jpfloors

Okay, better late than never. Well I just moved to Central FL 4 years ago and 6 months ago I bought my very first house with my partner near Cocoa Beach!!!! This house was TRASHED!!! It was a foreclosed home. But we own an interior renovatoin business and we've been fixing it up. Most of it on the inside is done other than a bathroom (and one isn't just quite finished yet) and tiling the floor of the entire house (that'll come in a year or two). We're sticking with the terrazo for the moment (I HATE IT). Not my flooring of choice, but it'll do for now. It has many pot holes in it from carpet tack strips. There wasn't one room in the house that didn't need TLC, and we're talking more than the human society needs! This includes the yards!

I currently have: Dwarf Cavandish, Pisang Cylon, Dwarf Puerto Rican, and Puerto Rican Plantain.
I have purchased and attempting to be patient with the USPS for Jamaican Red, Williams Hybrid, Orinoco, Manzano, and Saba (all from MediaHouse, Check out his auctions/classifieds!!! Thanks a bunch Jarred!)

This place has been great and inspiring!! And VERY addictive!

Here's pictures of the back yard and break down of what's going on back there! Hope you all enjoy! It is a mess now, but one day, it'll be a dream come true!


Aug. 2007 This was the yard the first day we looked at the house!



This is the yard currently featuring the hammock in the soon to be xerscaped section of the yard!



This is the seating area. The grass has already been removed, the rest of the grass will be removed throughout the rest of the yard in months to come!



A better picture of the soon to be xerscaped area of the yard.



This is how the "banana forest" looks currently, under construction. Close to the end of porch is going to start a rather large (for this yard) kidney shaped pond going from the fence to the wall of the back porch. There will be a bridge going over the pond and a small white picket fence on the other side to enter the veg. garden! Bananas and bromeliads with be the focus here. There will be a path leading to the bridge and along the path will be bird baths filled with herbs!



This is the veg. garden section of the yard. I just tilled up the ground and removed the grass and today trimmed the pine tree to allow more light an to keep from having limps falling on my power lines. There will be a white picket fence added just in front of where the picture was taken for access to the garden.



Here are my seedlings already starting to sprout after 2-3 weeks for some of them just waiting to be planted in the veg. garden.



This is the shower area so that you don't track dirt (or sand from the beach) into the house. Yes, it has hot water!!!! Just in case some of you are curious, the blue and red pipes are called PEX, they're what you replumb houses with now days (and also in some new construction) and they're VERY durable... much better than PVC (can break), Copper (lighting can cause pin holes, I've seen it happen with devistating results if you don't know about it), Polybutyene (grey pipes, no longer made anymore, there was a HUGE class action lawsuit over that one), or better than anything else you can think of!!!!

xavierdlc61887

JP those pipes at bad ass yes they are used in construction nowa days more on residential houses because its easier and more durable but there are some people that still are a bit on the coo coo side that still mixes them up with cold and hot :P example my aunts house they used the red for cold and blue for hot...long story short my aunt burnt my little cousins toes but oh well they had to fix that problem and have done so....cough cough nothing to do with nanas but just thought u should know that people will mess up sometimes even when they are color coded :P ohhh also the washer water was mixed up with the cold and hot :P

MediaHound

Looks great Josh!
Thanks for posting the pics, always like to see projects as they unfold.
Keep amending the soil, save all your kitchen scraps and start a compost bin perhaps if you haven't yet.
Your package is en route, hope it gets there soon, your gonna like it

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mskitty38583

love the ideas! the kidney shaped pond is a great idea. love the look of your nanas. that is gonna be an amazing yard when your done. keep us posted on your progress.

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jpfloors

What would be worse is if they used the white ones and got those mixed up or even crossed. Those are the ones we see 90% of the time in peoples homes we go to that have been replumbed. I think the way they do the copper in slabs is very confusing. Glad I don't have to deal with that! I think some people are coo coo for still standing firm by copper, especially here in FL where lighting is famous for putting pin holes in it!

jpfloors

Yes, I'll definately keep pictures posted. Maybe I'll post some again in the middle or at the end of summer. It's a 1-2 year project, but mainly because I need the babies of the nanas I've got growing and it costs mucho dinero to buy more nanas!

xavierdlc61887

ouch :P

jpfloors

Oh yes, most definately have a compost area. Actually had that before I even had any plants planted LOL We only go through no more than one bag of garbage per week!!! Recycle a lot too!!! Thanks for sending the package so fast. I can't wait to get it!!!!