Going up!

Our lot in Tarpon is in what's called a VE zone. Here's what FEMA says about it: "Areas subject to inundation by the 1-percent-annual chance flood event with additional hazards due to storm-induced velocity wave action." What it means is that we'll have to build the bottom floor of our house above BFE (base flood elevation) in order to get flood insurance.

BFE in that area is 16 feet - our slab is going to be at elevation 2-3 feet so we're going to have about a 14' high garage! (with break-away walls, no less). We decided that some sort of elevator would be a must, so last night we did some research. Here's what we found out:

First, residential elevators are EXPENSIVE, no matter what you choose. There are different types: traction, roped hydraulic, and winding drum. These all look pretty traditional. What really caught my eye is a newer technology called a pneumatic vacuum elevator.





It looks like one of those tubes at the bank drive-thru and works pretty much the same way...only instead of shooting up the tube, the cab goes about 30' per minute - not too bad.
I would feel like Jane Jetson every time I got in :o)

It will be interesting to see what we end up with.

Cooktop or Range?

We are in the throes of kitchen design...there are so many decisions to make! The latest research we've done is cooktop and wall ovens vs. a range. We have really started to like the idea of a range - we visited Wolf's web site and saw this big bad boy:






We also saw the price so when we get around to making our budget, we'll probably have to go with a smaller bad boy :o)




If anyone has any comments about the pros and cons of cooktops vs. ranges, we'd love to hear from you!

First Sunset

We went to the Tarpon lot yesterday for the first time since closing a little over a week ago, and watched our first of many sunsets on the Gulf. We took chairs, a little table and snacks and parked ourselves down near the water. We lucked out and arrived at low tide so there was a little sandy beach past the mangroves.

I had misjudged the time of sunset terribly (why did I think it would be at 6:30?) so we had some time to kill. We visited a little with Henry, the former owner, who still has property to the north of us, as well as across the street. Henry is such a stitch - not a typical 72-year-old gentleman. He particpates in athletic events such as half triathlons and does quite well. Henry eschews many modern amenities, and lives a spartan lifestyle...such an interesting guy.

We ventured out wading and the water was surprisingly warm. We observed various sea critters and poiked around a sunken sailboat. After watching a beautiful sunset (well worth the wait), Henry popped over for a visit. Turns out the sunken sailboat was his. He told us how a friend had caught a huge snook next to the sailboat, and told Henry he should never remove it. The friend gave the snook to Henty, who carried it back over to his house. Henry, who apparently is a softie, decided to release it. After he got it swimming and let it go, he looked up and realized that his friend was still fishing within view...fortunately the guy didn't see him let it go; and he didn't catch the same fish again :o)

Can't wait to live there!!!

Drive By

This is just the coolest thing...you can drive by our lot in Tarpon Springs by using Google Maps. Click on the link below:

1042 s florida ave, tarpon springs, fl - Google Maps

Drag the yellow person (on top of the zoom bar) over 'til the green oval is just to the left of the "A". A street view of our lot will pop up. There are little arrows on a yellow line which let you move up and down the street. You can stand in one spot and get a 360 degree view from where you're standing by clicking on the arrows in the upper left circle. (How do they do that??)

Try your own address - it's just amazing!

We Closed! We Closed! We Closed!

We closed on our Tarpon Springs lot at 3:30 today - YAY! We are excited and relieved to get it done.

It was hectic all day. It started at 8:00 when I called our brokerage firm to have them wire funds to our bank. They asked me a series of security questions to ensure I was who I said I was. They grilled me until I was well done :o) I got our address wrong (haha), and I also got the date we built out house in Orlando wrong (what they actually had was the date we refinanced our house 3 years ago). FINALLY they got done and wired the money.

I climbed back in bed to try to get a little more sleep. About 9:30 I got a phone call from Henry, the lot owner in Tarpon. He sounded upset and asked me to write down some things to relay to Jim. I stumbled out of bed, tripping over dogs, and almost blinded by a migraine. I finally got a pencil and paper and Henry related his story.

To make it short, he said the house owner to the south of our lot had set up a fish cleaning/smoking area that encroaches on the south side of our lot. There is a concrete slab about 10 feet long and 3" deep that is over our property line by about 1 foot. A complication is that it covers up the land monument marker. There's also some sort of pipe over the line, and various moveable items, which Henry took care of moving back to the other owner's property.
Henry actually spoke to the other owner, and got him to sign a statement that he would move all encroachments on our property. Hopefully this will all go smoothly :o)

The title insurance lady took Henry's papers up to Tarpon first for him to sign. She ended up staying about 2 hours because she and Henry did so much chatting. He made her fresh orange juice from his citrus trees and showed her some old documents tracing the deed history all the way back to the State of Florida deeding the land for 50 cents an acre to the first owner in 1868, The land has been in Henry's family since his great-grandmother. We're looking forward to being his neighbor.

Show Me the Money

It has been a little crazy trying to get our money together for this land purchase. Since we haven't closed on the sale of our old house in Orlando, we decided to liquidate some stocks and mutual fund holdings so that this lot wouldn't get away.

The first thing I did was try to sell some shares of two mutual funds that we've held since the 90's. The guy told me that since our mailing address had changed from what they have on file, AND our bank account number has also changed, we have to send them a letter with Medallion guarantee stanps on our signatures. I can appreciate that they want to make sure that we are who we say we are; however, that doesn't keep this from being a pain in the butt.

Next, I liquidated some stocks that we've held since the 90's in our brokerage acct. Since I'm not exactly a super duper, wheeler dealer stock trader, I had forgotten that they require 3 days for the transaction to "settle" before they'll give you your funds. Thank goodness, I sold the stuff early this week...I'm supposed to call them in the morning and have them wire the proceeds to our bank.

Hopefully everything will fall into place for a closing tomorrow afternoon or on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Closing in on closing

This process has taken MONTHS, but we have finally signed a contract on a piece of land. The title company has ordered a title search, and we've liquidated enough securities to cover the cost. If nothing bigger than a woodchuck happens, we should be able to close in less than a week.

Once we've closed, I'll feel more comfortable sharing additional details about the property. I WILL say that the most fabulous thing about it is that it's right on the Gulf, and never in our wildest dreams did we EVER think we'd be able to buy a lot like that.

We hope to build a home on it and I want to keep a blog of the whole process - if nothing else, it will be a great diary for us.

Here are a few pix:

This will be our view each evening.

Here's our back yard at low tide. Those are mangroves.

Here's one of our new neighbors. (I've heard he can be a little crabby.)

Sunlight on the water - it doesn't get much prettier!