Full....Speed......Ahead.......

I know most house bloggers like to go on about their projects....but I think these pictures speak for themselves. Oh I got excited because I reused some floor joists from the first floor in the roof....that's all I got.

Forward Ho!

Note tiger stadium in all it's majesty!

Permitted!

I am permitted by the City of Detroit to work on my house!!! Only a scant 8 months late!

You know I hate bureaucracy. I would rather have someone smack me in the teeth with an axe or jump into a pool of double sided razor blades or have a porcupine fall out of a tree onto my face then deal with it. But this time it was unavoidable.

Let me share with you the 10 easy steps to obtaining a building permit in the CoD!

Step1: Get your application approved by a lady who moves slower then a sloth that has been sedated by a heavy tranquilizer. Make sure that for every mistake or unclear part of your application she scoffs at you and takes a heavy sigh then proceeds to move 10% slower.. Restrain yourself from jumping over the counter and processing the application 10 times faster then she can-even though you have no idea how to do it.

Step2: Go to zoning approval, wait for 40 minutes without anybody acknowledging your presence or your dignity for simply being a human.

Step3: Have a habitat friend who frequently deals with building and safety come in for permits right behind you. (Bonus!) After talking a little have her let you know that she went to high school with the 2 zoning reviewers! Then have her put in a few good words with one as he takes your case!(Double points)

Step4: Concede your garages proximity to the lot line because of Detroit zoning, even though it meets the State of Michigan building codes. (Go back one space)

Step5: Have zoning reviewer pull some "funny math" to allow for your oversized garage by including the alley as part of your lot for area calculations. (Score!)

Step6: Head on over to structural engineering where a niece and uncle are being reamed on a simple structural wall. Dread the fact that your stack of 12 structural drawings will most likely be scrutinized for the next 3 hours as he picks over your 4-ply LVLs, flangeless hangers, and other unconventional framing techniques.

Step7: Get approved for structural in 4 minutes by telling the engineer you are just putting on a "dormer" when he asks for clarification. Have him stamp your entire stack of papers (13 drawings) after only looking at the top 2 drawings. Lunchtime? (move ahead 2 spaces!)

Step8: Go to final approval. Watch another lady take your paperwork-ask you nothing-type on a computer for ten minutes then exclaim "oh-snap!".....and wonder what that means... After she returns she'll give final approval and stamp off every drawing individually that nobody has really looked at save the zoning reviewer. (proceed to the end)

Step9: Shell out a big chunk of money for worthless paperwork and documents with fancy seals and signatures on them. (pay banker)

Step 10: Obtain building permits!

I make light of it, but it is a horrible situation. The building department should really be trying to understand what you are doing instead of trying to process you and take your money. The system is really set up for people to try and hide things and cheat instead of being upfront about what they want to build in the city of Detroit. I really wish they would look at peoples desire to build as an investment for the city and try to work closer with them for structural greatness.

Anyhow i'm not sad that I won't be back there anytime soon-for I possess the fancy official paperwork.

Day four

I'm beat. Four days straight of working on the house and I'm ready to take a couple off. Despite the cold and the rain though we really did get plenty done.

Definitely a big thanks to all who came out. I had 3 people on friday, NINE on saturday, 6 on sunday, and 2 on monday for a grand total of TWENTY 'volunteer days' on the house put in by my guys...oh and girl. (thanks jodi)

A wickedly out of shape ridge board was the biggest hurdle that is still not 100% solved. Somehow I managed to screw the roof up so it will no longer mate with a straight ridge. I'm sure it can be pulled back in with some "finesse"(read: sledgehammer/cum-along).

I think I'm looking to make another push towards the roof next saturday/sunday...so if anybody reading is free....



I need to make special mention of this guy Dan. He came out all 4 days and risked life and limb for the project. But I'm not supposed to let it get out that he is the super good guy that he really is. So if anybody asks, he is a big jerk.

Day three still going strong....

A little wet and icy in the Detroit today.

You find out who your friends are.....

...is what some people say in your times of need.










It goes without saying that I'm a blessed man.

we made a hole

it is not a small hole.











Thanks to Larry, Tiley and Dan!

Thank You!

First off let me apologize. I was trying to make the drawing only black and white to make it easy to fill. In my haste I left it greyscale making it difficult to work with.

But let me thank you for all your efforts! They are great. My design instinct is to gravitate to a single idea strongly. But it inhibits me from seeing the possibilities.

There is an overwhelming presence of moderate brownish colors for the body of the house with some nice colorful accents!

While I have already submitted a set of colors to historical, that was merely a placeholder and as long as I stick to the historical palate, a color change is a no work issue.

Enough of me, here are the houses!








Oh and there just maybe might be some interesting things happening this week...

Ash Thursday

Yesterday Ash Wednesday signified the start of the Christian season of lent. The Lenten season consists of repentance of evil ways, soul searching, fasting, penance and it climaxes with the death and resurrection of Christ. And all of this is for the chance at salvation and redemption from ones sins and past wrongs.

Lent is a serious time for me that can often be trying in times of prayer and contemplation.

I have a feeling that the house will follow this trend through my lent. Things are about to get very serious. My historical permits will be granted next week, and I will submit for building permits immediately following. The truth is that I'm not going to wait for my permits to clear to start external work. Things will accelerate inside and out.

Sometimes making small steps on the house can be as good as making big ones. When I bought my house it had be repossessed. This was shown by the fact the door had been kicked in, and eye bolts were used to lock the door shut. It was obvious that the repo team did not have the original keyset, so they used the lock box itself to hold the door shut through the eye bolts. Today I took those eye bolts out and somehow it signified to me progress and the healing of one more scar this house had.

Trusty Andreas and Andrew made their way to the house tonight where we braced the cross gable and removed the rest of the ceiling joist. Most of them had heavy fire damage on the north end. During this deconstruction the details of the fire became more evident. To me it appears to of been a creosote fire that started either in a stove or in the chimney itself. We tore down the ashy boards until there was little evidence left of the fire.



Probably the last day I will have to walk away from the house with black snot.


I have 4 more structural drawings to complete before next wednesday, wish me well!

BLAAAAAH.....

I'm not one for Bureaucracy. I avoid it if possible, but in order to make this project happen I have had to undergo the most bureaucratic litnay ever such as

Buying the house/Affidavit of compliance BSE
Vacant house insurance (difficult to get)
Bank loan
Title company
Historical NEZ property tax credit
Historical permits/Review by commission
Building and Safety Permits
State income tax credit program
and Potentially a rezoning process

Who knew building things required so much paperwork? I realize I brought it on myself but I have killed a small forest in order to document all this.

Anyhow I'm mid-stream in the Historical review. In general they are being pretty cool with me. I'm complying to 90% of their wishes by using wood windows, historical paint colors, historically approve materials and details etc. They are cool with my garage (even though planning might not like size/location). Sounds also like historical might completely pass my addition. But I do want to close off and move some windows and they are giving me a little bit of a rough time with that. As well as some skylight issues.

I really hope they see the fact I want to rehabilitate this property correctly and that they comprimise a little with me. I'm dumping a real amount of money in to fix the real problems. Not just cosmetic things. A lot of homeowners want deviations for vinyl windows or vinyl siding, they go in and cry about money issues and historical lets them. I'm hoping they will be cool.

One of my bigger issues is the east wall. There are 4 HUGE windows (biggest in the house) on it (2 up, 2 down). And that is a great facade.....Except they are 16" away from the next house. Two of them stare directly into walls of siding and Ghetto brick. One lines up with my neighbors window (so I can't be nature boy in that room) and the last one has a modest view.



So I'm asking to cover up the 2 rear windows and make one smaller and I'm already getting mild resistance about that. BLAAAAH.

I have a public hearing in 3 weeks where everyone who lives within 500ft of me can show up and complain about my garage, good thing I've only made friends and not enemies.

Building is on hold while the drawings get finished up. But things are going to kick into high gear near the end of February, so watch out!