Mt. Holly Project

These two homes were renovated by The Affordable Homes Group and sold to first time homebuyers.  When we acquired the units, approximately 80 years old, they were deteriorating and in need of major upgrading.   Bringing these dwellings to today's standards would be a challenging task, but one we saw as an opportunity to provide good, quality housing and learn something new in the process.  We began consulting with other professionals to develop plans for renovating and rehabilitating the dwellings.  A certain level of excitement started emerging as our plans took shape, and we were rewarded with satisfaction at each step we accomplished.  You can learn more about our project development, as well as view drawings of the plan, on our project description page.

One major challenge in the two houses was the rear, single-story portions of each building, which had been added on to the existing dwelling sometime after the original structure was built.  After years of poor roof maintenance and abandonment, the units were compromised by serious wood rot and mold.  Upon evaluation we quickly determined that the whole rear portion of the houses had to be removed.  With further evaluation of the foundation around the back of the building, it was found that the rear footings were deteriorated and completely inadequate.  The whole structure needed to be rebuilt from the footings up, and so the demolition began.

Our initial plans for renovating the interior of the remaining structures in the summer of 2004 included a number of upgrades, such as new electric, plumbing, drywall, and flooring.  We planned to add additional fiberglass insulation to make the homes more energy efficient.  The installation of vinyl windows was one of the first modifications to be done.  After working on other stages of renovation in the early months we decided that to best renovate the homes to meet today's standards we should completely gut the interior and start fresh.  In November we undertook more demolition, stripping the walls down to bare studs.  We continually evaluated the stability of the basement walls and looking at ways to address concerns about the supportive strength.

By January of 2005 we had revised our plans, with the help our architect, and completed reinforcing the basement walls.  We then began pouring cement over the existing dirt floor in each basement.  Blown-in cellulose insulation was applied throughout the houses in place of rolls of insulation.  We put a hold on the remaining stages of our renovation while we built a new home around the corner, then returned the next summer to complete the inside and outside work on the homes.  We installed new, 80-year metal roofing, re-sided and painted the exteriors, and completed the interior work, including drywall, painting, flooring, kitchens, bathrooms and trim.  These homes were sold in late 2006 and early 2007 to two happy new homeowners. 

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