Renovation, or When The Stove Won't Fit

I mentioned a few days ago that my dad and stepmother have been consumed with the purchase and renovation of an old Florida Cracker house next door to their home. Well, here are some photos of the project, as requested.

First, to clarify: Florida Cracker is a style of architecture that usually involves wood construction, lots of good cross-ventilation and not a whole lot of extra ornamentation. ("Crackers" are native Floridians.) I don't remember the exact age of this house, but I'd guess it was built in the 1930s?

Here's the outside, seen from the street. The photo at the top is the view up to the house from the back yard, which includes frontage on a natural lake. There's also an old-fashioned flower garden off to the side, with Florida garden staples like wild poinsettias and shrimp plants, as well as a detached garage and shed and a number of mature oak, camphor and cypress trees, among others.

It's not a big house. Here's the living room. My dad and stepmother were really happy with the stain for the wood floors, and I gotta say it looks terrific.

The arch on the left, from the living to the dining room, existed when they bought the house a few years ago. (It was a long process.) The arch leading to the bathroom and two bedrooms, on the right, was added by the contractor to match the first.

In addition to insulating, rewiring, and putting new sheetrock on the interior walls, Dad and June (my stepmother) got granite countertops for the kitchen, as well as new appliances, cabinets, a tile floor and granite backsplash. Unfortunately, the stove is being recalcitrant and refuses to fit into its assigned slot in the granite counter. We're thinking the craftsmen will have to trim the countertop to get it to fit. It's only about an eighth of an inch off. I'm kind of glad I won't be around for that.

These are the super-groovy light fixtures in the kitchen. They're nothing fancy -- they're from Lowe's. But they're still cool.

You can kind of see the bathroom color scheme in the photo of the arches, above. Here's a closer look. Those tiles on the right are white as well -- they look pinkish because they were picking up reflections from the pink paper temporarily guarding the floors.

Here's the seam between the floors of the bathroom and the hallway, where the two spaces meet.

Finally, the lot itself is really amazing. Quite large, with the lakefront easily visible!

Dad and June also saved some of the original furniture, which they'll put back in when construction is finished. For now, they plan to use this house for guests. But frankly, they don't have huge numbers of visitors, so I wonder if they'll wind up renting it. I don't envision it being sold, at least not immediately. Dad and June are too proud of it!