Porch Screened

Our sleeping porch has more or less been finished, and is screened. The side wall paneling and floors are made from very rustic heartpine flooring that was salvaged from the old Gainesville Sun building.

Used Doors and Antique Knobs

No hollow doors here. For our interior doors, we bought 8 doors in DeLand, another Craigslist find, heavy, beautiful grain. They look like they came out of an office. My carpenter, Tom, shown here ripping casing for the doors, trimmed the doors and made them fit the rough openings, with some work. The door knob holes were not where they needed to be, once the doors were trimmed, and so, at his suggestion, I had a local cabinet shop make wooden escutcheon plates (shown here prior to being stained) to hide the imperfections. Here are an assortment of antique door knobs we bought off eBay, white, black, and swirly faux wood grain porcelain, and different shaped real wood knobs. Why match?

Steel Cable Railing

Here's our steel cable railing around the big opening in the 1st floor ceiling. The newell posts are 4 tree trunks, all from trees that were already down, and we had no hand in their demise. One cherry and 2 trunks from the same live oak I got by a "wanted" request on Craigslist, and one pine from my neighbors. The wood frame for the railing is from old, rough-sawn heartpine wall studs from a house demolished in northeast Gainesville. I had the tree trunks kiln dried, and the pine studs tented, so we don't bring in any unwelcome guests. After learning how darn expensive decent turnbuckles are, I got the idea of a turnbuckle-less cable rail system from a local, Dick, who I frequently see at a breakfast joint in town. The system consists of 1/8" 9x17 stainless steel cable, 3/8" rough (16) threaded rod that goes through the tree posts, a coupler that joins to a lifting eye bolt, a thimble inside the eye bolt to hold the cable loop, 5/8" ferrule (oval sleeve) that can be crimped in two places, and then the tightening system is simply leaving enough extra rod on the inside of the tree so it can be moved outward by turning a hex finishing nut against a flat washer that's inset into the outside of the tree, capped off with an acorn nut. Upon tightening the cable, the excess rod sticking out the outside of the tree can be trimmed with a sawzall, and capped back with the acorn nut. Crude, simple, and about $2,000 less expensive than with turnbuckles. I installed the cable railing with my friend Eugene, and finished it by myself without a come-along or even pulling the cable very tight - the key was leaving extra room on the threaded rod, and everything then tightened up with a ratchet, with still more room to spare for future tightening as the cable stretches over time. The railing came out better than I even thought it might.

Schwartz Quartz

October, and the cobalt blue with metallic sparkles quartz Silestone countertops I got on Craigslist (for $175) have been installed. The countertop slabs were pulled out of a new construction job, so the story goes, when the cabinets were flooded, and the owners changed their minds. The slabs had a sink cutout, a notch that was probably for an outlet or small chase, and a minor chip or two. Hard-Core Granite Countertops, of Ocala, worked with me and my salvage, and managed to piece the puzzle back together to fit the supporting frame structure that was built specifically for these slabs. A few cuts, seams, and patches, and the countertops are gorgeous. I'm a Hard-Core fan now. http://www.hard-coregrantite.com/

My pal Eugene brought me this Kohler double bowl cast iron, porcelain sink he found on the side of the road in Orlando, from another remodel, and the sink fit perfectly in the existing cut-out in the countertops. Reuse Rocks!

Here Comes the Sun

September, and our solar water heating system is installed. No home, especially in Florida, should be without one. And here's a peek at our 120 gallon solar water heating tank. We just need to build a shower, and we'll have hot water waiting for us!

Going Underground

Gainesville Regional Utilities trenched and buried power lines to our new house, and also laid our water pipe and electric cable in the trench from the house back to the water well at no extra charge. Less view obstruction and risk of power outage from tree fall during storms.

Spray Paint

Enrique was nice enough to let us borrow his Graco paint spraying equipment. After 3 days of covering up windows, doors, openings, and wood beams, David went to town spraying 2 coats of white latex everywhere, including on himself.