The Last of the STained Glass

Today our wonderful friend, artist Geri Willingham installed the last 3 stained glass windows (and the biggest) that she created for our home. They all went in our upstairs lounge and we couldn't be more thrilled. They are beautiful inspired by the Florida landscape (both natural and groomed). One window is magnolia blossoms, one is a seagrape, and the other (a stained glass interior panel) is called "Evening Waters". we are so happy.

New Gates

While we are in Montreal resting up, work continues at a good clip at the house to get all the final details done. And the gates are starting to arrive. We had gates (designed by our architect, John Stearman) fabricated by the same company that made our railings out of aluminum (lighter and cheaper than wrought iron and a lot easier to take care of over time). I haven't seen them in person, but John sent me these pictures...I am so excited.

STained Glass

We commissioned a fabulously talented stained glass artist, Geri Willingham, to do a series of windows and glass screens for our home. A number of them have been installed and "official" photos will come later (when I get the 'good" camera equipment up). But here are a few photos of "installation day" for the roseate spoonbill, osprey, and turtle windows...you can get a glimpse of her genius:

Almost IN

We've been so swamped with house, with moving, with being without consistent internet that this blog has suffered. I have all sorts of pictures and news as we are almost completed with the house. Our belongings are in and when we return from Montreal we and animals will be in the house to. So in no particular order here (and in subsequent posts) are pics and info:

When we went to Bali we bought a container load of outdoor furniture, statuary, a hand carved bed, and a myriad of other treasures. It finally arrived (via Miami) the beginning of February and then it was up to us to get everything off the big container. 6 guys, two hours and one fork lift later we had everything on the sidewalk and driveway. 5 hours later we had things in the garden,house, garage, and nooks and crannies. Whew. (I know our neighbors are confirmed we're nuts)

After almost 2 years of limited use due to drought restrictions and 1 year of non-use due to construction the well we use for irrigating the landscape went dry. Sigh. So we had to have a new well drilled. A sentence I never thought I'd write. But dig a well we did...or rather these two suntanned burly types. 120 feet done to clear water. So we have water to keep all that new landscaping going.

Stairs: New and Old. In the top picture, Eric is redoing the old 1925 stairs replacing the old worn treads and adding "pickets" and rail where we opened up the wall into the living room. In the bottom pic is the new mahogany stair that was built offsite and moved into place. This connects from dining room to upstairs lounge. Photos of the completed stair will follow. this is a photo from December.

We're in the HomeStretch

Since my last post, we've entered into a sales contract on our house in villanova and we close on the 15th of December. Everything seems to be going well in that area. We're happy that a family of 6 will be enjoying our house...it's a house perfectly made for them.

So that puts the pressure on our hardworking architect/supervisor and contractor to get the house done enough for us to move into it by mid December. I'm not sure they are sleeping much these days.

And much progress has been made. Almost all the new wood flooring has been laid. Sanding and finishing should begin towards the end of next week on the new floor. sanding and finishing of the old floor should be done (i think) in two weeks. Trim is going up faster than I can imagine (crown moldings, window trim etc). Looks great. And the old parts of the house pose interesting issues for the trim guys as they try to manuever around walls and ceiling that aren't quite level.

The roof is pretty much done on both the house and the cabana...just a few little tweaks. And it looks FANTASTIC!!! just like i wanted.

Stucco on the outside may be done this week. we've had the worst time getting consistency on the stucco finish (which is a retro pattern from the 30s). its been the most frustrating thing in the past few months. I think Emil (our contractor) is at wits end. But supposedly they've got the idea now and will fix it. we will see.

Ceilings are painted. The Cabinet guys are working on the kitchen redo. The interior doors have arrived.

Elevator guys are working on the elevator innards and we expect it to be done by mid November.

We worked with John to layout our costa rican tiles (that we bought 2 years ago) which will go on the outside of the cabana at the shower and a few other spots on the exterior of the house.

The new stair case is supposedly coming in a week or so...flooring in dining room needs to be done first.

The precast moldings that go around the outside arches and garage door are turning out fantabulous....so happy...so much more reasonably priced than the travertine we originally planned. And speaking of travertine...its still on the boat from Turkey. We figure they must have gone around the world first...very frustrating. We have large terraces and our bathroom waiting for that travertine. So looks like we'll have to go with some other material. grrrrr.

besides the travertine hiccup...we also had a bit of a glitch with the HVAC system leaking (a broken condensate line) and flooding the yet to be floored bathroom and seeping under the newly laid family room and dining room floor. fortunately it didn't get the wood wet...but we've had to remove all the underlayment...try out the concrete subfloor and relay everything...two areas about 100 s.f. total...ugh.

Here a couple of pics...will have more in a few days when I upload my photos.

Progress

Much has happened since we left for (and returned from) Bali. We have an almost completed roof. Drywall is up and is ready for its final coat prior to painting. Stucco is almost ready for painting. Once the Stucco is done, a/c units will go in and the new floors will be laid. Here are a few recent photos:

End of August LookSee

As Jerry and I wing our way to Bali, work continues at a good clip in St. Pete on our home that we really hope is down in November. Report from our architect/project manager today:

The plumbing materials finally arrived, Steve from quality marble found some matching travertine that looks great, the underlayment roof work is complete, interior doors are on the way, the terrace waterproofing is underway, stucco work continues, the misting rough in is complete, the electrical rough in work is nearly complete and the plumbing rough in work starts again today. Rain is predicted all week but a little water won’t stop most work.

And a few photos from our last visit:

Fans, Alarms, Stucco, More Paint Decisions, Molding

Had a good meeting with John on a muggy kind of thundery day in St. Pete. I was happy because John, organized as always, presented me with my list of things to do and on what days list. I'm a happy camper when you give me an outline of projects.

so today we started discussing ceiling fans of which there will be 12 (and we only have one old one worth using). So we have the catalog and will plan a date with Stan at Dans FanCity and pick them out. Apparently they make the a/c go a lot further with less energy usage and god knows we want to avoid those astronomical energy bills.

speaking of energy bills. we're doing a number of things to use less energy:

Storm rated windows are also more energy efficient and we have them throughout the new section of the house and in the kitchen (part of the old house)

Extra insulation: soy based foam. We are also insulating the older portion of the house which was only half-assed insulated before.

About 85% of the lighting in the house will now be LED lighting which not only uses less energy but is very, very cool (temperature wise) so you use your a/c less

We're installing new high efficiency heatpumps for a/c/ heating.

we're sealing all the cracks around the old windows in the old part of the hosue

And the fans...all 14 of them...to reduce dependency on the AC units

The rest of the day was playing around more with the 2x2boards of paint... deciding on most rooms but still stumped on a few...back for another round of color boards. Met with a guy about estimates for an alarm system and frontdoor speaker system. and we decided on the size and style of molding (floor and ceiling).

Then we ran and got our obligatory blizzard from Dairy Queen because today is Miracle Treat Day when 50% of the proceeds of all blizzard sales goes to the children's miracle network. We had to do our part.

Here are pics from the house today. As Emil and his guys appear to be tearing apart the old house once again. But not so bad today...just finding a place to put in waterproofing so if the window isn't rotted now it won't be in 40 years. You go Emil.

Paint, paint, paint

We're back to St Pete for about 12 days. We have lots to do before we head off for Bali for a month.

Yesterday we roamed around the half finished house schlepping around 2ft by 2ft plywood boards with various paint colors we're considering for the house. Made some decisions but put in an order for 8 more boards before we go further. (like i always knew) paint looks a lot different in big spaces than in those little tiny paint chips. And really just how many whites are there?????

The stucco guy is starting prep work for doing the stucco, which means once again i have loads of material and equipment parked on the backyard lawn. at least this time they are avoiding putting stuff directly under the trees on the root zone.

They've started to work on forming the arches over the garage doors, have "found" the well head pump that they accidentally covered up when the poured the cement for the patio. (we use well water for irrigating the yard). Electrical work is almost done...getting a little anxious on that front because they won't start drywall work until its done. plumbing fixtures are supposed to arrive soon (gosh, where are they going to put everything???).

And of course they continue to work on the old part of the house. Emil is doing a great job working with the old windows to make them more moisture/water proof, so if they aren't rotted now they won't rot in the future.

Photos from the site:

Emil trying to see just how big a problem we've got and how to fix it. Results: not too bad and not too expensive/hard (this time)

this window is in my bedroom. It will hold a beautiful stained glass art piece of a roseate spoonbill wading at the shore (complete with underwater scene and sunset).

This is what the old walls look for...the OUTSIDE wall.

Emil and electrician conferring over plans on a makeship "table" which covers what will be the stairwell to bottom floor dining room.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Today we ordered the new back fence (the old one fell down), decided on all the new doors (there are something like 25 doors), approved the plans for the kitchen cabinets, family room and lounge bookshelves/entertainment center, bathroom cabinets, etc. We also got great bids on the doors, and insulation that are cheaper than first bids. Good news! Now the not so good news....more rot. More repairs to the old house:
That thing that looks like a doorway used to be a wall and window (the window that is resting against the interior wall of what will be my office). They had to take it down today to get to the rot that needs fixing. Sigh.

Progress, Progress

Its been a busy 10 days with decisions,decisions, decisions. But progress is being made. Windows are in. Stucco prep starts MOnday. Electrician is ALMOST done then insulation, drywall can start. Work continues on roofing prep and we FINALLY chose the exact mix of tiles for the roof. Bids are in for cabinetry...will decide by Friday. Made first cut at paint colors for interior, will have samples in August and make the "almost final" decisions. Met with landscape architect and approved the design plan and budget. Adding a large number of palms and trees (having to take out two, a dying birch and a dying tangelo). Cool plants designed to attract birds and butterflies. creative trellis to support golden/peach bougainvillea up the walls. Bananas, papayas, and mangos. Awesome

Here are some photos of our progress:

This will be the entrance to the north garden where the pool and main garden is. We had to rebuild the fence which was falling down. Those grills were just installed today. They were made from molds of the original 1928 grills that are in the walls bordering the north side of the garden. The column caps will have a green lt green glass block under them with LED lights in them to glow at night.

These two photos are from window installation day. In the top photo they are putting in the arched window into my bedroom. It will ultimately house a gorgeous stained glass window of a roseate spoonbill along a shoreline. The bottom photo faces the front of the house where there will be a lovely tropical garden in front of the dining room doors. The 2nd floor will be Jerry and my lounge.

Surprises

Almost everytime we have to do anything with the old house we find some unpleasant surprise. We've had to shore up places where there wasn't adequate foundations, replace window framing, search for sources of leaks and repair, etc. This requires opening up walls and ceilings and fishing around. These pics are from the 1928 portion of the house, gives you an idea of how it was built (lath and plaster etc), notice the absense of insulation...we're fixing that with a spray foam insulation (made out of soy amongst other things).

We have WINDOWS!

After weeks of delay, the windows arrived from Oregon in a BIG A#$ truck! They arrived last wednesday and were stored everywhere there was a weather secure space. They are now being installed making the new part of the house water tight which means that drywall and flooring preparation can begin SOON! They are priming the eves of the house. Repairing old rot and decay from an old roof leak in the old part of the house. They managed to repair the ponding on the old 2nd floor balcony without finding anything unexpected, thank heavens. The interior stairway is being constructed off site. The exterior stairwell is being sanded and finished.

We're headed south in 2 weeks when we will have a major push to select the cabinet guys and finalize details about the kitchen redo, bookcases/shelving, and the master bedroom closet layout. We will also need to decide on paint colors for the exterior, stain colors for windows and doors, and narrow down interior colors for the walls.

Late May Report

Its been raining...alot...so we've slowed down a bit (also due to the slowness of the window delivery). But progress is still being made mostly interiorwise. Work on Jerry's office (raising ceiling, additional supports, leveling the floor etc. plumber and electrician are trying to finish the rough-ins if we can ever get the final LED lighting plan done and confirm the layout of the tub. Hoping to see the windows within two weeks..once they are on...they can start with drywall inside, even if its raining.

This blue "form" is the beginning of a mold that we are going to use to create replicas of the garden "grids" that are in the old historic walls and that we are going to put into the new part of the wall (part of it was falling down). One of the original grids is the picture right above the "blue" one. We found this great guy Jerry Karlick who owns Florida Statuary & Molds. He can do absolutley amazing things with cement, concrete and fiberglass. Amazing!