Gottfried Green

Floss Silk Tree (Chorisia speciosa)

We should be getting our initial design on the table soon to finalize the drawings and get ready for their submission to the buildings dept. The summer rainstorms have finally arrived and seem to occur daily- fingers crossed. This is a good time to start landscaping areas that are not going to be affected by construction. It is a full year of growth we could get underway before the house is built. I've been looking into some unique tropical plants and trees. Many I like are available around the corner but there are a few that could thrive here but would need to be sourced. I hope to incorporate giant ferns, colorful vines etc to create layers. This will give certain areas the look of a rainforest. The beauty of it all is that it will further reduce the lawn. Also, I am going to try to pick species that will not require special irrigation. I picked up the "layer" concept from Ben Appel in Sarasota who created his own oasis by seeing what thrived and what didn't. He is starting his own business landscaping tropical gardens for others. His website is now under construction. The photo above is a Floss Silk Tree with blunt like thorns and in the Fall it produces a giant orchid-like flower.

Labels: weather

It's hard to know how to feel overall when you find that your Scrub Jay review finds no evidence of Scrub Jays. Of course, if there had been evidence of Scrub Jay activity it would have been next to impossible for us to build on our property. We did have indicators that we would not have a problem building on the lot before we bought it but to hear it officially gives us the real green light. I spoke to my neighbor who has lived in her home since the 60's and she said the area was teaming with Scrub Jays at one time. Quail were also everywhere. All I can say is that we are keeping all the scrub habitat that exists on the property intact. The area where we build is mostly cleared with a few non-native trees we'd need to get rid of anyway.

Labels: permits, wildlife

In this new direction of working with the contractor, a draftsman and have an architect sign off on everything for submittal to the Building Dept. I began worrying that I wouldn't have enough of a solid picture of how things would actually look based only on floor plan and elevations. I came across Better Homes and Gardens, Home Designer Pro. It allows a 3D view of your floor plan, you can add furniture, fixtures, landscaping etc. I am also trying to tap into some CAD functions to offer even more insights. So far everything looks like I want it to look but for the sale price plus the rebate, the software was worth the investment.

Labels: design, floorplan, landscaping, software

Moving on from nostalgia, I managed to create a clean slate on which to place our 3rd and final design. Whatever this comes out to be will be our future home. It is turning out to be a combination of all our influences so far: Tim Snyder's design, The Glidehouse, The Container House... Basically somewhere between Tim's interactive design and the simple, plain, rectangle boxes with lots of windows that are the others. We'll see how it fits into the landscape next week. Hopefully it won't be anything so bad a little landscaping can't fix. How far we've come to begin again as amateurs.

Labels: siteplan, software

As we move forward with designing our house in this 3rd attempt, I couldn't help the nostalgia pouring in for our 1st attempt with Tim Snyder at Osborn Sharp in Sarasota. I was also looking to explore the capabilities of Google's free Sketch Up download. Tim had first told me about it and how he exported our model to Google Earth to show our future home in 3D from every angle under the sun. You feel like you can control your own destiny. A feeling that has been fleeting at every turn. It allows you to "walk through" your home, look out at a water view, see bird's eye and worm's eye views from any distance. Looking back at our first design in Sketch Up is inspiring even though it won't be this house we'll live in. Even the ability to pretend to be in a house and see a house on the site still hints at all the possibility.

Labels: siteplan, software

So in the end the Rocio Romero prefab will not out for us. After a hefty non-refundable deposit we received the general plans and the materials list. Since we were customizing the design by using the larger house and the smaller studio together, I was feeling pulled back into more time and money reworking the design, plus their structural engineer working with the ground level all from a distance. We've already spent a lot of time and money working with an architect without being able to afford to build the house. I somehow thought the prefab would be the best solution because it was all right there. Funny thing is I never heard from anyone at the company since I sent an email explaining my decision not to continue. I found this to be very unprofessional and rude. I certainly gave them a lot of money for the time they put in and being in this business surely clients change their mind for any number of reasons. The materials list also caused me concern. It wouldn't be the most efficient or cost effective house for us. We know enough after our 2 attempts getting a handle on a design we like, we are going to go straight through the general contractor and his draftsman. As we layout the floor plan and decided on the "look" we'll know as we go when a budget buster comes up and we can change accordingly. After renovating a townhouse in Brooklyn, NY and dealing with the NYC building dept, I never would have guessed how complicated and extremely expensive it is to build here in FL.

Labels: cost