Clean Face

A couple of weeks ago we cleaned the dark streaks that shadowed the building face with detergent and steam. Coupled with the overgrown surrounding trees, the front of the building looked dreary and run down.

The cleaning lightened up the facade and exposed the true color of the brick. Eventually, we'll thin the trees around the building to bring in even more light.

Before Cleaning

After Cleaning

Decision Point: One Residence

Two weeks ago we met with a 203(k) loan specialist for guidance on financing our project.  He reviewed our finances as well as our preliminary plans.  Our plans involve renovating the existing ground floor commercial space and offices, converting the workshop below into our apartment, and adding two stories for rental lofts.

He raised questions as to whether we would be approved for adding floors to the original building.  He said that approving loans in this housing market for projects that rely on income from tenant rentals can be tricky because of the current volatility.  Because of this, we've decided to gear back the size of our project to one that we could afford without the need for additional rental income.  However, in the future if things go well, we could add floors to the building as part of a second phase.

In the meantime, we've put the the ground floor retail space on Craig's List to gauge interest.

Our Craig's List Ad