The house we are currently working on, has an interesting history, according to the original owner. He says the house was built in the early 1960's by Carver Senior High School students as a class project. Apparently it was common practice in those days for schools to give their shop students hands-on experience with projects like building homes. It is not known how many of the other brick homes in that neighborhood were built by the students.
The four bedroom two bath brick house remained as it was built for many years. The second owner added a second living room and bathroom on the back of the house.
Our goal is to keep as many of the original features of the house as possible, while bringing it up to city code.
We hope to have electricity to the house by Friday now that we have our city reconnect permit. The electrician will then be able to see how much damage the vandals had done by stripping the copper wires.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Interesting fact about the current project...
City of Midland Funding
In response to the question about city funding: VIRAY receives no funding or assistance from the City of Midland. We met with one city official about receiving rebates similar to what the city gives new home builders, but the idea never went any further than that initial discussion. There remains a critical shortage of affordable housing in the city.
Friday, February 1, 2008
The work continues
Today the clean up of the house continued. The crew was able to clean out all four of the bedrooms. It took one trip to the landfill and the dumpster was full again. Monday the clean up on the kitchen and the bathroom starts. The kitchen cabinets are still full of of food items.
We are going to need electricty next week to see how bad the wiring is. So we had an electrician out today . He says he thinks he can get us at least one outlet going temporarily. He will then meet with the city inspector to see what will be required to bring the electrical system up to code.
