May 23, 2007

Virtual Hurricane Man

The predictions for a busy hurricane season are out. I've also heard we've been in a hurricane era since 1995 and it is expected to last another 30 to 40 years. Great time to move to FL! But alas what are you going to do. Wildfires in CA, floods in New England, tornadoes tearing through the center. In some sort of tired rationalization for living down here in hurricane central, at least when there isn't a hurricane it's really a beautiful place to live. OK, that said I found the man we'll turn to for our hurricane updates. I am not sure why he is so virtual but I guess if it's really bad news it won't be held against him for showing no emotion. After he does his thing he sits on the screen and responds to the movement of your mouse. At least we know he's paying attention. Give it a try for yourself here.

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 11:05 AM 0 Comments

Florida Power and Light gets involved

With all the costs just to build any old house down here, we certainly won't be able to afford solar electric although we are going to try for solar water heating. Just to power a modest kitchen with appliances etc would cost about 20k in solar panels but I am looking into incentives that may bring that cost down. We hope to add some solar in the future but for now we have to rely on the FPL to help us get started. We'll need to get the energy calculations done for our home. When we get the revised floor plan end of week from Rocio Romero, we'll be able to run some numbers on specific energy needs. Because we are still going for passive solar and best wind flow placement, we should be OK much of the year. Even as we come up on June, there is always a breeze and the trees help keep it somewhat comfortable. It will be interesting to see how much we really would end up using the AC at all.

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 10:44 AM 0 Comments

Florida Scrub Jay Review in store

We knew going into this a year ago we were in the red zone. This is how a scrub jay zone is mapped on the county's GIS system. We had an environmental assessment done prior to purchasing the property to make sure we could build on the lot. Regardless, I still have to submit a Scrub-Jay Review Package to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I think this is good thing and was prepared for some federal reviews because the property mostly remains as it always has. The initial assessment found no evidence of scrub jays which isn't great news on any level. Also, where we are building on the lot is not near the zoned scrub habitat. We plan on only removing a few palm trees of which there is an over abundance anyway. If there are scrub jays that want to visit our property, there will still be scrub for them to enjoy.

Eco Florida Magazine provides this information about the Florida Scrub Jay. "As the name implies, the Florida scrub jay thrives in a scrub, which is an extremely dry habitat. Their ideal environment is a relatively open flatwoods of oak or sand pine scrub with trees less than 10 feet tall, wide apart and providing minimal canopy cover. Most of this scrub is bare ground having a few plants that are less than half a foot tall."

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 10:08 AM 0 Comments

Impact fees in Sarasota County go up and up

We don't even have an official address or a home for that matter here in Sarasota County but we've definitely paid our share in property taxes. That was one reality we struggled with when we first realized our taxes quadrupled after our purchase. We've come to terms with that only to get to the county's impact fees. Any new build here should expect to pay a one time fee of 19k by this time next year. This is up from 10k currently. Somehow I'd hope to have our building permit submitted in time to pay the current impact fee but who knows. I guess if we miss it by a week it will cost us another 10k. I feel like the county should just have my PIN number to save me the trouble of writing all the big checks.

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 9:53 AM 0 Comments

May 09, 2007

Stump Pass Beach








We finally got the boat in the water and took the trip up Gottfried Creek, across the Lemon Bay and over to Stump Pass which is the gateway to the Gulf. This took us about a half an hour going mostly no wake speeds(up the creek)and minimum wake speeds around the bay. Although, I didn't have my own camera but here's some photos from the website that capture most of what we saw there. Stump Pass Beach has been left alone and thrives in its natural beach habitat. There is only a walking trails to the tip of the beach that meets the waterway that cuts through to the Gulf. By boat, you can just pull up around back through the inland waterway, drop anchor a few feet from the beach and jump in.

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 11:15 AM 0 Comments

A pier into the lagoon


Mr. Gottfried took a picture of our small pier that we built for about $180. You need a permit for the real deal and right now we are still focusing on the house expense. This was enough, however, to get us a little closer to the water and have a place to tie up the boat after day trips to Stump Pass which is right at the entrance to The Gulf of Mexico.

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 11:06 AM 0 Comments

A more humble approach- the LVL150





Although we feel that our first design wasn't that over the top at 2200 sq ft, it was just too custom to make sense in cost. With a prefab you can have more control over cost as what you see is what you get and also everything comes with the purchase price. I should be getting the standard set of plans in few days. We will only be making minor changes to the standard layout. The other issue is the required elevation of the building. These pictures are of the first LVL home built which was named Luminhaus by its owners. Rocio Romero is the architect that created the design. You get a lot at 1453 sq ft... It sounds small but the layout has 9ft ceilings throughout and we've come up with a perfect solution to add some extra space
as well. Hopefully this will be the one that works out and we'll finally have a place to call home.

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 9:52 AM 0 Comments

Revisiting prefab


So we've been off task for a while but a lot has been going on behind the scenes. We were at a stand still while we kept the dream alive of affording our first design idea. The official numbers have come back and it is twice what we had wanted to spend. A bit discouraged I went back to Kit Homes Modern, a book by Ima Ebong that we received before we left Brooklyn. The problem at the time was that none of the prefabs mentioned in the book addressed the hurricane issue. After a new investigation of these options, we did indeed find a design that now offers a hurricane model that withstands up to 150mph winds... and we love the design. We've decided to start fresh with Rocio Romero LLC as the architect and the manufacturer of this prefab kit home.

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 9:44 AM 0 Comments

Shutter to think

Illustration by Nancy Doniger

It's getting to be that time of year. June 1st starts hurricane season and it is predicted to be a busy one. The NYTimes highlights The Latest in Shutters for Strom Protection.Basically you have the option of covering your windows with aluminum or a fabric type material to attempt to shield the house from the winds. We'd like to be able to afford impact glass which works similar to that of a car windshield. "Impact-resistant windows have double-paned glass with an inner core that serves as a buffer. The glass, however, can crack and may have to be replaced after a storm, said Dave Olmstead, a code compliance specialist at PGT Industries in Venice, Fla., which manufactures a line of impact-resistant windows called WinGuard. Atrium Companies estimates that outfitting a 15-window house with impact-resistant windows would cost $7,500 to $22,500, depending on the style and material." We are changing gears often as we navigate our way through this and this is one of the decisions that will ultimately depend on cost.

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posted by Mrs Gottfried at 7:53 AM 0 Comments