Sydonie Mansion

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Sydonie Mansion Watch progression on restoring this 22,000 square foot Florida architectural wonder known as Sydonie
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10/08/2026

If you haven’t come to one of our concerts yet, we would love to see you at the next one! Howey Music Series puts together a top notch outing. I’m certain Sydonie’s founders would approve of sharing the building in this manner! Check out their website for upcoming events.

What are we up to this week on property??? We refinished the floor in what we call the crow’s nest. This is the upper la...
09/21/2026

What are we up to this week on property??? We refinished the floor in what we call the crow’s nest. This is the upper laundry building floor. Doesn’t it look amazing? I always thought maybe the head gardener lived here but that old iron burn burnished into the floor sure indicates the laundresses lived here and brought the work home. My project for next week is to turn my grandparent’s headboard and footboard into a king head and footboard. As you can see by the picture of me with my sisters and grandmother in this bed in the 70’s, it could use a family friendly mattress. I have my own childhood bed to do the same with. These are next door at Odenwald. Stay posted. I may use the siderails to extend the width of the wood or I may find other salvage.

My son-in-law captured this shot this week. We have had so many rainbows lately. Isn’t this a classic!
09/17/2026

My son-in-law captured this shot this week. We have had so many rainbows lately. Isn’t this a classic!

This year has been a very expensive year for us with tree maintenance. A lot of the water oaks on property are past thei...
08/31/2026

This year has been a very expensive year for us with tree maintenance. A lot of the water oaks on property are past their lifespan. This particular one down by our lake front was hit by lightning about seven years ago. We actually watched it burn for days. I assumed it would die instantly, but it lasted all of these years continuously building new bark around the damage. Not four days after my tree guys finished another project on property, this one toppled over to the ground. It landed on a palm. Both trees had to be removed this week. I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on trees in less than a year. We’ve taken out dangerous ones that could potentially land on our assets. We’ve trimmed and hurricaned trees and we’ve groomed our palms. The freeze killed a lot of our trees. Back in October, there was a severe flooding event in Mount Dora that also gullied an area by the Live Oak in the last two pictures. We have worked extensively to keep this from washing away the roots of that tree. Three or four times this year we’ve bought sod for that area to help develop a root system at the surface to protect the root system of the tree far below. It dropped the earth roughly five feet! I always wanted a little stream bed in this area and nature is creating one on its own. It’s heading straight down to the left side of our boathouse. I might have to hard scape to get this job right.

It only took 12 years to get a trifold made. My personal assistant Rebekah is amazing! I love this! Come see us this sea...
08/28/2026

It only took 12 years to get a trifold made. My personal assistant Rebekah is amazing! I love this! Come see us this season!!!!

08/25/2026

We are in bloom at Sydonie and there is always something new to discover. Come see us this summer!

Edgar Viguer Seeler is one of Sydonie’s architects and I have been super fortunate to have been gifted a handful of hi...
08/25/2026

Edgar Viguer Seeler is one of Sydonie’s architects and I have been super fortunate to have been gifted a handful of his sketches that he did while a student at Le Beaux Arts in Paris. He did this for Victor Laloux’s class and it has just bothered me that the red line was a distraction in the sky. I decided as a water colorist that perhaps this was a water soluble line. Sure enough. It’s much better falling back. The second image is after I removed it. The third image…..I cannot tell you how happy the morning boats in Venice made me the first time I set eyes on it. Having left Venice at four am one day myself, the the boats nodded in a friendly manner and waved goodbye-all of them. I knew exactly what he tried to capture at that moment.

Happy 250th America! We are overcome with gratitude today for the blessings of being citizens of such a great land. Many...
07/04/2026

Happy 250th America! We are overcome with gratitude today for the blessings of being citizens of such a great land. Many of my ancestors fought in the Revolution and sacrificed all. Sydonie will be dressed up in birthday decor through August if you are looking for an adventure. God bless America! 🇺🇸 #250

A few months ago, Mia and I had the guys move these stairs, that used to go to Odenwald’s dining room, to this location ...
06/11/2026

A few months ago, Mia and I had the guys move these stairs, that used to go to Odenwald’s dining room, to this location to get over Sydonie’s wall. They were in the woods and serving no purpose. It is the perfect location for them as it can take you down to the boathouse and it lines up with this walkway to the outside gate. Mia likes to use them! Come see us! We are open for tours this summer!

Last week two of my best friends of all time, Kevin and Ron, and I went to Florida Victorian in Deland to pick up some s...
04/29/2026

Last week two of my best friends of all time, Kevin and Ron, and I went to Florida Victorian in Deland to pick up some salvage for Odenwald. Odenwald was empty for 17 years and thieves walked off with all the doors, windows, trim, chandeliers, and anything valuable. They have lots of wooden doors, trim, windows, anything you might need to bring your building back to being historically accurate. In this case, I had some repairs to these walls up high ( we found subterranean termites in this wing. ) I decided it would be fun to put some flywheels up there. The man that owned this building was head of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad so putting things in that look like rail car wheels should be pretty accurate.

Address

5538 Sydonie Drive
Mount Dora, FL
32757

Telephone

(321) 236-1534

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