Robert DiLella Jr.. I appreciate being here. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Thank you. I enjoyed being here too.
Christian Busk. It's funny that Naples was so much like the East Coast in certain areas. It wasn't Fort Lauderdale. It was in Miami. The northern parts, again, didn't get the traffic until they opened up I-95. But anyway, so I kind of grew up in a rural area.
Robert DiLella Jr.. North Palm Beach, it was.
Christian Busk. Yeah, North Palm Beach after PGA Boulevard. Now everybody's done for that. And we lived right off the intercostals. That was just idyllic and great to grow up that way. But my dad and my mother's parents, they were born and raised. We were fifth generation Floridians. Wow, really? Got a big kick out of-- they lived in Plant City, which is right-- I mean There was where the two railroads crossed. And so all the winter produce, they grew it. And they stayed packed. And they went. So it was like Just everything was really from the Lady Tenetters until the 1940s. And it still is. But anyways, Plant City has grown, but not the history. Is that a Tampa area or Plant City?
Christian Busk. It is. It's between Tampa and Lakeland. Yeah. It was kind of forgotten in time, I think.
Robert DiLella Jr.. But anyways-- Is that where they have the Strawberry Festival? It is, yeah.
Christian Busk. So anyways, we used to go there every holiday we get. And so you get to see a little bit of the history, because you wouldn't find it-- you would find it in West Palm if you went in the older areas of West Palm Beach. Palm Beach really took off in the 20s. And so they had a lot of architecture from the 20s, a lot of mission style things. And of course, we'd skip school and go see the houses in Palm Beach. And that was kind of fun. But the Plant City area had a lot of Historic properties, all different style, a lot of old Florida vernacular, in some mission style Spanish architecture, which was popular at that time.
Christian Busk. But anyways, I didn't realize I was getting Familiar with it. So When we started doing work here, I started working here in Naples. I was hired before I graduated out of school.
Robert DiLella Jr.. You're a gator, right? I'm a gator.
Christian Busk. But so keeping Naples-- and Naples was so backward. It was just there was nothing going on. Of course, I have to tell you a little bit about landscape architects. So I graduated with two degrees of landscape architecture and horticulture. My love was really golf courses where I worked all through high school. But I wanted to really design golf courses. I thought it was so interesting. It's like nature of personas, right? But anyways, got to Naples. And people were still-- believe it or not-- they were still going to the Anthony Pool catalog and picking one through 20, which pool did I want-- the kidney shape, the rectangle, the rectangle, a little piece on the side.
Christian Busk. So it didn't really work for these lots. They were all different sizes. And the houses were different. You had the model homes that were Being built back then. So as soon as I get to Naples, I just started designing pools. I said, let's don't look at those catalogs. That's not really work for your house. That's kind of what I got To work on. I got to do the Donnie, his first house on the beach. That was exactly what I was doing at Donnie. And back then, he did have 13 children. Then he had 65 grandchildren. Now it's a lot. But anyways, that was kind of fun. I got to tell you a little bit about that. But anyways, that's part of the history.
Christian Busk. But I got to work with the Mississippi group. And that's the residence. That's the Orange Gates. He already won this market. And Then I got to work with Donnie on his house in 1987. We finished his house on the point.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That house was there that long. I didn't realize that. I didn't feel like he had that long.
Christian Busk. So a lot of history there.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I love seeing that-- we have some old newspaper clippings of lots for sale in Port Royal for $60,000 in 1977. He kills me when I see that.
Christian Busk. That's hard to believe. But I didn't realize how much that you really, after working with all this new architecture and all, through the years of working in Naples-- you saw old Naples. You saw it. Well, like slipping away.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, because old Naples, old Naples, the real Naples, the Phantom.
Christian Busk. Yeah, so I had the opportunity to I got this opportunity to save a house in Fort Myers. Well, actually, Bonita. And it was an old Jim Walters. I had some friends that were living in it. It was just a two-bedroom, one bath. And a lady that lived there said, hey, you can save this. Just move it on a lot. And I said, I've got a lot. I think I can do that. So I picked it up. I paid the guy like $5,000 for it. Well, I was up off the ground to be getting it. So you just had to lower it back down on the low point. And so I moved that. And I did that for $75,000. It was kind of fun.
Christian Busk. I actually did an apartment up down below because they had changed the zoning of my lot from duplex to single-family. And I still wanted to do a duplex. So I moved the house two bedroom, one bath. So the Bonita area? It was-- yeah, it was like I actually went across on the beach. And so I moved it not even a mile away.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That was before Bonita was its own-- Yeah. Before it was its own city. It was a city.
Christian Busk. So that was my first endeavor. It was really a great buy. $75,000. And I sold to a friend pretty much for the same amount because I just wanted to save the house. It was like an old Jim Walters that they did during the war. And that was all happening in Fort Marshall.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That was-- you hadn't done anything like that before. No, no. You just saw this place. And I want to preserve it. And this is how I can do that. Because that's really thinking outside of the box.
Christian Busk. Yeah. That was kind of fun. Well, the lady I was working with, she said, well, when I first bought the whole-- she got me to buy these two duplex lots. And I said, I don't know what I'm going to do with them. She said, well, you know what I tell you? What I did with them is I bought one of those Jim Walters homes. It's like the three bedroom, two bath. And he said, oh, you just put a wall down the middle. You got a one bedroom, one bathroom. And so I just had a kitchen to it. And the other one already has a kitchen. So then you end up with a duplex and you want to pay for one. So I did that. And I lived in part of it.
Christian Busk. I was the only one to catch up from running an apartment. So I did that. And then after that, I had the other lot. And that's when they had changed the zoning. And so I said Well, I want to finish this. So that's when I did that. But then, like a year or two later-- funny part-- there was an article that came out in the Bonita banner. It said, you can buy this house for $1. And it was like a gamble-style house. It was in a peach color, which kind of strange color. But it looked so unusual. It looked so much like what I'd seen back in Plant City where my grandparents were from. I said, gosh, that's insane. I just thought, I could do that. That sounds easy.
Christian Busk. So I bought it for $1. And I had to buy a lot for it. And I Decided to buy this entire corner, which was four lots. And I did that. And I said, OK. Bought that on time. And then I said, that's not really great for this house. It's kind of a nice house. So I bought the house. I bought the lot across the street from it, which was three lots there. And I could feel it a lot. But it looked right down this creek. I was like, that's really perfect. So I moved it on there. That one cost I have a million to renovate. It was all varnish beadboard. And the people that had done the work before, they'd sprayed it and sprayed it. And then all the shellac dripped.
Christian Busk. And so there was bubbles down there. And this is all Chevron beadboard and 100 years old. So it was a 1913 house. Wow. Yeah, it was originally from-- the original owner was-- they called him Three Carol Williams because he wasn't such a good shot with a double barrel shotgun. So he had the one on top. Yeah, so They worked pretty good. Anyways, so then-- we call it a Williams Packard because the Packard people lived there after that. But anyways, lifted it, moved it, put it back down. And actually, the pieces of the house didn't really go well. They had like a carport that looked very strange. So I moved the carport around to the one side. And I made it a music room.
Christian Busk. And the music room made the architecture look right. I got it all balanced. And then, of course, I got to design the landscape. And then I got to do all the interiors. And then they wanted to do stories on it because it was pretty unusual. No one was saving houses with any of that. There weren't many to save, like Nate. So anyways, got to do that. Got that one finished. And the funny part about those things, you say, are there really ghosts around here? Well, I decided the second floor had a six foot ceiling. So you go up there and like, that's too low. So I knocked the ceiling out. And I raised the collar ties. And so I made it pretty nice up there.
Christian Busk. And so everything was new upstairs. I took the wood siding that was around the original fireplace upstairs, a little tiny 18 inch wide fireplace. Got all that done. And then I just kind of-- so we had taken everything out upstairs and rebuilt it like with new light colored wood. And so we made the ceilings look higher. And It's funny. I finished-- I had these guys from Naples. They weren't busy at that time. They put the whole thing back together. Some of the ceilings, we made a complete Pyramid in the kitchen. And it took excellent carpentry to do that and have all the beadboard match up in the right spot. So we had everything done. And they sprayed the whole thing.
Christian Busk. I had hand sanded all those walls downstairs. And I had it re-sprayed with the shellac. Turned out beautiful. And about two weeks later There was shot, 100 year old shot, all over the floor upstairs. I don't know where it came from. But yeah, it's kind of like celebration. But anyways That one turned out really great. And then--
Robert DiLella Jr.. Are these online? Is there any where we could see these? Because I think-- Yeah, they are.
Christian Busk. Yeah. That's the Williams Packard. It's actually listed on the register for Bini and Springs. Yeah, I did that one. And then I got so excited about that one. And I lived there for a little bit.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Compared to what people would be able to see. To put these in. We could. I have an article. I have a video portion of this.
Christian Busk. I'll let you shoot the article. Great. It was an in magazine when they were publishing. And then the Nutting House became available. There was a sterile-like house around the corner. So I've kind of been looking for a storehouse to save because I knew they were just going to tear them down. So where they maintained-- this one was right on the bend of the river. And that story was it was the old Hypen Brothers out at Fort Myers. They supposedly moved the wayside in from the Royal Palm Hotel in Fort Myers to-- I guess that's Ragsdale at 041. It used to sit on the corner. And I don't say that too. But it was a two-story hotel.
Christian Busk. But they were supposed to have had that house there. It was on the bend in the river. So it was like a perfect spot for a trading post. So they were selling them for hers. They were trapping and fishing and hunting. So that was a popular spot. That was built in 1915. These are old structures because they have a saw mill over there just near Livingston Road and Dean Street. Oh, on the Imperial? And then-- OK. Yeah, the saw mill there. So anyways, that house-- I went by to see it. First time I went by to see it. That's also in the history of the native springs. They did a video of us in front of that. And they showed the house as it was.
Christian Busk. And then you can see how it is today. But anyways, I went in there for the first time. I was looking around. I knocked on the door. There's no answer. So I thought I'd just try the knocks. It didn't look like anybody was there. There's no driveway or anything. And I opened up. And all the furniture was in place. Everything was like it was. And there was a coffin on the table, like a child's coffin. OK, it's about four feet long. I don't know who didn't make it here. But it was very eerie. So I just kind of got out of there. The next time I went by there was about nine months later. And it had been boarded up. Do not enter. This has been condemned.
Christian Busk. So I went around the back. And I looked up under there. I said, this is strange. I said, the whole floor is missing in this lower part of the house, this back of the house. I hoisted myself up in there. I said, I'm going to see what this is all about. Well It appears that somebody-- actually, I called the owner of the house. I said, hey, what are you doing with that house over there? Well, they won't let me fix it for more than 50% of the FEMA rules. And that was because I was going to Make it something totally different. But I'm just going to demolish it now. So I said Well, I could save it if you want.
Christian Busk. I said, oh, what you really-- I said, yeah, you could pay me the cost of the dumpster. I said So she did. She paid me $2,500. And I decided to move the house. Well, what it turned out to be was she said, hey, I didn't tell you that since the time you were looking at it before and this time, she said, I had some friends working on a house in Ovita or something. And they wanted some pieces of the house. And she says, I just don't think they could take anything they wanted. They took all the floor. They took all the windows, all the moldings, all the baseboard. There was nothing left but the shower. And then when she said that it was in one of the windows.
Christian Busk. That was all that was there. And I said, oh my gosh. Well, they took off the newer floor. There was actually the old floor underneath it, which was neat. But they had been patched together many times. That was a challenge. It had a lot of determine damage. So I moved it in the way it was and had the front porch to it. I had a bedroom to it. I made it a three bedroom, two bath. It was just a two bedroom, one bath. And it was amazing. I knocked out of the ceiling and exposed the wonderful rafters. And I proceeded to do everything you do in a modern home. And it was beautiful. I lived there for a while. And that was fun.
Christian Busk. Then the one that came available for-- so we have a great clay artist in Bonita, Dave Kellum. And I had known him for different functions. Anyways, he was living in this old house. It was on where Livingston Road was going through. He goes Christian, you got to come over here. He says, they're going to take my house. They're just going to haul it to the dumpster and to the landfill. You can save it, can't you? I said, well, Dave, I think-- yeah, I can save it. I says, well, it's two stories. You're going to have to get it down the road. I said, OK, well, let me come by and see it. So I did. It had a lot of termite damage on the floor. But I went over there.
Christian Busk. I said, OK, well, they're going to give it to me, I guess. Well, that took-- unfortunately, I had to go by a lot. There was a quarter million dollars to put it on. Because I could only move it like three lots. Because it was two stories. There were power lines everywhere. So I moved it over. But he said Al Capone stayed there. I said, wow, that's pretty good. And he said, yeah, it was a hideout for him. I said,. He said He was there. And The story is that he liked one of the girls who was working at the wayside inn. The only place you could get food and stuff like that. He said, she really liked her so much, he took her back to Miami. I said, well, that's a good story.
Christian Busk. So I think there's-- Just give it a call. There's spirits there.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's cool. Oh, wow. I had spirits visit me there.
Christian Busk. That was the strangest thing I've ever had happen. But some of those have stories to them. But got to fix that one up. That was also in the end magazine. You can take pictures of the article. That was fun. So anyways, I did that. I moved to seven structures. But each one has its own challenges. Because you're trying to make it livable. Like anybody would buy just a house in Naples. Everybody wants all the luxuries. But Anyways, it's fun to put them together. Then of course, before I got to finish all those The Coruscant Park had a structure there that they didn't want anymore. That was Nola Boomer. Her parents owned the Walter for Storya in New York.
Christian Busk. And her grandmother Came to the Estella area to be one of the Coruscants, donate her time. Because she was a Single woman, which most of them were, and anyways. So she had several structures. She was part of that group until, I guess, the Cyrus T. wasn't doing what he said, like being a cellopent. So she picked up her marbles and took her house across the river and put it on a 140 acre lot. And She's donated 100 acres to the city of Vestero. But she has a life estate on the other 30 acres, which is this beautiful lodge type home, which I get to see. And she offered the little cottage that was called the Caretaker's Cottage. They're our CEO, the Caretaker Cottage.
Christian Busk. Anyways, so she said, "Well, the city of Vestero was supposed to come take this." And I gave them the $7,000 to move it and say, "They just kept the money." But she said, "Would you like to have it?" And I said, "Yeah, I really would." So we moved that one and, oh my gosh. What happened was 2007 hit, and the real estate market took a plunge, including things I was starting to do. But So I had that structure today on skids. I had the one from the Hal Capone House, which That was on skids over on Dean Street.
Christian Busk. And then This girl calls me from the Friends of the College Academy Museum, she said, "This is Molly Reed from the Friends of the College Academy Museum." She says, "Are you the guys saving houses in Bonita Springs?" I said "Well, yes, I am." And she goes "Well, I have one for you. If you have enough space for it." I said, "Okay, what are you talking about?" She goes, "It's the Hal Capone House, is it, oh, come on, is this a rank call?" And she goes, "No, no, I'm serious." She goes, "You know," I said, "They've been fighting over that for four years in the newspapers." She goes, "You know." She goes, "I know." I said, "But," she goes "The city of Naples didn't want it.
Christian Busk. Parks and Recreation didn't want it. Historic Site didn't want it." And there was one other entity, she goes, "If they don't want it two weeks, tell me you're gonna take it, because they want it off that property, they sold the property." So two weeks later, she goes, "The house is yours." You're right, yeah, that's how that happened, wow. Yeah, so That was a big deal for a long time. Oh my God, it's just a little story on that one. It's 200 feet long, okay. So they moved, they got it, he always says he's gonna move these things, he said That was Flint Doyle out of Tommy Doyle, wonderful character.
Christian Busk. He said, "You know We're gonna move it." And I'll let, I said, "Okay." So he calls me one day, he said "Hey, I got good news and bad news." I said "Okay, what's the good news?" Well, I moved the house, I said, "Well, I figured you would, five miles an hour, not too hard at two o'clock in the morning." So he goes "But I asked the bad news." I said, "Well, what happened?" He goes, "Well, we were gonna save all the rooms, but none of my guys framed it, so they all collapsed." Oh, oh no. So what you got were these long buildings, they looked like trailers, which is okay. But no way to keep the water out. So I got it up and it was there on site.
Christian Busk. So I went to the city of Neos and I gotta put the roofs back, they collapsed before they got them here. We ought to have a full set of architecture plans. Well, I had no jobs, I had no money, and I said, "Gee, I'm just gonna put tarps over there, blue tarps." So we did that four different times, as they just disintegrate. Finally, my carpenter Terry Schmitt said "I'm not doing that again." It just burns my, I'm not gonna do that. So we just let the water come in. So instead of drilling holes all over the original floor The water just came in for a couple years. Well, everything turned black. The white ceilings weren't white anymore. So it took me a while.
Christian Busk. Then, of course, the city of Neos and me, they've been waiting for me to fix the other two houses. We're sitting up on Lincoln logs For about three years. So that if you don't move those two structures over at, Tennessee and D Street, we're gonna move them to the landfill, or we're gonna make firebrankers out of them.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Wow, really?
Christian Busk. So I had to push the one up on stilts and put T11 and paint it, got through that one. And then the other one, I pretty much had to, then I could just, I just had to make it look like it was cared for. And so I just put siding on it and just called it a day. But The Hall of Man house was kind of Hidden, so they didn't bother me on that one. Oh, I know. So I know I actually had three unscathed. So one of them was a piece of the Hall of Man house, which was on the corner across from the other three structures that move. And they said, you're gonna do something. I said, I had designed a house all the way around. The one part they said was not historic.
Christian Busk. It was this dining room kitchen. It was done much later than the original house. So I put it on a corner a lot. But I never could get to it. He said, so I picked it up. I had to take the rails off that Oak Creek bridge, take it over the bridge and put it back with the house. Like it wasn't originally too bad. I'm just gonna have to do this because otherwise they're gonna take it and make a fire break. So we got it all back together and Humpty Dumpty back together. It took like eight years to get that part done. It just, it's just all labor by the time. By the time you try to get these, they had these beautiful wood ceilings in there.
Christian Busk. It was only two areas that they hadn't painted the ceilings in that house. So Anyways You went in there. I looked perfect. I said, I told my carpenter, I said, hey, I want to save the ceiling just like it is. Because it's all, everything is put together while it's Just designed just like the living room with these beautiful diagonals in the ceiling. And he said, no, I can't. I can't save it like this. You have to take it down and put it all back together and build a whole new ceiling and then put it back up. I said, no, no, no, just cable the beams up there and we can hold it up. No, no, no, I can't do that. So he said, I'm gonna number every piece. I'm gonna take it up.
Christian Busk. So he took it off and said, no, I kinda like the way it looks, vaulted up like a church. So we did that. So anyways, that turned out beautiful, but it takes, you have to take out everything and kind of start over. So that was part of the, that part of the house, I'm so tired of seeing. Back in the day, they can only cut 10 inch boards in the sawmills. So every 10 inches, you had a piece of batting, so board and batting. So and the outside of it was made just a whole new house, so unusual and unique for this area is back in 1876 when they built that house, it was one of three models. One of three model homes you could buy in Naples by the Naples Development Company.
Christian Busk. There's a little history. So if it's still on a postcard, you could, you could You could buy that house, one of three models. It was the only one that lasted until when I moved it. But anyways, they had triangle battens. So they had triangular battens, which were made out of, looked like three by sixes, but they were really two by fours back in the day. But by the time they cut them, they had enough material to make the top piece, the vertical and then the bottom trim piece. So that's what's unique about the home and house and the original part that's still the piece they made, they built back in 1876.
Christian Busk. You can see the different dimensions of the wood and the detailing that they did. But that's really unique for this area. I did see one other example like that up in the New York area, but they're not, it's not very common because the Europeans used to build like that. But that's what makes it unique. And there's nothing like it in Naples. This was built in 1876. Now Palm Cottage is built in 1905. So it's quite a different. So it's everything, it's that house, the home and house, the one I live in now is 150 years old this year. Wow. It's hard to believe. That's awesome.
Christian Busk. It's the oldest, oldest house in Southwest Florida, not in Percocisa, really old houses in San Ojosin and really this one. You know, but the history of architecture here is, it's interesting, there's not a lot left in Naples because the lots are worth so much and then now they're flooding more and it's very hard to go through that. I mean, you have so much work to do afterwards though. Most of the structures were not built up very much. In fact, this was only 18 inches off the beach when I moved that house. And there was big cypress log thing this big around that sat on, which was kind of interesting to find. You never could see those until you took the structure off.
Christian Busk. There they were. Really? But.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's what they would use. They would use the big cypress log.
Christian Busk. Yeah, for the foundation. No, okay. Yeah, because they wouldn't rot. So, the home now, she just sat right next to Naples Pier and So they had all the big fishing tournaments, all the things were bought in there and they'd have like the celebrations there. Whereas the Naples Hotel, which was also built by the Naples Development Company, that was just, they had just done railroad rails all the way up. They would just roll carts right up to their hotel, straight up from the pier and you'd get right into the Naples Hotel. That didn't last until like the 70s and they took it down in the 70s. I don't think it was here when I got here in 79. Anyways, it's hard to save these.
Christian Busk. I mean, we've tried several times on certain structures and it's either they can't get it down the road or the owners change their mind or Someone's gonna save the lower floor elevation. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work out so you can Only have a title surge of nine feet. Yeah, right. That's not always the best thing. But It's interesting to Meet the families that lived in these structures. I got to know the Haldeman family that comes and they're just delightful people from Louisville, Kentucky. You know that Haldeman House was purchased.
Christian Busk. I don't know if, this, but at the turn of the century There was no one Here, there was an auction for the Naples Development Company to buy 6,000 acres in Naples. The steamship, Fearless, which brought everybody there because there weren't roads back then. And then you would get the three models that they built plus the Palm Cottage plus the Naples Hotel. So the only person who showed up was Walter Haldeman. He owned a Louisville Courier Journal newspaper and he was the only one who showed up so he got everything. But that didn't last too long because he had owned the entire block where the house sat. I guess a few years later He got hit by a street car in St.
Christian Busk. Louis supposedly. So the family ended up owning it. Then they wanted to cut the property in half so they sold half the property and that's how the house ended up being the size it is. I think it was, it had three-plyered fireplaces when you saw the picture of the house originally. When I moved it was only one fireplace. The rest of the structure, we were told, they actually, people bought that lot and they built over the structure to keep the lower elevation. They didn't have to go up to 17 feet to lower the beam. All the femur rolls and all. Anyways, it's been an interesting structure to save an out. Now the descendants come by and visit every year. That's awesome.
Christian Busk. They have their thread and say, hey, we've got some friends. They came in, can they come up and see the house? Of course, I have a little cocktail party for you. They just give the biggest kick out because they spend time there. Now I find paintings or pictures that were done from their house and I said, hey, I found a really cool painting. I think you should really use it in your house somewhere. So we always have fun to visit that way. But that's kind of, there's a lot to do with those structures. It's not any different than just building a house. You just move it. They just pick it up and roll it down the road with those sort of fun little boy.
Christian Busk. I mean The rest is just getting the pile into place, resting it back down. Then it's already there. It's just a show right now. Wait to see.
Robert DiLella Jr.. You make it sound simple, but I don't think so.
Christian Busk. It is. And you have to try to hide the mechanics. Make it look beautiful. But there's certain things to do. There's always certain things you need to do and certain things you want to do and not everything's practical. They really are a big kick to get done and look at what you got accomplished.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, well, has it always been your nature to kind of take These are just not ordinary things. They're just not everyday stuff that you do. Every one of those has been something that you guys deal with a lot., not just the simple stuff.
Christian Busk. Well, the projects I get to work on are very similar in some ways. You take these Projects that have been neglected or outdated for years and then turn them into something that's spectacular for the people that want something different. So you always have to start and finish. So I'm used to doing that, but these aren't as easy as that. But they certainly keep your interest. And there's certain things you decide to do For the comfort or there's the style or making the landscapes wonderful. I can only live in one house, but it was fun to put them together. And it's not a moneymaker, by any means. It's not something you want to do.
Christian Busk. You would think it could be, but not in this area. I mean, maybe for the Northeast or something. People really revel over those things.
Robert DiLella Jr.. But your eye for design and your eye for, what is it you do, that creative side? Is that, when did you notice that was something that Was part of you? Like in my art?
Christian Busk. Oh, very early on. I really love music, I love art, and I was doing the art very early and nobody else wanted to do it. When you're in a class and people can care less about that. But I'm always an interest in that. But I think it was just a lot of travel, a lot of European world travel that kind of exposed you to different architecture and cultures and I think you get, it's just part of you as you grow. But yeah, I always Have an interest in it. And you just It just expands as your palette gets larger. You kind of want it to more. So you're always trying to work outside the box and trying to make something unusual and make it work for Whatever the people want.
Christian Busk. Like my clients usually, what they want to see., we get these poster signs, shaped lots and say they want for sign up posters down there. So it's like a shotgun. You got to create everything. It's got to look wonderful in the daytime. It's got to like really rock at night. And so now you get everything with LED lighting and with the audio and, just when you start from scratch, we have to actually build all of our projects. Like most builders to do a brand new home, we have to get in and do all the underground as you're putting the projects together because you can't go back. It's not like a band date.
Christian Busk. Now some people treat it like that, but that's not the way to do like incredible projects. You just got to know where you're going, what you need. And then get everything. I mean, you have to babysit it all the way. That's really unusual for our industry. I design, build. Most people just design or they build, but I started doing that early on when I got to Naples and it just became a real passion, just doing it, putting it together. And then the best part about our industry is that we, well It's also, it could be a curse too, but having to maintain projects, we have our own maintenance division and that's what makes the projects, develop over time.
Christian Busk. And it's just, it's exciting to see the changes. And I have some gardens I've worked on for 40 years in Naples. I'm starting another one the next week or two. That's hard to say they have three or four owners and it's just, it's hard. It's unusual you have that, but the original bones of the garden are great. And so they just, after time with like lack of maintenance, you have to reduce certain areas because they just don't withstand the test of time without good maintenance. Everything in our world is really, is fertilizer pruning and pest and disease control here which is a lot more work than the East Coast where I'm from.
Robert DiLella Jr.. It is, why?
Christian Busk. Our Weather is different. Like for instance, on the East Coast, and I've noticed there's a change from when I grew up there, but there's always a five to 10 mile an hour breeze. And now here you'll get that when the afternoon rains, but there is just a lot more errors moving and there's a lot more violence., the Gulf is so calm. You just don't get that. And so the insect populations, they have a lot of different insects and they're a lot more severe here and how much they damage the foliage. We never had, we didn't have that much trouble. We had Oleanders back then. No one plants at Oleander now, I mean, except for the Sea of Ormeyers and the Medians.
Christian Busk. But Anyways It's interesting to see. You just have to constantly, they have to change. You have to change the pesticides because they get immune to certain pesticides over time. So you have to change up, yeah. So that's always a challenge with the environment. It's hard to believe, but that's what goes into gardens.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What about species? What have you seen over time from, because I remember growing up here and seeing, we only had the known blizzard. And now I see all these crazy blizzards that we have over Time in Naples that we have more than just things that have crept into our-- Oh, you're talking about good things or bad things?
Christian Busk. I don't know, both. I have been both. But a pallet, yeah. I've always put my time into the landscape architect conferences and we have a FNGA Program, which is a state foliage association. I've always gone to the annual meetings. And what's interesting, you might have 2,400 vendors. So you're seeing all the newest in the industry and not many people really like to go do that. And they don't, I never see people that I know with the land, especially the horticulture end of our business. It's really sad to see that because that's what makes gardens. Besides the framework of all the hardscape, which I love to do.
Christian Busk. The other is just It's such an orchestra of different materials that grow at different rates and different types of light. And So it's fun to put all that together, but it's not something everybody does in Naples. But as far as the insect population, that's changed. And we're just again, trying to modify that. But actually just growing a healthy garden keeps a lot of insects at bay. They actually go after the things they're stressing. But we also have things that come into play that you didn't expect back in the 60s, 70s. We had to leave the yellowing up, hit all the coconuts in Fort Lauderdale, Miami. I mean, it nearly wiped them all out.
Christian Busk. And then so they developed the resistant varieties Green malayan and the yellow malayan and the maybam, and they're all beautiful now. They don't say that it's not gonna happen again, but they're resistant. I mean, there's proof,. But anyways, that's interesting. And then you have all the other things that start happening, the bronzing of the leaves and the date palms and all. We think some of these things are bulletproof, but you have to remember we're Taking different species that were grown in Arizona and really dry climates that we're putting them in Florida where we get 52. If you do inches of rain, it's all over time.
Christian Busk. So there are challenges with that, I think, over time. And then just things develop, but it's interesting to watch that. So the people at the University of Florida are always doing research on Everything Jesus said. We always had to watch it. Yeah, yeah. And we had a lot of trouble, necessarily even with pine borer. And so it goes in phases where they get in the pines and just kill forest of pines. I mean, so you can spray them, but That's really a challenge. So our native forest may not be native. I mean, everybody's beautiful because it's natural. But There's a lot that goes to this natural system. We start modifying it and it starts changing.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What happens to like when they take, there's a preserve that's behind our house off Livingston and this area that you're not supposed to touch, but when all that development goes up around it, what does it do to that?
Christian Busk. Interesting, they did research. You know what, it's kind of funny. So it's a little more horticulture based Than historic, but the research shows that all these developers that go into these forests, which is where development's happening The interior of the forest, the trees have never been exposed to wind or conditions because they're hidden by the other trees. So maybe you start developing, you cut part of the forest, you've left that wall of trees that might be 100, 150 feet tall.
Christian Busk. The problem is there can be on their outside layers of their Genetics was built for an interior purpose and they didn't have the outside elements that would make them strong to not topple over. So a lot of the problems they're having with that type of situation, which you see it out in the Golden Gate area because everything else has been developed in the coast here. But They can have trouble with that. So it's just falling over. So you kind of have to be careful not to have it near your house if you can help it. The post-modernist lots are so huge they don't have to, but some people try to save everything.
Christian Busk. Well, that's great, but you have to know that they also have some liabilities with that and you just fall over. Yeah. Yeah. And then we've had trouble. The biggest problem we have enables I got to do the roadways for Benita 10 years ago. So we try to find resistant materials that wouldn't be too hard to maintain. So you're not sure the maintenance level you're gonna get after the installation, but we designed five and a half miles on 41. And I work with one of my landscape architects, Pam Lue, which she worked for the county here and she does 153 miles of roadways.
Christian Busk. So we're always talking about species that work and things that don't work and we should take more fertilizer. And so we kind of hound all that down to just really a simple pallet that goes down 41. And then we get to do the Master plan for old 41. And that was great. So we could calm that area down and make it more livable for people to walk and places to park and make it fun. Now you're seeing a rebirth of that, which is 20 years late, but it's fun to see people come from Naples and enjoy.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, they're going that way now. You see the other way. Well, it's live entertainment.
Christian Busk. Yeah, it's exciting. Back in the day when I got here in 79, there were like two places to go out and dance and enjoy a drink. And so after time, it was actually more fun to go to the East Coast. So we just go alligator rally and go over there. Of course, it was a lot more going on over there. But then they had to start doing the DC3s or the DC9s, the tail drivers that we'd go to QS. And I knew some people that worked for PPA. So we got $5 tickets. So that was really a good value to get out of the area and Go to crazy QS. But that was in the 80s when things were really quite demure there. You didn't have the cruise ship showing up at 2500.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, they didn't have that.
Christian Busk. They had a T-shirt shirt, but not on the scale they are now. For all the historic architecture, you can see that is just the most fun to just get on the bicycle and just enjoy historical architecture. It was like definitely a century away and more. And it's wonderful to see how much they've saved of all that. And that's because it's popular there and probably more expensive to try to do something new. But Because it's all rock there. So anything you want to try to do is sitting on coral rock.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, is that right? Then the keys, yeah.
Christian Busk. Yeah, they have to blast out. If you want to just let me pull, you're cutting that rock out.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Really?
Christian Busk. Oh, it's coral, solid coral.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, I didn't realize that.
Christian Busk. So anyway, so, but that is, yeah, that. And St. Augustine's got some beautiful historic architecture too. Amazing what they've done to that St. George Street. It's like Disney World. I've never seen it in 40 years that places change. Things change over time,. Especially in Naples too. But I'm sorry to see the architecture kind of disappear. I'd say it's about five blocks, so wonderful down in old Naples. Yeah. And Paul Morrison still has his wonderful hundred year old home.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I was in there, yeah. Or in the studio, anyway, where Zach went over to take all the paintings.
Christian Busk. The beautiful art Beautiful paintings. And he's always saved all the whole structures by painting them and memorializing them. It's just great to see them. Yeah. And how many people have that kind of interest.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, he's really been a good catalyst for preserving what we have too. Wonderful, yeah.
Christian Busk. And he actually spends a lot of time talking about it and doing symposiums. He'll do his art show, but he'll talk about what he saw and what he got to enjoy before it disappeared.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, and the stories of the people too, that he's never done that. Incredible, incredible career.
Christian Busk. But anyways, that kind of covers the gamut. But Gamut and Bonita, there's a few things. I actually didn't talk about the, I got to save a few things. So this, the Historic Society of Bonita Springs has always been kind of a small group, and I started working with them 20 something years ago. And there was a couple places they were so interested in trying to preserve. There was one that was 1910. It was the old mayor's house, 1910. It was up from Bay City, Michigan. It was the largest home they ever shipped over. I think it fell off in When it was in Oak Creek or going down the Emperor River in many pieces. But anyways, they got all back together and built the house.
Christian Busk. And it was the largest home. And I was told that one of the ladies was trying to save it for all these years. She decided to buy a new house and she sold it to someone. And all of a sudden, it turned Out that people wanted to, that we're gonna buy it back down. And she had already bought it at their home. So it's historic society. Hey, let's, can you work with us and let's buy that thing together? I said You're kidding. So that's like three of them. And then I finished, that's okay. That's okay, we'll help you with it. So We got all the way to the day of closing, like a day or two before I said, I got the concept. Oh, Christian, yes, I'm sorry.
Christian Busk. We really can't do that with someone who's not in the Seed's Reast Corporation and you're not. So I said, really? So you mean I have to restore this all myself? I already got like two or four going. He says, oh, that's okay. Yeah, we just really can't do it. So I got involved with that one. So I restored it as much as I could. It was a big structure and I had a swimming pool and a six car garage and an acre property. I was gonna do my nursery there, but as it turns out, during 2007, I pretty much took care of that one. For a lot of people, yeah. It's a lot about, yeah, so you get involved in things.
Christian Busk. You learn a lot about these things in your renovate kitchens and bathrooms. It's usually the first to go, but it's all fun.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What's a Project from Naples in your early years in the first part of your career that was fun for you? That you and I literally--
Christian Busk. Oh, I have to tell you, that's great. I'm so glad you have. It's the one that I've worked Back in 1984. We did Naples, I did Naplescape with a company I worked with And We got this project on the beach and it was an old Asian style Home, but it's A little bit dilapidated a lot actually. Not the interior so much, but the exterior just, well, the swimming pool was open air, so the owner just didn't want to get carried by mosquitoes It was funny I had been to China, I had gotten hired by one of my colleagues was working in Hong Kong and said, "Hey, you gotta come over here." These guys don't know anything.
Christian Busk. This is Hong Kong, it's a company from London, they don't have any landscape architects to know anything about tropical foliage and here we are in Hong Kong. We have two new town parks we're doing and you gotta come over here. I just, they don't know anything about it. So I went over there for two weeks and I said, I got over there and my friend David Oshman said "Hey, I didn't really work out a deal "for you to work here, but I'm gonna, "you can work it out with the owner." So, but I had all this stuff.
Christian Busk. Anyway, so, he said, "But, "you're only gonna work a week for us." I said, "I'm gonna send you to China, "to this old town, 2,000 year old town called Suqiao." He said, "I just came from there. "They just opened it up from Red China. "I mean, it's been communist for like, I don't know, "a hundred years." So I went and I This little town, if you go to Epcot, they actually show all the buildings and the parts of the gardens at Epcot. I was so surprised. But it was because it's famous for the Chinese people. Anyways, they came back from that trip. That was an interesting trip. They'd never seen "Americans." You felt like a movie star.
Christian Busk. Everywhere you went, you're in a rich shop. Every man, they had one rich shop. They'd stop what they were doing, looked right at you. You're kidding. You have, they're all wearing, dark blue pants, light shirt, light blue shirts. And the signs, I'll say, "One baby only,",.
(Laughing)
Christian Busk. Yeah, and, they're all, I'm not kidding, everyone, and everyone, and their family looked at what you're doing. Anyways, it was, they never seen "Americans." Notice I was six feet. They were like, "Bye," but some of you-- You really stood up, yeah. So, I got back from that trip, and this guy buys his place on the beach. It's on six acres,. And it flooded, the whole, probably it flooded. So you saw these, the mowers started mowing, there's all these black marks where the wheels went, right across the mark. And they would just, all the water came down this one area, just sit there. They had a little lake, but it was just very wet. So, I had just seen all these gardens,.
Christian Busk. They were wonderful. So Renovated the pool, added the screen, added new decking, everything. Did they add a sunken garden? It was the idea of a sunken garden, but nothing was there. So we did a waterfall down there, and all these wonderful Asian stones and pebbles everywhere, and beautiful foliage. And then the upper part, when you got, we had to do a long drive, the driveway was 850 feet long. I said, "We have to--" What was this in Pororo? The one with the orange gates. Of course, of course.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What was our favorite trip to go down there and see that place? 84, okay. Wow, that was like seeing, it was like seeing something out of this world.
Christian Busk. It was kind of fun. So I said, "You know, other people did those little gates right by the street, not many of them, but it was like one or two and they said, I bet we could get that approved." So we did, I said, "Let's use the same panels." They used them, they took these plywood panels and they put the river rock on them. They kind of cemented the river rock down and then they kind of glazed it. So that was all the walls and house, we're done with like that with some dark wood detailing. I said, "Let's do the Front gate like that." And we'd do the same architecture. So this architecture, whatever. So that was the entrance, and they designed the gates for them.
Christian Busk. And so those are still there, it's amazing. So that's exactly the way it was. Then the driveway was 850 feet. So back in the day, who could afford an 850 foot long driveway, even if you had that much? So we did have a baumini. So I did this, they looked like Distressed concrete. It looked like a real raw material. And then we used a cobblestone, four by four cobblestone, two foot border on both sides, going all the way. And because I lifted the grate up, we dug the lake three times the size. So I had all the fills, so I was able to re-sculpt the whole property. So you raised it up and dropped it down and it came up.
Christian Busk. And then at near the house, we got to do this 250 foot waterfall with the stone bridges going over it. And then it went into the lake, and then we did create an island in the lake with them. We took one of those old continental bridges, they used to show in the old Landscape Architecture Magazine to Architecture Magazine. The regular bridge, and we added the detailing to make it Asian looking. We painted it orange, like the case one. So did that. And then when you have the house, we did this exact bridge, which was really popular in this old garden. So it was done like this with undermount lighting. And so there was all the things you'd wanna see in an Asian garden.
Christian Busk. And then of course, landscape, the whole thing. To encompass six acres, which is unheard of in Naples. So I had a lot of large trees. They're still all there. And then as the story was told, he bought the place to the south, which was the Mediterranean house. And it just stayed like it was. Then he bought the property to the south, to the north. And that was another six acres. So he owned 18 acres, by the Naples Beach. It was the largest parcel on Naples. But he's quite a guy from Canada. He had all the school bus.
Robert DiLella Jr.. He was Canadian.
Christian Busk. Yeah, he had the school bus enterprises and the waste disposal in Canada. So he did pretty well. So he was able to provide a nice lifestyle, I think for himself there. It was very unusual for Naples.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah. Really unusual. I remember that so well, because that was something we talk about all the time, that we lived in this place, this area that had this house it looked like you went to the Far East. It was beautiful. It was so neat to see that. I remember driving by it all the time, just to get what I wanted to see.
Christian Busk. Yeah, and we moved like 30 foot clear trunk coconuts. They were all over. They were just all out of scale. So we put them on, put them behind the house. So then they just kind of popped up right behind the house. Looked really great. And then at night, of course they could light them up and it looks great near the beach. So we were able to repurpose things. They did have it, which wasn't a lot. And then used some really unusual things. So from the Bahamas and things that would make it on the beach. So it was a really fun job to watch it all these years. It's been 40 years. So that was a fun one to really, Adani who probably, I didn't get to finish it.
Christian Busk. I did the pool area and all the hardscape, but then I moved my own company in 1987. But so I do just like build and I've been doing it since then. But it's a fun part about our work is once you're doing research, you're finding different materials to use and then you find different applications to use them. Then you use your other pallet, plus all the new things you get to use. And it just, you're always improving. You're trying to invent something with every job. And you are because you're taking what you did and you just improve it, change a little bit. Materials come out that are new. So that we have access to everything now.
Christian Busk. So I mean, it's just a matter of costs and everything's labor.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What's different now about when you started? I know a lot has changed, but when, what do you like and what do you not like?
Christian Busk. Well, it's interesting. I didn't finish the story about that, right? We used bomanite, which is just poured, scored. And they just put the imprint, they pressed it down and get the imprint. So it looks like cobblestones. It looks like, natural stone, but it was just concrete with coloring in it. You know what? It lasted the test of time. I'm surprised. The only problem with poured concrete, if you have, when you have settling, you can't repair the cracks. So that ceiling, down's that. But when you have big projects, it's a great way. It was a great way to go for square footage per cost. It was an asphalt. This is what people were still doing when I got here.
Christian Busk. But it was concrete. And then the more you add to concrete, the more expensive it gets. So if you put pebbles in concrete and give it a color, you're at the price of marbles. I mean, people, do you want this? Or do you want a marble? There's different things that happen. So what's happened is Everything is labor. I mean, by the time you do hardscapes, you've got to do so much for the driver, so much to create. The big thing for these properties are so, some of them are so small, you really want to give people access and trying to create all the movement through the garden. Where are the people who are going to spend their time? Where are the breezes going to be?
Christian Busk. Where is the sun in the afternoon? Different times of the year when they're going to be here. And where do you make the most out of this? Some of them, they're just so, some of the lots are so tiny, but it's just trying to do the right thing in the right spot. And just by the time we get some of these architectural footprints are so large, and by the time you end up with what's left over, then you get the drainage to pick up now, which is great for the city-enabled, but there's huge drainage All over the place. So you have to dodge that. That becomes a bit of a challenge, but It's a good thing to be able to manage water on a site.
Christian Busk. You just have to work around it, and you get a lot of challenges with that. So what's changed in the years is, we have better products, we have better LEDs, which used to, it was so expensive to Do outside landscape lighting. There really weren't quality products. Everything was cast. The cast materials don't hold their color, the paint chips off. So now almost everything's brass or copper, most of it's brass or painted brass, so it doesn't really change the time. And so that's great. Now we have companies that do plug and play. We use the best in the country. I was so sorry to people, everything was developed in the Keys for the saltwater.
Christian Busk. Everything is like an extension cord with the casing over it. It can go under, at the bottom of the dock, you wanna light it into there, just toss it in the water, there you go. Everything is just sealed up. And that's the hardest part with outdoor lighting, you just disintegrate with the salt fertilizer and the chloride, fluorides in the water. So that's improved. We have products that work great on those days. So the lighting has changed dramatically. I run my lights all night long. I just love seeing it. Love seeing it. When I wake up, I wanna see the garden, just like I wanna see it. It just, that cost pennies.
Christian Busk. But also now we have the audio systems that are just like a concert, which they didn't used to be. And some of those products just disintegrate. These people that we work with, it's the best in the industry. It sounds like you have the Philharmonic right there in front of you. It's outside. It's outside. And you have so many products with juice from. I mean, it's insane. You can do anything. You just have to worry about bothering your neighbors. But sound is directional. So if you have neighbors like out there.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Try to tell my wife that, because I have speakers all over in the back. I love all the sound too.
Christian Busk. They used to do the rock speakers. Yeah, they still do some that look like that, but the sound is just incredible. What's changed in time. But everything we're putting together usually involves, everything is how the materials last over time with the conditions here. So we're using, well, even at the pool we worked with for the house down here on the beach. We just finished one cross from the beach on Gordon Drive. The entire back area, and this was the owner's choice, was Totally like three inch Decking that was like, I think there were 30 inch pavers and they were on plastic pedestals, so you have no grout. Getting efflorescence, that's the first time ever.
Christian Busk. So everything drains between the pavers into a shower pane and the pan, and it just drains out. So there is no water that stays in the pool deck because it all drains between the pavers. Just a little, you can't even tell there's no joint. It's beautiful. Of course, wherever you have to do the stairs and connections to other paving, you're gonna have some more because you have to put it together. But this one we got to do also We were lucky to have all these stones sent over from Italy the way they wanted them. All the steps were four foot long, solid pieces, three and a half inch stone, routed out for this undermount lighting, which is beautiful. Oh, wow.
Christian Busk. It's beautiful when you get to do that. It's not very awkward, but it's what the owners wanted, and so that's what makes this special, this house we got to do. They actually did a 40 foot loose side panel on the back of the pool. They flew. You can see people swimming, yeah, it's pretty fun. But it's challenging that one. You end up with these setbacks. Some of those lots you're working on, they might be 120 feet wide, but they're not very deep. So you have front setbacks, you have rear setbacks, and then you have the setbacks for the pools, and it's all based On the elevation of the road. You can only be 30 inches above the ground of the road and you have front, so.
Christian Busk. I'm gonna be only three feet from the difference from the street elevation, which is three. That's what made the loose side panel at the top. It was a children's pool, and then we got down to the main pool, because there's this snow week. You had to follow the rules. So we have the setbacks in Naples, and the constraints have really changed how you do things in Naples. You're restricted by some of those things, just like the architecture. They used to be able to do whatever they wanted, but now you have angle of light, so that's the structures are built where the light can get to the neighbors. So there's the net smart, and there's height restrictions, which is also good.
Christian Busk. That's what makes, and I think that's a special part about Naples. I always feel like it's never gonna change, because when you drive down Naples, the structure are more than 35 feet, and they have to be a certain style where they're not just straight up, which you'll see in Benio, Benio-Estaro, and Fort Myers.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's different, because they don't have the same zoning.
Christian Busk. So call your, City of Naples has gotten, I won't say call your county, excuse me, City of Naples is very, very Smart to bring that in, because if I'm all in Port Royal, I'll clean these doors more. All those, it's important when you have those size lots that you're not overdoing for a neighbor when they maybe purchased years ago, and it shouldn't change too much. The light does change when you have a neighbor, but anyways, I think it's good. I think that some things are good, some things are over-regulated. I don't think some things make a difference. It's just whoever's In vogue at that point in time. But as far as building projects, even materials have changed.
Christian Busk. People are able to invest in better materials, because it's all labor, whether you're putting down porcelain or stone Or just doing a lot of work. I designed driveways that had grass in them 25 years ago, it was not popular. They ran an article in the home section of Naples Daily News, a half-paid color picture, and I had written a story, and they ran the entire story just like it was written. It was like a page and a half And I got two phone calls, 40,000 people wrote it, read it. I got two phone calls, and one of them turned into a shop, but he never did the driveway.
Christian Busk. So now you see almost every driveway has green ashert, we were doing real grass in it back then, but it's funny how things have changed over time, and I did get to do, I'm about to redo a house, you mentioned gardens, I got to work on. So I got to work with one of the Federated Investors Board of Directors on the Marker River. It was my first design award I think I mentioned. But anyways The new owners had bought it, and It's an interesting project, because they took two houses and blended them together with glass quarters, and I had to take a kidney-shaped pool and make it into an Asian style, like geometric with fire and everything.
Christian Busk. It was made a fun project to work on, so I get to go do it over after 40 years. Yeah, that's awesome. It's kind of fun, yeah, for some new owners. So Some of the sites, and I did do the first disappearing edge pool for one of The other investors, one of the other board of directors of the Federated Investors. It was the first disappearing edge pool in April. What is it called? It's the vanishing edge for the water that was over the back end. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. But they were on the Marker River, so I have photographs of that. It's amazing when you get a large body of water and you have that water just dripping over the back.
Christian Busk. Of course, now it's just like old hat, everybody does it, but back then, this was like 25 years ago That was not happening. And if you did do it, you didn't have that kind of view of the Marker River. It could have been light, almost like the Aples pavement in the Marker River. It's fast, it's really a long distance. So the impact you got was Just amazing for a project at Aples at that time. So I got to be a forerunner in pool design, driveway design, and doing things that weren't really happening. And that was just, clients liked to see something new and some clients could afford it. Some people went ahead and did it because they liked it.
Christian Busk. And we did different materials and still made it look similar to the design. Sometimes it's just application. But maintenance over time is what we try to tell the people., you're gonna have a lot of weather on this, you're gonna have this, you have a car driving on. You don't want white paving, you're gonna not look good. Well, if you put a little texture in it, you won't have as much, but it's always something that you can
Robert DiLella Jr.. Look at. And design and build, you do some of both. So what's that been like over time? Just because labor intensive, you talk about the core of labor, everything's-- Everything, yeah.
Christian Busk. Yeah, when I started my business My first year I was doing design only. And then as soon as the project got ready, I just, I could not do the build because I'd been working for a company of labels for eight and a half years doing that. So I started doing the build, but I had to hire people to do the heavy work. And I had people that I knew that would do the small planting, but I hired a general Landscaper to do all the crane work. Because I just didn't have any equipment, I didn't have people running. So we did that for a while. I have to mention one of my favorite projects over the whole time. I got to go to St. Bart's with one of my clients from Naples.
Christian Busk. He bought An interesting Wilbert hamster.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Love St. Bart's, love St. Bart's.
Christian Busk. Yeah, so I had done the place, he had bought the House that's on Cutlass Lane that has all the landscape, or they say Tom Selleck used to live there. That's the first time I heard that. But I was on the Sweet Liberty last week, and I said, I don't know about that. Did they say that on the boat? They did, but I told them the last time I was on the boat, I said, wait a minute, I worked on it, Wilbert hamster had it. Then the Jugro Boss people bought it. So I don't know who has it now, but I think they're still there. But they bought the lot next door, which really made it quite a spread. It's the only one that has that much landscaping, all in Naples Bay.
Christian Busk. I mean, it's just amazing. And I get to do the Zizer house, which was on the corner, which I guess. Yeah, I get to do that with him, and that was a riot, oh yeah.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I think he met Wanda at my dad's salon back then. Really? Yeah. That's a funny-- He wanted to work with my dad, and they met that way, and yeah.
Christian Busk. Oh, it was a funny story about one of their parties. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if we're gonna put that on film.
(Laughing)
Christian Busk. But it was kind of, Michael Kors was there. Is that right, really? Involved one of his garments that went, it was a fashion-like faux pas. But We can get into that. But anyways, I got to do that. That was fun, because I get to go to St. Parson. Was he the tea councilor? Yeah, he had the, it was all coral, real coral walls with cheap detailing and a slate mine-side roof, designed by Harry Wiese out of Chicago. Oh, okay, okay. The only bizarre thing about that house was the living room floor was lifted eight inches above the main floor, which is if you're having cocktails for a while, I'm not sure it really worked that well. I'm not sure about that here in Florida.
Christian Busk. I don't even know why you do it in Chicago unless you're worried about things crawling on the floor. But it Was a wild house, it was beautiful. But anyways, that was our, but anyway, I went to St. Parson's. You know when you work on an island like that Those, the government has control over who owns the property like they do, they used to in Bahamas a lot, and they probably still do. But so they control what you do with those properties.
Christian Busk. And this gentleman that bought the property, the foundations were already there in place, which I think was to his benefit, because you didn't have to go through all the permitting of that whole thing from February beginning, because you're building on top of the mountain. It's the rock there too. Yeah, you're building on the top of the mountain. It's really not, it's not a great thing, but they were already there. So your kind of grandfather didn't, is what I'm gonna say. But Anyways, the, you have to drive 45 degrees up, do a pair of beenterring and go up to the garage. And then from the garage up, there were 93 steps from the bottom where you parked to the top suite.
Christian Busk. Wow. So there were five different suites, the master suite was at the top. So anyways, we worked on it. I tell you something, here's an interesting story and nobody knows. So the gentleman that I worked with, he said, "Hey, I'm gonna take you to some nursery dryer. "You can see what they grow here. "And we can use it in my garden." I said, "Okay, great." So it takes me to this nursery. I kid you not, there's one gallon material that's in these plastic baggies. Okay, the plant's like, it's All stressed out. It's like wilting, has some bug problems.
Christian Busk. He says, "Okay, I can get the palms, "they're like this big." I said, "Well, that's not gonna work." I said, "I can't do that." So I decided, okay, this is what we'll do. We'll buy all the plant material for them. We're gonna put it in an air conditioning container. We're gonna ship it to St. Bart's. It was in there for two weeks. I mean, we had plum baggo, blue plum baggo, everything green in the coke. We had 20 foot coconuts, 20 foot instead of like three foot. I said, "I'm not gonna make this guy white. "He's like in his studies, okay?" So anyways We got it all there. They opened the canary container and everything was as dark green as the day we put it in there.
Christian Busk. Two weeks, no sunlight. So we Got it all up range and we spent a week putting it all up the slope. This guy had to run a backhoe. You're working on this slope. He's like, putting the thing. It was a little challenging. That was quite fun because it was different. The place was so unspoiled. See, you have Nipas right next door. Back then, you're talking about probably 30 years ago. Very unspoiled. You were getting the popular people. You had Hermes. Shops were starting to show up. There weren't that many. I mean, but what was there in the French restaurants were great for some French wine. It wasn't too bad either. Yeah, I know.
Christian Busk. But anyways, that was an interesting job to get to do that was not in Naples.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Did you fly in when you went to the airport?
Christian Busk. The Harry Ring trip. Yeah, are you kidding? I'm just hanging from a seatbelt. Yeah, I think I almost lost my dinner. It wasn't much. But yeah, I said, get ready for this one. Yeah, straight down. Straight down. And you see the plane underwater. That one didn't make it. Oh, great. You guys like, can you like take that away? That's like Yeah, that was pretty interesting. Yeah, I remember they, I Think they gave me some cough stuff. And so I had, my old office was Where my office is now, down the street. And we had an area that didn't drain in the little utility area. And I thought, okay, I'm finally gonna get the scene to drain. So I put Clorox down there that didn't work.
Christian Busk. I got to put the drain down there. And I was sitting there for a while. So the gases make, so I went that happened right before I went to the same person. I get there. And I forgot to take my medication. Because, you have to get up at four in the morning, go to get to Miami, in the Miami, to Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, just, just say, say Martin, say Martin. Say Martin, you end up, yeah. In the final jump. Right. There it is. Right. Yeah. Right when it's getting dark. There's no runway lights. Okay. But Anyways, I get up in the morning after having a couple glasses of wine. I decided since I missed the medication in the morning, take mine to the night, take it.
Christian Busk. So I got up in the morning and all of a sudden, I felt like a million needles poking me everywhere. I said, oh no, this isn't right. So I had to over medicate. I decided to go to the infirmary. So they give you these little pills, and it's like, gee, it looks like one of those nickels, those candies. They're like the size of a nickel. And so it's everything that French, I said, they did, you need to take this. So on there, I put one in and I couldn't breathe. And I'm all by myself. And I'm just, where's the, where I thought you were like, you're just supposed to do whatever. It wouldn't go down. I'm just trying. And so like, yeah Yeah, it's a fizzy.
Christian Busk. I didn't say you're supposed to put it on water. Like a fizzy, like, right? Really? Oh my gosh. That's a little challenging. Being, being somewhere where they speak a different language with the physicians don't tell you really, really. Right. Right. Yeah. My funny story about the same parts.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah. They have, yeah, everything's in front. It's like being in France. So it's very French. It is the whole thing. By the way, I love it. I love it. There's food. My wife loves shopping. I bet it's great. We hadn't lost a couple of years ago. My wife loves