The Floor! The Floor!

You can see from the photo that Mark has created a new wardrobe for home maintenance - his underwear - as he tears down a piece of nonessential wall (more on this room divider project later). And, he is then celebrating the laying of the final flooring (still some thresholds coming, but that is minor compared with the rest). You can see his handywork with the re-walled, windowed, and painted room.

He's looking forward to a quiet weekend while I'm looking forward to moving the rest of our furniture into the house from the garage.

Then, the adventure with the tankless waterheater will begin. Will include installation of LP tank, tankless heater, electrical and plumbing, our new stove installation, and...hopefully at the end of all this... a gas cooktop and 'instant' hot water.

Never a dull moment!

Lots of Thanking....and Eating

Thanksgiving 2007 proved to be quite a gathering, complete with family, friends and enough food to feed Dunedin! We gathered at Sean's house on Thanksgiving to prep for the main dinner, to happen apres Thanksgiving.

There were turkeys everywhere..some on short legs, some on long hairy legs, one with 2 necks and one that spoke Turkey! Can you imagine coming from a country named for a goofy bird?

We ate, we laughed, we drank, and we were thankful for each other and our blessings.

Space...the Final Frontier

Well, space is our final frontier. Mark has been busy on the office, and now all we need, can you guess? A floor!! The wood...er, grass...is now here from China and we are bribing the floor guys to put it in. I may even stoop to... baking. Mark is thinking more along the lines of beer. Anyway, one of these angles should work.

Meanwhile, mom and dad joined us for the BIG event in Dunedin (keep your perspective here..we are talking about Dunedin!). Wine and Blues. It is a street festival, at night, with pretty good bands ranging from Janis Joplin blues to Frank Sinatra blues. And, a selection of wines that wasnt too bad...tho we realized soon enough that each glass of wine cost more than Dad regularly pays for a bottle! We had a great time wandering, drinking, eating, and listening. Then, walked over to the Dunedin Brewery for a taste of brew to finish off the evening. Nice that its only a mile away.

Mark Takes on a Whole Room

As mentioned earlier, Mark decided to rebuild the office. The reason? The exterior wall was 3" thick while the exterior door we needed to install was 4" thick. He's been getting very sweaty and dusty every day while there seems to be new layers of wall being added. Methinks he has something to do with this.

Today he got to mudding the sheetrock! He poured cement to the new height of the floor, no longer at ground level. Now the aligators have to jump a bit AND knock on the door to enter. No more just sauntering in.

What have I been doing? Besides supervising of course... unpacking boxes, cleaning the floors (thankful that we have them), and arranging the furniture. Mark's Home Depot Turkish friend Arif (who I call Ataturk - look it up)kindly showed up this week to help move the furniture into the house from the garage. Of course, I have been rearranging it since.

Mark Tackles the Office

Excited to work on the one part of the house that is made of wood - my office - Mark lept (leeped?) to the opportunity to thicken the walls to hold a real door. Note earlier entry about aligators coming through the door.
He's torn out old drywall to discover the aluminum supported walls from the original screened porch, insulated with styrofoam. Industrious Mark has used 2x4s (which are no longer 2"x4" in case you didnt know) on the inside walls to add depth. He has replace 4 of the 5 windows with smaller, 140 mph wind resistant windows (we will fear no stinkin' winds!) and a real exterior door (aligator proof). He boarded up one window as this was was too many for the space. The back door now sits 6" up from the ground unlike the aligator door that was level with the dirt so those critters could just wander in...along with snakes...and zebras.
Insulation is coming along, and...before you know it...drywall!

Moved in - sort of

Growling with the floor guys about living out of a garage seemed to have finally worked. Of course, after enough time passes, anything can be credited. Hard grass (bamboo) now covers all but my office - more on that later. So, Mark and I orchestrated the big MOVE. This has included much help and patience from dad and Sean, but we are finally sleeping in our bedroom (freshly painted I might add), with all but our ski clothes put in drawers.


As for the Floriday room/office - when looking for a replacement for the flimsy back door to the office, Mark noticed that real doors were 4" thick while our wall was only 3" thick. So, he will be initiating the grand construction of...thicker exterior walls for the office. Tear down has started, showing metal wall studs and Styrofoam insulation.


Meanwhile, I'll be working out of the quietest part of the house...the bathroom. Good internet connection, phone acoustics and a seat. What more could I ask for!


We are legitimate Florida drivers now. We had to give up the California licenses. Somehow, this made it all real, and official.

Why Can't We Just Have Dirt Floors!

We've begun the process of modified rehab on the Dunedin house. The bubbling Pergo - gone. The baseboards - gone. The black and white checkerboard floor tile - gone. The dog hair from probably 1000 dogs that lived in the house - gone. The patience to wait another week for the rest of the new bamboo flooring - gone.

The good parts?
In Dunedin: Short hop to the beach for sunset. Nice breeze on the back porch.
In Lakeland: Family running in and out of parental units' house. Crazy Brit visitors who order 'Bood' for beer. Mom's Sharffenberger Chocolate Cake and meatloaf!

See the small progress in photos. Photo at bottom shows Pergo floors and kitchen bar - now all gone. The floor guys, when they show up, want their photos taken by Mark. Not sure if they need proof they are working, or are just hams!