Regardless of whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer or contract for professional services this is precisely the kind of information you need as an old house homeowner to get the best outcome for your project.

I don’t see that preregistration is required. Mark your calendar today. We plan to be there. Hopefully we’ll see you there as well.

Click to view video

There is more and more talk and media reporting about “walkable” neighborhoods and communities. Even within new, distant planned developments you’ll find efforts, in some cases, to try and provide walkable proximity to community amenities beyond windswept neighborhood parks.

There seems to be a growing appreciation for a lifestyle that allows for walking to shopping, restaurants, entertainment, church, community gathering centers such as festival and arts centers, schools and well, your neighbors. This is particularly nice for the kids to have a neighborhood of friends that are not a car ride away. (Can you imagine driving your kid(s) for play dates?)

Yesterday our community held one of several yearly downtown festivals which included a parade. (Beloit’s Lighted Holiday Parade) It’s a big event. Lot’s of people, most of whom drive in, look for parking only to jockey to get out when an event ends. If you live in the historic district… you walk the few block and you’re there. You tend to run into neighbors as they’re enjoying the same convenience. When you’re done…  you walk home. How cool is that?

Walk or bike to work?
Now you’re just talking nonsense.

IBM - Adaptive reuse of downtown Dubuque building -- Authentic "Green"

And if you’re lucky your employer is among the downtown businesses. I’ve read any number of accounts of new business centers built out in a distant green field touting their LEED certification. And while the building itself is “green” what typically is not mentioned or taken into account for “Green” valuation is the fact that every single employee now has to drive miles and miles to get there. It lies outside of municipal mass transit grids and bike routes, not to mention walking from any possible residential housing.

Some employers however have already recognized that lifestyles and priorities of their target employees are changing. They’re rediscovering the benefits of a downtown location. How cool would that be to be able to walk or bike to work. I for one, moved from where I was taking the train to where I currently live because in part, it was within biking distance of my employer at the time.

Today, Sears Holdings Corp. and AT&T Inc. are looking to escape their compounds in northwest suburban Hoffman Estates. A shrunken Motorola has space to let in Schaumburg. Sara Lee Corp. eyes downtown office space after less than a decade in Downers Grove. Companies from Groupon Inc. to GE Capital hire thousands in Chicago while their suburban counterparts shed workers. ~Crain’s Chicago Business, May 30, 2011

• IBM’s Adaptive reuse of downtown Dubuque building – What? People actually working AND LIVING in the same community?
• Corporate Campuses in Twilight – Crain’s Chicago Business, May 30, 2011
• Companies Head Back Downtown – FORTUNE, July 14, 2011
• Are the Millennials Driving Downtown Corporate Relocations? – Brookings, June 10, 2011

They (millennials) are voting with their feet for a hip, high-density walkable lifestyle and a reverse commute to the ‘burbs is not in the cards for most of them.
~Brookings, June 10, 2011

Why Walk?

George Halvorson – Chairman & CEO, Kaiser Permanente

Rediscovering Walkable Neighborhoods.

People are rediscovering the benefits of traditional, closer-in neighborhoods, closer to center-city amenities. Walkable neighborhoods.

I’ve friends who would never consider walking… anywhere. While living in the city, if valet parking was not available this was a serious consideration. Walking simply was not done. In far flung suburban developments, well there’s just not anything to walk to. That is unless you’re simply out for exercise and not going anywhere in particular.

While a smaller fraction of the home buying public, for a number of reasons there is growing interest in walkable neighborhoods.

A side benefit in addition to lifestyle, “quality of life” considerations… how about it’s simply good for you to do.

Do you live in a “Walkable Neighborhood”?  Find out.

So, what do you think? Leave a comment below.

Anyway, there are a couple “Blunders” that really resonate for me… well actually most of them do but two I’m compelled to add an Amen to.

Blunder #7: Installing New Windows
Now you may recognize this as a recurring theme on this neighborhood blog. This is due to several things.

First, in our own old house we have lovely, original, old and repaired windows. They provide an aesthetic that is unmistakable and substantial to the character of our home. AND combined with storms they’re warm and efficient.

Secondly, in our community the unified marketing message from the replacement window manufacturers, retailers and installers has resulted in a year-over-year doubling of homeowners removing otherwise original and repairable windows for new replacement windows. The result, IMO has been the making-more-ordinary and generic homes that derive much of their character as a result of their windows. This while not really saving any money or increases in energy efficiency as claimed (discussed elsewhere). It’s my opinion consumers are getting bamboozled by inflated claims.

Anyway, I appreciate Fine Homebuilding’s editorial autonomy and integrity in including this in a magazine that has MANY replacement window advertisers and NO window repair advertisers. In fact they highlight a great point that in a 2004 article they suggest that “30% of the windows being replaced are less than 10 years old…” That bears repeating. 10 year old replacement windows are themselves being replaced.

It’s widely reported on that the break-even on the investment of replacement windows can stretch into the range of 60 years or more. So it’s unlikely the home owner will ever get that money back and they’ve de-graded their home in the process. Increasingly, that subset of the home buying public that values and seeks out distinctive old homes do not like finding replacement window on a prospective home. These are the very same people who most likely would be those most interested in your “historic home”.

Blunder #9: Ignoring Historic Tax Credits
Here in Wisconsin for example home owners can receive a 20% tax credit on qualifying (and pre-approved) work done their home… IF they live within an existing historic district or an individually listed property. There’s a minimum of $10K in work to be done but this can be spread out over five years. The process is not that difficult and while no one is going to do it for you there are folks to help guide you. You can get more information about WI historic tax credits here.

Download (PDF, 1.03MB)

I would agree though with the premise. That suburban sprawl is unsustainable, counter productive to the development of “community” including personal interconnectedness and general quality-of-life values for a growing number of people… and families.

Oh… and it’s funny and very well done.

“New Urbanism” If it’s new to you has been an increasingly popular goal for community planners, developers and importantly, the general public when considering where they choose to make their home.

Further, I would propose that while we’re seeing any number of NEW New Urban developments created from scratch, the natural and best examples of “New Urban” places to live are in fact… OLD Urban communities that have retooled to meet contemporary needs. These OLD Urban communities leverage their existing infrustructure and “Sense of Place” typically found in traditional, urban communities. This is typically largely dependent on communities preserving their individual identity and this in turn is largely dependent upon a community preserving and/or employing adaptive reuse to maintain it’s historic built environment.

Interested to know more about what this New Urbanism is about here’s another insightful, short video.

This is though, to my mind the single best run and enjoyable historic district house walk I’ve attended. And we’ve attended quite a few as it’s something we particularly enjoy doing.

The Elgin Historic District House Walk
Sat/Sun Sept. 10-11

Among the great things about this house walk is that it’s not all about grand mansions. You’ll see that the homes open and available to tour are more mainstream, middle-class homes. They illustrate what is do-able with regular folks homes who don’t live in mansions. You may get a glimpse into what potential your own home may have. This is the 30th annual house walk. And Elgin has worked out how to put on a show. You will have a wonderful time.

I mention this as Ana and I will be attending Sunday the 11th. We don’t generally make personal appeals on the website here but we’ll be going and would love to have you join us. The more the merrier. Yes?

As we used to live in that area we’ve a few friends down there and would welcome the opportunity to make some introductions. It’s good to have like-minded friends & acquaintances who can share what worked for them… what did not. While it’s a larger city and there are differences between our communities we do share many community & neighborhood dynamics and characteristics.

At any rate, The Gifford Park Association is the long standing neighborhood organization that has made dramatic changes to their community with regard to their historic districts and surrounding “vintage” neighborhoods. They’re worth knowing about.

We’d love some company joining us to attend the house walk. Let us know.

Rick-n-Ana
rickmcgrath2.0@gmail.com
847-431-0710

Don’t know how long Harris Ace Hardware had been at the 1034 Pleasant Street location above but I understand the pic on the left is from the 40′s. As buildings evolve over time, at some point they enclosed the east facing front of the store, bought up the house lots to the left for a parking lot and moved the entrance to the south side of the building. Just a few years ago they moved from this location all together and a win-win for them and the community.

Beloit too has evolved from using the river system to serve the purpose of transport and back-door industrial waste disposal…. as was common practice. Having proactively reclaimed the riverfront it’s now a very popular and much used recreation and park space. Very much now the front door. The transformation is nothing but remarkable. The “after” pic is not great. It’s primarily purpose is just to show before/after. It’s not really close enough to do justice to what’s been done with the park area. You’ll just have to see for yourself. Or check out Old Onliner’s Pics.

And what about Harris Ace Hardware? Well, they’re doing just fine as well. They too have evolved moving their long-standing downtown Beloit presence even closer to downtown into their new building at 430 Broad Street. (We love our downtown Beloit merchants. They’re walking/biking distance from the historic districts.)

We, Ana and I had the opportunity to attend this years national Main Streets conference held in Des Moines a couple weeks ago. While it was a great conference with much to talk about I’ll mention just two.

First… Downtown Beloit Wisconsin | Great American Main Streets Award Winner for 2011!

There are literally thousands of participating community downtowns across the country and thirty six here in Wisconsin alone. Each year the National Trust For Historic Preservation’s Main Street Program recognizes just five communities for this recognition. The National Trust and Main Street use this opportunity to recognize the exemplary work of community downtowns who are getting it right, tell their stories and serve as an example for other communities. While they consider many individual factors in general what they look for is…

• Sustained, long-term effort. Indeed, Beloit has not exhibited some single isolated grand effort but rather has demonstrated repeatedly and over many years that this is an ongoing and concerted effort that has resulted in example after example of how Beloit’s downtown has been reinvesting and renewing it’s historic downtown. These examples are numerous, obvious and touched on here on this website and elsewhere.

• Breadth of initiatives, participation and successes. As opposed to more narrow focused, single pet-project initiatives, has the community exhibited broad ranging projects and community involvement. And here again, Beloit has demonstrated a willingness to address a broad gamut of needs to revitalize it’s downtown. So while the DBA (Downtown Business Association) has led the charge there is considerable support by city government and broad ranging civic groups and community members in making positive changes. Further, downtown improvements have spanned infrastructure redevelopment, communications and downtown organizations development, merchant and public programs development, inter-agency cooperation and much more.

Congratulations to Kathleen Bratz, (dir. of DBA), the individual downtown business owners, the neighbors and broader community that shop and hang out in our increasingly cool and vibrant, historic, center-city downtown.

• 2011 Great American Main Streets Awards | Beloit Wisconsin

• The Downtown Beloit Association

• You can read more about the National Main Streets initiative here.

• You can read more about the Wisconsin Main Streets initiative here.

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Secondly… Sustainability, downtowns and changing consumer trends.

The National Main Streets Conference was two weeks ago in Des Moines. Opening keynote, Ed McMahon (Senior Fellow for the Urban Land Institute) gave a wonderful presentation on sustainability, our downtowns and current shifts in consumer trends, public policy etc.

(go to time stamp 01:28:00 to see Mr. McMahon’s presentation)

Video streaming by Ustream

“Last October, trades experts, window wrights and preservation educators created this collaborative todevelop standards for the repair, restoration and weatherization of historic windows. The windowreplacement industry spends millions of dollars a year to convince architects, specifiers, contractors,homeowners and developers to replace rather than restore. In the past, this has put the preservationindustry in a non-competitive position that has needlessly trashed millions of old and historic windows.”

• Aug. 15, 2011 Press Release following their 1st “Window Preservation & Performance Summit”

Download (PDF, 114.67KB)

Pictures worth a thousand words… This annotated visual presentation by the National Trust helps illustrate the issue at hand.

Download (PDF, 5.77MB)

Old Windows Find a Following

New York Times Article — July 27, 2011

The community of Beloit continues to invest in its downtown.

It seems that for the few years we’ve been in town every few months there is something significant taking place in the ongoing revitalization of Beloit’s downtown. Improved riverfront (taking up parking deck and adding a canoe/kayak launch & too many additional things to mention), an expanding farmer’s market that is among the very best in state, additional live music venues (Suds), unveiling of historic downtown facades (Bagels & More), adaptive reuse of historic structures (Hendricks Arts Center in the old Post Office > Library… to name just one of several), new transit center, new merchants moving in, (Paddle & Trail being the latest), downtown festivals gaining national attention (BIFF). There a several more I could list but you get the point.

The transformation of Beloit’s downtown is dramatic and ongoing.

Big downtown Beloit improvement du jour?

As the locals know… the new downtown road reconstruction… including pavers, pavilion and, well a host of other improvements too.

Like most I’ve spoken with this will be a significant improvement to our downtown. And while the reconstruction will be relatively quick for a project of this scale the downtown merchants will likely take a temporary hit. As residents of Beloits historic district and the nearest neighbors to downtown our neighborhood and downtown are especially co-dependent. I would propose that we benefit more directly than many by having a vital and thriving downtown. Conversely, I’d add that downtown benefits by having a vital and thriving residential historic district near by.

All the same, I would encourage everyone and historic district neighbors in particular to keep coming downtown through this transition. There’s back door parking and access as you know.

I look forward to seeing you downtown, as per usual.

Oh, the pic at the top of the page?
There’s been some comment and curiosity about the road crew having rediscovered the light rail railroad ties burried beneath the pavement. The “before” pic is from the cover of the booklet handed out at the opening of the new transit building. Cool huh?

We don’t use our fireplace often. It’s for times like today when we want to relax, treat ourselves a little and cozy up to our wood burning fireplace. It’s primary purpose is not to heat the house. We have a furnace in the basement for that. We’ve added insulation in the attic, put up storm windows and caulked, our thermostat is on a timer. We’ve done many of the normal things to economize and maximize home energy efficiency.

When we were shopping homes to buy and found our current home had a beautiful fireplace it was the aesthetic, intangibles and character that it added which made the home considerably more attractive (and likely a bit more expensive) to us than a home without a natural wood-burning fireplace. It’s a fine old home with character, not a log cabin dependent on the fireplace for home heating.

Now every old house homeowner has an in-law, coworker or someone in their life that simply does not understand. They think you’re crazy and old houses incomprehensible. And there are even old house homeowners who themselves look at a natural wood burning fireplace and begin to salivate at the opportunity to “improve” it by retrofitting a “high-efficiency” fireplace insert. How much smarter they are. How much more economical their solution is. Just think of all the money they’ll save.

We all have different area of interest and opinion be it in sports, film, local politics, education, religion, the arts… You look around and are puzzled that folks are missing the point. They clearly don’t get it. I must admit that I don’t get “upgrading” a wood burning fireplace with an insert. Even if  the fireplace has become unsafe due to deferred maintenance is not repair a viable option?

We just spent a wonderful lazy Sunday afternoon enjoying the minor ritual of getting the fire going and maintaining it, the hypnotizing aesthetic and uninterrupted view of the fire itself, the spit and crackle of our homes original, natural wood burning fireplace. We put our feed up, enjoyed a favorite drink, each others close company and the inefficiency of it all. This is why we have a fireplace.

Later we’ll let it die out and our workhorse home furnace will continue with it’s intended purpose.  And tomorrow I think I’ll start looking for top rated utilitarian vacation spots…. NOT.