Facade Details

If we build additional stories up, we may not be able to use brick, partly because of expense and partly because of the weight on the structure.  Here are some masonry details in the front of the building that we like.

Yellow brick in between gray

Old stair worn in the middle

Keystones above openings

Three Alternative Building Directions

Us in front of the building as we think about our alternatives

Lately Rick's been busy with AutoCAD developing alternative directions for the development of the building.  We're down to three:  

1. Add three floors to the existing building, with each floor a separate loft live/work space.  This would maintain the existing footprint and allow flexibility for future parking in the back.  However, we'd be altering the facade of this historic building and would likely increase construction costs due to seismic requirements.  This may be the highest and best use, providing us with the most income, with a total of four units.  
2. Extend the existing building out in the back, allowing the addition of one more residential unit, giving us a total of two.  This would allow us to maintain the original historic facade with substantially lower construction costs. However, we'd be making less income and the option for future parking would be limited.
3. A hybrid option would be to add just one floor and also extend out to the back, giving us two additional units, for a total of three.  The advantage of adding one unit on top would be to substantially reduce seismic costs while giving us more income than the previous option.  Yet this would result in less income than option one and future parking options would also likely be limited.  

We're hoping to decide soon as the clock is ticking.  Our decision will likely be determined by the following: the structural engineer's comparative cost analysis for the different versions, overall project pricing, town approvals, and our financial qualifications.   

Chutes in the Limelight

Originally the building was heated with coal that was sent to the basement through a chute, which most likely started outside at the sidewalk.  Eventually fuel oil took over as the heat source and the chute removed.  Traces of the old chute remain in the walls and floor of the middle floor and basement.  These are their last days in the limelight because renovation will cover up the few remaining traces of the old coal chutes. 

The chute at mid-floor

Traces of the chute filled with concrete mid-floor

The final destination in the basement

Honoring the past

Before demolishing the plaster walls an artist-friend asked if she could take some of the pin-up girls that were plastered to the walls near where the guys used to work.  She used a steamer and scraper to selectively remove some of the ladies that have been glued to the walls for decades.

Originally I had wanted to save some of these pictures, and thought about removing large portions of plaster to mount on a piece of hard board.  However, the plaster is in crumbly condition and the pictures wouldn't remain intact.

This art project is one way to honor the past.

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!