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.