Blockheads

Well, on Monday morning there were 9 guys ready to put up the block walls. Yea. However, there was no block. Bummer. They left after 2 hours. The block showed up about 5 hours later...

So, today there was block, but no labor. Oy!

Scheduling could have been handled better. Blockheads.

Christmas Break Photos

Well, we had to take a break from construction, so you get to as well!

We refused to get on an airplane during the holidays this year, so we loaded up the car (two seater, so not much room to load stuff) and headed northwest. A friend who is a Florida native suggested we visit Cedar Key if we wanted a quick getaway from it all, so that is where we went. It is a very small, quaint town (emphasis on very small) a little over 2 hours from central Florida. They did actually have a few bars and restaurants open on Christmas, so that was great. The next day, we had lunch at Frog's Landing Restaurant, where we met Spike, a very tame white heron (or some call him a snowy egret). They feed him fish from kitchen, so he hangs out there quite a bit. Sort of reminded us of a dog - staring in the window until someone fed him! Oh, and the food at the restaurant was very, very good. Wonderful, fresh seafood.

The lump in his throat is actually food he just ate from the restaurant!

From Cedar Key, we headed south to Homosassa Springs. The manatee hang out near the springs there because the water is warmer. We really wanted to see the manatee, but weren't willing to go snorkeling or diving (the water may be warmer for the manatees, but for us it is cold). There is a state park where they have 6 manatee in captivity that they rescued from boating accidents. These guys are HUGE and extremely docile. A typical manatee eats over 100 lbs of plant material every day, but these guys are very spoiled (i.e. I think they are a bit oversized - fat - due to their comfy surroundings). Below are some photos. I loved their noses when they came up for air. Their heads are tiny compared with the large bodies. If you look closely you can see their eyes as well.

This photo was taken from the underwater observation area. The manatee are happy to show off for the crowds - actually, they are probably oblivious...

Photos from above were difficult due to the glare from the sunlight on the water. I used a UV filter, but did not have my polarizing filter with me, which would have helped with the glare, but you can get some idea of their size (and tiny head). This guy was about 6 to 8 feet long.

After the manatee encounter, we headed on south and stopped in Clearwater Beach for the night. We got there just in time for sunset, which was beautiful.

Happy Holidays everyone! Back to construction tomorrow....

Fla Remodel Gal

Slabolicious

It's slab time! Hats off and major kudos to the crew from Goss Foundations for working on Christmas eve morning to pour the slab. They are going on vacation for about 2 weeks starting tomorrow, so it would have been a big delay if they had not gotten this done for us. They Rock!

Unfortunately for our neighbors, they started about 7 this morning. I could hear the cement truck from across the street. I'm sure it was quite loud from next door. Sorry!

I did carve my initials in the slab even though I know no one will ever see them. I'll always know they are there, though.

By the looks of it, we may have a pair of Wellies (rubber boots) in the entry hall. Hummm - they could be used as umbrella holders....

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all! We are very happy campers with this progress today. Walls go up next week!

Fla Remo Gal

Construction Christmas Tree

Construction projects all over the country have trees on site - many times on the cranes. They are a symbol of good luck. So, of course, since this is the season, we have our own little tree on site. It is the only Christmas tree we have this year. I am not sure exactly where our Christmas decorations are and there is really no room for a tree where we are living now. We really love our little good luck construction tree - even without ornaments or lights!

Happy Holidays to all!

Off with it's head!

Well, I just thought we had a see through. It is REALLY a see through now! When the roof came off the bearing walls could also come down. All the demolition is finished and we can now start on building the new sections of the house. Dirt has been compacted and is ready for the slab to be poured - with luck, before the end of the week. If not, then the company that pours the slab goes on vacation for two weeks, so we are at a virtual standstill if we miss the window. Before the slab is poured, we need two inspections. Wonder if the county guys are working this week.... We'll find out. Wish us luck!

A Matter of Inches

Men always seem obsessed with inches, so imagine the delight of Bob the Builder and Fla Remo Guy when they found some ways to gain inches in the remodel! The first was Bob, who was bragging that he found 8 inches for me - much to my delight (and relief) it was in the kitchen! Since they had to move the front wall anyway, they determined that it actually worked better to move the front wall out by 8 inches. In a home that is small to start with, that is huge for the kitchen. We also gained about 8 to 9 inches on the side of the kitchen by tearing out the fireplace and chimney. Originally, we were going to just cover the fireplace with sheetrock and leave the unusable chimney in place since it seemed to balance out the house on the plans. Unfortunately, when we got into the demo, the chimney was not stable enough to leave, so it had to come down - and the fire place with it. I'm not sorry to see them both go.

We also learned that behind the plaster walls was styrofoam of all things. Apparently, it was used as insulation in the 50's. Who knew? Anyway, by tearing out the plaster and styrofoam, we gained several inches in the rest of the kitchen/great room. More room for the pool table. :)

Fla Remo Guy also figured out that it would be relatively easy to remove the tile floor in what was the den and will end up being the dining room/wine cellar. The ceiling in that room is probably 7'6" at best, so gaining several inches of head room by removing the tile and it's under layer is huge. The room will probably be designed to look cave like, but we don't want it to be claustrophobic.

All in all, this Fla Remo Gal is quite happy with the inches the menfolk provided!!

Bob the Builder

It's about time to introduce our builder - Bob Sorenson of Sorenson Construction, more affectionately known as Bob the Builder. Bob is a build-to-suit custom home builder who has built numerous homes on our street. I swear he has had at least one home, if not two, on our street under construction continuously since we moved here almost 5 years ago. Apparently, there are people who can still afford and want very large homes because he has one under construction down the street which will be close to 10,000 square feet (or more) when completed. Fortunately, Fla Remo Guy wore Bob down and he agreed to do our little remodel as a side project. It actually works well since the superintendent can go back and forth between jobs and some of the work is going on at the same time, at least for now as ours will be finished way before that big ole' house (won't it Bob??) :) For instance, when the foundation team finished pouring footings at the big house, they drove their bull dozer down the street to our house. I'm sure the neighbors loved it!

Fla Remo Guy found these balloons and put them in the house and just left them there. Bob about fell down the steps with laughter when he saw them!

See Through

"See through" is a term commonly used in commercial real estate to describe a new office building which is totally vacant - i.e. you can see through it since there are no walls. Well, we have our own version of residential real estate see through. Fortunately, the new walls should be going up next week, so this condition is a short one!

Demolition Derby

It's a busy day in our little neck of the woods. In addition to the construction of the main house, we are replacing the septic system on our other house across the street (where we are living), so we have heavy machinery going in both locations. Our neighbors are probably not very happy with us today!

The demo has been going very well, although it entailed more than we originally thought (more about that later). The house is now officially a "see through" with walls on two sides gone. We just hope that the two story portion that is apparently supported only by a two by four stays up until they can put more sufficient support under it!

Birds of a Feather

Two different birds, but both beautiful nonetheless.

Every year the Osprey leave for the summer in early July and return in early to mid November (hurricane season). We have a pair in a tree in our neighbor's yard. They generally do not leave or return together. One of them is back, waiting patiently for the other. I always get a bit anxious hoping that nothing happened to the other one. I look forward to photographing them together soon.

One of the first things we did as we started construction was to transplant our Birds of Paradise plant. We have a huge one that was growing right where the master bedroom will be. They trimmed and moved it away from all of the action with the thought that we would move it to it's final spot once construction is finished and we finalize the landscaping plan. There was one last bloom on it that I cut to enjoy inside - they keep for weeks. This one was special as it was a dual bloom.

Day Three - progress report

Considering that there was not a lot of activity yesterday (something about hunting, probation officers and Universal Studios - don't ask) there was quite a lot of activity today. Below are some progress photos.

We have decided to take photos every day from the same locations so we can view the progress. We will share them with you - probably not every single day, but when there is enough progress that it is noticeable.

We should have taken a photo of the porto-potty that was right at the street and then moved back about 15 feet after we pointed out that it wasn't the best location - especially after we witnessed a passerby stopping and using it (ewwwww).

WE HAVE LIFTOFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, for those who placed bets on when (actually IF) this remodel would ever start - today is the day. Mark it down - November 17. The new bets can be on when we will be finished. The contractor says 6 to 8 months, so we are thinking 9 to 12. Mid summer hopefully - during rainy season.

It is ironic that there was a shuttle launch yesterday since I planned to use a shuttle launch photo for the official lift off. This photo is not of yesterday's launch, but one earlier in the year. It was taken from Kennedy Space Center. We can see the shuttle from our backyard, but nothing quite like the photo.

Oh well, I digress. As of 9 am, there were 7 pickup trucks and two heavy duty trucks at the house. The number of trucks is a sign of how much work is going on. Several larger trucks along with a huge back hoe showed up later. All were gone by noon......... hummmmmm.

They pulled the back porch area off and part of the roof above it. Just with that little part gone, the view to the lake is significantly better. The final product will have the great room about 5 feet higher than the previous elevation, so the view will really be fabulous. We will have windows across the entire back of the house. Can't wait!

There will be more frequent posts and lots of photos so you can follow on with the progress and, what is sure to be lots of drama. We already have our first change order - we just have to laugh about it - nothing else to do at this point. More about that detail later.

Thanks for tuning in!

Musings on Moving

It is easier to move across the country than it is across the street! The reason is that a cross country move forces you to pack everything and move all at once. If you have no specific deadline because you are waiting for permits, then moving can take quite a while - over a month for us, and still counting. Now that we finally have our permits, we have to get everything out, and that means everything! We opened the hall closet yesterday thinking that it was empty since we moved the coats, but NO - there was a vacuum cleaner, gloves, hats and things we never use in the warm Florida winters. Oh, man, it's never going to end!

The funniest thing was that I really wanted to leave our television and the various cable boxes connected when we moved those items since it usually takes several trips for the cable company to get our TIVO box hooked up correctly. I do have everything labeled as well as photos, but the thought was if we could just keep it together, life would be simpler. So, creative Guy figured out that we could use the wheelbarrow. What???? It worked perfectly. We put the boxes in the bottom and the TV across the top. Unorthodox, but so is he! We were laughing as we wheeled it down the street under the cover of darkness. Here we are, the Beverly Hillbillies, moving our worldly goods down the street! The only bummer is that it was dark and there are no street lights, thus no photo as my flash is not powerful enough. It would have been a great photo, but use your imagination. Hilarious!

Permits Finally Received!!

We received word this morning that the County has approved our permit application and issued the permit to begin construction. YEA! We have waited a long time for this. Construction updates will be forthcoming!

One down, one to go!

We finally received sign off from our town for our plans. It took three weeks - considerably shorter than our dock permit, but longer than it should have taken. More on this process later...

On to the County. It will most likely be a shorter process than the Town and we hope to be underway soon. Good grief - we will now be starting in November! Yikes. So much for being finished in the spring. At least we won't have the roof off during the rainy and hurricane seasons. That's a good thing, Martha.

More soon, I hope!

Post-Its Everywhere

As we prepare to move, we thought it would be a good thing to put Post-It notes on everything to designate where it was to go. We are putting a lot of items in storage, selling some and moving the rest into the house across the street where we will live during the renovation. Because FRGuy is color blind, care had to be taken with the colors, but I found some that fit the bill. Now, we have Post-Its everywhere.

And I do mean everywhere!!

Critters on the window

Speaking of single pane windows with condensation on them, this was my view from the kitchen window this morning. I sure hope it was a frog....... Definitely not a snake, though - too many appendages!

Clear View

One thing we will not miss is single pane windows that have so much condensation on them in the morning that it is difficult to see out of them.

We Have Ignition!!!!

Well, after literally years of planning and every week in September when we thought this would happen, we have finally applied for a building permit with our town. There are myriad reasons why it has taken so long, but they are moot now that it is finally done. The permit process starts with the town and then goes to the county. It could take as little as three weeks or stretch much longer. It took three months to get a permit to build our boat dock, but that was in boom times, so I remain cautiously optimistic that the process will be on the shorter side now that the town and county building departments have much more time on their hands.

Yikes, we have to move out soon! More about that later.......

You never know what you'll see

Living on a lake in Florida can sometimes remind you of Forrest Gump. You never know what you're going to get (or see, in our case). Today, I saw something moving in the back yard that I couldn't identify. A quick look with the binoculars confirmed it was a very large turtle (tortoise?) headed toward the lake. I ran to get my camera. He froze when I got near him and stayed that way even after I hid behind a tree for a while, so I didn't get a photo of his legs. But, here he is. The shell is about the size of a large dinner plate.

Once I had been inside for a while, he hoofed it to the lake and went right in. I hope alligators don't eat turtles.....

Lots of conversations this week with contractor, HVAC guys, engineer, etc. Hope for lots of movement next week!

Stay Tuned!

Stuck bells

OK - vindication. Our handyman confirmed that the doorbell does "stick", which, he says, is very common, especially for a cheap doorbell like the one on our house! Nonetheless, I kinda liked the frog idea.... Haven't disconnected the doorbell yet, but I'm sure that's not to far down the road.

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!