December, 2014
We continued to do yard work – after talking with a number
of landscapers, we started pulling bushes and laying the brick boarder – the
cost for others to do this would be great.
We took time to go to St. Pete for a boat show and meet a number of
friends for meals. We also went through
the condo again as we couldn’t find items in Cape Coral – of course they were in
St. Pete. We were delayed in leaving the
condo as the refrigerator final gave out – 25 years is a long time! We had to order a new refrigerator from
Sears. We continue to volunteer at the
library every Wednesday a.m. Dave has
some great stories about helping people who don’t know how to use a computer or
IPad. Most of our furniture was
delivered in early December but still missing two area rugs. The house is beginning to fill up. We had more friends over for dinner this
month. We really are in a routine – work
in the morning on something and rest in the afternoon. We have been able to go swimming some of this
month – the pool water heater is great!
Dave is riding his bike every day – Barb some days. Christmas was quiet, but Barb did make a nice
dinner. Ended the month with lots of
work on the upcoming DeFever Cruiser Rendezvous – Barb is doing registration
again this year (this is third time).
Living room with chairs, couch and area rug. Note chair in master bedroom through door.
This is where Barb spends a lot of time - note sewing machine and computer are both up.
This guest bedroom has gotten a lot of use to date. This is only the back half. Barb is making a quilted bedspread for the bed.
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Dining room with new area rug. I finally have china and crystal unpacked!
This is the other half of the office - I have a cutting table and lots of closet space for all my quilting and knitting.
This is the other half of the guest bedroom -the sitting area. Still need an area rug, but direct access to the pool is great. Still have pictures to mount on walls.
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November, 2014
We had an exciting start to the month by finding Michigan
tomatoes at the farmers market here in Cape Coral – canned about 18 jars. Now we have great tomatoes for chili,
spaghetti and other things. We continued
to work on the house – Barb trying to do something with yard, but not very
successfully. It will need a lot of care
– we had a number of landscapers over, but they didn’t seem very interested in
doing our project. We had blinds
installed and our contractor finally finished with small projects. We also continued to look for furniture for
office and guest bedroom. We had dinner
guests for Thanksgiving – our looper friends Mini and George Osteyee. The dinner was delicious and the conversation
was exciting. We ended the month by
putting up Christmas outdoor decorations.
I’m sure we will add more but after the yard gets done. Of course after putting up our decorations,
the sprinkler system people showed up to dig up the yard. Such a mess!
We love Michigan canned tomatoes! Can't believe we can get them in FL.
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The new lawn sprinkling system being put in. The yard was a mess for about two months.
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October, 2014
We spent October getting moved in and settled. Some of the new furniture arrived – at least
we can now sit on comfortable couches.
The house was repainted after we found many problems, so the painter was
still here in October to finish with painting – the house looks a lot
better. The contractor also spent time
fixing things that were incorrectly completed or not completed at all. We took trips to condo in St. Pete to move
our stuff back to Cape Coral, so Barb spent days organizing and hanging art
work – we don’t have enough walls! WE
spent many hours on hands and knees going over all floor tiling as there are
places that grouting wasn’t don’t correctly – we marked all errors for the tile
people. They also installed the
backsplash in the kitchen. The tile work
is great! We did take time every day to
just enjoy the house, swim in the pool and relax with IPad and Kindle
books. Barb finished the month in travel
to see colleagues at the ALER conference that was in Delray Beach, FL. She had fun and got to see many friends.
I had to hand wash every leaf on this silk tree as it was covered in construction dust.
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The new kitchen - we love it!
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The family room without new chair and rug.
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Our new master bath. This the addition in the front of the house. Also new closets - his and hers.
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September, 2014
Our first house guests - niece and her family enjoying the pool. Dave, Todd, Sam and Alva with Teresa taking pictures.
We spent the month of September having various workmen in
the house to fix and finish the rebuild.
For about two weeks we were camping as the interior of the house was
repainted and the exterior touched up, which required sanding all woodwork,
doors and some walls. But the new
painter did a great job and the house now looks lovely inside – especially
since they painted rooms the correct colors.
Other projects were also finished.
We ordered furniture, area rugs and window treatments. We did have other activities such as bikes
rides early in a.m. when the temperatures were not so high, swimming in the
afternoon when the water was warm, and we started our volunteer work at the
Cape Coral Library. Our first house
guests arrived on Sept. 25. Our niece
and family from Maine came down while visiting in Orlando. We had two days of fun in the pool. The pictures below are before and after
pictures of some rooms and exterior. Also include some of the construction pictures.
The front before construction - the right side of house will be pushed out for addition to master suite en-suite.
the right side of back will be pushed out to make a third bedroom.
This kitchen is original in 1975 - notice the low ceiling and narrow walk through.
This is part living room, kitchen, family room looking through second bath to new bedroom (left rear) Yes a lot of interior walls came down.
The 2nd bath (rebuilt into new addition) and the new third bedroom foundation - slab not poured yet.
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The new front without many plants - landscaping will be next on our list.
The new bedroom with pool cage rebuild, new walkway and no landscaping
The kitchen was made larger, new everything.
The front opened up to create new master bath, walk in closets and add length to master bedroom.
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