"Buyers wanting to upgrade to a new home but who are concerned about the subsequent tax increase should consider renovating existing homes. These buyers can reduce their environmental footprint and gain substantial long-term tax savings. Sarasota is ripe with renovation opportunities.”

-Grant Castilow

A Getaway That's Close to Home

Sarasota Herald Tribune | December 5, 2010

When building a house, it's important to make it efficient. But it's important to make it fun, too.

That's what Steve Ellis did in building a weekend getaway house on Jewfish Key for his family. It's all about casual living, from the sand-in-your-shoes entry point to the outdoor furniture in the living room.

"It's a wash-and-wear house," said Ellis, who simply pressure-washes the couch cushions when they get dirty.

"If guests come in and have wet bathing suits, we don't care," he said. "And dogs sleeping on the couches -- we don't have to worry about it. It is a great place for dogs and kids. It is not imposing. We wanted to make it very welcoming for everybody."

Visitors may hardly notice that the house, which was completed in July after six months of construction, has enough green features to earn it Platinum certification from the Florida Green Building Coalition.

And they may find it harder still to remember what the green features are when the leave. Maybe that's because the boat ride from Longboat Key, or the extremely private beach, or the vistas through swaying coconut palms, tend to blur the memory.

Shoreline Shangri-la

On two acres on Jewfish Key that few would deny is something of a paradise, Ellis, his wife, Catherine, and their 7-year-old daughter, Saylor, enjoy entertaining guests in their 1,800-square-foot cottage on stilts. So efficient is the design, with four bedroom suites and twin decks that greatly increase the living area, that the house has slept 14 at a time. The two guest suites on the top floor have small sleeping rooms for children.
All 14 arrived by boat. Same with the building materials, machines and manpower. They were barged over from a public boat ramp in the Longbeach neighborhood at the north end of Longboat Key. There is no bridge to Jewfish Key.

The Ellis family's main home is on the water, too, on Siesta Key. So why not a vacation home in the mountains, rather than on the Florida waterfront? Steve Ellis says it's simple: The mountains are too far away. Because of Jewfish Key's remoteness, a weekend there seems a lot farther away than a 40-minute car ride and a five-minute hop in a boat.

"Some people go to the Carolinas or out West somewhere," he said. "The difference here is I can throw three or four families on my boat with kids and groceries and dogs, and spend a really enjoyable weekend," without all the travel.

In this house, there's not a bad view to be found.

"There is no hierarchy if you are coming to stay," said Ellis. "I was thinking about it in terms of, if I am visiting a friend, I don't want to get stuck in the lousy room. So the guest rooms have the best view and a lot of capacity for people and their kids."

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