Building a seawall in the canals of Cape Coral is a must if you want to build a house on the canal in Florida. The movie shows how the company Williamson & Sons builds them. The pure construction time takes 3 days. The workers have incredible skill in operating their machines.
The most difficult topic was probably the kitchen, because American kitchens are a bit old-fashioned in our eyes. We also don’t like the country house style, which is characterized by lots of framing, earth tones, scroll handles, etc. So modern house looking for modern kitchen, preferably high-gloss, but not white, because we already had a white kitchen in Germany. Even though the kitchen will be installed last, we felt early on that we should take care of it.
The time has finally come: the pool is being built. This is a highlight of the entire new build. After the excavator has completed the excavation with astonishing precision, reinforcing bars are laid according to the future shape of the pool. Then concrete is sprayed over it, which forms the so-called pool shell after solidification. Finally, the pool finish is applied to this shotcrete shell, a coating consisting of small stones, sometimes glass pieces and cement.
Our grandchildren are probably wondering what wallpaper actually is. We are reviving this wall covering and bringing the beach, the Live Oaks and the vacation feeling into our home. We did the wallpapering ourselves – it wasn’t that easy. Making the right choice in particular took a lot of effort. Well done to anyone who can work with Photoshop here and can thus sinulate the individual rooms
If you think that professionals paint a whole house in two/three days, then unfortunately this does not apply to our “super painters”. The whole painting process took weeks. Why? Amateurs on the one hand, special requests on the other. But let’s start from the beginning:
The plasterers arrived at the same time as the drywall builders, who first applied the exterior plaster. We originally wanted a smooth render to match the modern house. However, this would have cost an incredible USD 5,000 more. In hindsight, we learned that smooth exterior plastering is a major challenge for the often unskilled craftsmen, and the quality of the work can be correspondingly poor.
After the insulation, the drywall construction begins. Plasterboard panels are cut and cut out. They gradually turn the former floor plan into a room. This wall construction has a lot going for it: you can easily pull cables wherever you want, hang pictures or move walls in old buildings.
When we asked what was going between the timbers that make up the walls, our builder looked at us a little puzzled: “Nothing. The walls are sealed hollow, you can’t see them”. OK then, and what about the background noise from the neighboring rooms?
Our house is being built in the northwest of Cape Coral and there is no city water there yet. So our domestic water supply will be provided by a so-called well and septic system. To do this, we first need the well, which is being drilled today:
The plumbers were slightly overwhelmed by our requirements. They had never fitted a German wall-hung toilet set like this before and didn’t want to learn how to do it. So our builder took it into his own hands. He had never done it before either, so he did it wrong straight away. But more on that later in the build report.
