Building a house in Marineland from far away

Building on this coast

A new house in Marineland is built on a narrow barrier island between the Atlantic and the Matanzas River, among preserved land, in a place where wind, salt and storms set the terms. Oceanfront construction follows the state's coastal rules, and every house follows the building codes written for hurricane country.

That makes the project longer and more involved than building inland, and an owner far away has more to follow. A builder handles the work and sends updates. Many owners also want a view of their own.

The setting these houses are built in is described in the Beverly Beach and Marineland guide.

Pictures of your own

Builders send photos, and good ones send many. But they choose the angles, the dates and the moments, and an owner far away may still want to see the site on days of their own choosing, from the same spots each time.

Pictures from the public road, taken every few weeks, give that view of the outside of the build as it rises. A flight over the lot, launched from the road and kept over the owner's land, shows the whole site from above.

Neither goes onto the job site or into the structure, and neither grades the work; questions about the build belong with the builder and any professional the owner hires. Every road frame is listed in the street photo set guide.

Clearing and the foundation

The first visible stages of a Marineland build are the clearing of the lot and the foundation. On the oceanfront, houses are often raised on pilings driven deep into the sand; on the river side, on raised slabs or stem walls, depending on the ground and the flood rules.

From the road, pictures show the cleared ground, the equipment, the first pilings or forms. From the air, the whole footprint of the house shows in place on the lot, between the road and the dune or the river.

That early aerial view is one many owners keep, since it shows the house's position on the lot before walls hide it. How an aerial visit is made is explained on FlaglerPropertyWatch.com.

Framing and the roof

Once the frame goes up, a house changes quickly. Walls and floors appear, then the roof structure, then the roofing itself. Every week or two, the house from the road looks noticeably different.

Road pictures every two or three weeks follow that change in order, so an owner far away can see the house take shape and talk with the builder about the schedule. A flight once the roof is on shows its whole surface from above, which is otherwise hard to see until the scaffolding comes down.

Laying one round beside the next is explained in reading the photos you receive.

A storm during the build

A coastal build in Marineland may run through a hurricane season, and a site in progress has more to lose than a finished house: stacked materials, an open frame, a dumpster, temporary fences. Builders make a site ready when a storm is forecast; that is their job and their responsibility.

For an owner far away, pictures in the calm days before a storm show the site as the storm will meet it, and pictures once A1A reopens show what changed. A flight after the wind drops shows the whole site from above.

The weeks around a storm are set out in hurricane season preparation.

The site as the road sees it

A build on A1A is visible to everyone who drives the coast. Trucks park along the shoulder, deliveries stack up, a dumpster fills, and on a windy day debris can travel. Marineland has few neighbors, but the road is busy, and the town and the county have rules about construction sites.

Road pictures show the front of the site as passers by see it: tidy or cluttered, with materials stacked neatly or scattered toward the road. When something looks out of hand, the owner can raise it with the builder in specific terms.

How dated pictures help if a letter arrives about the site is laid out in letters and notices from afar.

The preserved land around the site

Many Marineland lots border preserved land, and a build must leave it as it was: no materials stored on it, no clearing across the line, no debris blown into it. Builders working here know this, and the rules that bind them are theirs to follow.

From the air, the boundary between a cleared building site and the preserve beside it is plain to see, and an owner far away can see that the work has stayed on the lot. Pictures never judge where a line falls; that is for a surveyor.

A Flagler County property's neighbors, of every kind, are part of the picture in managing a home from out of state.

Landscaping at the end

The last stage of a Marineland build is the landscaping: dune plants restored on the ocean side, native shrubs and palms around the house, perhaps a small lawn, and, on the river side, plants that can take an occasional flood of salt water.

New plants need water to take hold, and on sand in a dry spring they can struggle quickly. Road pictures every week or two after planting, and a walk around the lot once a month, show how the new yard is settling in.

How quickly a Flagler County yard changes in the warm months is described in a summer away.

The finished house

When the house is finished, a full round of pictures from the road, the lot and the air records it complete. Held against the first aerial view of the cleared lot, it shows the whole project in two images, a pair many owners keep.

From that day, the new house needs what any Marineland house needs while its owner is away: road pictures every month or two, a walk around the lot a few times a year, a flight once or twice a year, and a pair around each storm.

The rhythm many owners settle into is described in snowbird season.

The drive, the utilities and the last weeks

Near the end of a build, the site changes in smaller ways: the drive is poured or paved, utility connections are finished at the road, the trash enclosure and mailbox go in, the temporary fence comes down. These are the things a new owner notices first on arrival.

Road pictures in those last weeks show the front of the finished house as it will greet the owner, and help the owner see that the site has been cleared of leftover materials and debris. What makes the outside of a property look tended is collected in keeping a property presentable.

The week before moving in

A new Marineland house may stand finished for weeks before its owner arrives. In that time, sand drifts onto the new deck, the young plants need water, and the first windy spell may leave fronds on the new roof.

A round of pictures from the road and the lot a week before moving in shows the house just as the owner will find it, so a cleaner or a yard crew can be sent first. After the first storm under the new owner, pictures once A1A reopens show how the new house came through; how to read them is in after the storm.

A rhythm for a coastal build

For an owner following a Marineland build from far away, the pictures usually run like this. A flight over the lot when clearing begins. Road pictures every two or three weeks through the build, set to repeat. A flight when the roof is on. A pair around any storm. And a full round, with a flight, when the house is finished.

Every round stays with the owner, so the build can be followed from the first piling to the last plant. To start, visit FlaglerPropertyWatch.com.

What the pictures are for

Pictures and video of a build are a record for the owner of what could be seen from the road and the air on each date. They never assess the work, never stand in for the professionals who do, and never show the people working on the site as subjects.

What they do is close the distance between an owner far away and a house going up on one of Florida's quietest coasts, so that the owner can follow every stage of it without the cost and time of flying down for each one. Common questions about visits are answered in the main site's questions and answers.