Mindi Abair Completes Renovation Of Florida Home

If you’re looking to settle in the city of Punta Gorda in Florida and are looking for a place to rent, you could find yourself with smooth jazz saxophonist Mindi Abair as your landlord.

Abair and her husband, musician Jason Steele, recently purchased a house in the city on Florida’s west coast. She says the 1926 home is a fixer-upper in the historic district right on the water on Charlotte Harbor. Much of Punta Gorda and the surrounding area was destroyed by Hurricane Charley in 2004.

Abair, Steele and several of their friends have landscaped the home, built a fence and indoor banister, renovated the kitchen, added a bathroom and built a brick patio. In addition, Abair oversaw the building of a new room in the space formerly occupied by an attic.

Abair says the home is now back to its original glory and she’s looking to rent it. And in the future Abair says she and Steele – who continue to live in Hollywood, Calif. – want to use the house as second home. Abair is originally from St. Petersburg, just up the coast, and Steele’s family lives in Punta Gorda.

Abair was in St. Petersburg, Fla., last year when Hurricane Charley slammed into Florida’s west coast, just north of where her husband’s family lived.

"A couple hours before the hurricane was supposed to hit us it turned and it hit south of us in Port Charlotte," she says. "As soon as he could get a flight in, we drove down there and just tried to save some of his family’s houses. I mean, we ripped up carpets and ripped down some of the drywall to try and just stop it from molding and mildewing. It was a disaster area down there. It was so horrible and you just wanted to stay down there and help these people because it could have been you.