Monday, December 25, 2023

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Piney Green!

After a long, hot summer, the December air has finally chilled to make for some cozy holidays. 

This past year our major accomplishment was renovating the kitchen with complete replacement of flooring, cabinets, countertops, and appliances. 

Kitchen before renovation


Kitchen after renovation

We think it still stays true to the character of Piney Green while improving upon functionality and warmth of the space. During the renovation, we also took the opportunity to carve out some space in the hall closet across from the kitchen to create a new bar. 

New bar space

A bit of trivia: based on historic photos, which we now have sitting in the new bar area, this kitchen was not part of the original home but was added a few years later, likely at the same time the master bedroom and basement were added by Sam Stoltz and his tradesmen. This kitchen had also been modified somewhat over the years, so we are not sure exactly how it originally looked, although we are pretty sure there was some pink in the palette!

We enjoyed many happy hours throughout the year, complete with jazz piano practice and views through the large living room window.


We also revamped our Halloween display this year.


And we made some new additions to our holiday lights.


We are looking forward to 2024, which will mark Piney Green's 90th birthday, and we hope to celebrate in different ways all year long. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and marvelous New Year!

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Merry Christmas from Piney Green!

2022 was a difficult year in many ways, but we continued to enjoy the coziness of Piney Green. No major renovations this year, but we did purchase a piano for the living room. Bill Bean, Piney Green's former owner, actually used to have "dueling" pianos in the living room. He left  one "on loan" piano for us to keep for a few years until a neighbor purchased it. We filled the empty space with a makeshift bar (which you can see in last year's post), but it is nice to have a baby grand return to the room, which has surprisingly nice acoustics.

Our other major accomplishment this year was adding more storage and organizing the "music room" into a work, music studio, and storage space.

Reorganized music room

Below are a few more moments from the year. We are looking forward to 2023 and hope you are too. In the mean time, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Piney Green!


Large "ornaments" were a subtle addition to this year's Christmas lights


Merry Christmas from Luc!

Thursday, December 23, 2021

Season's Greetings from Piney Green!

 


December 2021 marked ten years at Piney Green. In some ways that time has flown, but in other ways we realize how long this journey has been.

Our biggest accomplishment this year at Piney Green was installing a do-it-yourself stock tank pool, which doubles as a hot tub in winter and a chance to cool off in summer. Below are some photos of this and other moments at Piney Green throughout the year.

The illuminated stock tank pool in combination with fire pit and azalea in full bloom resulted in some magical images earlier this year


Snapshot in time: Piney Green in Spring 2021


Decorating Piney Green for Halloween is always one of my favorite things (even though Reid isn't a huge fan). But despite its "Hansel and Gretel" mystique, there is actually nothing creepy about Piney Green - only positive energy.


First fire of the season and a slightly different perspective of the living room showing a glimpse of one of Sam Stoltz's signature triangular arches

It has been many years since I lit the fence for Christmas - I decided to reinstate it this year, along with candle lights in the windows like my Mama used to do at my childhood home


As we began to contemplate what retirement may look like for us someday, this is perhaps the first year I realized with trepidation that Piney Green may not be our forever home. That thought has reaffirmed to me how much I love this home. And it has made me treasure its character, moments, and seasons all the more. 

May your holiday season and the year ahead be filled with moments that you want to hold onto forever!









Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year from Piney Green!

 


2020 has tested the world, especially the United States, in so many ways: a pervasive pandemic of which we are now likely in the worst days; civil unrest as injustice and inequity came to the forefront of so many Americans' minds; and a near unraveling of the fabric of American democracy. 


Perhaps now more than ever we have come to appreciate the solace of Piney Green, making "stay at home" not so onerous. The sunroom, which is perhaps my favorite room, has been my teleworking home office for most of the year. The living room has been a place for countless happy hours for two (or three if you count Luc). And now that we are finally getting some cool nights, fire pit time has returned.


We had no major improvements this year, but we did manage to get the wrought iron fence repainted, as well as window glazing repaired and painted. The fence is now a subtle aubergine that harkens back to the brown (instead of black) color hinted at in old photos of it. 

Piney Green is also "September" in the 2021 Historic Preservation Board Calendar - the third time it has been featured. 

Calendar photo by Stephanie Conforti

Per the writeup in the calendar:

"The Home Unique" was an open-house advertisement for this home published in 1935 by The Orlando Sentinel. This Frame Vernacular residence was built by contractor Sam Stoltz and laborer J. C. Hurley for $4,500. Hurley and Stoltz had planned a "modernistic" home building program to bring moderately priced homes to Orlando costing $5,000 to $6,500. In 1934, they announced that these homes would have "an eye in originality in architectural design” and that ground had broken for this home. Alvin Thomas, of Thomas Lumber, purchased the house in 1934 but sold it a year later to Lloyd C. and Mildred Nicholson. Mildred nicknamed the home Piney Green. Built of cedar siding with custom multi-colored stain, the entry is hidden on the east façade with a gabled portico supported by rustic wood brackets. The most prominent feature is a stone and stucco chimney with a plaster flamingo design the front façade, which has recently been restored, as has the flying flamingo capping the chimney. Piney Green's architecture is considered Frame Vernacular, a term that refers to a lack of specific style but is influenced by locally available materials and popular stylistic trends. Therefore this home is also considered Florida Vernacular. Some Frame Vernacular homes feature simple Bungalow, Craftsman, or various revival styling.

From this writeup we learned that apparently Piney Green has had four owners - or five if you count the original builders - not just three. We believe the siding is cypress, not cedar, especially considering use of local materials, but other than that the writeup helps us fill in a few more gaps in the history of Piney Green.

As 2020 finally comes to a close, we hope that 2021 will bring brighter days where life gets back to "normal" but also where we carry forward the many lessons 2020 has taught us. If you are reading this, you made it through, and we hope 2021 has wonders in store for you. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from Piney Green!




Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Merry Christmas from Piney Green!


Our biggest visible "improvements" this year mainly consisted of some new furniture purchases, new art pieces, and some other accessories. 

We finally upgraded the bedding for our guest bedroom

Behind the scenes, however, perhaps this was the year of "green" for Piney Green. I traded in my gas car for an electric vehicle. So now technically we have three  EV's (counting my e-bike!)


We had a new electrical line run to the garage to support a new Level 2 charger for our cars. (The electrical panel we installed will also support a future potential garage apartment or carriage house, although we have no definitive plans for that yet.) We had looked into solar options a few years ago but ruled out actually installing solar panels (for now anyway). Instead, for over a year now, Piney Green has been fully solar powered through OUC's Community Solar Program. We pay a slightly higher rate for our electricity in order to fully offset our consumption with solar production.


We also very much enjoyed our fire pit early in the year, especially while the azaleas were in bloom. And now that the weather is right once again, we're looking forward to more fire pit time in the coming weeks.


But mostly this has been a fairly low key year for us, enjoying our home with our beloved Luc, who appears so innocent in the picture below, but if you look carefully you can see how he's ravaged the mail slot over the past few years. He is obsessed with the pecky cypress "magic door". So much so that we now take mail delivery at a different door (and he still barks at the mailman there too!)


As we look forward to 2020, we hope you have a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year!


Saturday, December 15, 2018

Happy Holidays from Piney Green!


Today marks seven years since closing on Piney Green. Our biggest improvement this past year is largely invisible: we had all of the old galvanized plumbing replaced in the house. This was mainly for insurance purposes, not because there was really much wrong with the old plumbing. We also replaced the tub filler fixture in the flamingo bathroom. The new one adds a hand shower while still looking true to the historic nature of the home. We don't use that tub often, in part to make sure the flamingo fresco remains in good condition, but this does add some modern convenience. We also had most of the interior trim, doors, and cabinets repainted. We went with oil paint, which is what was previously used. Apparently the trim had only been painted perhaps twice in 80 years, so I'm hoping this year's job will last for decades as well.


Due to a shift in timing, we actually hosted two "The Artists on Piney Green" events in 2018. The first was held on February 24th and featured ten artists:


Below are a few photos from this event:





The second of the year (and the fifth annual) "The Artists on Piney Green" was held on December 1st.


Purposefully more intimate, it featured seven artists:


Below are a few photos from this event:









Many thanks to all of the artists who helped make these great events. Once again I gave tours of the house during these events. During the December event I took a few photos, which serve as a nice "snapshot in time" for Piney Green in 2018:





Much more to come in 2019, but for now Happy Holidays from Piney Green!