The salvaged pocket doors

Jeff Marks, member and future neighbor at 2244, helped me pull out the pocket doors and their hardware.

This is the bigger main pocket door for the parlor room. There are two more 'less wide' ones laying down behind it (one has the pulley still attached)

We hope to use one of the smaller doors as the slider door between the master bedroom and bath.

Interior...

Here's a historic mantle we were able to salvage. Its pretty beat up and missing some trim, but I think we can make it look nice.

This is currently sitting in the front 'parlor room' on the first floor as you walk into the home. This room is another historic feature we must maintain.

To the left is the wall I took the pocket door and associated hardware out of. We will be restoring it and maintaining the original configuration.

You can also see some of the original wall 'wainscoating' It's such a shame they let these homes become so dilapidated.

Interior

Here's a random shot of the interior.. They all look about the same.

The second floor roof in the rear of the home.

As you can see we have a great ventilation system for the spring and early fall =) We have two chimneys which will need repaired. No don't excited, these aren't for original wood fireplaces. If they are used at all it will be for venting things like the HVAC and water heaters.

You can also see part of our back alley who we share with folks on Eutaw St... VERY nice street of 3 and 4 story brownstones and victorians

Raise the Roof ya'll ....

We will all be getting a new roof.

We will be replacing the original 'city skylights' with the exact same type. There are some places in the city which still make these... Terribly inefficient but those historic tax credits look pretty good =) I kind of like them anyway...

Our piece of green

Its not too much, but just enough for a city row home... Fire escape is coming off, the back cantilevered rear bay will be historically rebuilt. The tree is mainly dead and will be coming out. We'll have a nice new sewer main running to the alley after stabilization.

Once again the house to the right will be rehabbed through one of our group members, and the two to the left were just completed...

More Neighbors

This view is still off the front roof of our home, but looking more south down our block. 3 Linden Tree LLC members will be living in this group of homes (Remington, Sean and Olga, and Atsoh)

Our Neighbors

This is a view off our roof, across the street

Original Staircase

We have a bit of cleaning to do... =)

We will also be restoring the original staircase

Our Porch

Another historic part of our rehab. The original tile mosaic is in decent shape.

Vestibule

Here is the original tile mosaic in the front vestibule. You can also see a bit of the wood paneling we must restore since we are doing a historic rehab.

2246 Linden Ave

Here is our home. You can see someone else just finished the rehab next to us, actually the next 2 over. The one to the left, 2244, will be rehabbed through our group. Jeff and Maria Marks will be our neighborhoods from Linden Tree LLC. As you can see the front window is a bit drafty !!

The front of 2213 Linden Ave - quite the skylight !!

2213 - Our most deteriorated building.. but not by much

Eureka !!

The LLC finally settled on our eight row homes during the morning of Dec.15th !! We are now the proud owners of 8 run down homes =)

You will see much more activity and posting now...

Can't think of a title....

Here we are almost two months since the last post... No.. we don't own the properties yet. But guess what... ?? we are getting close.. only 4 to 6 weeks!! I'm just tired of saying it...

At this point we've almost gotten out of the project 3 times this year. But for some reason we think its a good idea to stay in.

Our elusive target date for settlement is now around our wedding anniversary at the end of September... 2006 that is...

We are about to meet with the Architect that 'Healthy Neighborhoods' is offering as a free consultant. Healthy Neighborhoods will be financing our final build out of the home. We will go over our floor plan layout and talk about moving forward with MEP dwgs... (Mechanical Electrical Plumbing)

These drawings and our cost spreadsheet are the last two bigs pieces of the puzzle before we negotiate a General Contractor agreement/contract for final build out.

Now if we can just settle on these properties, and get the stabilized home from the LLC...

No words can express our disgust....

... Linden update... Guess what... we still don't own our home after 26 months.

Two very heavy rains have deteriorated these properties more.

Stay tuned, but don't hold your breath...

25 months and counting....

Hello everyone out there in cyberspace.... I know everyone is eagerly awaiting an update to this blog !!! =) Anyway, our latest news is a settlement date of July 10th. I have a 2% confidence factor in this date... Me and Beth are guessing first week in August for settlement, GC beginning work end of august and completing stabilization of our home, 2246 Linden, in December, and us starting final build out with our own finacning and GC January 2007. Assuming 6 to 8 months for final build out puts us moving in around August 2007... only 39 months after trying to buy this home !!!

We'll lock in our final financing over 3 years later than we wanted to... predicting over 2 or 3 points higher than what we could have gotten, and assuming a materials price hike of over 15%...

But, on the positive side, we do hope to use a Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative loan, locking us in at 1% below Fannie Mae rates, and have applied and been accepted in the Maryland Historic Tax Credit program, where we recieve 20% of rehab costs by way of a tax credit, for doing a historic rehab, with max credit at 50K... which we are sure to hit...

2200 block of Linden looking South, well really southeast =)

Another random shot of Ladder 49 filming on Linden

Ladder 49

I think this shot is coming out of the door of 2246 Linden Ave ?.










Just a quick blurb... here is the press release from the city stating that they would be filming some fire scenes on Linden:

http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/news/press/030313.html

http://baltimorecity.gov/news//press/030313.html

There's a couple shots of Linden Ave here under the 'set:first weeks' section

http://www.firehouse.com/ladder49/photos.html

2246 Linden !!!

 

3rd floor, middle of the house

 

3rd floor, top of staircase

 

Here's our two garden plots in Res Hill

Tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, onions, basil, rosemary, oregano, strawberries... Still haven't planted our okra, sunflowers, and cilantro yet...

Someone has already stolen two our our 6 strawberry plants... I'm sure it the local kids who are always out there...

2258 Linden ??

The home at the end of the row, or block, is being rehabbed as well... 2258 I think 

The front of 2248 while its being rehabbed

 

2244, 2246, and 2248

 

Here's 2248 Linden

Drove by and noticed they have started rehabbing 2248.. Great news !! now we'll have new homes on either side of us... well, 2248 will be two apartments, and I think Kate, one of the Linden Tree members is going to dig out her basement and make an apartment in the bottom or two condos.. or something... 

Here's the back of our home

 

the turtle and hare...

Both the turtle and the hare have lapped us, and are now starting to laugh.

well, march 22nd was my last post... more than 6 weeks has past... we still do not own our home... and our current estimate on a closing date... yep, you guessed it 4 to 6 weeks.

We've lost almost all of our 'excitment' about this project over the last two years, and are only now about to 'begin' !!! So at this point we just want to finish and be done with it.

Our time spent in the community has died down. We still own our garden plot... actually two this year. So we'll probably post pics of that on this blog... Hopefully we'll settle before our first batch of ripe tomatoes comes in =)

Slowly drips the sap...

Well, we still haven't acquired the properties yet, but we still, uh... plan to do so... In may this year is will be 2 years since trying to buy this home. In November of last year we were thinking 4 to 6 weeks, and every 4 to 6 weeks we push it out 4 to 6 weeks.. So guess what, this week we think that we'll be at the settlement table in 4 to 6 weeks. Take it for what its worth.

The bank is moving slowing, we are lining things out with our GC as far as cost estimates, contracts, and dwgs. The city is supposedly clearing the liens they posted against themselves because they don't seem to know they own the properties.

We are meeting next thrus (3-30-06) with who we are hoping to secure as the GC for our 'final build out'

After we actually own the properties, we'll probably be spending some money to go to an architect and get our final dwgs completed. MEP (Mechancial Electrical Plumbing) I have been drafting our layout in AutoCAD and we feel pretty confident its our final version, barring any drastic changes needed for easy insertion of mechanicals.

Historic renovation, 3100 sqft (without finished basement of 7' tall height), 3 bedrooms, 3.5 bath, 3rd floor open loft, w/d room on 2nd floor next to master bedroom/bathroom, separate dining room, entry room, kitchen, two skylights, dual HVAC zones, and dual water heater zones.

Enough for now... check back in 4 to 6 weeks for the next saga of 'the sloth in the linden tree'

Here's the 2200 block of Linden Ave in Reservoir Hill

Hello Hello !!

It's time to start a Linden Tree LLC, Reservoir Hill rehab blog... Its been a long haul for Beth and myself so far.... we still don't own any properties, but we hope to be at settlement soon and have our GC begin work in mid-May on 'stabilizing' the eight homes on the 2200 block of Linden Ave.

This blog will be dedicated mainly to our own rehab of 2246 Linden Ave, Reservoir Hill, Baltimore City. I'm sure we will discuss the many facetts and follies of Linden Tree LLC as well.

Thanks for stopping by!