Community Garden Sites – Proposed

There are a number of city lots available for the possible creation of community gardens. We’d just need to find people in the general neighborhood of a site to take responsibility for it. Two are adjacent to historic districts. One at 432 Wisconsin (College Park Hist. Dist.) and one at 507 St. Lawrence (Bluff Street Hist. Dist.). I -know- there are some avid gardeners among us.

Sounds like fun -and- a great option for fresh produce -and- a great use of this space -and- a great neighborhood initiative. Interested? Let’s discuss at our next regular meeting, or comment.

All potential community garden sites:
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Richardson House Turns 100 Years Old

My newest favorite author – Richard Florida

I heard Richard Florida interviewed on NPR about his article in the Atlantic and that was the start.

He presents fascinating research and insight into where we live and why. Additionally and importantly he projects the impact of current economic shifts on where populations will be moving to and away from and why. Its a longer presentation but it’s very rich. I highly recommend it. I find encouraging news for Beloit and direction in much of what he has to say.

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WYSIWYG – Huh?

Two new cool things…

Cool thing #1:

Perhaps you recognize this as the acronym for “What you see is what you get”. It typically refers to some form of user interface that lets you SEE how thing look as you’re creating prior to publishing. At any rate, in our tireless effort to make this neighbor’s website more user friendly we’ve added just such a WYSIWYG editor to the Comments submission area.

Take a look. Perhaps, dare I say… try it out?

Below each post you’ll see “Comments”. It’s clickable and will open a window where you can now add FORMATTED comments. Weee!

Cool thing #2

We’ve added Google’s social media aggrigator “Friend Connect”. A fancy phrase for pulling together in one place various online places where you may hang out, Facebook, Myspace etc. etc. You’ll see this in the right-side navigation. Check it out.

Flexible wood epoxy, window repair & restoration contractors

You can tell where my heads been of late. Saw this…

There are tradesmen who are sensitive to and knowledgeable of period sensitive repair techniques for quality old houses rather then simple rip-n-replace. And believe it or not it can save you money too. A guy down at Renaissance Restoration Inc (Galena IL & Davenport IA) talks about ‘flexible’ wood epoxy from Advanced Repair Technology for window repair.

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Steam Paint Removal?

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From John Leeke’s website Historic Home Works.

This method has significant advantages over mechanical scraping and shaving, chemical stripping and the dry-heat of torch, hot-air gun and infra-red lamp methods:

• Significantly reduces the risk of starting a building fire compared to dry heat methods.
• Helps control the lead-health risk issue because it is an inherently damp process and eliminates the lead-fume risk.
• No fumes from heat decomposition of binders in the old paint as with dry heat methods.
• Relatively low setup cost compared to dry heat and shaver methods.
• Lower operating and supply costs than chemical paint removal.
• Lower residue disposal costs than chemical paint removal.

I’d not seen steam used for paint removal before. This looks like a great option. Looks somewhat slower but being able to do this without the fumes and lead risk… that’s a good trade-off IMO.

Perhaps another idea for a workshop / demonstration?  A trial of each of the wood stripping methods with discussion of trade-offs.

• Nasty but fast caustic chemical stripper
• Safer but slower chemical strippers
• Paint scrapers & power shavers
• Heat Guns / plates
• Infrared heat lamp
• Steam heat

Beating Wood Rot

Wood rot is a far bigger problem nowadays then it was in years past. That’s primarily because today’s fast-growth lumber is much less forgiving of sloppy construction or deferred maintenance then the hardy, old growth species our ancestors built their homes with. On the bright side, however, technology has improved as resources have declined. High-strength-epoxy wood repair systems used in combination with borate-based wood preservatives make it possible to not only repair rot damaged wood but practically guarantee that the rot won’t return.

You don’t have to rip out and replace with undersized and often inferior materials. This is homeowner do-able, could SAVE YOU A LOT OF MONEY and leave you with better results. The full how-to article here.

Don’t assume or be talked into the only solution being rip-n-replace. You can end up with a more expensive and inferior result that leaves a more difficult/costly or impossible to reverse degrading of a fine vintage home.

Regardless of whether you’re a weekend warrior home owner or contract out to professionals, the more you know, particularly around what your options are, the more satisfied you’ll be with the results. Inform yourself.

Perhaps NPA could hold a how-to demonstration or hands-on workshop for this very common old-house problem. Spring is coming up fast. What are the old house projects you could use some insight, coaching or courage building for? Let us know by submitting your idea below.

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Support Live Music in Downtown Beloit

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This last Monday was the first of four Monday’s Suds O’Hanahans is serving up Live Music… on a MONDAY night! How cool is that!

Dave Potter pulled this together as an open Jam and the talent that showed up and performed was AMAZING! If you missed it you missed something really exceptional and special. Don’t miss it again. Come on out and support LIVE Music in Downtown Beloit. So, next Monday, join some friends, buy a drink, drop something in the tip jar and lets keep this going.  See the Beloit NPA Calendar of Events for more live music and other events within walking distance of Beloit’s Historic Districts.

Click Below For The Longer Samples

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Stimulus Watch – Beloit WI

The internet is an amazing thing, as are wiki’s.

Below are the “shovel-ready” projects for which this city has requested federal stimulus funding. You can click on a project to read (and add to) its description. You can also discuss the project and vote on whether you believe it is critical or not.

The total cost of all the projects submitted by Beloit is $34,450,226

Here’s how the above site works…

A quick look, as for those projects directly relating to the historic districts…

• 2010: East Side Neighborhood Initiative Streets – Central from Chapin to Emmerson and Chapin from Central to the dead end, Construct 2010.
• 2009: Park Avenue Street Lighting

I don’t recognize anything specific for the Bluff Street corridor. fwiw, I see that there is nothing listed for South Beloit IL, Janesville has $74,374,100 in submitted projects.

Searching For The Best Place To Buy An Old House?

Believe it or not, Yes! There is such a market.

I’ve said before. If home buyers are looking for new construction they have lots of options. If they’ have an appreciation for quality vintage housing in a quality neighborhood with proximity to center-city amenities, services and life style their options are much more limited. Supply/demand. Many people moving into the region from larger urban centers know of and/or have experienced quality historic districts & neighborhoods. We’ve an underutilized resource here.

[stepping off soap box] 

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As part of the ongoing commitment to the preservation community, PreservationDirectory.com has once again teamed up with This Old House magazine to promote their search for “The Best Places to Buy an Old House”.  An upcoming issue of This Old House will feature the 2nd annual “The Best Places to Buy an Old House” article, which strives to identify affordable homes in historic neighborhoods and districts across the United States.

According to This Old House Associate Editor, Keith Pandolfi, “We want to spread the word about neighborhoods where the astonishing old houses are rivaled only by the community spirit. We especially want overlooked places with affordable houses appealing to old-house-loving buyers and are very interested in places where the momentum for preservation is just getting started thanks to pioneers who have begun moving in and rehabbing houses.”

In order to most effectively accomplish this search, This Old House and PreservationDirectory.com are seeking the help of dedicated preservationists, neighborhood boosters and heritage travelers!  To nominate your historic district, town or city, please submit the following information:
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