Mini Floridian Remodel
Discussion
I can't believe it's been 2 months since I last posted on this thread. A lot has happened, but also not much has!
Finally, today, our master bathroom has finally been finished.
It's been a total nightmare in more ways than one with a possible lawsuit to follow as well at a later date. This was then (when we bought the house):
And this is now:
I absolutely love the travertine tile. It looks even better in real life than in the photos (well, I like it anyway!). I also like the tub with the edge and the shelf as it'll allow us to put the kids toys (or wine for my wife) somewhere while relaxing! I screwed up by the lights above the tub not lining up exactly - maybe I'll change that, however right now I just want to enjoy the bath!! (tomorrow!!). I also think I should have built a TV into that large tiled wall.
Finally, today, our master bathroom has finally been finished.
It's been a total nightmare in more ways than one with a possible lawsuit to follow as well at a later date. This was then (when we bought the house):
And this is now:
I absolutely love the travertine tile. It looks even better in real life than in the photos (well, I like it anyway!). I also like the tub with the edge and the shelf as it'll allow us to put the kids toys (or wine for my wife) somewhere while relaxing! I screwed up by the lights above the tub not lining up exactly - maybe I'll change that, however right now I just want to enjoy the bath!! (tomorrow!!). I also think I should have built a TV into that large tiled wall.
paulguitar said:
I'm going to guess.....
$1000?
Or does it form part of a buildings/contents policy?
From memory, we have 2 policies. What is essentially buildings and contents (with a few other bits added like mold, animal attack (if our dog bits someone) etc. and then a policy for flood from FEMA. The wind part (which is optional) is covered by the first policy.$1000?
Or does it form part of a buildings/contents policy?
Re hurricane insurance (referred to as 'mitigation' on my policy).
I live in Central Florida - not coastal, per The Moose, so theoretically less likely to sustain damaging wind and storm surge.
The hurricane mitigation on my policy is $1150pa - with an outrageous $8k deductable - i.e. I have to pay the first 8 grand of any claim related to wind event damage. Oh, and they point-blank refuse to cover my pool enclosure.
Unfortunately, my house got nuked during 2004 Hurricane Charley, to the tune of more than $45k in damage and even getting insurance companies to quote a policy was a challenge after that. When we re-roofed we went over the top with wind damage prevention - storm straps on all of the roof timbers, hip-roofing on gables and 150mph wind rated architectural shingle, but the insurance thieves still ream us out, year after year.
I live in Central Florida - not coastal, per The Moose, so theoretically less likely to sustain damaging wind and storm surge.
The hurricane mitigation on my policy is $1150pa - with an outrageous $8k deductable - i.e. I have to pay the first 8 grand of any claim related to wind event damage. Oh, and they point-blank refuse to cover my pool enclosure.
Unfortunately, my house got nuked during 2004 Hurricane Charley, to the tune of more than $45k in damage and even getting insurance companies to quote a policy was a challenge after that. When we re-roofed we went over the top with wind damage prevention - storm straps on all of the roof timbers, hip-roofing on gables and 150mph wind rated architectural shingle, but the insurance thieves still ream us out, year after year.
wisbech said:
Same as property taxes?
I wish!!Ok - just found the policy.
We are not just coastal, but also on a barrier island. Our home is directly on the (tidal) water. The elevation of our garage is 6.7 feet and 8.7 feet of the house.
It's $4,020 per year for the buildings, contents at replacement cost, personal liability, dog thing and some other crap. That also includes the wind (named storm) coverage. It does also give me $20k of coverage for the screen enclosure for wind damage unlike Matt's property. Honestly, our personal property is far too high - we don't have much expensive stuff other than jewelry/watches/electronics which are all covered elsewhere anyway. However at 0.1% of the covered value we prefer to have too much than too little. New roof.
As per the thread above, I have just installed new windows which will reduce the premium next year.
The wind deductible is $11,500. I chose $2,500 for everything else.
The wind portion of the policy is $2,188 and everything else is $1,832.
On top of that, we also pay approx $500 a year to FEMA for a flood policy.
I feel we have a pretty reasonable range of cover - if we had a complete total loss, then we'd be out of pocket however even taking a direct hit with Irma, I don't know of any total losses that were the around the same age as our house and built to the same codes of our house.
After all those numbers nearly a year ago, we now have the house under contract to sell and for us to move on. Bitter sweet really as I love the house very much and, quite honestly, having seller's remorse.
If anyone's interested, I'll share some more photos of the changes we made. A lot of the money we spent is not stuff you'd see in the photos (e.g. new hurricane rated windows and doors).
If anyone's interested, I'll share some more photos of the changes we made. A lot of the money we spent is not stuff you'd see in the photos (e.g. new hurricane rated windows and doors).
The Moose said:
After all those numbers nearly a year ago, we now have the house under contract to sell and for us to move on. Bitter sweet really as I love the house very much and, quite honestly, having seller's remorse.
If anyone's interested, I'll share some more photos of the changes we made. A lot of the money we spent is not stuff you'd see in the photos (e.g. new hurricane rated windows and doors).
I'd like to see them If anyone's interested, I'll share some more photos of the changes we made. A lot of the money we spent is not stuff you'd see in the photos (e.g. new hurricane rated windows and doors).
paulguitar said:
The Moose said:
After all those numbers nearly a year ago, we now have the house under contract to sell and for us to move on. Bitter sweet really as I love the house very much and, quite honestly, having seller's remorse.
If anyone's interested, I'll share some more photos of the changes we made. A lot of the money we spent is not stuff you'd see in the photos (e.g. new hurricane rated windows and doors).
I'd like to see them If anyone's interested, I'll share some more photos of the changes we made. A lot of the money we spent is not stuff you'd see in the photos (e.g. new hurricane rated windows and doors).
rich350z said:
paulguitar said:
The Moose said:
After all those numbers nearly a year ago, we now have the house under contract to sell and for us to move on. Bitter sweet really as I love the house very much and, quite honestly, having seller's remorse.
If anyone's interested, I'll share some more photos of the changes we made. A lot of the money we spent is not stuff you'd see in the photos (e.g. new hurricane rated windows and doors).
I'd like to see them If anyone's interested, I'll share some more photos of the changes we made. A lot of the money we spent is not stuff you'd see in the photos (e.g. new hurricane rated windows and doors).
Incidentally I love US bathrooms. I think you could fit a whole house in that amount of space in the UK...
surveyor said:
Yes please.
Incidentally I love US bathrooms. I think you could fit a whole house in that amount of space in the UK...
Lol - yes. My room at uni was about the size of my closet in this house and my first apartment was smaller than my bathroom.Incidentally I love US bathrooms. I think you could fit a whole house in that amount of space in the UK...
A lot has happened in the last 10 months, however this is where we started:
and this is where we are at now:
Sadly, my papaya tree that was thriving:
Grew to be 10+ feet tall and I think out grew itself and died. It is no more unfortunately.
A lot of money was spent on stuff you can see. However, an awful lot of money was also spent on parts of the house you just don’t see (for example, my lawn cost me about $10k). While the house is not my absolute idea of perfection, it is pretty close to it for the price point. Since signing the contract to sell it, I’ve been having extreme pangs of seller’s remorse. Some days are better than others, however when I wake up and see this view:
I really regret putting my x on that contract.
Here are some of the before photos I posted earlier in the thread (from the listing when I bought the place):
And here are the photos of the house I took for our listing:
We have had all the wildlife you can think of up to our dock including dolphins, manatees, sting rays, alligators (even though it’s salt water), every fish you can imagine here and more.
It was quite a remodeling process to get from where we were at to where we are today. I’m sure I now know this house better than anyone else on the planet and will be sad walking away from it…especially the 4 car garage and driveway big enough for 10-15 cars!
My next project would have been the dock to change it up, fit a boat lift and then get a boat. What drove us to sell was the need for a different configuration of space (especially obvious with COVID) and the buoyant property market here is easing the pain a little too.
We have a lot of memories here - both my kids were born and came back to this house but I guess it’s time for us now to move on!
I think if there are any specific questions, I’d be happy to address them. There’s too much to write retrospectively of the last year or so!
Incidentally, we’re moving into a rental in community to give that a try for a while. It’ll be nice not to be responsible when crap breaks!!! I’m eyeing up another remodel project or possibly even a new construction next!
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