66. A Change of Pace

Perhaps you've noticed things have slowed down a little.  This is due to several factors, not the least of which is the fact that the purchase of the lot next door has eaten into the funds that I would have spent on the house.  Not to worry - work will continue, just at a less-than-breakneck pace.  Another reason is that the house has also reached a point where I can actually enjoy it - so I am doing just that, much earlier than expected.  So... I am changing my original strategy, which was to give it a year (which would be up in June), tally up all the expenses, and then get an appraisal to see how well I did on my investment.  I've decided to wait until June of 2012, two years, and celebrate on my 50th birthday.  Save the date:  June 23, because I'm gonna have a party!

With not much left to do besides trim and paint, one of the next projects is to tile the kitchen back splash and bar top.  This is how it looks now, with the concrete backer board in place, all ready for tile.  The problem is - what tile?  I had some I purchased cheap at the Habitat Home Store months ago, but now I have decided it is much too beige for my liking.  I'm leaning towards a glass tile mosaic with all shades of blue...  once that's in I can decide what color to paint the cabinets!

Meanwhile, a lot of work is getting done outside, because it's spring here, and the weather is so pleasant, and that lasts about a week in Florida.  We formed up and poured concrete to repair the front steps which were chunked up after the chain-link fence was removed during demo.  Also here you can see a couple of posts anchored to that concrete wall, ready for gate installation.

This gate was finely crafted from a Home Depot fence panel that I've had in the garage since the first month I owned the house!  One of the first to-do items on the list was "put up gate" but it's taken six months.  I've been thinking about it for so long it's almost like a dream to see it actually up and working.  The street view is already vastly improved, but soon we are going to pressure wash the front walls and fences on both properties and paint it all white, which will look very beachy I think.

Here is the view of the gate from the inside - there are still a couple of slats and the post caps to be put on.  I spent one day re-grading the front yard so the water from the roof doesn't run right down the sidewalk - after every rain storm there was a big washout of dirt in front of the house to deal with, but no more.

And now for our side-yard update:  Here you see about 25% of the debris remaining, and the foundation of the house in the foreground.  It turns out that the cheapest quote we got (about 1/2 the price of all the others) turned out to be a great choice.  I was a little concerned since you usually get what you pay for, but at that price I couldn't pass it up.  These guys sifted through every scoop of that stuff and pulled out all the metal and concrete to take to recyclers, which probably earned them a few bucks, and impressed the heck out of me.

They also were very easy to work with and listened when I asked them to preserve a couple of trees on the property, and pull the coquina chunks out of the riverbed they were using as fill dirt, so I could use them as landscaping stones.  They got a big kick out of that, but they cooperated.  Here you can see the fill almost complete.

Here is the view from the back street up towards my house, after four pallets of sod were laid.  At the right you can see an old mulberry tree they saved for me - it was literally growing up through a crack in the foundation, right next to the building, but the guy on the loader managed to work around it, at my request.  What a difference in the view!  The whole neighborhood is excited about it, as you might imagine.

Now you are standing in my driveway, looking at the row of posts we installed for the fence that will be put up next week.  Coincidentally it fits exactly between my little retaining wall and the fence of the next yard down, with a small leg up to meet the side fence I installed a while back.  Like a glove.  See that pile of beautiful stone there?  I got a call from Don, the loader operator, who was on another job nearby and unearthed all these stones.  He didn't want to see them get crushed, so he called me!  We loaded up a whole truckload and brought them home - I'm sure that's at least $500 worth of landscape boulders right there, which will be distributed throughout the yard over time.

My parting shot was taken on Sunday morning, after a sunrise walk on the beach.  Coming back home it was so nice to see that ugly building gone.  I like the feeling of caring for a property - somehow I think it appreciates the TLC.  I know for sure this one little spot can be a happy place - a little piece of world peace.