(Scroll down for the latest progress pictures)
|
The Fernery Art StudioCome explore your inner artist! The Fernery Art Studio, beginning in 2010, will host artist retreats,
collaborative art events, and workshops with your favorite art and
craft teachers. Come stay with us and create art. Visit Pierson, FL and
check out beautiful northeastern Florida. Come for a workshop and stay
to hike, bird watch, boat on Lake George or the St. John's River. If
you love nature, you will love this serene area of Florida.
Our new contractor, ColeHill Construction, Inc. is going gangbusters on our three buildings. We are amazed and thrilled at the progress they are making. Almost all the problems have been solved, and we are now at the fun stage - picking out paint colors and tile! Whoopee! Check out the latest pictures below.
A big thank you to David Bishop, Steve's brother. He has been traveling all the way from San Antonio, TX to help us. He builds big beautiful and much fancier homes than ours. Thank you so much David, and to your family for letting us borrow him every couple weeks!
Please checkout the workshop schedule page. We are working on bringing you more teachers and more classes.
|
 |
| House From the Drive |
|
|
 |
| The Pond after the Alice |
|
|
 |
| Upstairs Stair Rail |
|
|
 |
| Blue Trim (Uh-oh, I don't like it!) |
|
|
 |
| Downstairs Saltillo |
|
|
 |
| Saltillo in Bedroom upstairs |
|
|
 |
| The Table the guys made me! |
|
|
Here's the table George built me. It's a thing of beauty! So nice to work on, thanks to Mr. Hill for thinking of it and George for building it and the guys for carrying it over to the workshop!
|
 |
| The first project started in the workshop! |
|
|
The first project started in the workshop - tiles for the guest showers. I'm just gluing them on mesh. Robbie will get to do the hard part of putting them on the wall and grouting them. Thanks Robbie!
|
 |
| The creek after the "Alice" May 22, 2009 |
|
|
By some strange coincidence I was reading Stephen Kings' "Duma Key" during this storm that sat over Florida for a week. It had all the traits of a tropical storm, but since Hurricane Season doesn't start until June1, then it couldn't be a tropical storm. In "Duma Key", Stephen relates that a century ago these storms were called "Alice's". So here's what our creek looks like after more than 20 inches of rain in a week's time.
|
 |
| Mr. Hill models sun smart headwear |
|
|
 |
| Blue Porch Ceiling |
|
|
 |
| The first coat of blue downstairs |
|
|
 |
| Garage Door Installation |
|
|
 |
| Porch Columns |
|
|
May 6, coming up the driveway and seeing the porch columns covered for the first time, what a rush! I can't believe that we are actually going to live here, it's so beautiful. From that little sketch oh so long ago, to nearly reality. A house that I have been imagining since I was 12 years old. Thank you Steve.
|
 |
| Front of House |
|
|
Another view of the columns. And Donny, member of the ColeHill gang.
|
 |
| Lovely Little Arch |
|
|
Such a sweet little arch at the top of the stairs in the main house. Thanks for such a cool little detail, Mr. Hill!
|
 |
| Future Kitchen |
|
|
Here's where the kitchen will be. Mike Bass is creating something unique and wonderful, using recycled materials.
|
 |
| Future Master Bedroom |
|
|
 |
| Front Porch ceiling |
|
|
Mr. Hill on our front porch. Check out those ceilings, aren't they lovely? The Hardy board looks just like wood. Very cool!
|
 |
| Left Side Downstairs Porch |
|
|
They look so great, but wait, there's more to come! Ricky will be painting them light blue. Down in Key West, Steve and I heard that painting the porch ceilings blue discourages wasps from building nests there since they supposedly think it's sky instead of ceiling. Maybe that's true, maybe not, but it sure will look lovely!
|
 |
| Guest House Stair |
|
|
The stairs leading up to the guest house. We found this cool handmade tile, saltillo, on one of David's trips here. The oak stair treads and matching railing look really great!
|
 |
| Guest House Saltillo |
|
|
We found this cool handmade tile, saltillo, on one of David's trips here. Of course being handmade it's not easy to line up and is making Robby crazy. We are blessed to have someone doing this who cares so much about it. Thanks Robby and Derek!
|
 |
| Studio in the shade |
|
|
Future site of many wonderful workshops and events. Looking forward to meeting many new friends here!
|
 |
| Workshop Floor |
|
|
The "faded spruce" looks fabulous on the concrete floor in the workshop. Thanks David for helping me pick this out. Thanks Ricky, it looks great!
|
 |
| Workshop facing left |
|
|
 |
| Porch Ceilings, April 22 |
|
|
 |
| Tile in the Guest Room, April 22 |
|
|
 |
| Conference in the workshop |
|
|
Here's the guy that's going to create the sink frames for the concrete sinks. Paul and Trude confer.
|
 |
| The Cole Hill Gang |
|
|
Here's the Cole Hill Gang! These are the guys responsible for building our beautiful new home, studio, and garage/guest house. What a cool picture, thanks Trude! If you send me all the names I'll fill them in, but so far I know these:
Top left, Guy1, Jack (plumber), Ricky (the painter), Guy2
On the Ground, from left, Georgie, Mark (plumber), Paul (the man in charge), Derek, Robbie (the tile guy), Terry Evans (painter), Guy4, Guy5
Thanks so much to all of you and a few not pictured - Sam and the electric guys.
Thanks to daughter Amber Eary for letting me know where her father was standing in the above picture. It's amazing how much painting has been done, and it's still going on. Ricky has had different helpers on different days, and we are grateful to them all for the great job being done.
And now that I know you don't mind being photographed...
|
 |
| House and Garage, April 9 |
|
|
 |
| House Front, April 9th |
|
|
 |
| Meeting |
|
|
David Bishop, Steve Bishop (proud owner) and Paul Hill decide some details. David has been coming all the way from Texas to help. He builds fancy doodle houses around Austin. He's building one right now that's going to be 11,000 square feet. Everything is bigger in Texas!
|
 |
| OMG, the lights are in! |
|
|
 |
| The Big Blue Roof |
|
|
The big blue roof is done! Do you think it looks like IHOP? LOL! We were going for something between coastal Florida and Florida cracker. Plus, I just loved the color!
|
 |
| Mindy, the roofer's dog |
|
|
This is SUCH a great story! One of the roofers, Morrel Architecture in Tampa, FL, found this dog by the side of the road. Her collar was embedded into her skin, it left a scar when he cut it off. Poor Mindy! But, boy, does she love her new guy! When he would go up in the lift, she would lay on the ground and wait. The second the lift would come down, she would be there to greet him. She is such a sweet dog!
|
 |
| Back Porch |
|
|
Here's the back porch on the house, so far. It's going to be such a great place to sit and enjoy being outside.
|
 |
| guest room back door |
|
|
Here's the outside door to the guest rooms. The siding is up all the way around the garage/guest house now. It looks so great! But I do miss the one blue panel...
|
This is the trench for the internet access to the studio.
|
The studio with tyvek wrapped around it. Pretty soon it will also have the Hardie board siding up!
|
Inside the studio the drywall has been hung.
|
 |
| They've started the big blue roof! |
|
|
 |
| My dh, Steve, looking up the kitchen stairs |
|
|
Yeah, we had to get a new hole cut for this since the first one was too small to allow anyone over 5'5" to go down it. The good news is that doing that means we didn't end up with any steps sticking out onto the front porch, the way it would have been.
|
 |
| Guest Shower |
|
|
 |
| Front of Workshop with Doors and windows |
|
|
 |
| Workshop inside, looking toward the front door |
|
|
Steve and I visited the property yesterday (March 7) and saw so much progress, just since two weeks ago! Thanks again to ColeHill Construction for making everything go so smoothly!
How exciting to see the windows and doors on the workshop. It is very light inside the workshop with all those windows! Wait until we get the full spectrum lighting in too! Having great lighting will really be wonderful!
|
 |
| ColeHill Crew working on columns |
|
|
It's so exciting to see how much progress ColeHill has made in just a few weeks. We've got new stairs installed, the windows reinstalled, all of the framing has been corrected (or most of it). And more! They have started framing the columns and installed many of the house doors. It's starting to look like we actually will have the house we dreamed of! Thanks so much to David and Paul!
|
 |
| Garage with siding! |
|
|
We finally get to see what the siding looks like. Thanks so much to Cowboy Jones and his crew. We have a lot to thank Cowboy for, not just the siding, but also suggesting his friend, Paul Hill, to be our new contractor. Thanks again, Cowboy!
|
 |
| Most of the Front Door installed |
|
|
The front door hasn't been painted yet, it won't be that ugly yellow! And the transom hasn't been installed, but we now have a front door, isn't that swell? One can begin to see the home amongst the construction.
|
 |
| Columns with framing |
|
|
Here is the beginning on the columns. We'll be putting Hardie board around the frames - won't that be lovely?
|
 |
| Cowboy's Crew putting up the siding on the garage |
|
|
The young man with his back to the camera is Nathaniel, Cowboy's grandson. Thanks for your help Nathaniel! Cowboy's crew is starting to put up siding so that ColeHill can start constructing the outside stairs.
|
 |
| Garage window after reinstall |
|
|
One of the windows on the garage. This is going to look really great when the Hardie board is installed! Sweet!
|
 |
| ColeHil crew redoing framing in the kitchen |
|
|
 |
| Firring Strips on Garage |
|
|
 |
| House Before the Doors |
|
|
 |
| The view from the drive |
|
|
The view from the drive - you can see all three buildings. The garage and workshop have blue rooves, and the house now has panels and has been dried in. Soon it too will have a blue roof.
|
 |
| The roof dried in |
|
|
It looks like a house now, don't you think? We aren't making much progress right, but I'm sure we will be back on track soon.
|
 |
| Steve's Office to be |
|
|
Here's where Steve's office will be. No one gets in to see the wizard! No way! No how!
|
 |
| Framing on the first floor of the house |
|
|
Standing just inside the front door, looking to the right toward the kitchen. The first wall will be for a powder room. The next wall is the pantry wall. This will be the epicenter of the house. We will have a computer, all the cookbooks, pantry stuff, the washer and dryer and the dumb waiter. No, not my husband, a real dumb waiter that we can put the laundry basket in and pull it up and down between the pantry/laundry room and the bedroom. Isn't that cool? That's going to save the back, especially in 15 years!
Talking to some really cool guys about building cabinets in the kitchen. From cozy and casual to somewhat fancy. Still thinking about how that's going to work. I'm sure leaning toward using old furniture and architectural details. We'll see what happens.
|
 |
| Look at our New Blue Studio Roof! |
|
|
Doesn't the Royal Blue roof look great? I was worried that it would look like IHOP! From the road you barely even notice it, so it blends in nicely. Roger promises me that it will last forever.
|
 |
| The Guestrooms have a Blue Roof! |
|
|
The garage and guestrooms now have a pretty blue roof!
|
 |
| Fernery Art Studio from Bennett Road, Looking past the creek |
|
|
September 2008, looking past the creek at the future workshop! We got a lot of rain from Fay three weeks ago and the creek is still running. Isn't this just the prettiest view?
|
 |
| The Studio August 2008 |
|
|
The panels are almost all up on the studio. Still a long way to go.
|
 |
| House Steel August 2008 |
|
|
This part is so ugly, I hate to even look at it. The steel is almost up for the house.
|
 |
| Roger stands on the new house slab |
|
|
Here's Roger standing on the house slab which was just poured last week. Doesn't the steel look huge? No, we aren't building a skyscraper. The steel erected is for the house walls. The slab outside that is for the porch.
|
 |
| Workshop Panels are Up! |
|
|
The workshop walls are up, no windows and only one door is cut. That will come later. See all the beautiful trees? Won't you love taking a workshop here in such a beautiful setting?
|
 |
| Looking out from inside the workshop walls |
|
|
In a way, it will be a shame to put the roof on. Wish it could be transparent so we could see the beautiful trees outside.
|
 |
| Blue Panel on Garage |
|
|
Love that Blue Panel! Of course, this will get covered by the hardie board, but I'll know it's there. The panels are recycled refrigerator panels, should be pretty heating and cooling efficient!
|
 |
| Roger and Steve standing inside the house |
|
|
Roger and Steve (my DH) standing around talking in the middle of the house. July 3, 2008, my DH's birthday! In the back on the left is the workshop. On the very right of the photo is some steel, that will be the garge/guesthouse. (Photo by Joe Banana)
|
 |
| My tractor! |
|
|
Here's my tractor, just wait till I paint it pink. Imagine me riding along on my pink tractor wearing a straw hat. Sweet! (photo by Joe Banana)
|
 |
| Studio with slab and steel frame |
|
|
Wow, not only has the slab been poured for the studio, but most of the steel frame is up too!
On the first day of Summer, 2008, I walked thru the studio front "door" and out the back "door" for the very first time. So exciting. I imagined how it will be with teachers and students learning and creating. Sounds of laughter, quiet sounds of creation. May everyone who comes here love it!
|
 |
| View from the back of the studio |
|
|
Someday there will be a porch where I am standing taking this picture. This is the view from the back of the studio. Where the dirt is, there is a little creek. Right now it is dry, but sometimes it has water running thru it.
|
 |
| Big pieces of steel! |
|
|
Here's my dh, Steve, looking at the steel that will be used in the house construction. The guys used our tractor just to turn these so that they could paint them with metal primer. We think it will be a rather sturdy house!
|
 |
| The House stem wall using more than 900 concrete blocks. |
|
|
Here are the guys from BNG building the stem walls for the house. There will be some steps up to the house, so we had to get all this fill dirt, and then stem walls to hold up the concrete slab.
When it's finished, it's going to need some landscaping. Since we decided to save some money by using regular block instead of split block, it's not going to be pretty. My sister Karen had a great suggestion to put trellis around it and then landscape in front of that. Cool idea!
|
 |
| Here are the four foot square pilings required to hold down the house. |
|
|
The footers got poured in week three. Since we have porch all the way around on both floors, the engineer pointed out that wind could pick up the house from any direction. This house is sure going to be sturdy!
|
 |
| Workshop before the concrete slab is poured |
|
|
Copyright 2008, 2009 Barb Van Dusen, The Fernery Art Studios
|
|
