Yard Trash

The past couple of weekends we've spent out in the backyard cleaning up the trash thrown over the fence or left behind by people who probably enter the yard for nights of drinking and carousing. Who knows what went on in that place before we bought it!?  Even the deer were winking!

We took out about 10 large trash bags full of all sorts of junk: beer cans, red bull cans, bottles, cigarette packs, softballs, handballs, nerf balls, soccer balls, footballs, fabric remnants, candy wrappers, and a wheel with tire - not to mention a couple engine blocks that were too heavy to move.

Another thing that was too heavy to move was the the old roofing material dumped onto the property when the roof was resurfaced, probably about 5-10 years ago.  The whole roof was back there!  We weren't able to see it before because moss had grown on top of it.  The problem with this stuff was that it creates an impenetrable barrier on top of the ground, preventing the growth of stabilizing shrubs.  Here's a picture after we removed some of the scrub covering the roofing material.

As told by one of the neighbors, around three years ago a huge rainstorm hit and the runoff, instead of being absorbed into the soil, ran down on top of this material, undermining and washing away several of the largest trees on the property.  We're now planning to remove this old roofing material, install retaining walls, and restore the plantings.

Hunting the Loan

The past month we’ve been searching for a mortgage loan.  While we’ve already closed on the place with a temporary loan held by the seller, known as “holding paper”, within one year we have to replace this with a bank mortgage.  We’ve started the search with a half dozen sources, only to find that lenders, particularly mortgage brokers, shy away from loans on mixed use buildings.

Recently we learned of Housing and Urban Development's 203(k) loan program.  It's designed to encourage the creation of housing units as well as renovations of existing buildings.  The 203(k) is flexible enough for our situation, allowing us to convert the building from straight commercial to mixed use, which will include retail and offices as well as our apartment.

The main drawback of this approach is we’ll need another, albeit smaller, loan to cover the renovation costs of the commercial part of the building.  This portion wouldn't require as much money and will hopefully be affordable if we tighten our belts - not a bad compromise for getting this building fixed up and usable.

The next steps will be to start on the loan submission documents and see where that takes us.  In the meantime, here are sketches of a couple versions of the preliminary design.

Tanked

Fortunately winter in the northeast has been mild this year because the fuel tanks that feed the heating system don't have much life left.  We're considering several options for updating the heating system, including natural gas and biodiesel.

The fuel oil sits in the sub-basement in two inter-connected 275-gallon tanks.  The tanks must have been here for a long time because they look in sad shape and there's kitty litter underneath to collect leaks.  

I can't wait to remove these tanks because they're stinky and unsightly!