Above 1200 Sq/FT New home, next chapter ....

[Toolfool]

After living in Washington state for the past 29+ years, my wife and I , and our two dogs, are now relocated to Tallahassee, Florida. I decided (with a push from ShortyKorte ) to start a new thread to document the next chapter in our lives.

We moved into our new-to-us home in mid-June. My wife dove right into studying for the Florida Bar exam. I had plans to immediately remodel parts of the house but decided to hold off on the chaos until after the exam. The exam was at the end of July ( she passed, first try) ( have to brag, she passed NY bar first try, WA bar first try ). She took four interviews, was offered three positions. She starts working for the Florida State Dept. of Health this week.

Right after the bar exam, I flew back to WA to get our Jeep GC and a Uhaul trailer with the last load of my shop stuff. Third and final cross country drive.

I'll post some pics of our home when we purchased it, then I won't have to keep posting before and afters as this progresses. We're on 2.7 acres at the end of a road with only three houses on it. Fifteen minutes out of Tallahassee.

 

[Toolfool]

A few more pics :

 

[kd3pc]

Looks like the important stuff is settled - pool in place and ready to swim.
Enjoy, it looks awesome.

 

[Toolfool]

From the beginning I didn't like the cabinets, or any of the craftsmanship for that matter, in this house. Before the move I ordered new kitchen and master bath cabinets from my supplier in WA and loaded them in the U-pack trailer with the rest of our stuff (first of two 26' trailers). The cabinets are made by Canyon Creek, they're alder with a pecan stain. All plywood boxes, maple drawer boxes, Blumotion hardware, rollouts everywhere, even in the sink bases.

I started in the master bath. There was hardly any drawer space in the original design, and the make-up table was useless. There were no medicine cabinets. I re-designed with lots of drawer space, 9" deep Kraus bar sinks ( I hate the shallow lavatory sinks ), Delta single lever faucets glass tile backsplash, two wall cabinets that I cut down to 8" depth for medicine cabinets, and had the quartz kitchen counters re-fabricated to fit the bathroom.
Pics. (still need pulls, crown moulding, toe-kick trim )

 

[Toolfool]

Looks like the important stuff is settled - pool in place and ready to swim.
Enjoy, it looks awesome.

Thank you, we're trying to adjust to the heat.

 

[930dreamer]

Very nice place, congrats on the move.

 

[Toolfool]

Then started on the kitchen. Decided to keep the layout pretty much the same, only better. The microwave was in an island cabinet, which I never like, so I negated the SS hood fan and installed a cabinet and a micro-hood. Added more drawers, and a beverage cooler in the island. We kept the granite top on the island, but got new granite tops for the rest of the kitchen. We'll keep the existing appliances until they need replacing since the house was built in 2015.
Pics. (still more work to do)

 

[Jayman17]

Hey TF, I was hoping you were going to start a thread on your move and let us know where you settled. Nice looking place you have there.
What’s the outbuilding used for? Nice size garage too

 

[Toolfool]

All the trim in this house is painted white (nail holes puttied but not sanded before painting !!) but I decided to re-trim the kitchen window in alder, stained and cleared to match the cabinets.

 

[Toolfool]

Very nice place, congrats on the move.

Thank you, we were lucky to find this place.

 

[Toolfool]

Hey TF, I was hoping you were going to start a thread on your move and let us know where you settled. Nice looking place you have there.
What’s the outbuilding used for? Nice size garage too

Hey Jay, the 25x25 steel building was going to suffice as a shop, but as it turns out, my stuff has filled it to the point where there is no room to work. AND it hits 110 degrees out there on the 90+ days. I'm hoping to build a 52x42 shop/garage building. Stay tuned, buddy.

 

[Freakish Mind]

To each their own I guess, but I thought the before pictures were tens times better

 

[619DioFan]

Looks like a really great place.

 

[engineer2]

Yes, but what about the garage?

 

[west_perf]

Welcome to the sunshine state! Beautiful place you have.

 

[Toolfool]

Thanks for checking out my thread, and the warm welcome.
Glad to have you stop by, Tim.
Here's what the garage looks like.

 

[97LX]

Hope you like hurricanes, mandatory evacuations, flooding and bugs, 'cause that's the Florida life that climate change has brought to the state.....

 

[NUTTSGT]

Nice place. I like the before stuff and would have been happy with that. However, I'm a simple person and I'd also be perfectly happy with the new cabinets as well.

It does appear that you're going to need a bigger shop. If you start building and want to turn this into your build thread, PM me and I can move it to the Gallery section and/or change the title as well.

 

[Toolfool]

I know the "before" looks OK, but the cabinets were the cheap Chinese "knock-down" or "flat-pack" cabinets with **** hardware. And I'm not a fan of black cabinets. I've probably installed over 200 kitchen packages in 35 years , these didn't meet my standards.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Did you atleast save them for the new shop or they get tossed ?

 

[Toolfool]

Did you atleast save them for the new shop or they get tossed ?

SOLD on CL. No place to store them safely. If I piled stuff on top of them they'd probably collapse.

I hate seeing guys on the remodeling TV shows taking a sledge hammer to perfectly usable cabinets. There's always someone who can use them.

 

[shortykorte]

Yikes? Glad it’s your house and you’re the one paying for it. You have a very nice home but I have to ask, it doesn’t look anything like the house I moved all that stuff out of.

I think you’ll be safe on hurricanes. Your house was really close (less than 20 miles) to the eye of Hurricane Hermine (cat 1) and faired well. Luckily the Big Bend historically doesn’t get that many direct hits. You’re also pretty high so I think “global warming” flooding won’t be an issue. Now heat and bugs are a different story. We have plenty of that to share.

Hope work on the shop starts in the next couple months so it’s a little cooler when we start swinging hammers.

 

[Toolfool]

Hope work on the shop starts in the next couple months so it’s a little cooler when we start swinging hammers.

I'm hoping for that too. Have to look into the finances.

 

[shortykorte]

Shorty Korte
Always remember quality in QST

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[Toolfool]

Thanks Shorty, Merry Christmas to you and Vickie.

 

[Toolfool]

Update time.
About the time of my last post one of our dogs ( Tiny, our Rottweiler ) became ill and deteriorated quickly. She had been losing toenails and bleeding excessively. Our vet had no clue. On Christmas day she was bleeding from her gums and her right eye had filled with blood. Next day we rushed her to Urgent Care. Tests showed her platelet count was non-existent and she wasn't producing any new red blood cells. She had an auto-immune disease and only had days to live. We authorized a VERY expensive IVIG transfusion and week of ICU. She slowly came around and is still improving day by day. She had lost 20 lbs and is still 15 lbs lighter than where she started and still on a handful of meds daily. All of this set us back for awhile.

 

[Toolfool]

I decided it was time to get started on the garage/shop building. This project might take a while due to funding and being new in the area and not knowing any subs. I'm going to try to do as much of the labor myself as I can. Right now I've reduced my plan down to 46'x50'. The 46' gable end will have three 12'x9' garage doors in the 46'x30' garage area. The other 46'x20' will be the shop space.
Here's some pics of the area where the new building will go.

 

[Toolfool]

This past week I had a tree service drop and remove 18 trees. They stacked the pine logs for pickup by a lumber company.

 

[Toolfool]

Another guy squeezed me into his schedule to dig out and remove the stumps. He's supposed to be back to move some dirt.

 

[shortykorte]

Yippee!!! 18 less trees in Leon County. Nothing against trees but we have an over abundance.

I can see a shop space now. Hopefully it comes together without too much delay.

Would Garage Gallery be a better spot than free parking?

 

[engineer2]

d she wasn't producing any new red blood cells.

Sorry to hear about your pup. Happened to a neighbor's dog. Turned out to be a bad reaction to antibiotics.

 

[ODIS]

Sorry to read about one of your fur-face kids. Always difficult to deal with these issues especially when they are such a big part of our daily life.

As I read your thread, clearly you have been busy and of course everything looks wonderful! Good to read too that you are retired now. Know this is well deserved and long overdue and that you will have a ton of fun.

Take care and be safe.

My best to you and family,

Ody.

 

[shephd]

Hope your dog is better and you are enjoying the new life. I like the new cabinets. We have a cheap black vanity here and black is like wallpaper and peeling off.
There are a number of things in construction that I don't get like like filling the nail holes but leaving it rough. I get frustrated seeing the unfinished ends of quarter round on the floor. You cut it, can't you wipe it with stain or hit it with an aerosol varnish?
Did you build the dining table?

 

[Toolfool]

Sorry to read about one of your fur-face kids. Always difficult to deal with these issues especially when they are such a big part of our daily life.

As I read your thread, clearly you have been busy and of course everything looks wonderful! Good to read too that you are retired now. Know this is well deserved and long overdue and that you will have a ton of fun.

Take care and be safe.

My best to you and family,

Ody.

Thanks Ody. Appreciate you stopping by.

 

[Toolfool]

Hope your dog is better and you are enjoying the new life. I like the new cabinets. We have a cheap black vanity here and black is like wallpaper and peeling off.
There are a number of things in construction that I don't get like like filling the nail holes but leaving it rough. I get frustrated seeing the unfinished ends of quarter round on the floor. You cut it, can't you wipe it with stain or hit it with an aerosol varnish?
Did you build the dining table?

I agree with you. I guess some people don't take enough pride in what they do. I was raised differently.
The furniture you see in the 'before' pics was all staged furniture to sell the house, but the dining table we have was built by me, just don't have a picture of it.
Thanks for checking out my new chapter.

 

[richla]

Beautiful home, beautiful dogs!

 

[Toolfool]

Beautiful home, beautiful dogs!

Thank you. Much appreciated.

 

[shortykorte]

Where are the fancy concrete pads. Need to share those. What’s the latest on getting the shop going?


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[emeraldcoupe]

Thank you, we're trying to adjust to the heat.

you getting used to the heat yet? i've been here 35(!) years and still not used to it

 

[shortykorte]

you getting used to the heat yet? i've been here 35(!) years and still not used to it

He’s loving it. I believe he said he hasn’t felt this alive in years. Waits until 3pm to start any outside projects.


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