Built Totally Green

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Landscape commences on the rver side

Saturday, July 18th

In very heavy rain, Kevin and I puttered around the riverside bench area. We moved big, beautiful pots from place to place until Kevin and I both said, “Yes! That’s it!” Then we filled them with rubble (from our old house, of course) and dirt from the site and finally each pot was covered with Black Cow. Then we dug in some stepping stones (yes, chunks of concrete from the old slab) to get to the bench area. And voila, now we just need to put plants in them. Steve brought us Subway lunches after he finished priming the first of his water coolers that are going crazy - in a really good way! The Atmospheric Water Generators are one of the most amazing and fascinating products of Green technology I’ve seen to date. Pure drinking water from the air! www.NaturallyH2O.com. Finally, the three of us planted more than 60+ Gaillardias to provide a gorgeous and colorful walkway to the dock.

Friday, July 24^th

A loud knock on our door just before 6am and Kevin was roaring to go. It’s the day we’ve been waiting for – going to Superior Trees Native Nursery in Lee, FL. Nearly two hours later and we arrived to meet the owner, Amy. She was awesome and offered us a golf cart to navigate our way up and down every row of the nursery. Kevin drove and I wrote on a notepad as he called out, “Yep, we’ll have 50 of those 3 gallons, 30 of those 1 gallons, 15 of those.” Mind you he had to spell most of the plants because he knows the scientific names… not just the common names. I kept asking, “What’s that beautiful red one – or what’s that long wavy grass?” He would jump off the cart and grab a flower and tell me the history of what the plant was used for by Native Americans. It was an absolute blast! When we got back to the nursery office the order was filled and will be delivered on Monday or Tuesday.

Saturday, July 25^th

Some of the most wonderful people in the world – our dearest friends – jumped into “Bamboozle” today. It was a planned event at Chateau Becerra. Ruth and Alberto (Becerra) graciously offered to let us cut down a large chunk of the bamboo growing on the back of their property. Joined by Dave and Barb Pratt, Tony and Barbara Stamps, we all got to work – and it was very hard, labor! The men cut down the stalks, then measured them and cut them into #620 7ft. stalks. They carried them to a staging area where the women stripped the stalks and bundled them into groups of 25. It took hours of back braking love and dedication to get the job done – but we did it! Then we got to celebrate another adventure and our friendship with a cook out and a wonderful time in the pool. These friends are so precious – I get teary just writing this!!! The bamboo will be made into a fence that will be installed under the house on the riverside and will be another marvelous place to congregate!

Monday, July 27^th

Amy called this morning and the plants were en route to Kevin’s nursery. He emailed this afternoon and said they’d arrived and are gorgeous! Unfortunately I have to go to Tampa to work for the next two days, but Kevin is going to start planting. I can’t wait to get back and start helping.

Monday, July 13, 2009

It's been a while

July 10, 2009ne 25, 2009

When we decided to rebuild, the Department of Health came out and condemned our septic tank. Later, we discovered two more on the property which were also condemned. The well had collapsed – so of course it was also condemned!

But low and behold, once we demolished the house – then we were told we no longer had grandfather rights! The house was built in 1958 and obviously building codes have changed in the last half century. But how in the world could we replace our septic tank and drain field and have them 75’ from our neighbors’ wells, septic tanks and drain fields? It turned into a bureaucratic nightmare!

Here’s the short version of what happened. The DOH denied our drawings and said we would have to get a variance. We managed to get on the June meeting agenda and Steve went to Orlando where a committee of 8 people rejected the variance request. OK folks - the size of the property is what it is… and we don’t know how to grow land! Despite the city of Jacksonville support from Tom Goldsbury; planning and development and Derek Igou, Deputy Director, Environmental and Compliance Department, Mark Mechling, our Civil engineer, and Steve sat down with the DOH representatives to come up with a solution… their mantra never changed, “We are not here to advise, we are only here to govern!” However they did break that rule when they actually had the gall to suggest that we move our neighbors’ wells. Have they never played dominos?

The DOH government employees were of no help whatsoever – they strung this process out and put us behind schedule by nearly 6 weeks! They knew all along what we could do to gain approval, but refused to tell us – repeating their mantra! Finally we called in Representative Audrey Gibson to assist us in getting a solution.

Finally this week, Mark got approval!!!! We will have to use a very expensive ‘performance based system’ with drip field technology, but at least now we can proceed with building our home.

We are considering a very shallow well and are also seriously looking at installing an “Atmospheric Water Generator” that will create close to 150 gallons of 97% pure water directly from the air every day! Stay tuned!