This takes a few weeks and then the plans have to go to the County. We are now anticipating starting construction around the second week of October. GROAN! This means we will be finished in the spring - probably May. Just in time for the hot, sticky rainy season. At least we did make sure we would have a temporary electrical line running to the dock so we can get the boat out during construction.

Shall we start a pool to see if these dates are anywhere close to the actual ones?

Thanks for stopping by!

FL Remodel Gal

Interior Design

We met with our interior designer over the weekend and we are so excited by her ideas. We are lucky enough to be friends with a renowned Florida designer who normally does large hospitality projects. Because she is our friend, she agreed to work on our little bitty project. Her taste is impeccable. We have known her for about 10 years and have stayed in some of the projects she designed, so we know her work very well. Check out her web site: www.pamelatemples.com

Additionally, being friends helps because we can all be frank with each other about what works and what doesn't. She is very diplomatic when she tells us what is crap - and we do have some of that! She is fantastic at working with our eclectic collection of antique and contemporary furniture. Fl. Remodel Guy especially loves her because she found room for his pool table! The results will be exactly what we want and will look spectacular. We're very excited!

Feeling Chipper

The day of the tree removal, I was feeling a bit blah. Fla Remodel Guy said he knew the just thing to do. He said that I would be feeling chipper in no time. I should have known better.......

A Change in the Landscape

One of the biggest changes we need to make has nothing to do with the actual house construction. We must move our septic system from the back yard to the front due to changes in the building codes. In order to do that, we have to rearrange the entire front yard, which means moving the driveway, tearing down the pump house and taking down several trees. Oh, and before we do that, we have to deal with the well, but that will be the topic for another day.

Another change related to the construction is to remove a big branch from a very large oak tree on the side of the house. We knew the tree was significantly compromised when we bought the house, but we hoped it would recover and live. Our town requires a permit to remove trees, so when the town arborist came to look at the trees slated for removal he also looked at the oak and declared it too far gone to be saved. He actually said that it was dangerous and a hazard to both our house and our neighbor's so, sadly, this tree also had to be removed.

We hired Godley's Tree Service (www.godleystreeservice.com), a three generation family business who does a lot of work in our town. We highly recommend them to do any tree removal or other tree related work you need in Central Florida. There are punch list items they need to finish, but the overall quality of their work was really good.

They arrived on the appointed day (almost 2 hours from when they said they would be there - but hey - in construction lingo, this is right on time) and showed up with more equipment that we have ever seen. They had two cranes, two bobcats, various trucks, a huge chipper (visions of Fargo....) and at least 10 men. Within 20 minutes of arrival the first tree was down. Amazing! Take a look at the before and after photos (they also did some trimming).

The work to take down the big oak tree was much more involved as it had big branches over both our house and our neighbor's house. It was interesting to be in the house and hear the thumps as the branches dropped on the roof as well as the ground. Oh well, I don't think the roof could leak any more than it already does.....

The children from next door were very worried that we were also going to remove the other big oak with the tree house in it. They have visitation rights over the tree house any time they want, so they have a vested interest in this tree. They were visibly relieved when I assured them the tree house tree would not be touched!

The following photos tell the story pretty well. It took over 8 hours to get that big tree down.

Let me know what you think about the size of the photos. Are the small ones too small? Should they all be the medium size? You can use "comment" or just send me an email.

One reason to keep the pool screen

Not being from Florida, I really do not like having a screen over the pool.  I know it is to keep out bugs, but we didn't have one in Texas and I assure you the mosquitos in Texas are bigger than the ones in Florida.  I am looking forward to getting rid of the screen except for one tiny (well, not so tiny) reason.  This guy got in when I left the door open.  He was not happy and neither was I.  Without the screen I will probably have to get used to these visitors.  At least the alligators will not be able to get through the fence around the yard (I hope).

Here are photos of the back of the house where most of the work will be done.

We will be removing the pool screen and adding a great room and a master bedroom suite to the back of the house.  The pool stays, so the addition will be on the left.  We will have a BBQ area where the french doors are in front of the pool as well as a deck outside the great room.  Most of the back will be all windows so we will finally be able to see the lake from the main parts of the house!

Yes, that is a great tree house in the big tree.  It has the very best views!

The Journey Begins

I invite you to go on a journey with me as we remodel our house. It has already been quite a long process, but more about that in later posts.

Why remodel, you ask. Well.....we purchased the house specifically to remodel it as it is a 50+ year old split level house on a lake that had not been updated very much since it was built. Why someone put a split level house on a lake in Florida is a mystery. Our guess is that the original owners moved from the midwest and brought the plans with them. It is interesting that the best view of the lake is from the upstairs bathrooms. Our goal was to change that dynamic and maximize the view from the main level of the house. It's not as easy as it sounds.