Old habits interrupted.................

      Every morning for the past twelve years (well, 345 days out of 365 anyway), I have walked for 45+ minutes down the hill from our house, across the little bridge, around the OSU-N/COTC campus, and back.  

      Apparently, bridges do not live forever, as ours has been taken out of commission for the next "111 days."

Younger Steve would have crossed this anyway

Whatever, walks still need to be walked.   There are more that 40 miles of paved "recreational trails" around here. This morning, my Sweetie and I traveled by car to the original Licking County bike path (+/-3.5 miles between Granville and Newark, initially paved in the mid-1970s.)   It is as pretty as I remember it.

We will try a different path tomorrow.

In praise of construction................

 

That’s shadowed by less irksome regulations, something that unsurprisingly meant more construction. Drive around any of the big Texas metros, particularly the suburbs, you’ll see new buildings everywhere. Permissive zoning laws mean that what, until recently, were rural pathways are now packed with cars and fast-food joints. 

-Joel Kotkin, from here

Until we start building 1,000,000.....................

 

..........houses per year expect housing prices to keep rising.  It's that old supply & demand thing.

Apparently...........................

 

....................................it wasn't aliens.

Constructive..........................

 

Having a calm mind that is focused on the outcome is our greatest asset when we are in conflict at workplace.

-Tanmay Vora, from this post

About time...................

  Housing starts surged well above expectations in May, crushing the forecast from every economics group and putting in the largest monthly gain in the number of homes started since January 1990.  Looking at the details, gains were broad-based with three of four major regions and both single-family and multi-unit starts contributing.  While one month doesn’t make a trend, housing starts are now at the highest level since the previous peak in April of 2022, before mortgage rates began to surge.  This signals that the developers may have finally found their footing in what has been a challenging environment for sales. While 30-year mortgage rates continue to hover near 7% it looks like some of the sticker shock from the rapid run-up in financing costs last year is wearing off.

-Brian Wesbury, from here

Please, oh please.........................

..........................may this trend line continue. 

       via

Faithful readers....................

 .............are aware I am a big fan of Ben Carlson and his A Wealth of Common Sense blog.  While that hasn't changed, there is a rather large bone to pick with his recent "How the Fed screwed up the Housing Market" post.  Any discussion about the housing market between 2015 and 2022 that does not focus on the lack of supply of housing options (both single and multi family) will miss the main point.  No matter how hard economists may try to repeal the law of supply and demand, they can't.  The supply/demand imbalance in the housing market has never been greater since the early 1960s.  The Fed can play with interest rates to their hearts' content.  Such actions may help or hinder specific buyers/sellers, but until the supply of new homes catches up with a decade of under-building on a national scale, the culprit behind a screwy housing market will be the shortage of new construction.

Us folk involved...................

 ..........in the business of building things will take our blessings wherever we can find them.

Supply and demand.................

 

The construction business is trying its hardest to catch up to the demand for housing.  In our market, anyway, most of the existing available building lots are either under contract or have recently sold.  Faithful readers may remember we had a whole passel of wondrous, wooded building lots available - seemed like for years.  Thankfully, over the past twelve months, almost all of them have sold.

charts may be found here

If you had told me.........................

..................in 2009 that the single-family housing construction business would not recover for more than ten years, I a) wouldn't have believed you, or b) acted differently if I had believed you.

source (and enlargeable image) here

Have I told you lately that we have lovely wooded building sites available at very reasonable prices?

It wasn't all that long ago..........

...........that "housing starts" were a key driver for the U. S. economy.  Some people (me) will tell you that we probably should have had a mild recession in +/- 2003.  To avoid that, and to keep the number of housing starts growing, politicians expanded the pool of eligible home buyers by including those who couldn't afford one.   We all paid the price for that decision in 2007-2009.   Just didn't know that the home construction rebound would take this long and be this slow.

enlargeable chart may be found here

The Impatient Stage.................

    The Old School project has been center stage in my work life since last fall.  We are now in the Impatient Stage.  We have made significant headway, lots of work has been completed, the apartment units are coming into sharper focus, one can see the finished product materializing.  But...........There still is a lot of work to be finished.  We have surrendered the original goal of having tenants move in by the end of June.  The target for completion is now mid-July.  I can see the pathway, but........:

First floor plaster repair not yet started

Second and third floor plaster work mostly finsished

Five of the 29 kitchens are still boxed up

8 of the 29 kitchens have cabinets but await countertops

The rest of the units are patiently awaiting appliance delivery

Eleven of the units originally had hardwood (maple) floors.

After almost 80 years, they need refinishing

It is a tedious process

Sanded but not stained.

Stained but not sealed

The almost finished product.  Mighty handsome floors, don't you think?

Confident enough in the process to put this sign up

Governmental Affairs.....................

     Traveled over to the big city of Columbus this afternoon for a variance hearing before of the Board of Building Appeals.  The Board of Building Appeals, among other things, has the authority to grant a variance, or relief, in cases where a literal interpretation of the Ohio Building Code could result in an unnecessary hardship.  It was our third trip for the Old School project.
      Let me say here that those of us active in large commercial and development projects tend to have solid working relationships with local government.  Just the nature of the work.  Newark has long been blessed with intelligent, hard working, competent, and fair people sitting in positions of authority.  It has been my experience that this is not true in all jurisdictions.  But  I digress.
      In the case of the  Old School, two separate and distinct governmental agencies, with different agendas, rendered opinions and set forth requirements for the project that were contradictory.
      The first of these governmental agencies is the National Park Service and its deputy, the Ohio History Connection.   They have their say in the project because, upon completion, we will receive some very necessary historic tax credits.  To preserve the historic nature of the building there are some things they say we can't do, and some things they say we must do.  One of those things we must do is preserve the existing, and historic, double door assembly separating the staircases (it is a three story building with two staircases) from the corridors.  Another thing we must do is preserve the historic wood classroom doors.
      The second of the governmental agencies involved in this tale is the local Building Code Department.    They very clearly stated when we submitted our plans for the project that the double door assembly separating the staircases from the corridors are not "fire rated" and as such would need to be replaced by a new "fire rated" assembly.  Coincidentally, they also said the same thing about the wooden class room doors.  (The classroom door situation was resolved in our second variance hearing, but more on that another time.)
     It has been my observation that building code officials take life safety issues VERY seriously.   Fire ratings exist for the purpose of getting people safely out of a building that has become involved with a fire.  It is hard to argue against them.  But.........
    The historic folks were inflexible.  I suspect they have been down this road many times and recognize that development types will figure something out without them having to concede anything.  The building code people were receptive to ideas and solutions that took into account their concerns.
     I'm not sure who first proposed the solution to the staircase/corridor impasse, might have been us, it might have been the code people.  The solution proposed was to add two sprinkler heads on each side of each of the six double door assemblies.  (A total of 24 new sprinkler heads).   These heads would act independently from the rest of the sprinkler system.  When tripped, the heads would generate a "water curtain" providing the necessary fire separation between the corridor and staircase.  While the local code people were willing to support this solution, they would not sign off on it permit-wise without the approval of the Board of Building Appeals.  So, about five months ago we had our first hearing in front of the Board.   They granted the variance under the condition that the alarm tripping the sprinkler system and creating the "water curtain" would be activated by smoke detectors.   We were so relieved to receive the variance that we didn't stop to think about smoke detection tripping the system.
     I don't know if you have any familiarity with smoke detectors, but it has been our practical experience that dust, or non-fire related particulate matter in the air, can set them off.    Creating a "water curtain" sounds like fun, but it would effectively flood a major portion of the building.  Having that happen during a fire event would be a good thing.  Having it happen because of dust or vaping would be a disaster.
     After extensive discussions with the local code people, the sprinkler company, and the alarm designer, we came to the conclusion that we needed to go back to the Board and ask for a variance to their previously granted variance.  We asked that they allow us to use a "rate of heat rise" detection system instead of smoke detection.   Reasonableness prevailed and this afternoon they said yes and granted us our third variance.   Yippee!

One of the six historic doorways separating the staircases from the corridors

ditto

A good view of one of the corridors, with the staircase doorway on the right

Four new sprinkler heads to provide for a water curtain

ditto

   
   

Sprinklers...............................

     Going into the Old School project we knew that adding a sprinkler system was a must.  When the building was first erected in 1939 there was no requirement for such a fire suppression system.  Building Codes have gotten a lot more sophisticated (and complicated) since then.  If we had kept the building in use as a school we would have been "grandfathered,"  and there would have been no mandate to add sprinklers.  But, the magic phrase "change of use" came into play as soon as we decided to convert the 30,000 square foot building into apartments.   "Change of use" opens the door for the application of all sorts of building code requirements.   A sprinkler system became a necessary part of the plan.

Counter-intuitively, at least to one who has never installed a sprinkler system,
the work began in the middle.   First, the black pipe  (visible among the tangle
of the white plumbing drain lines) was hung on the classroom side of the main
 corridor walls.  Then holes were drilled through the corridor wall, allowing a stub
line to penetrate the wall.  Eventually, a sprinkler head will be attached to the stub
line.  One of these days, the installed pipe will be connected back to the riser, the
4" water line that will allow the sprinkler system to sprinkle

Much of the sprinkler system was hidden by chases as the piping spread
its way throughout the building

Pipe fitting actually looks like hard work to me

Threading the pipe

Making pipe connections

Penetrating the walls actually took significant effort

Awaiting the addition of the actual sprinkler head, this unobtrusive sprinkler stub
 will help protect the main corridor.   For the most part, we were able to limit the
visibility of the sprinkler lines in the corridors.  Wasn't an easy task, but it became
a point of emphasis as the sprinkler design evolved to reflect the realities of
the building.

The gash in the ceiling is for wiring the corridor lighting.  It will be plastered
over and go away.  One hardly notices the connections for the sprinkler heads
on the left hand wall.   The heads themselves, when finally added, will be
white, blending into the wall. 

Some of the sprinkler lines had to be exposed.  No other affordable way.

But, when you paint the exposed lines they do tend to disappear into the wall

There is more, much more, to the sprinkler system, but you'll have to wait for future installments.

Windows................................

     Let there be light!   The Old School gave up its original wood sash windows some thirty years ago.  The school district apparently thought saving energy was more important than giving the kids huge windows to look out from.  When it came to replacement time, instead of glass, they inserted an energy efficient insulated panel in the upper two-thirds of the new aluminum framed windows.  I'm sure that decision saved the district a significant amount on their natural gas bill.  But, the rooms in the Old School have 11' ceilings.  High ceilings scream for large windows.  Most people seem to favor natural light.  Replacing the insulated panels with glass just seemed to be the right, and logical, thing to do. 
      During the process, the historical folks had their say.  Our original proposal did not include "muntins" on the outside of the glass.  The muntins give the window the framed pane look, and by having them on the outside of the glass a three dimensional look is added to the window.   The historical folks were adamant.  Muntins were a must.  It raised our cost for the replacement windows by more than 25%, but, in fairness, it also makes for a more attractive product:

The building with most the original insulated panels in place.

A replacement window without the muntins.   It got fixed later

A close up of the exterior muntins

The full glass dramatically enhances the interior of the
apartment units

Nobody uses ladders any more

It's a three-man job

The old insulated panels are sitting on the ground

A pretty attractive finished product