Songbird Trail

Cleared property behind double wide mobile home

St. Francis statue found on property. St. Francis is the Saint of Animals

November, 2000. These are pictures of my house being built at the factory. It was very hard to take pictures since the house was in pieces with plastic covering up many of the areas. I was unable to take pictures of the bedrooms and baths, but I was able to get several shots of the kitchen, living room and outside the house.

This is the front porch. They've laid a piece of vinyl down to protect the porch decking

This is the back of the house. They painted some of it to make sure this was the color I selected. It is sitting on a large flatbed trailer right now, making it look almost like a manufactured (mobile) home.

This is the front of the house. There will be a garage attached where the large gable is once it is placed on my site.

This is the large picture window that I paid $1100 extra for. In the background you can see the Disney World cabins that they are building to be placed at Ft. Wilderness.

Standing in the living room looking towards the dining room

This pictures shows the space above the cabinets. I will put baskets and silk plants up there

Here is part of the counter top in the kitchen. They are not finished with it yet

This is the fridge that comes with the home. You can see the plastic covering the side of the open wall.

Here is the other half of the kitchen. You can see the stove and plastic covering the side of the wall.

December, 2000. The land clearing has finally begun. On the red tractor is my contractor, Mike, with his son Justin. On the yellow tractor is a man named Todd who was hired to regrade the land after the first subcontractor left before the job was completely done. I was promised that my house would be done by Thanksgiving. The contractor is telling me now that I will be in the home by Christmas!

Joanne's llama -- country folks have some strange pets!

January 10, 2001. Finally work has begun again. I had to make several calls to the Department of Consumer Affairs, Liberty Homes and an attorney in order to get things moving again! Things aren't looking too good these days with Harvey Homes.....

Stuffy and LaLa. They need a chicken coop built for them.

Stuffy and LaLa. Right now they are living in my spare bedroom!

Rick, Dunaway Septic. Nice man, does good work

Kenny, concrete guy hired by Harvey Homes

Seminole County Inspector. He finally passed the footers after two failures.

Dump truck. 3 loads brought in to cover the drainfield.

February 3, 2001. The work has stopped again. Jeff Harvey will not return my calls, nor my attorney's calls. The last time we saw anyone from Harvey Homes was on January 25, when they abandoned the house at the gravel pit across the street.

My house abandoned at the gravel pit across the street

March 16, 2001. Harvey Homes has never returned. My lawyer fired him on March 6 and made arrangements with the bank for me to finish the work myself. I'm waiting for checks from the bank before doing anything more. I did, however, pay to have the driveway widened and have the house delivered to the site. Here are the pics!

Backing down the driveway after I paid to have it widened

March 28, 2001. I've received the first three checks from the bank. The foundation was treated for termites on March 26. Today is the day the house will be set!

Robbie Puckett. His company was recommended by Liberty Homes to set the house.

Okay. Here comes the first part. It's bottom heavy and not moving well.

Lifting up. This half's weight is more evenly distributed

Coming up higher to prepare for the spin

April, 2001. Siding has been installed and plumbing hooked up. I'm working with the Seminole County Building Department to get all the inspections. I've been forced to do all the painting and caulking myself, since I could not afford to pay someone to do this.

Borrowed bobcat to finish grading the property

May, 2001. The house is almost finished, and construction on the garage is continuing. I chose to have the entire house tiled. I cannot get the CO until the flooring is finished and the building department passes my final building inspection. I also need to have my well water tested.

Much of the sod has been laid. The slab for the garage has been poured.

February, 2002. The house has been finished since June, 2001. Harvey put a fradulent lien on the property after he discovered that I finished the house myself. We've been battling in court for almost a year now. We are scheduled to go to trial in March, 2002. In addition to ripping me off, he's apparently been very busy doing similar things to other folks up in Citrus County. He's currently being investigated by the Citrus County Sheriff's Department, the State Attorney and the Attorney General for numerous criminal and civil charges, including forgery. Let's hope he goes to jail!

Here are some pictures. I'm trying to decide if this new light fixture is appropriate for the house. The electrical is dangling, since it is not permanently installed yet. The home exterior is almost finished. Just a few things remain, including staining the front porch and finishing the back deck.

The new dining light fixture. Not fully installed yet

The chicken house. Chickens are now 4 months old.

The new St. Francis statue. Eventually I'll put a flower bed around him

Painted railings on porch white. Trying to decide what color to do the actual deck

These pictures were taken in March and April, 2002. The house is pretty much complete. I still need to do some touch up painting and continue working on my flower beds. The home and property were successfully refinanced.