How I spent my summer vacation...
besides travelling to Indiana, New Jersey, the Keys, and Hawaii...
Len and I bought a home in south Florida, and closed on it in May. He closed on it the day before he flew out for his China visit late last spring. While I am living and working in China to help set myself up for retirement, the bigger truth is I need to get back to sailing, and THAT takes $$$$$. Remember what BOAT means? (Break Out Another Thousand) Or perhaps you've heard that the definition of owning a boat is "having a hole in a lake (or ocean) that you pour money into." Either way, the boating life can be costly, just walk in to your local West Marine store for parts. I digress....
The home in south Florida is part of a longer term plan...for us to be together more permanently one day, and to keep the sailing dream alive. I believe there is no such thing as a coincidence, but even to an outsider who would hear the story of how Len found this place, it was clearly "meant to be."
 |
| She's perhaps not the prettiest to look at, but she is a diamond in the rough, and she is OURS. I love her already. We have big plans for this property; fruit trees, a garden, a 'boat house', a screened in back porch, new stairs, new dock, a hot tub, and throw in some chickens for good measure! |
 |
| She sits on a canal on the Caloosahatchee River which is part of the ICW and Okeechobee Waterway. It is a very small community of boaters and retired boaters- a quirky, eclectic group of neighbors- and we fit in perfectly :) |
 |
| We are situated just west of Lake Okeechobee, near the Ortona Lock and Dam. The Okeechobee Waterway is a series of locks and dams that cuts across Florida. When we leave our dock, we can turn to the west and head for Ft. Myers beach and the Gulf of Mexico. Or if the wind is right, we can turn to the east and head for Stuart, Florida, the Atlantic Ocean and the Bahamas :) The best news? The boat will be sitting in fresh water rather than salt water. That alone will save us thousands in biennial bottom jobs! |
 |
| This sign hangs outside our front door, and it will not be removed. Willis T Cat, the sailor cat, will one day live here, too <3. If you don't catch the reference, I had another blog called Sailboats and Kitty Litter and Willis really was quite the sailor cat :) For pics of the puss on the boat, click here for Willis, then scroll down to the entry dated February 13, 2011. He did a tribute to John Denver that day :) I miss the furry beast. I wish he was in China with me. Again, I have digressed. Geeesh. |
 |
| Well, for a guy who has hiked the Appalachian Trail, and for a girl who was raised in Amish country in northern Indiana, and who raised her family in rural east central Indiana, the location of our new home is a perfect fit. This part of Florida is nothing but wide open spaces of sugar cane fields, orange groves, and huge cattle ranches. It is dotted with small towns of rednecks in pick up trucks. I feel right at home. (Did I mention my man drives a pick up truck?!) I love how I find sea birds in the fields, happily co-existing with the cattle, and there is every breed of cattle around here. |
 |
| Our home sat vacant for six years, and we were told that the well was not working and we'd likely need a new one. Nope; all we needed was Len and a new pump from Harbor Freight! The man is a philosopher, singer/songwriter/musician, a mechanic, inventor, author, and he just knows how to fix and do all sorts of s**t! He's my kind of guy <3 |
 |
| One of the first things Len did was to set up an electric winch he bought. He mounted it off the balcony, so neither of us killed ourselves (or our backs) moving furniture and building materials up to the second floor. It worked like a charm- every thing from mattresses, heavy dressers, drywall and lumber came up with the touch of a button! |
 |
| When Len was in China this past spring, we went through 28 versions of house plans, figuring and reconfiguring the interior floor plan. She was stuck in 1984, the year she was built, but she has 'good bones' and no interior load bearing walls. That makes her a blank canvas for us to work our magic on her. It had a weird set up on the interior. The kitchen was in the middle of the great room, with mismatched U shaped walls. One wall was 9' long, the other was 10' long, and neither wall was square! There was a non-working wood stove in the center of it all, and we couldn't imagine a wood stove would be needed for more than the occasional cool night in January, perhaps. |
 |
| To the left of the kitchen was a tiny room, not five feet wide, that was a former tenant's ham radio operation. |
 |
| To the right of the kitchen was perhaps an office? All of it had to go :) |
 |
| Len is pondering where to begin :) |
 |
| The two bedrooms were small. This one is the bigger of the two at 9' x 11'. The plus is that all of the windows in the house are huge- 52-54 inches wide- all of them. I love the light :) Don't you dig the vertical blinds?! Ummm, me, either. Or the stick-on tile flooring. |
 |
| Nor do I care for the crazy Jack and Jill bathroom set up. It took up more floor space than the bedrooms! |
 |
| The two bathrooms were separated by a tub & shower unit, four doors in all, to navigate your way through two bathrooms. It's going away, too :) |
 |
| This was the doorway from the larger bedroom I showed you earlier. Look at all the wasted floor space- and a safety bar I do not need! Not yet, anyhow ;) |
 |
| So, Len picked me up from Beijing on July 9th, and the very next morning, we started tearing down kitchen cabinets :) |
 |
| And the wall came tumbling down, too, to get rid of the 'ham radio room' and open things up a bit :) |
 |
| By the end of the first day of summer vacation, we had the wall out, and the island was taped down on the floor. We also had plans for expanding the remaining kitchen wall from 10' to 12' long. |
 |
| The following day, the wood stove was removed, the brick wall and hearth were busted out with a sledge hammer, and all the cabinets in the 'office' were gone, too. Some cabinets got moved to the shop downstairs, and others will be reused in the new kitchen and laundry room. What was once the 'office' will become a hallway, laundry room and guest bathroom. The doorway you see next to the bookshelf leads what will be the guest bedroom. The large window will be in the guest bathroom. There's tape on the floor marking the plans, but it's hard to see! |
G'nite, y'all!
No comments:
Post a Comment