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Posted to LittleLakeCorner by Lisa in Groveland, FL
on 9/27/2008
Just some pics of the driveway. The bed and lights on the entry pillars. The front beds and the long view to the white posts which mark the rear of the land. Finally the sun going down from our Palms Trees.
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| Driveway. Beautiful pink haze in the sky. |
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| Closer to the pillars. |
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| Front bed to the left of the front door. |
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| Front bed to the right of the front door. |
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| Front bed further to the right. |
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| View down the length of the land. |
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| Our Palms trees silhouetted that same evening as the sun went down. |
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Posted to LittleLakeCorner by Lisa in Groveland, FL
on 9/26/2008 2:09:47 PM
Finally adding the finished pics to the outside of the house. They were taken at sunset so the colour looks a little more vivid. We did finish it in July, but kept meaning to take pics just after the grass had been mowed. There are still jobs to do on the interior of the house, but having to concentrate on the business which is suffering big time in the present climate. So much so really worried if we can stay in our house! Rupert is a musician and plays the electric harp, so we rely on people having disposable cash as CD's are a luxury and lots of people are struggling. There is a website called realtytrac.com and you can see on it exactly how many bank-owned houses, foreclosures etc... are going on in your area (US). It is scary!!! So if anyone has that person they do not know what to buy for Xmas, or just plain appreciates music, type in rupertparker.com, CD sales are what brings in the dosh, well it was worth a mention. The inside of the house is my project at the moment as Rupe is recording an album with a wonderful singer, plus we have a video to record to put on Youtube to link with his website, so he is a busy boy at the moment. I have got the accounts done and they were in on time, with the build we put in for an extension in April as that was just not going to happen. One thing to add, which is obvious but I feel must be said, and I think Cara and Jason would agree. When you move into a house built by a builder it's done, you just need to correct things that don’t stand up to any punishment (i.e. my 4 yr old). Our house easily stands up to Lottie, such as better baseboards (skirting boards) etc, but there are lots of little jobs still to do and you are completely knackered at this point!!! We had a list of 50 but every time we knock off one we add three. It is exhausting.
To add to it all we are having to deal with the Nazi regime that are a few members of the ARC/HOA. They will not give us our Builders Deposit of $2K back because they want us to put more plants on the sides and immediately adjacent to the house!! We have put gravel around the house for 2ft as the overhand would limit the rain and it is easier to maintain, plus one side it hides a french drain which carries water away from the house when it rains. We have put so much work into our property and thought everything out and their decision is totally subjective. The wording on Standards and Criteria is "A fifty feet (50") area around the home constitutes the yard lawn of your home site must be landscaped and sodded with St Augustine. (We have a variation for the more eco-friendly zoysia.) All areas, which are not yard lawn, paved, or landscaped, must be left in natural vegetation or pasture." Remember this is a minimum! Further clarification says "3) Perimeter landscaping is required along the front and sides of a residence. It may also be required along the rear if it can be viewed from a roadway. Excluding the front of a residence, any side that cannot be directly viewed from the roadway and is not adjacent to another RC property will not be required to be fully landscaped. All landscaped areas must be irrigated with an underground or drip irrigation system."
Now we are and interior lot not a corner lot, no one has yet built either side of us. They take landscaping as meaning plants, but the actually definition of landscape is to change the contours of the land, often mistakenly used in reference to plants. Now I have put in excess of 300 plants and 150 trees. What they would like us do to in plant a hedge along the sides of the property, we have Bougainvillea along the east side and have left the other side because we play football (soccer) and use the wall for kicking a ball against. I mean we have 2 kids and are not in a retirement community!! Needless to say we have done everything we want and intended to do. The phrase this is "not going to happen over our dead bodies" comes to mind. The silly thing is we have gone way beyond the minimum required. All round the property we have planted Crape Myrtles every 25 ft, they grow to 30-35ft high and wide so will completely hide the house in about 5 years, and they are very fast growing. (See Pics below.) Inside this we have 3 Maples (presently 18ft tall) which will hide the west wall, which is the one they hate, with the ironwork in it and also 4 Japanese blueberries so almost all view will be obstructed given time. Both these trees grow easily to 40ft+. Now we planned how it would look not only immediately but also in the years to come. Obviously although only 26 house have been built of a potential 116, a few of the earlier occupants seem to think they can tell everyone what to do. Yes it feels like Hitler's Germany.
So as you can imagine we are pretty fed up. The trouble is they have bullied others into doing this and therefore feel they have the right. At the end of the build you feel you have, soooo had enough and so it is easy to give in. Well it would be rude to tell you where they can shove it. Ultimately I know what I have done I can manage and I don’t need anymore work for something I don’t want. Plus we dont want to provide a hiding spot or home to snakes and creepy crawlies where the kids (and us) like to play. I mean I hate the olde "Sue them" mentality, but if the kids got bitten by something lurking in a hedge we did not want, but were made to install, surely that would put them in a precarious legal position?? Silly, silly over something so subjective and basically a makey-up rule! Any ideas or opinions on this please type in the comments. All ideas and or support welcome.
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| Drive In. |
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| Front from the north. |
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| A couple of steps back. |
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| I guess I loaded this twice |
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| View fron North East. |
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| View from the East. |
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| South East view, rear of property. |
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| Without the zoom. |
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| South West of the property. |
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| View from the West the wall they dont like. I am standing in front of and between the trees!!! |
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| East boundary Crape Myrtles every 25ft and Magnolias shielding the garage view. |
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| Crape Myrtles on the west boundary, in the distance the maples and further on, if you squint you see the Japanese Blueberries. |
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Posted to LittleLakeCorner by Lisa in Groveland, FL
on 7/8/2008 2:39:06 PM
I just had to blog because we got some amazing pics. The other evening before we put in the vinyl fencing we had the most beautiful light and just had to take some pics. The fencing is all in now, lights are up on the driveway pillars and we just have to finish the gravel on the west side of the house and on the edge of the drive.
One of the trees I planted in the bed in front of our master bathroom has flowered, it truly is stunning, it is called an "Angels Trumpet", it is really hard to get because the plant is miss-used mainly by kids as it can be (very dangerously) used to make a tea which is an hallucinogen, however not being druggies and appreciating a "pretty" (as Lynn would say) plant I really wanted one. Wow, it is not just pretty it is absolutely stunning.
Finally my lovely sister has been in hospital for the last 10 days and is finally home with her newborn son "Finlay James Judge", born 28th June at 1119hrs weighing just 4lbs, they have both been through a lot, but everything is okay now. Well done Becky, congratulations Steve and big cuddles to little Finlay. If they let me I'll post a piccie in due course. A very chuffed and proud Unkie Lisa.
More outside pics to follow when the gravel is finished, then as far as we are concerned, other than maintenance the outside is DONE!! Or though we are considering some screening we really need wardrobe rails first!!
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| Familiar Friends. |
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| View to the south (rear) of the house, in the amazing light. |
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| View again which includes our tidied up cabbage palm tree. |
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| To the SW of the house looking back in the amazing light, (pre-fences to hide the well, A/C and electrical/cable, gas stuff. |
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| Our amazing Angel Trumpet tree. |
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| Rupert showing our amazing tree. |
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| Rupert again showing off our stunning tree.
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Posted to LittleLakeCorner by Lisa in Groveland, FL
on 6/17/2008 10:51:26 AM
I thought I'd update with some pics of the plants we have put in. So far 119 of the 123 trees are in. And 206 of the 214 plants and shrubs are in. I'll do final surround pics when the A/C/Well/Electrical box vinyl privacy fencing is installed it is due to be delivered the end of this week. My goodness you'd think given the current economic climate getting bids would be easy, but having had bids well over the odds and lots of suppliers not reply at all, we are getting the fencing through a friend!!
We moved in on the 26th Feb 2008 and are really pleased, although unlike having a builder there are still lots of jobs to do. We have concentrated on the outside to date as we were persuaded to put in our final inspection, although we told them at the time we needed 60 days and would fail, but they just love putting us in violation, I say they, we are actually just talking about 2 or 3 peps, who are sadly not occupied with real life enough if you ask us.
Building seems to have stopped, 3 houses have run out of money, (two by builders who have gone out of business and one who stopped being paid???) One is in mid build but nothing new has started.
We love our property but hate the regime we seemed to have moved into. Apparently our landscaping is not up to scratch, we have put five bougainvillea at the side of the house and don't want anything more, on the other side after 16 ft of fencing is going in with Mandeville and Bleeding Heart Vine trained up it also, we want the wall clear, we like the sides being minimalistic and then we can kick a ball around with the kids without worrying about damaging plants or lurking snakes. However they have actually put it in writing/email they believe they own the outside of our house. We even have landscape approval twice as we increased the number of Crepe Myrtles to 72 so they are spacing every 25ft inside out perimeter boundary. Give them a chance they will grow to 25ft wide and 30ft high and shield the whole house but we are talking about people who are into instant gratification rather than deferred gratification, meaning they have little or no vision, again our opinion. So we feel we are nearing the end of this but I'm not holding my breath as they say.
Lets us know what you think. We like it and I've learned more about Florida plants than I ever thought I would, we have gone for the tropical look and lots of colour, as we were going for a Mediterranean look and found the Pamela Crawford books very helpful, but choosing zone 9 plants in the main and we found a nursery near us that specializes in exotic hardy plants, so we shall see as they say. Hope you like the pics, more to follow in a few weeks.
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| Some visitors. A family of 4 Sandhill Cranes, they stand almost 5 ft tall and we see then almost every morning. |
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| Front of Garage |
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| Front of Garage from the side. |
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| Front of Garage/Office from other side. |
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| Front of M.Bathroom |
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| Front of M.Bath from side |
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| Front of M.Bath other side |
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| In front of Pillars, either side of the drive. |
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| Other Pillar. |
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Posted to LittleLakeCorner by Lisa in Groveland, FL
on 2/23/2008 8:41:59 AM
Yep we had our C/O inspection on 21st Feb and we passed. :) So, so pleased and relieved, but there is still lots to do. I had to call Metro Garage Door as they had taken two bolts out of the garage door framing and not replaced them, the inspector noticed this and asked me to call the garage door company to get this rectified, when I said of course I would. I called them at 9am and they duly came out yesterday. Sadly however just before they left I noticed the hammer drill had pushed the stucco off the exterior of the wall! Nooooo. Mike was mortified, so were we as we have a punch out list aka to do list and every time we knock another item off three more get added and we needed this like a hole in the head. So I called the stucco company we used as they had covered up the electrical outlets outside and the electrician had to go digging for them and we needed to do something about that as well. Could not get hold of the boss but got hold of the Drew and he offered to come out Monday (free) with a bucket of stucco and quickly patch it up. Wow, someone is smiling on us, so we just have to paint the patches when cured (dried). The carpet went down on Wednesday and Thursday and it truly finished the house, wow!
We have now planted 114 trees in total and have just 4 to go or 8 if I can locate 3x Royal Poinciana’s and 1x Hass Avocado tree. Thank goodness we had the Mini excavator (Which I have thoroughly enjoyed driving) because we picked up the 19 Queen Palms this week which had come up from Miami, $60 each. They were meant to be 7-8 ft tall, 3-4" caliper however it turns out they had run out of those so they upgraded us and we picked up the (unbeknown to us) first 6 which looked great but were very heavy and we had to use a chain and the excavator (digger) to just lift them off the trailer!!! Rupe then went to fetch the second load of 7 palms, and called me (Luckily we had placed the palms by the holes and not buried them!) Lisa these trees are bigger." "OK" "No Lisa these trees are a lot bigger!" Well there in nothing we could do but move the first trees to the house as we wanted similar size tree either side of the drive. Well the trees were not just big, they were huge. 14-16 ft tall and over 12" caliper and we could barely lift them without the digger tipping over!!!! So a few heart stopping moments! On the 3rd load the trees got bigger still but not by so much. The largest tree (now we have hired a huge trailer) had its root ball at the front of the trailer and its fronses (spelling) almost another trailer length off the other end of the trailer!!! Rupe had tied a plank of wood at the end so it was tilted up. Thank goodness the Cherry Lake is only 6 miles from us. I will include pics tomorrow as it is raining cats and dogs and I have to start packing and clearing our rental house and we pack up tomorrow and the POD will be moved on Monday. We still have hardware to put on doors and the painters for the trim were meant to come back by now to paint the missing bi-fold door (long story) but of course want to do that on Monday!!!! Window adjusters come Monday too, so the mania continues. I must mention Mum and Dad flew into the country Monday and although tired and lots of other things going on, worked flat out with us on Thursday and Friday getting those massive palms in. I'm not sure we would have got it done without them. Rupe also has taken time off work to work alongside me and has worked amazingly hard. This has had two major benefits, we have got a lot achieved, and the company has been fab and made it so much less lonely. So a BIG thank you to everyone who has helped along the way, it has meant more than you know.
Having done heavy work for 4 weeks straight now must add it is not easy. Motrin (iprobrufen) has been a godsend and every evening and in the morning I can barely move, too much lactic acid build up but what can you do??? It has been a long tiring 9.5 months of build with over a year of planning beforehand. We are SO, SO looking forward to living in our house and getting back a "normal" manic life. Words cannot describe how much some time off is really needed by us all.
Below pics of trailer plus trees, our fireplace, Lotties late in the evening 4th Birthday. Take Care.
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| Rupe and Abbie with 3 Crepe Myrtles, 3 Flane Red Maples and 3 Miss Chloe Magnolias. |
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| Our 4 yr old on her birthday, time passes very quickly. |
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| New pink umbrella and Abbie's arm. |
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| Our fire (cement yet to be done)and carpet in! |
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| Lottie & hat in the evening. |
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| Lottie and cake. |
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| Abbie and Lottie the diva in matching dressing gowns. |
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| Plus Lottie wanted her own tool kit to help Mummy, bless! |
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Posted to LittleLakeCorner by Lisa in Groveland, FL
on 2/17/2008 7:02:59 PM
Another busy week. We have planted between Thursday and today (Sunday) 81 trees. There is still so much to be done. Numbers on house, mail box in, chalking, more trees hardware on doors, cement fireplace, paint missed bits, touch up bits where subs have bashed into walls. The list just gets longer.
Why so many trees, well we have to put five Oaks ( 30 gal 10ft high 2-2.5" caliper width) in as we submitted a replanting plan so we could get rid of the Lantana by the wetland and thats what St. Johns Water Managment required in order to get approval. Three Oaks as required by our HOA (min 12ft high 2.5-3" caliper which is a 45 gal) Then we got 72 Natchez Crepe Myrtles! Why because we are using the Company and are buying them wholesale from Cherry Lake Tree Farm, we hired a trailer and a mini excavator (Sunbelt $500 for the week or $1000 for the month) and it works out so much cheaper and prettier than putting up hundreds of feet of vinyl 3 rail fencing. ($37 a pop for 6-7ft) We have placed them every 25ft and due to easement acces they are 7.5 ft inside our boundary. They are a bit sparse now being our winter but I will take a picture when they leaf and bloom and then in the autumn their leaves turn a beautiful shade of red. Rupe liked the multiple trunks best (four to five trucks per tree) and they have proven so much easier particularly on the 900ft run to get in a straight line. We have put in four Miss Chloe Magnolias but like them so much we will probably get another five and they provide a barrier for viewing straight into the garage, plus they are evergreen, we have three Flame Red Maples coming and 4 Japanese Blueberries.
I must add Kris yet again stopped by for the whole afternoon and was a great helped us out big time, we never would have gt so far so fast without him, plus he made it so much more fun. Kris if you ever read this major thank you's
Our carpet, well the one we picked ended up not being reserved :( so we had alot of running around to do last week as delivering March was not going to fly. Suffice to say Rupe and I selected another carpet and it will be installed Wed/Thu & Fri. Then Rupe has to work so we are now moving fingers crossed Mon 25th, but we have yet to ok this with the property managers so major sweet talking tomorrow. We are going for our C/O (Certificate of Occupancy) on Thursday 21st (also Lottie's 4th Birthday, bless her) so all those who have been following this please keep your fingers crossed for us. Hope you like the pics, more to follow, we have to tidy up inside so I will take some pics this week but one is included of the granite completed and the kitchen tile. Boy there is so much to do.
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| Yours truly digging holes, for the Crepe Myrtles. |
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| Magnolias on the back of the trailer |
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| Lots of Trees, Holes, the Girls and Me. |
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| End of a long Saturday. Kris was a major help for us, and Susan also joined us at the end of the day |
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| Street Urchin and Product placement. |
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| Our kitchen tile, pic with the flash! |
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| Our kitchen tile pic without the flash. It gives you the idea though |
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Posted to LittleLakeCorner by Lisa in Groveland, FL
on 2/11/2008
Some pics of the side of the house where the window trim is finished, yes I know it looks white but it is an off white, very slightly off, called (get this and no we did not make up the name) "Divine Pleasure". Plus we do not usually let our daughter eat this mucky, but as she was so hungry and therefore being a real pain, we picked up a Mojo chicken from Publix and shoveled it as fast as we could, on about the fifth mouthful she smiled (yes she is usually a happy soul unless she's hungry) so we could wash her hands and then after the meal scrub her in the bath. Shall I include a before and after food pic, she may kill me when she's older but here goes.
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| East side trim painted. |
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| Over garage painted |
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| Before Food |
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