Years Later...

Two-Story House Hidden by Bamboo

More Stairs, New Railing

Stairs Being Added

Progress So Far

Front Porch

View from Front Porch

Back Garden from Back Deck

They've been working on the main staircase today, which means that we won't have to climb the ladder to get into the house anymore. We have some really nice views up there. It will be really nice when everything is able to grow back again. Hopefully we won't get hit by any hurricanes for awhile.

Taking Shape

Despite the rain this morning, they managed to keep going and put up the roof.

Rumor around the neighborhood is that we will be kicked out of our FEMA campers on the 15th of March. That will be interesting, as I don't see that any of the houses in our neighborhood will be ready by then. We don't even meet with the sewer people to talk about hooking up until early March. I guess we will have to pitch a tent and poop in the creek.

Here is a view of what we will see from our front deck. I'll have to see if I can get a better picture tomorrow morning.

Before and During

It's been a long haul getting to this point. We picked this house out in October 2004. They didn't start breaking ground until mid November 2005. Having a Jim Walter home built is almost as stressful as watching my home getting destroyed by a hurricane. These people couldn't organize their way out of a paper bag.

We have spent two Christmases in a FEMA camper. Every time a hurricane blew up the Gulf, we had to pack everything up and move inland.
The picture to the left is one of the few surviving pictures of our house BI (Before Ivan). All digital pictures from 2004 were destroyed with my computer. The day before the hurricane, the garden looked magnificant.










To the right is what we looked like the morning after the hurricane. That's my car buried in the rubble.

Nothing around here will ever be the same, but hopefully it will one day be better.

Hopefully I'll get the hang of this blog thing too.