Refrigerators

The bank is going to do an appraisal based on our house plans
and what is going to be in it. In the end it's a home loan just as if we were buying a house already built on the property. In light of this we need all the specifics on appliances and fixtures. Fortunately, Inhabitat is doing a Green Your Appliances (sponsored by Bosch-hmmm) weekly segment. Here's a little fridge or "icebox" (as Grandma Gottfried used to call it) history. "As Americans in the 60s and 70s wanted a bigger refrigerator box, designers removed interior insulation to make room inside the appliance for weekly grocery trips and larger bottles of milk. The exterior of the fridge became so cool, it would start to “sweat.” So, designers ingeniously installed mini heaters outside of the refrigerator to evaporate the dew. All of this design and workaround put bigger energy demands on these appliances, so that a refrigerator in the mid 1970s used four times the consumption of a 1950s model. Meanwhile, Europe and Japan kept their standards high, their ice boxes small, and to this day total energy use is half that of American fridges." Read more at the Link.

Construction loan locked in, permit... almost

We locked in our construction loan to close within at least 45 days. Also, we should be submitting the building permit this week or early next week hopefully. At some point in September, we hope to be breaking ground... I guess we'll see if that comes to pass. These next few weeks will tell us more. In the meantime, even in this extremely hot weather, the evenings on Gottfried have been so pleasant with a nice Gulf Breeze coming through. We've been enjoying some nice sunsets as we try to picture how the lot will feel with our house on it.

Nine-Banded Armadillo in action

I know this isn't very exciting but it was the perfect event to practice embedding my own videos on the blog. In the future I can do this easily to further document some of the house build and things occurring on site.

The holes in the ground

Ever since we set foot on the lot over a year ago, I noticed these small little holes everywhere. Along with the holes we found little burrows in the thick Palmettos that are scattered over the property. Finally it all makes sense. 3 times now I've arrived at the lot to see a nine-banded armadillo hanging around the same Palmetto which must be where he lives. I caught him in the act of making this hole. They like to dig and find insects and slugs. At the Link are some fast facts about Armadillos from MSU.edu. Did you know that "During the Great Depression of the 1920’s, armadillos were nicknamed “Hoover Hogs” by the people who ate them. The name was a bitter jab at President Herbert Hoover, who had promised “a chicken in every pot” but had instead presided over a collapse of the US economy following World War I."

Miami 2107

Image via New Scientist (via BLDBLOG)I had just cancelled my subscription to New Scientist because it is a weekly magazine and it costs $45 bucks a year. That's a lot of paper and a lot of cash even for some interesting reading. So I found on BLDBLOG a post with a "cities under water in a 100 years maps" from New Scientist. Since the actual article is subscription only, read the BLDGBLOG post at the Link, it is a fresh perspective on how these predictions fulfill some twisted fantasy of actually living to see cities like, Miami, New York, London and Shanghai underwater someday. These "future" satellite images bring to mind all sorts of scenarios especially if you're one of the ones underwater.

Site and Drainage Plan

Click on any photo to enlarge.
We have our site and drainage plan needed for the building permit application. We do have access to public sewer so thankfully no septic system will be needed. The existing land where the house will be is 6 feet above sea level. I guess that puts everything into perspective about how vulnerable FL really is to flooding or losing its coastline. The house is set on an angle for the sun and wind locations. For drainage purposes there will probably be about 2 ft of fill-dirt which raises the house to 8 ft above sea level. The livable space is required to be a total of 12 ft above. Although we technically only need to raise another 4ft to be at the total of 12 ft, we are increasing the height to have usable space underneath. It makes sense but it does cause the house to look a bit over-sized on the ground. Let's put it this way, if we didn't have to raise it we wouldn't. It's also where most of the extra cost will come from.