A New (Floor) Plan

Mr. Street is dragging his heels about thinking about building (or starting our own little renovation project). Hmph!  I ventured out into the Real Estate World and looked at a 1940s bungalow for kicks and man, did it have such charm!  It also got Mr. Street to realize this little lady is serious about having a humble abode of ours someday.

I get floor plans emailed to me through www.eplans.com.  This week's was particularly nice and would look lovely on a little wooded lot. Just picture a few deer roaming through the front yard, eating the hostas and you'll have a good idea of what Mine Street could look like. 

    

It's great that everything would be on one floor.  That way when we're old and rickety, we wouldn't have to install one of those mechanized chairs that gets you up your stairs. 

Green TV

Long time. No update!

That's because...we're living in an apartment that Mr. Street signed a 2-year lease for and there are inhabitants (of the people kind) living on Mine Street still.  Plus, Mr. Street has started looking at houses for sale that are already built.  But, what fun are those??

After watching some Greenovation today, I *think* that rather than demolish to build it *may* be possible to gut the current house and build a sweet addition.  However, that flagstone foundation that is more concave than not has us concerned.  Is it fixable so that we can have usable living space in our basement?  And, who is going to do the job?

Like I mention in the first post, the reality of the house not being salvageable is something we need to rise above.  So, now I have been looking for inspirational pictures of before and after renovations and I found one which gave me hope.

Tile Style

Well, a wrench has been thrown into our plans. And not the kind that is going to help put together our house!

Things fell through for us to move into the house on Mine Street. So Mr. Street committed us to a 2 year lease on an apartment. Will we be able to start saving money if we're dishing it out for rent? We'll see.

In the mean time I'll keep planning...and hoping for a job that pays better.

HGTV aired a great episode on 'greening' up a house (Designed to Sell, Episode HDTS-2A02, Going Green). The backsplash in the kitchen is from an environmentally-conscious glass and aluminum tile collection. It's really neat and I love it! I wish I had a picture of the kitchen from the show because I think they did a mix and match of the different tile styles.

It can be found in the Luna collection at: http://erinadamsdesign.com/luna.html

Homework

I can almost guarantee that if I polled 100 random 20-somethings I'd be the only one with a subscription to This Old House. But, I'm okay with that.

This month's issue was of particular interest because it had an article on modular homes. I highly recommend it because it's an informative read. I used the directory to find that the factory the featured home was built in is Professional Building Systems and it serves the area that we are looking to build in.

When I get a chance, I'm going to look into the National Modular Housing Council and the National Association of Home Builders Modular Building Systems Council. So much to read, so little time!

Yip-py!

Today I watched 3 hours of Deserving Design and I might have a crush on Vern Yip. This guy has talent.

I've been watching a lot of HGTV and DIY network lately and I love the concept of Vern's show the best. It's neat to see all the selfless acts of kindness people do be rewarded with new customized living space. And the kicker? It's not gaudy-at least in my (very) humble opinion.

I know I don't have my own place yet, but Mr. Street and I may move into Mine Street over the summer and live there for about a year. I think I could easily take ideas from Deserving Design and Designed to Sell (another fav) and make the home livable in the mean time. Then...the REAL fun will begin after we have our own house up and ready.

What the City said...

I haven't posted in a while because I wanted the posts to flow logically, but I haven't had time to do that. So, in an effort to get back on track posting something here we go...

I had posted on a DIY forum that I wanted to demolish a house and build a new one. Someone from the forum suggested I find out what the City requires for such a project to be undertaken. The Supervisor of Buildings and Construction kindly replied and spelled out everything in terms I could understand (I suppose very frankly saying I don't know what the hell I'm doing helped).

I found out that to demolish a house within the City there are regulations that are required prior to the issuance of a demolition permit.

Since the house was constructed prior to 1940, I have to get approval for demolition from the Commission of Architecture and Urban Design. I'm sure they wouldn't see a problem with saying adios to such an eyesore. Yes, it's old but if this has to do with historical stuff I can bet you there isn't anything historical about it.

Next, there must be a pre-demolition survey done for asbestos by a Licensed Asbestos Inspection Contractorand his office must receive a copy of this report. I checked out prices online and this could cost about $300. Woohoo.

If asbestos is found, it must be removed by Licensed Asbestos Abatement Contractor, or removed under a variance from the State Labor Dept. Then his office must receive proof that the asbestos has been removed and or variance. I'm thinking if we find any of the dreaded 'A' word then the whole project could be a wash. This would be mucho expensive, like $10,000 or more. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to see the housesold to someone who would have to deal with the proble m (I already hear Mr. Street saying, "Why not?!).

Finally, we get our Demolition Permit. The fee is based on the cost of the demolition (1/2 of 1%). It would be great if we could just call up a fire department and say, "Who wants to practice burning houses down?!" but word on the street says all the insulation would have to be removed and some other jazz. Unfortunately, even if we did do that there's no short supply of houses that can be burned for practice around here. Several homes that are inhabitable from the 2006 flood are yet to meet their maker.

He also said that once the structure is removed the new building:

a) Must meet the State Residential Building Code for new construction

b) Must meet the current Zoning Code with regards to set backs, lot coverage and parkingand

c) A Site Plan and Building Plans stamped by a Professional Engineer or Licensed Architect are required.

And there you have it. Takes a deep breath. Mr. Street and I have done squat to get the process going since my mom still lives in the house and he honestly doesn't want to live there. However, that last bit is nothing a little batting of the eye lashes can't fix.

Model Behavior

In the beginning, Mr. Street and I thought "Let's demolish this bad boy and put a modular home on the land." They are decent looking homes and wouldn't take long to put up.

The next step was to find a place that had these homes so that we could walk through them. The first, and only, place that we've walked through homes was at Simplex Homes in Scranton, PA. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and not a soul from the company was around. Bummer. They had three models to walk through, but the only we really wanted to see was locked.

We loved the spaciousness of the homes and Mr. Street had a thing for the bathrooms (lately, I've heard that other husbands in our circle of friends are sold on a house depending on the bathroom, what gives?).

Since then, I've requested information from a number of modular home companies (I probably am responsible for the deforestation of a sizable piece of land-not exactly good when I previously mentioned lowering my impact on the environment!). They all say how wonderfully energy efficient they are (yay!), but the designs are absolutely b-o-r-i-n-g. Could you honestly see a fancy schmancy home on this land?

Nothing but a craftsman will do. Nothing. That style of house would blend into the surroundings and it's just one more way to honor my dad's memory...I love how it conjurs up thoughts of simplicity and functionality.

What's in a Name?

"Dream Home".

It just stirs up images of something you'd see on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous or MTV's Cribs. Expansive living rooms, home theaters decked out with plush leather seats, baby grand pianos, Endless pools, walk-in closets, gourmet kitchens, king-sized beds, a garage to fit a couple of cars, SUVs, and motorcycles...A home should be a sanctuary. There is so much stress we all encounter each day that there needs to be a haven to retreat to. Why wait for a vacation when your own house can be a get-away?
As you may have guessed, that lovely gem of a house will belong to Mr. Street and I this coming summer. It doesn't look like much, but to my family it was a place to celebrate birthdays and Christmas, where Dad could toil away at his woodworking in the garage or the basement and where we could invite our friends over for a bonfire during high school without worried parents wondering where we were and what we were doing. It is a place where we could see fireworks from baseball games in our backyard and a place where we partied for my mom's 50th birthday with her favorite local musician jammin' away last year and not worry about bothering neighbors. It is somewhat bitter-sweet that this is a place where my dad spent hours digging, planting and weeding so that the first summer without him we could enjoy the colors of his garden from the screened in porch he built and eat freshly plucked blueberries in its shade.

It has functioned has a home for us. But, to me it's not a "Dream Home".

There are certain elements of the house that I do enjoy. Last summer, Dad built that screened-in porch for Mom's 50th birthday bash. The summer before that, my dad and I replaced the pea soup carpets with hardwood-style floors and also replaced the stairs leading from the first floor to the second. They were the original stairs and were held together by square nails. I held up one of those nails and thought to myself, "I am holding history". I'm sure there's other original bits and pieces of the house here and there, but they're not history. They are God-damned headaches.

Rather than moan and groan about what it currently does or doesn't have, I'd rather speak of what it should have.

My own Dream Home would have immediate personality. Not a rectangular box, but something with a little..."something". The electrical work and plumbing would be up-to-date (No sparks from the electrical sockets! No water leaks mid-winter!) and the walls would all be painted (not just hung sheet rock!) or nicely wallpapered. We love to entertain. Being surrounded by friends and family is such a cozy feeling in itself so that we would splurge on a spacious kitchen and a "great" room. The washer and dryer wouldn't be housed in the bathroom, but in their own space and, above all, a whirlpool tub would be absolutely necessary (and absolutely divine). I don't believe I am asking for much. But, I forgot to mention one thing. I want a "green" Dream Home.

What "green" means is something I'm still working on, however, I do have some general understanding of green homes. The materials the house is made of should be durable and pose no health risk to the inhabitants or the environment and energy efficiency is a must. I like the sound of that. There are other goals for a green home- they just escape my memory at the moment.

Whether we remodel or rebuild is up for debate. Either way we will be investing a lot of time and money into creating something that will hold up to time and the elements and leave a smaller footprint on the environment than the current house. I will not waver on what I want to see on this little plot of land, though. When I put out the welcome mat, I want to mean it.

This Old House

Mr. Street, my husband, and I actually have a house already. Sort of.

Once upon a time, my dad's family lived in a house and when it was time for him to go out into the world he moved away and the rest of the family subsequently moved as well. Years later he found himself a wife and moved back to where he grew up and started his own family. Unfortunately, in spring 2007 while on vacation, Dad had a stroke and later died of cancer.

My mom no longer wants to live in the house; It has a big lawn to maintain and things need to be fixed or replaced often. So, she is giving us the house.

The house is a real piece of work. Let me tell you. Before retirement, my dad was an engineer and had a creative genius side of him that few people appreciated (but, many were amused by). He was not one for aesthetics. Maybe it was because he was legally blind and couldn't actually see what his outcomes were? Nevertheless, there are projects around the house, mostly unfinished, where he managed to take scraps of wood and turn them into shelves, floors, stairs and more peculiar forms of furniture and decor. That's just the inside of the house.

Do you remember Tim "The Toolman" Tailor from Home Improvement? Well, cross him with the good intentioned Dan Connor from Roseann and the foul-mouthed Ozzy Osbourne and that comes close to who my dad was. Because of that, our neighbors (and I'm sure people on the other side of town) were well aware when he was working on a project. Colorful language flowed when he was at work. My last memory of him "fixing" something was about midnight last November when a water pipe burst around midnight. I swear it was like the scene from "A Christmas Story" when something is wrong with the furnace and you hear loud and clear the father grumbling and clanking away. I reluctantly went down to inspect the progress and found him trying to sodder the pipe together after the duct tape failed him.

Oh, duct tape. I'm pretty confident I could write an entire post about it as it was my dad's answer to everything (much like the dad from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" using obscene amounts of Windex).

So you see, on top of the problems I didn't mention (the house is well over 100 years old with a dirt floor basement and caving flagstone foundation) there are bound to be more issues with this humble abode. Yes, the poor house deserves a little TLC. After all, it held up reasonably well to a fire in the attic and garage about 20 years ago and could use a face lift (seems the trend these days anyway to give a person some cosmetic enhancements so the outside reflects the "inner strength" of a survivor). But, it would bring great peace of mind to see the old girl leveled to build something entirely new. Something pretty and not too flashy. Something you would invite friends and family over to enjoy the beauty of the woody surroundings. Something...up to code.

This is where our dilemma lies. Do we remodel or rebuild?

Reality

I work with an interesting woman who has an interesting calendar on her desk. Today's quote on it goes something like this,

"Reality is something you rise above."

I believe Liza Minnelli had a point. Never before have I seen nor heard six words more applicable to my life. You see, my reality is that I am newly married, recently graduated from college, working for minimum wage and I want to build a "dream" house.

Once upon a time I was a naive high school senior who was one of a generation told, "Go to college and the world is your oyster." A pretty damn expensive oyster I'd say. I have debt up to my eyeballs from paying out-of-state tuition for four years and our wedding wasn't exactly a cake and punch affair (though, it pales in comparison to what you'd see on "Platinum Weddings", by far). On top of that, my newest form of entertainment and exercise is triathlon. Equipment and fees are enough to make those recreational 5k road racers blush.

But, I say, who cares? Generally speaking, we all have debt. It's just one of those things you expect out of life, like death and taxes. And in this Land of Opportunity it could be possible for a twenty-something to do her homework and at the end of the day go to a place she truly calls Home.