The woes of renovation (or, in our case, rebuilding)
My husband and I knew that someday we wanted to renovate our 1950's concrete constructed beach house and add a second level.
With the addition of two children, our living room started to look like a Toy's R Us showroom and 1,200 square feet just wasn't enough room for our family of four anymore.
Well, "someday" became "last month" and "renovate" quickly became "rebuild."
Our plan was to remove the roof and go up, adding a second floor with three bedrooms, two baths and a playroom. Sounds easy, huh? Not exactly.
My husband Frank and his burly friends proceeded to rip off the roof and all that was left was to remove the interior walls.
As Frank went to take out an interior wall with a Bobcat, he barely bumped the right side exterior of the house and the entire right side wall of the house fell down. (Needless to say, I was quite upset).
It turned out that the construction of the right side of the house was quite shoddy - the concrete block walls were never attached to the concrete slab!
So that is how our renovation became a rebuild.
Therefore, we decided to just tear the whole thing down and build a new home on the same lot. We could buy something else, but we can't beat an eight-block walk to the beach now, can we?
Maybe we should have done this in the first place, but we were very optimistic that adding on was the best route. Obviously, we were wrong.
We have already wasted a month trying to do the renovation, so we quickly hired a company to remove the entire house and slab and take it down to dirt. A week later, nothing had been done. The man who owns the demolition company had let his worker's compensation insurance lapse, so we had to wait for it to be reinstated before he could start. Another week later, he finally began. Two weeks later, we hada cleared lot.
The house will have the same footprint and our architect, Tony Middleton, revised our plans to suit the new first level. My husband contacted surveyor companies and the concrete company to get started.
I will keep you updated on the process of building a house from the dirt up. I think it's important that you, our readers, understand what your clients go through when building a house using contractors and how to handle situations when things don't go according to plan.
Our plan is to be back in the house or into the new house by July or August. We'll see.
Celebrating art
When St. Augustine developer Elizabeth Robins completed construction of the clubhouse at Belle Haven of St. Augustine Condominiums, she had an epiphany.
She would use the new building as a canvas to promote local artists in the area.
"I have always been a great supporter of the arts," said Robins. "I like to buy from local artists when traveling and I seek out art from this area. As a developer, I have a great opportunity to use the buildings that we produce as a 'canvas' to display the art that I love so much. We are really proud of our unique environment and love to share it with everyone. Using art as a backdrop sets a good example of social responsibility, and a successful 'thinking outside the box' for developers."
Recently, a celebration took place at Belle Haven's 1,000 square foot clubhouse. It houses a full kitchen, an office, a private exercise room and a central room with vaulted ceilings and a gas fireplace.
It was there that the colorful art from local artists was displayed and community residents gathered, listened to the music and dined on food from the St. Augustine Institute for Culinary Arts.
In addition to displaying art, Robins wanted to include local musicians as well. At their inaugural event, they had the University of North Florida's Jazz Trio.
"They were just wonderful," she said. "We like to utilize area talent, especially young adults, and felt supporting the university was the best way to do so."
Robins would also like to add local sculpture to her display.
"I'd like to find some sculptors to set their work in the landscaped pool and recreation area as well," said Robins. "Kathleen Mailing was our inaugural artist at the clubhouse. She had beautiful watercolors of Florida's nature. The original art was for sale and, in addition, we had smaller prints and postcards for sale. We are currently interviewing other artists for an industry event at the clubhouse to take place at the beginning of April."
In early April, Robins said Belle Haven is hosted a "Spring Fling" at the clubhouse for industry professionals, especially Realtors. Check their website www.BelleHavenCondos.com for more information on future upcoming events.
"The resident artists love the idea," said Robins. "We have offers by residents to display their art. For other Belle Haven residents, we can only hope that we provide an example and exposure to art and culture. Whether our residents continue this is really up to them. I simply seized an opportunity to do some good and can only hope that it catches on."
Robins said she felt developers can be socially responsible, not only to deliver quality homes, but to offer residents the ability to explore and integrate themselves in the arts.
Congratulations to ...Amy Trujillo, office manager of the Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, on the birth of daughter Alyssa Lynn Trujillo.