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November 13, 2004
A visit to Caravati's
Columns are painted; we meet neighbors out and about in Manchester; more.
To cut some of the cost on the porch rebuild, we are taking care of the painting and priming. Our task this weekend (like last weekend) is to prime the columns. This happens in 3 stages -- first we putty any holes, sand that when dry, and then apply two coats of primer. Easy and kind of boring: after a morning of that we were eager to get out of the house...
The Alliance To Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods (A.C.O.R.N.) held a workshop and neighborhood tour at Plant Zero. There were booths from renovation lenders and carpenters and realtors and painters and anyone that might be able to help a renovator get started or keep going.
We learned a little more about some renovation-oriented tax credits that we might be eligible for, which was one of our specific reasons for going. As a bonus, we also saw plans for parts of Oregon Hill, Highland Park, and Manchester. We found out that Better Housing Coalition will be restoring a house just up the street from us.
We ran into Mrs.Thompson, the president of our civic league, and a friend from the neighborhood, Mary. When Mary found out where we lived and that we where working restoring this house, she asked pointedly what our plans were -- to stay or to rent out the finished house? She was pleased to find out that we were planning to live in the house, as for the most part rental properties in the neighborhood don't attract desirable neighbors (and who doesn't hate landlords?!?).
After mingling and collecting info, we went and visited Caravati's, an architectural-salvage warehouse also over in Manchester. As awful as their website is, they have an amazing assortment of beautiful old things and parts of things. We think that we have found a balaster that we can use as the model for the missing pieces on our front porch. All of the pictures below are from Caravati's.
Posted by john m at November 13, 2004 7:38 AM
Comments
Wow! What great photos! I'm jealous that you have such a nice salvage place nearby. Ours have all gone "upscale"...moved into spaces that look like boutiques...and the prices are through the roof (even more than reproductions!) It discourages many regular folks from restoration, which is sad to me...
Posted by: jm at November 14, 2004 8:45 AM
The prices for the stuff that on would 'need' are ok, the prices on things that one would 'desire' are priced appropriately. Saturday was their first ever sale in their 80+ years, some say to clear inventory for a move; I hope that they too don't go upscale just when we really need them...
Posted by: john m at November 15, 2004 7:27 AM
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