When I left for work this morning, I was fairly certain I was going to come home to a pile of rubble down the block. There were many trucks parked in the street and much activity. I was not holding out hope. That said, I did notice one odd thing. The front porch light was on.
I thought to myself as I drove to work. Would the electrical still be hooked up if they were going to tear it down?
There have been a few promising events. In addition to the bulldozer (sign of a tear down), there is now a back hoe (sign of utility work).
Fingers crossed they are replacing the sewer (although that is serious equipment overkill). I'm not convinced, but am currently bargaining with God.
If this turns out to be whole scale utility replacement (some of the houses still have old sewers and non-copper gas lines), these will be my favorite new neighbors at the next block party and we will all laugh about how I thought they were going to tear down their house. I hope.
This coming weekend, I'm going to take my camera out on a bike ride and take some photos of this tear-down phenomenon in my neighborhood. You need to see the sheer horror of it all and why I panic whenever a small, vintage house goes on the market.
Then I promise I will pick up where I left off on the exterior work. I picked up a very cool purchase last weekend.
Towards the end of last week I noticed that the utilities had been marked on the street. Today I came home to a bulldozer parked in front of it.
Unless I am totally misreading the clues, I believe a developer bought the house and is about to tear it down and build a fake "craftsman" McMansion in it's place.
It has recently become the trend in Minneapolis. A developer, without regard to the neighborhood, will come in and buy up a smaller house, tear it down, slap up a big replacement, sell it, take their money and leave. My neighborhood had been pretty much left alone because the houses and lots are relatively small and the neighborhood is "up and coming." These big houses just look obnoxious. They totally change the character of an entire block and, for that matter, the city.
However, developers wanting to make a fast buck must be running out of new lots and have moved like predators into my little part of town. As a neighboring homeowner you are helpless as they can change the entire value and livability of your house and ruin the character of a neighborhood.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why these dopes don't buy lots on North Minneapolis that are empty or houses that were damaged beyond repair during the tornadoes of 2011. Those neighborhoods could use their help.
If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I have been slowly pulling down the existing aluminum storm windows and replacing them with vintage or vintage-style wood frame storms. Some of them I switch out with screens seasonally. In some windows, like the front of my house, I currently leave the glass storms in all season.
In prepping for my house to be painted, I had to address two upstairs windows. Each had their lovely aluminum storms windows. I have totally refinished the double hung window sashes on one of those windows and one has yet to be restored.
It was clear the aluminum storms needed to come down as they were nailed to the face of the exterior wood window trim. So, happily down they came. You could almost hear the house breath another sigh of relief.
I have a fun solution for the missing storms. I'm going to pick them up this afternoon and will post again soon.
Removing the aluminum storm and some remaining hardware that points to the fact that there probably were canvas awning on the house at one time. Food for thought.
Here is the south window. The double hung sash on the window has been restored. After removing the storm, I had to prop a screen in the open window for fear of a bird flying in the house.
A somewhat more realistic picture of the color of the paint. This paint is crazy. If there is any sun outside when I take the pic, it looks bright yellow.
I'm sure at this point my neighbors are wondering about this love affair I seem to be having with my house that causes me to be out there daily taking photos of it.
As mentioned in my previous post, the gap to the left of the boxwood bushes is what remains of a black cherry tree. I'm thinking a rhododendron might look cute there. Also, note the hydrangeas which are so top heavy this year that they can't hold themselves up.
I took last Friday off of work. I woke up early in the morning, fixed myself an iced coffee and went out to wait for the guy from Excel Energy. He was coming to turn off the power to my house, so I could remove the gutters just below the power line.
The guy arrived promptly at 8am. He was making small talk while he unhooked the wires and asked me what project was going to take place on the house. I told him I was going to take down the gutters.
He looked at me and I could see his mind working. He was trying to politely let me know he had doubts I could do it. He asked if I was getting new gutters. I told him I was. Eventually. He said "doesn't the company you are buying the new gutters from usually take the old ones down? These are usually really nailed in here well." I smiled. He told me I had to call the arrange a reconnect by 3pm or I'd have to last the night without juice. He left me a dubious "good luck."
So, the electric guy left. I hauled my ladder over to the house and reviewed the situation. I started by working the straps that went under the shingles free. That was pretty easy. I then started to use my trusty pry-bar to pull the actual gutter free from the board behind it. So, everything was moving along smoothly until I realized that the entire length of the gutter was one piece. I stood up on that ladder for a long time holding once loose end while I tried to figure out what to do. I started to think the electrical guy was right. There was no way I was going to be able to get this down.
The the old house gods gave me an idea. I have a sawzall. I have a sawsall in the basement. I have a sawzall in the basement with a metal blade. Ha. I hauled out that little used sawzall and cut that gutter into three smaller sections. It came down like a dream. I then pried the unpainted back board loose from the rafter tails.
I then piled the aluminum in a neat pile and called the electric company to send the guy back out to hook my house up again. All before noon.
I'm pretty sure there was a tiny bit of a smug look on my face when he arrived and I'm also pretty certain I saw a glimmer of respect on his face when he noted my gutterless house and neatly piled aluminum.
Why are my gutters coming down? Because I FINALLY hired painters to scrape and paint the wood trim on my house and I want the rafter tails to be exposed. And this has set in motion a series of related projects.
I'm guessing these photos are going to look very alarming to anyone with a new house. Trust me. Old houses usually need to get uglier before they get pretty. Really. Really.