Category: Restoration Jewels

  • Deconstruction Idea

    I never know where I will find interesting tidbits for the Voice.  I was flying home from the East Coast last night on American Airlines and found a tidbit in the airline magazine!  In an article titled "The Deconstruction Deduction" author Ken Wysocky writes

    So, you're thinking about a home teardown to make way for larger, more modern digs?  Fair enough, but before you hire a guy with a dump truck, here's a tax tip that may seem as improbable as a benevolent IRS man:  It just might be more lucrative to have your abode painstakingly dismantled–stud by stud, floorboard by floorboard, brick by brick–than to flatten it with a bulldozer.  And you will do the environment a huge favor in the process.

    The piece goes on to list some real-life numbers about "donating salvageable materials (such as highly prized old-growth lumber or vintage oak floorboards)".  There are lots of classic B'game bungalows that have lots of that stuff along with classic windows, doors, and fireplace mantles that bring big bucks at places like Omega Salvage, Urban Ore and Wholesale Building Supply in San Mateo.  The piece goes on to note a case study from Palo Alto where

    Demolishing the home would cost $10,000.  Hiring a deconstruction contactor–in this case, Palo Alto-based Rebuild Green–would cost $21,000.  A certified appraisal of the salvageable items (required for tax filings for deductions larger than $5,000) cost another $1,500. … When the final figure (value) came in at $117,000–the resulting tax deduction more than covered the initial outlay.

    Great stuff from an unexpected source.  I've been talking to a lot of B'gamers lately while walking neighborhoods and it's amazing how often people want to talk about salvage out of the blue!

  • Local featured on CBS Sunday morning

    If you are an early riser on Sunday mornings, you might turn on the telly for a peaceful view of the world through the stories on CBS Sunday Morning. Today, while watching I heard a recognizeable name. The story was about the shared economy and the opening of the story featured Burlingame's own Doug Studebaker talking about his treehouse B & B.

    Here are two links. One to the story and one to his rental listing.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57575953/welcome-to-the-new-economy-built-on-sharing/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57575953/welcome-to-the-new-economy-built-on-sharing/ 

    This video features Linda Studebaker as well.

    https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/86456

  • Hot Houses in B’game

    One of our local realtors does a monthly recap of sales in B'game, San Mateo and Hillsborough.  The June 2012 synopsis is illustrative of the heat in the market right now.  35 sales in B'game which is approximately our usual total inventory.  28 of them were above $1 million which is interesting because San Mateo had 25 above $1 million–and it is about four times our size.  At least one of them was a renovation success story as opposed to a tear-down tear jerker.

    Average sales price was $1.336 million.  There were two homes on the market for more than 200 days and yet the average for the 35 that sold was only 30 days on the market.  Average price has crept over the listing prices at 101%.  I meet quite a few people who have their retirement savings locked up in their B'game homes, so this is reassuring to them.

  • Selling the Post Office – Mixed Signals

    Tonight four representatives of the U.S. Postal Service held the mandatory meeting, per the Code of Federal Regulations, but it was way more interesting than that sounds.  The Postal Services' business peaked in 2006 and has "fallen off a cliff since then" resulting in the main, downtown Post Office at 220 Park being viewed as a golden egg that is ready for sale.  The building is three times larger than the PO thinks it needs downtown and we are on the short list of "high value" real estate holdings to be liquidated along with Menlo Park, Palo Alto, La Jolla, Venice, etc.  But during the meeting the four reps, lead by Diana Alvarado from Facilities, were adamant that our building was historic!

    Here are four direct quotes from them at the meeting:

    "we recognize that it's a historic building"

    "it cannot be destroyed"

    "we will treat it as historic"

    "we're not looking to have it torn down"

    But there were mixed signals.  Another quote was "nothing is carved in stone" and "a suitable buyer is one who has the money".  So the essence of the exercise is to have the USPS Historical Consultant examine the property and make recommendations to the State Historic Preservation Officer who may then recommend that covenants be added to the title on the property to preserve some or all of it post-sale.  Of course, that could screw up some plans to screw up downtown.

    So we are six to nine months from any kind of formal action, but the realtors and potential buyers were there listening and checking their wallets.  The USPS has a nationwide contract with CBRE for this kind of deal and a Foster City broker named Hernan Santos was pointed out in the crowd as the contact for buyers.  Here he is talking with Ms. Alvarado of the USPS after the meeting.

    Alvarado and Santos_PO 041612

  • Some Good News about Trains

    The Daily Journal is highlighting the restoration of Engine #2472 and the train museum in Millbrae

    Vern Bruce, owner of Millbrae Locks and a railroad enthusiast was able to acquire the S.P.’s Millbrae Train Depot after it was declared surplus and no longer needed as a depot. With the aid of the Millbrae History Association, he opened it as a local train museum. Call Vern at (650) 333-1136 for further information.

    This is a nice complement to the Burlingame-Hillsborough Historical Society museum in the Burlingame Avenue train depot.  It's funny how the stations have evolved on the Peninula!

  • Curves – What Happened?

    Does anyone know what happened to Curves?  It looks a bit like a fire happened and the sign on the front is a construction company, not a realtor's sign.

    Curves closed 
    I hope the building is still sound.

  • Santa, Will You Bring Me PAC-B’game?

    One of the changes that comes with the Mercury News' affiliation with the SM County Times appears to be a bit more editorial support for historic preservation as seen in today's editorial.  Here's hoping the Mercury Times editors and reporters take a bit of the News' point of view in the new year.  They write:

    So this year, following our annual holiday tradition of declaring the best civic gift of the past 12 months, we'd like to note two major anniversaries celebrated in 2010 by organizations that have been invaluable to us all over time, although in different ways.

    One is PAC-SJ, the Preservation Action Council of San Jose, which 20 years ago began fighting to preserve historic buildings and neighborhoods at a time when architectural transience was in danger of becoming the norm in San Jose.

    I like that term "architectural transience" because it has a certain foreboding sound that matches reality.  They go on to note:

    But PAC's mission is not just about architecture. Old buildings give us a sense of history and of place. They remind us who we are, where we came from and how our best work can outlive us. A sense of history makes us better at navigating the present and building a future; PAC's work helps us understand that.

    Here's the PAC-SJ website and a description of its 20th anniversary celebration.  Clearly B'game is a few years behind San Jose, but perhaps we are catching up as people wake up to the sterile reality of a tear-down, throw-away, McMansion world?

  • Carolands Carriage House Complete

    Hillsborough has completed the renovation and modification of the Carolands Estate carriage house.  We last checked up on it in November, so here is the final view.  Well done!

    DSCN1951

  • Good Progress (in Hillsborough)

    In just four short months, Hillsborough has rebuilt the Carolands carriage house and added a police sub-station.  It's not done yet, but this appears to be good progress.  Cute light pole, too (not shown).

    Carriage House rebuild1

  • Carolands Gatehouse

    Sometimes buildings cannot be renovated.  In preservation lingo there is a phrase "demolition by neglect" that is self-explanatory.  There are also times when new requirements are incompatible with the old structure like when the California Dr. firehouse's doors were too small for newer trucks.  Burlingame has worked hard to maintain the look-and-feel with new buildings like the firehouse and the library while meeting new needs.

    It appears Hillsborough will do the same with the quaint gatehouse that heralded the entry to the Carolands estate.  Some insight from those in the know states that as part of the rebuilding:

    The Town was able to save quite a bit of the slate roof, the escutcheon over the door, and the decorative finial on the roof. They will attempt to re-use what they can, provided it's economically feasible to do so. The finished lodge will look almost exactly like the original. (The door has to be made wider to be ADA-compliant, for example.)
     
    Re-building will start in about a month with a goal to having a watertight, if unfinished, building by mid-October.  Landscaping and finishing touches should be done by spring.
     
    The donations for the re-building were 100% privately funded. We got roughly 150 pledges to donate, and over 99% came through with the funds when it was time to do so.
     
    The Hillsborough Police Department will use grants to furnish the interior with communications equipment for their new sub-station.

    It will be a ground-up rebuild as you can see here:

    Carolands Gatehouse demo 
    And here is a picture of it before it was demolished.  Let's see how close the new one comes to it.

    Gatehouse image

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