"It is in the wild places, where the edge of the earth meets the corners of the sky, the human spirit is fed." Art Wolf


Friday, February 27, 2015

The Houses of McIntosh

The dogs and I have left the campground in McIntosh, FL, and are currently enjoying a Get Together with a group of women from the WomenRV forum.   I will post pictures of the GTG beautiful campground and the campfires and adventures next but first I wanted to share the houses from the tranquil streets of McIntosh.  Since the first week of January the dogs and I have been intermittently spending our days in McIntosh between days spent with Audrey at her dog show sites and the 5 glorious days at Silver Springs State Park.  The dogs have been taking me out walking daily. I think I have mentioned that once or twice or a thousand times.

McIntosh is a quiet village with historic houses, huge moss covered live oaks and simple cottages and plain houses all mixed together.   The street names are numbers going one way all the way up to Ninth Street up on the main highway and alphabet letter running perpendicular to the main highway.  The campground in McIntosh is at the end of "F" street. The Post Office is over on "G" street.  The early town fathers sure made it easy to find your way around town.

Leaving the area where the RV rigs park you get a glimpse of some housing options here in town.  Many of the trailers have been around for a while and are outside the historic district.



Some of the other houses just don't have the "it" factor.  


Others could hold potential with some handyman special efforts.  
I believe this one is a newer build but had to follow some of the guidelines for building newer houses within the historic district.  You may notice that some of the houses got built before city fathers tightened up the regulations.


This id where the tree faeries live.  Can you see them?



It was a week before I realized that there really was a house back there.  Remember I am usually walking three dogs and watching for action that may require use of one of those plastic baggies all responsible dog walkers carry......


By the clutter on the porch this house is currently being worked on inside. I believe this may be referred to as the Pepto house. 


This is one of my favorite houses but I think it might require three generations to fill all the add-ons and rooms.  Most of the yard is in fern, greatly cutting down on the grass cutting.


Some houses just seem to bore the imagination and placing a butterfly in the front yard is just not enough.


If you look carefully you can see the windows on the back of the house.  Open floor plan would be my guess. What you can't see are the cute donkey and the cattle grassing beyond the back fence in the large pasture that runs behind this entire street.


Okay, this looks like FL.


If you want a Spanish style, this one is available for about $450,000.  It includes a pool, just so you know and the walled patio area with a large fountain. 


Here is one of the available lots waiting for you to build.



Several of the houses have pools or had pools. In FL the chore of maintaining a pool that is not screened seems overwhelming. Well maintaining any pool seems like a lot of work to me.


Cracker style.


My favorite cottage only I worry about how long they are going to let that moss hang out on the roof.  No stairs for old farts and about the right size.


The windows along the side let in lots of light but I think I will need to hire window cleaning washing out along with the roof cleaning.


 Decorative dormers but not enough, I still like the green cottage better.


See what you can do with cinder block?  I know some one in Ohio that had cinder block building. It can provide good insulation from heat and cool. I think their blocks had been filled with sand.  Still would rather have the green cottage.




Dogwoods have bloomed here in FL.


Don't think the small churches in McIntosh are ready to sell their buildings for residential housing. At least not yet.


A friend of Liz's, that come down from Michigan, live here.  When you listen to Liz tell stories of who lives where you begin to feel guilty knowing that you will probably never be able to leave your children that vacation house on the beach.....or in some quiet town in FL.....or in Aspen..... 


And the third little piggy built his house from bricks.  Or in this case stones.


Another cracker style house in need of a little TLC.


It comes with large and plentiful porches and plenty of room underneath for the hound dogs to hang out to escape for the heat.


Small and well kept.



Not so well kept.  Water heater and washer are waiting to come or go. It is difficult to tell which.


 This is what the dogs and I called the house of the white cat.  Stuart knew where to look for most of the cats in town and there are many cats living in McIntosh.  The  house is nothing special but the yard was once a beautiful garden complete with walking trails and benches.   Sadly the gardener has been missing for awhile.





HAve you contacted your real estate person yet?







This is the community center but I could use the floor plan somewhere else. 


Red Buds are blooming now, too.



Cinder block in pink.


This is another newer house that had to follow some guidelines.  I call ed this one the "Walton's" homestead. I thought I could hear them called back and forth to each other when I walked past.  It also helps if you know that one of the few channels that would came through well at the campground carried the old Walton's TV show.


This is the back porch of the Community Building. It comes complete with ceiling fans. We will have to decide later when we build..... if we want  to enclose it or not. 


At one time McIntosh had busy Fish Camps and was probably a vacation destination and this B&B was busy. Not so busy now.




Winner of the best sitting porch.   I can taste the sweet tea.





Winner of best gazebo and water feature .




Corner jungle lot available. I didn't have enough nerve to even look up the prices.


Winner of best garden.  The critters are not going to eat his lettuce.  He even has water right there.


Winner of house most likely to be seen in New England. I can see the snow sliding right off those roof slopes.


Looking down the block back at the yellow, needs large family, house.



About the right size for easy up keep.



Where ever you decide to live, be sure to drop by the Post Office to pick up your mail. No house to house delivery here but Liz's Thistle dog reports that one of the mail ladies has dog treats ready for her friends when they stop by with their hoomans to pick up mail.



The old pink hotel where Nan stayed as a teenager when she worked the citrus packing house back in the early days. 


Local Child Care provider.  When the dogs and I were walking early in the morning or in the evening, it was a reminder of days past as we watched babies and toddlers being dropped off or picked up.  I could talk about sweet memories, and there were many, but I also remember fuzzy, working parent, brain syndrome and moving through days thankful for daily survival.   

I am still blessed with a sometime fuzzy brain but with many more unfuzzy days that move beyond survival.  I say little prayers for the parents I see that they make it through the fuzzy days, celebrate all the moments that they can and they and their children make it through whole......