Tag:Residential
Elkay Visits Sand Hill Farm Apartments
One of Elkay’s crews at the Sand Hill Farm Apartments Site Visit October 16, 2018
Earl Lilly, Plant Manager of Elkay Wood Products in Culver, brought a large contingency of Elkay employees to observe the cabinets going in at Sand Hill Farm Apartments this past Tuesday. Representatives of several divisions that worked on these cabinets were there including engineering, scheduling, production & shipping. They often don’t get to see their products in place, so this was a great opportunity to see a large installation underway just a block from the plant. Steve Deford of Deford Kitchens, the cabinetry installer for the project, was onsite to discuss how the installation was going. The installation is going well!
It was great to see some of the people that work in our community and could potentially be future residents at Sand Hill Farm Apartments at the site. The optics of the private/public partnership that occurred here was instrumental in Culver’s success in the Stellar Communities program. Elkay Wood Products and Easterday Construction Co., Inc. helped developer Culver Sand Hill Farm, LLC step up to the challenge of creating affordable housing for the Town.
Shelby Harrell, editor of the Culver Citizen, was on site to document the event. Her article appeared in The Pilot News on October 18, 2018. (See the article to the right.) The exposure can only help the project’s success. We count this as part of the community effort to see more entry-level housing in Culver. Thanks Shelby!
Unfortunately progress is currently impeded by the late start on the street. Lack of utilities is slowing us down and may force a stop soon. Currently we’re moving 5 gallon buckets of water to the site from our office in order to keep working. NIPSCO could not bring gas and electric to the building without the completion of street utilities. The furnaces are ready but can’t be fired without gas and electric, so we’ve started providing temporary heat with space heaters in order to keep things warm enough for the various sealants, adhesives and paint needed to finish out the project. The fire sprinkler system is full of water and in danger of freezing with the cold nights we’ve been having.
The lack of fire protection is also a concern, since the sprinkler system has water in it within the building, but does not have a hook up to the Town water system yet. The fire hydrants that serve the building currently have no connections. We’ve been assured these things will be available soon.
Affordable Housing
Courtney Papa, District Director, Office of Senator Todd Young
Affordable Housing continues to be the buzzword. A couple of weeks ago I was at a meeting with Governor Holcomb and we spoke about the issue. One of his staff members is trying to connect with me on that. MacKenzie Ledley, Library Director for Pulaski County Public Libraries, made a connection with Courtney Papa, District Director for Senator Todd Young’s office. Courtney and MacKenzie met me for a tour of Sand Hill Farm Apartments this past Wednesday. The issue is on Senator Young’s radar as well.
It is clear that our political leaders recognize that there is an issue. In my discussion with Governor Holcomb, he had just finished a presentation on the great job climate in Indiana and their efforts to reverse out-migration trends. I raised the question regarding where these new residents were going to live? This seems to be a harder question to answer than how to bring in new business. I get it. I don’t have a solution either. He took notes and then proceeded with the follow-up.
What I do in these situations is explain what we’ve done here in Culver. It may not be an universal solution, but without the Town of Culver becoming a partner in these efforts, Sand Hill Farm apartments wouldn’t be here and there would be no consideration of The Paddocks, the next phase of housing at Sand Hill Farm development. Without the proposed IHCDA funding, The Paddocks will not happen.
Sand Hill Farm Drone Pictures
Aerial from Southwest
Les McFarland, Bourbon Town Council President, did us a solid Sunday, July 15th, and used his drone to take these (and a bunch of others) aerial pictures of Sand Hill Farm Apartments under construction. These are being used in the IHCDA application for the second phase – The Paddocks at Sand Hill Farm. This will be additional entry level housing. The application is supported by Culver’s Stellar Designation. It goes in July 30th and we’ll find out if we were successful in November.
Aerial from the Northwest
This is the kind of collaboration and connections that have been achieved due to Marshall County Economic Development Corp.’s (MCEDC) County Development for the Future meetings that brought Marshall County and all of our community leaders together to meet and discuss common goals. I would not have known Les to ask for his help without this connection. Les may or may not have helped Culver in the past before we met and shared our common goals. Now we’re embarking on Marshall County Crossroads – an effort to duplicate Culver’s Stellar success under the new Regional Stellar program. We should have an advantage as we have been collaborating between our communities for over five years.
Thanks Les! Your help is sincerely appreciated.
Suburban Sprawl in Culver?
Wikipedia defines Suburban Sprawl thus: “Urban sprawl or suburban sprawl describes the expansion of human populations away from central urban areas into low-density, monofunctional and usually car-dependent communities, in a process called suburbanization.” While Culver isn’t exactly racing down the road to strip malls, it’s worth looking at the changes occuring in recent and proposed developments in Culver.
Culver’s early development was very traditional. Despite dealing with the curvature of Lake Maxinkuckee, a traditional grid system was used for both the commercial and residential areas with the section of Lake Shore Drive along the Park being one of the few deviations with some curvature to reflect the lake shore. Since that time, the newer subdivisions have not followed the grid. The Riggings, Maple Ridge and Edgewood Estates are all dead end or loop streets with no plans to tie into the grid. It’s a little cheesy, but Adam Conover of “Adam Explains Everything” does a quick run down of some of the issues here:
Steps to Home Resale Success
Seth Murphy at www.papadiy.com contributed today’s tips. If you like the post, check out his site.
If out on your horizon of upcoming life events, you see the listing of your home for sale, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work on increasing its resale value and boosting its chances on the real estate market. Such a task may appear overwhelming, but when broken down into doable parts based on your personal budget, it’s a simple process.
First, determine both the current listing price potential of your home and an achievable goal for resale price by seeking the advice of a local agent. Based on the difference between each number, strategically decide, then, upon a budget for home improvement spending and which portions of your home. If renovated, your home will deliver the most return for your money.
Even small changes can go a long way toward increasing the resale price of your home. Examine the following potential renovations, listed by budget capability to plan your approach to home improvement.
Under $100
- Hire someone to conduct a thorough inspection of your home. They may discover hidden issues with basic structures and systems that could negatively impact its resale value.
- Update interior paint. This is one of the simplest, most cost-effective improvements you can make. Freshly painted rooms appear clean and up-to-date, indicating value.
- Zillow conducted research to find which paint colors yield the highest monetary return upon home resale. From the outside in, choose these colors in order to appeal to the broadest audience of home buyers:
- Front door: Navy blue to dark grey or charcoal
- Home exterior: Mix of grey and beige
- Kitchen: Light blue to soft grey-blue
- Living room: Light beige, pale taupe or oatmeal
- Bedrooms: Light cerulean to cadet blue
- Bathrooms: Powder blue to periwinkle
- Avoid these color placements, as they were found to yield negative returns:
- Home exterior: Medium brown, taupe or stucco
- Kitchen: Yellow
- Living room: Blue
- Dining room: Red
- Bathrooms: White
- Trim your lawn and shape your hedges. Curb appeal is of utmost importance–if potential buyers don’t like what they see when driving by, they won’t be coming inside.
- Conduct a top-to-bottom cleaning of your home, especially of those nooks and crannies you tend to overlook as time passes. You get one chance at a first impression–make your home sparkle.
- Visually increase the square footage of your home. Rid yourself of unnecessary clutter or chunky pieces of furniture that create obstacles to maneuvering through the space. Let in more natural light (sunny = spacious) and consider adding a large mirror to a small room to make it feel bigger.
- Zillow conducted research to find which paint colors yield the highest monetary return upon home resale. From the outside in, choose these colors in order to appeal to the broadest audience of home buyers:
Under $200
- Ditch the popcorn ceilings, as few structural elements date a house more. Find a solution to soften the texture, and then simply scrape the popcorn away.
- Make simple repairs to your roof, the most common being replacing broken or missing tiles. Cut wooden shingles with a saw, asphalt shingles with a utility knife and clay or concrete tiles with an angle grinder. Position the new tile, hooking its nibs over the furring strip and ensuring that it’s securely attached. Remove the wedges from the adjoining tiles, and check that the new tile is sitting flush with its neighbors.
Under $400
- Replace outdated lighting and cooling fixtures with new, more energy efficient options.
More expensive, higher returns
- Renovate the master bathroom, or add an entirely new bathroom if your home features a limited number.
- Replace old appliances with updated, commercial-style versions.
- Add insulation to the attic to reduce utility costs.
- Replace the garage door, an improvement option from which sellers can expect to recoup 85 percent of the cost, according to Remodeling Magazine.
- Replace the front door, adding functionality, safety and curb appeal. Sellers usually regain 91 percent of the cost of a steel entry door and nearly 78 percent of the cost of a fiberglass door.
With some budget examination, strategic thought and goal-oriented planning, the renovation of your home will pay off by improving its resale appeal and price potential.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
