There was no magic to finding it. It found us. We had been house hunting for months finding nothing even remotely interesting, all bungalows or poorly designed ranch houses with no personality. I first saw the house on a realtor web site, this one lonely photo of an unusual cube-shaped house in poor light. I saw it and shrugged to myself, huh, must be a foreclosure since there is only one photo. Interesting looking but not in the area we want. When I finally mentioned it to Richard he said he’d seen it as well, and also thought it looked interesting…but knew I’d protest because of the location. But it can’t hurt to look, right?
My first impression at the showing: Nice shaded lot, the house looked sad and droopy (later realizing the sagging cantilevered beams were the cause), but WOW the view of the water, the open shallow stairwell moving us through all four levels, the peaceful and intimate living spaces. And the quirky unexpected things – an odd little door under the stairs, a safe, a speaker the size of a closet. I left the place chuckling. Richard left the place with the wheels spinning in his head. One of us brought it up later that day and my response was NO WAY. Too much space. Too much house. Too much work. Wrong location. But Richard was smart and bided his time.
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Camper life can be quite Zen. We have discovered that a family of nutria live in a burrow just outside, and now a favorite dusk-time activity is to watch them eating plant roots and jumping into the river for a swim while we listen to the owls hoot from above. Mealtimes are simple and perhaps not quite nutritionally balanced as we cobble them together from a very tiny pantry, fridge, and kitchen. And instead of mornings and evenings filled with rushing around to organize, clean, find things, tidy…well, there’s nothing. We read, talk, play cards, color, talk, read, and spot nutria. Of course, I have no idea if we’ll all feel so Zen here six months from now, but this short respite of happy nothingness in the middle of a sultry Florida summer has been a welcome surprise.
I rubbed my eyes, I had to be imagining things outside my little camper window. Were there PEOPLE WORKING on our property? Monday the scaffolding went up, three levels high on two sides. Lee & Cates, the glazing company, tried to remove one of the 20′x12′ panes of glass and couldn’t – the sound of a piece of glass that size shattering is something to hear. Other panes were safely removed.
Tuesday, the scaffolding surrounded the house and Hygema, the house movers/shoring company, had already jacked up the worst sagging corner of the house. Wednesday, all levels along the back of the house were supported by wood beams and steel jacks.
Our sexy renovation arbor
Thursday, for the first time, we could see the crisp, straight lines of each level of the house, returned to its original glory albeit still surrounded by scaffolding. Sounds silly, but we were utterly thrilled. One post that used to hold up a corner of the house now sits an easy two inches off of the ground. And here are some pictures.
Outside corner post of house now floating off the ground
My first “renovation” post on this blog. Ah, smells like progress.
We have settled into a comfortable routine. Each week we get an update from our contractor that work will commence the following week. The following week we get an update from our contractor that work will commence the following week, and so on and so forth. We are now heading into our fourth week of such news, but just as when I experience deja vu, I feel oddly at ease that this is all part of the grand plan.
We are now o-fficially camper dwellers. Sort of. We have a series of house-sitting gigs lined up to delay our camper dwelling status. In the meantime, we’re working hard to get camper life as amenable as possible, starting with a visit from my favorite pest control professional Charles. Charles is the renaissance man of pest control. He can speak intelligently on most topics, but when it comes to bugs he is a walking encyclopedia. We walked my property while he educated me on the various types of wasps, ants, flies, roaches and other insect life we saw. When we got to the camper I asked him what he could do to ensure we wouldn’t have any creepy crawlies inside and keep the mosquitoes to a minimum outside. His response:
“See this nice pine tree providing shade to your camper, and all the roots running along the ground underneath it? Termites love pine tree roots. And fire ants’ favorite food is termites. And carpenter ants’ favorite place to live is old termite burrows. You are living on top of a great big ant hill. See how close you are to the water, how pretty that is? I can’t treat any area that close to the water under Florida law.”
Two hours later Richard was at Home Depot spending a fortune on poison. We all now dress in hazmat suits and gas masks. Camper dwelling appears to have many surprises in store.
You know how sometimes in moments of relationship strife you say truths that are better left unsaid? I couldn’t keep it in any longer. I kept staring at the camper in disbelief that Richard would subject his family to this miniscule living space. So I said it. And I felt awful.
But then – Whittington Plumbing ran water lines from the mains and Andy Proulx, our electrician, got the camper hooked up to “shore power” (I’m learning camperese), we popped out the living/dining area and voila – from mini to maxi living. Sliding out that 30 square feet was like slipping on elastic-waisted pants, so roomy and comfortable!
Sexy slide-out room
But then – we tried turning on the air conditioner. Nada. Andy tested the fuses, checked the current, scratched his head. Sigh. Elastic-waisted polyester pants, roomy but hot and scratchy. Another problem to solve.
Richard admiring the kitchen
But then – two large owls flew overhead and perched on a limb just over our camper. We sat outside our polyester pants camper with the kids and watched the owls watch us while they peeped softly to each other. Truth is, it’s all just part of the big adventure.
What do you get when you cross a sunny day, a shovel, and a canine? My son’s latest riddle.
It was in the 90s today, humid, my clothes were soaked through after about 15 minutes at the new house. Summer here will be interesting. Our whole rhythm of life is about to change, much more sensitive to the weather. I realized I have signed on for an upscale camping experience except that I still have to go to work and pretend I’m not camping on weekdays.
Home sweet mobile home
Tony Rieck put on his game face in the heat and took photos for us while Joe Dunbar worked on stripping the pine trees of vines and clearing for pickup the rest of the oak tree trunk he fell (about two feet in diameter). Some of the vines have grown through the chain link fence and are about 3-4 inches in diameter. We’re going to need a chain saw for this property.
Joe about 50 feet up
My new favorite store is General RV on The Westside. They have flamingo and palm tree lights we can string along our awning. And lots of stuff I never knew I’d need (as opposed to the aforementioned lights which I’d anticipated): large mildew-resistant entrance mat, clips to prevent the awning from flapping in wind, shade bubbles for the skylights, a cedar slatted platform for the outdoor shower, etc.
Kids got to see their bunk beds and the 10 inch tv sans cable and are delighted.
Kate in flamenco dress using pneumatic wood splitter with Justin
I am currently lying in my luscious king-sized, Sealy Posturpedic bed with 400 thread count sheets already mourning the experience. It might be the thing I’ll look forward to the most during this renovation. That and being able to raise my arms straight above my head while standing inside the space I call home.
View of house from camper
Signs of life - our temp mailbox and "no trespass" sign
Patricia (architect) conducted a team meeting today with Tamara (structural engineer), Mary (contractor), and Durwood, Mary’s project manager, to review our first printed project timeline. Suddenly there the project was, stretching on for three pages like reticulated building blocks measuring out the next six months of our lives. Oh, the things we will see from our little camper window.
Antony Rieck (photographer) and Jorge Brunet (art director) showed up as the meeting ended to capture images of our intrepid team. I stood observing these three successful, self-employed professionals in front of the camera who also happen to be women – mothers, sisters, daughters, wives – posing for serious as well as silly photos that poke fun and celebrate them as females. When the Hatcher House was built 44 years ago, no woman would have been a principal on such a project. We’ve come a long way, baby.
Just as the past holds its stories, so certainly will the future. Last year Patricia, Jorge, Richard and I sat with the Hatchers on this property and looked at the images they had captured and preserved forty-odd years ago of the home being built and of their young family. I like to think that I will sit on this property forty years from now and tell young new owners about our experience, show them the images of our project, and consider how we got from here to there.
More fun than brainstorming, perhaps not as productive. But a few hours into our sangria evening with friends and project colleagues Diane and Jorge Brunet, our architect Patricia McQuaid and her multi-talented husband Antony Rieck, we had a score of ideas for photo images to capture this project and to have a little fun. I won’t give anything away now, however I’m happy to share the sangria recipe (serves 6 thirsty of-age adults):
1 cup good brandy
1 cup triple sec
1 and 1/2 to 2 bottles decent red wine
2/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
slices of fresh orange, lemon, and lime
mix in a pitcher with come-hither lines and refrigerate overnight
just before serving, add 4 cups cold Pellegrino (substitute ginger ale if you prefer it sweeter)
Kids' self portrait while adults play
Sometimes before you go big, you have to go small – we’ll be living in a 300 square foot camper while our 3,600 square foot house is repaired. Sure the kids are excited, they’ll have bunk beds and a pool outside the front door. Me, I vacillate between images of running screaming into the river being chased by a cloud of encephalitic mosquitoes and a serene evening sitting in a deck chair watching the sun set with my hair wrapped in a towel à la Raising Arizona.
But that’s not the latest – we have finally closed on our renovation loan and have our building permits! Our friendly neighborhood forester Joe Dunbar and crew have carefully removed six large trees to clear a path for the crane and scaffolding, and the kids and I have drawn up plans for the tree house we’ll construct while the real house is getting repaired. We may be going small, but we’re still thinking big.
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”– Henry Ford
Mr. Ford sums up my current feelings regarding the renovation loan process. Ponder his words while I clean my gun.