30 Watkins Street Project

The wonderful smell of the ocean and clean air surrounds our newest project which we picked up in mid-December but decided to put off construction due to all the snowstorms that came our way here in New England.

This little cottage near the beach is located off of Quincy Shore Drive and a mile away from Marina Bay. A beautiful little area where on beautiful clear days you can see the Boston skyline and the Quincy shoreline along Wollaston Beach.

Quincy Shore Drive is a historic road in Quincy, Massachusetts. It was built in 1903 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Quincy of course was the early residence of two Presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams. You can find Quincy's history on the official Discover Quincy website.

We accidently stumbled upon this little cottage that was for sale on a quiet post Thanksgiving drive down the shoreline to take in the fresh air one last time before winter set in. As we drove by we noticed how run down the property looked and noticed the "For Sale" sign out front. We immediately called our realtor George and when we didn't reach him we left a message for the sellers broker.


Once the appointment was made and we walked through the property, we were convinced that this little cottage was destined for a makeover from "MKE". We noticed almost immediately that the cottage had serious foundation issues and the basement had two sump pumps due to the high water table of the area. Additionally, the interior of the cottage had some serious damages that were beyond repair.

So, we put an offer on the property and closed on it mid-December.
Snow storm after snow storm prevented us from commencing work on this project but gave us some time to formulate a solid plan, review Quincy's building codes and design a modern cottage that we'd be happy to put our names on.

First up however was securing the property and avoiding winter damages so immediately after we purchased the property we called N-Star Gas to shut off the gas and take the meter away and also called the Quincy's Water Department and requested that the main water valve be shut off from the street.

The folks at the Quincy Water Department and N-Star Gas were very accommodating and they sent a crew over promptly.

Shutting the water main was a chore and a half and the crew worked for hours in the freezing cold attempting to find and turn off the water from the street. N-Star marked the ground to show where their pipes were so that the Quincy Water Department folks could dig to find the water shut off switch that was burried underground. As they began to dig they hit water at about a foot deep. It was of no surprise to us however knowing about the high water table of the area.

Follow us as we bring this neglected property back to life.

I will post a link to the before photos of the property shortly.

MKE

42 Ralph Talbot Street - Blower door Test & Energy STar Audit results

Well folks, life got a bit ahead of us and we hadn't blogged for a while. We hope everyone is weathering these snow storms well.

Here's the final post on 42 Ralph Talbot.

We have good news and great news!





The good news is that we had an offer on the property that we accepted and this project sold early November, 2010.





The great news:
we not only had a successful blower door test but we made Energy Star level II on this project and we were thrilled to have it in the October 2nd 2010 NorthEast Sustainable Energy Associations Green House Tour.



Our energy audit resulted us in a 55 HERS RATING! That brought this project to a Level II Energy Star level, making this home 45% more energy efficient that standard code requires.



Everything that went into this beautiful "Old meets New" renovation from the High Efficiency heating & air conditioning systems, the HRV (heat recovery ventillation system), the CFL light bulbs, reusing the antique wide pine flooring to the BIB insulation system made it a candidate for the Green Buildings Open House tour on October 2nd, 2010. During our first open house we had over 120 people walk through and we had a very successful Green Buildings Open House tour a few weeks after that as well.


Thank you to all who made this project a successful and green rehab!
Stay tuned for our next project!

The MKE Development Team!

42 Ralph Talbot St. Weymouth - Finally: The Open House 9/19/10

Almost a month behind schedule our Open House Day finally arrived. 9/19/10.

We had over 100 people come through over the course of 5 hours. Our Open house was scheduled from 11am - 2pm but people were still coming by at 5pm.

We of course were so exhausted on only 2 hrs of sleep but we hung in there and the Open House was a success.

If you missed it, here are some photos of the home:

All that's left are a few final touches that we didn't have time to finish before the open house, our final inspections and Certificate of Occupancy and this home will be in move in condition in no time...

Also our final step is the Blower door test to get our Energy Efficiency Rating HERS rating which tells us how energy efficient the home is and then we receive our Energy Star Certificate...

Stay tuned and see how we do.

42 Ralph Talbot St. Weymouth, MA - 9/15/10 Preparing for...

The RUSH to the finish (our OPEN HOUSE 9/19/10) which by the way can't be rushed as it's the finish that we must take our time with in order to present a beautiful finished product. And beautiful we believe it is but we'll leave that for you to judge.

So lets see how we can sum up these past few 12-15 hr days:

National grid new Gas lines installed: check

Eco-friendly driveway: check

Kitchen Cabinet intall: check

Kitchen Granite install: check

Kitchen Appliance install: check...well almost...final install takes place on Saturday when our electrician comes in.

Bathroom vanities installed: check

Light fixtures installed: check

Security System install: check

Interior of home painted: check

Steps & railing install: almost there

Trim work install & painted: check
Interior doors install / painted: check

Brick patio install (reclaimed brick from the home's old fireplaces): check

Beam staining: well a few more beams remain to be stained so we can't check that off yet

Original antique wide pine flooring planed, sanded & installed... well that's the tough one too... 2nd floor almost complete, kitchen almost complete, 1st floor not even in yet...

we're rushing to the finish line.....and putting in lots of hrs...

OPEN HOUSE / rain or shine / SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19th from 11 am - 2 pm.

All are welcome! Come by and tell us what you think of our almost complete 290 yr old rehab.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone at the open house!

M. K. E.

ps:

we even got rid of a plow that we found in the back yard. Thanks to J&T who came out and made lifting a 400+lb plow look like a piece of cake.

Thanks Jimmy & Tasso!