Huge tree growing in kitchen didn’t stump Gulfport buyers

GULFPORT, Fla. – “Keep Gulfport Weird” is practically a municipality motto, recovered connected bumper stickers each over, truthful it’s fitting that a location listing determination landed connected the “Zillow Gone Wild” Facebook page.

Look past the marble countertops and waterfront view, and determination is simply a elephantine histrion increasing successful the room with its apical sprouting done the roof. Now that histrion has caller owners, Greg and Linda Simek, who bought the 2,874 square-foot waterfront location for $899,000.

Questions similar “How did this happen?” and “What are you going to bash with that happening successful your kitchen?” tin yet beryllium answered.

The household of Michelle Pillucere Clark, 53, a hairsbreadth stylist successful downtown St. Petersburg, lived successful the location from 1963 until 1983. She was not blessed with snotty comments online astir a location her begetter thought of arsenic a portion of art.

She remembered erstwhile her precocious parents, Joseph and Lynn Pillucere, came up with the thought to physique an summation by moving astir the histrion connected 31st Avenue South. Her begetter sought retired peculiar designers and engineers to adhd an enclosed structure and kitchen, which was finished successful the aboriginal ’70s. He kept a handyman connected telephone to chopped a wider opening successful the extortion erstwhile the histrion canopy dispersed and added much sealant implicit the years to support the rainfall out.

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“It was beautiful,” Clark said. “The full backmost of the location was floor-to-ceiling windows, bringing the extracurricular in.”

After the Tampa Bay Times featured the location successful a July 1 story, the listing went viral, appearing successful Newsweek and connected existent property and quality websites astir the world.

New proprietor Greg Simek, 38, owns Body Nutrition, which makes and sells its ain marque and backstage statement nutritional supplements. He realizes astir radical would hesitate to instrumentality connected a location with specified an antithetic feature. “I’m a small spot of a contrarian by nature,” the erstwhile Marine said.

“If you privation to enactment the enactment successful and instrumentality the risk, immoderate large accidental whitethorn arise,” Simek said. “Instead you person each the haters retired determination fomenting.”

Long-term plans telephone for removing the celebrated room tree, lifting the location a fewer feet to conscionable modern flood standards and utilizing the archetypal floor, which contains the histrion and kitchen, arsenic a garage.

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The histrion is not peculiarly noticeable upon entering the house, but it juts retired wrong presumption of the room introduction to the right. There’s a measurement down into the room and the elephantine trunk steals immoderate attraction from the shiny stainless alloy appliances and cherry-stained cabinets. It has a knobby bark, with scattered rocks crossed the base, and immoderate days, a enactment of ants marque a way from the trunk to the adjacent canine dish.

The Simeks person moved successful and are surviving with the histrion arsenic they purpose to merchantability their St. Petersburg location to wage for the Gulfport location overhaul. They brought successful an arborist who told them she was disquieted “the histrion couldn’t respirate properly” being encased successful a house, and she besides saw signs of rot, Greg Simek said.

“I cognize radical volition beryllium upset to perceive we are removing the tree,” helium said, “but you person to recognize the operation is sidesplitting the histrion and we are looking astatine it from a information perspective.”

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The mates had been looking astatine Gulfport for awhile, liking the town’s artsy quality and walkable sensibility.

Linda Simek spotted the listing aft they mislaid a bid for a adjacent house. She showed her husband, noting the beauteous presumption of Boca Ciega Bay, past added, “But look astatine the tree.”

Not wanting to suffer retired connected waterfront spot successful a blistery existent property market, they rapidly enactment successful the archetypal bid for the house. Their existent property cause Natalya Halprin said security proved tricky with galore carriers not adjacent considering coverage. HH Insurance yet recovered a argumentation for them contingent connected the histrion being removed.

They volition beryllium paying $6,500 for a argumentation that would person been $1,500 to $2,000 without specified a funny room feature. Greg Simek said he’s been assured the measure volition travel down erstwhile the histrion does.

On their archetypal nighttime successful the caller house, Linda Simek said she had a hard clip sleeping. Her caller rescue cats from Friends of Strays seemed entranced by the histrion and played with the heap of rocks astatine the base. There’s a tiny knot spread successful the room tree, and she disquieted the tiny felines mightiness find their mode successful determination and get stuck.

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She’s inactive worried. But connected the agleam side, she said, the cats person a earthy scratch post.

The histrion adds issues to regular household living. Linda Simek likes to navigator and finds the histrion an obstacle successful what is already a sprawling kitchen. She has to scope astir it to get to the silverware and inactive finds it unusual to springiness directions.

“I’ll accidental to Greg, drawback maine the plates, they are successful the furniture down the tree,” she said.

“It’s bizarre,” Greg Simek says. “This is the item of the house, a elephantine unrecorded oak histrion successful the mediate of the kitchen. It makes maine recognize radical marque immoderate weird choices.”

On the thrust to schoolhouse aft their archetypal greeting successful the caller house, their lad Mark, 6, asked his parent the question everyone is asking: “Why bash we person a histrion successful our house?”

He told his classmates astir it astatine schoolhouse that day. He said nary 1 believed him.

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Times unit writer Emily Mahoney contributed to this story.

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