The Salt & Light Company, Inc.

Federalsburg, MD

Lesson learned: Don't let appearances fool you!

Working with foreclosed and government-owned properties, we see lots of houses in all sorts of conditions. While many homes have multiple problems to address in light of today's building, health, safety, and energy standards, every now and then we come across homes that surprise us. Usually, a home filled with problems shows visible concerns from the outside. We see poor roofs, foundation issues, perhaps structural concerns. These signs are often indications of additional problems to be found on the inside. We find that you can often judge a book by its cover... but even we can be wrong from time to time.

From the outside, this home in Federalsburg, Maryland was terribly deceiving. It did not look too bad at all - rather promising, in fact. On the inside, however, we found the home to be filled with problems and concerns. For starters, the property sits in a flood zone and the dwelling is not built above the flood plane. There are structural concerns. The room sizes are inadequate and the house is, overall, too large for a single family, but not large enough for two dwellings. The systems (plumbing, electrical, heating) are all failing and would need to be upgraded or replaced. The house contains old windows, poor insulation, and is energy-inefficient. The property suffers from water penetration and damage, either from leaking plumbing or a faulty roof - or both. Water damage has caused moisture and mold concerns inside of the home, a major environmental problem. Also a health hazard is the peeling and chipping lead-based paint all throughout the property.

We felt that the property would be difficult to renovate and satisfy today's health and safety standards. We determined that this project would be best completed by demolishing the existing structure and building a new home on the site. Demolition of the property began in early December. We will update our site with photos of building progress in the coming weeks and months. Take a look at what we have seen so far.

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