RenovateDSM.com - Comments

River Bend

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:56:22 -0700

I am President of the River Bend Association and was asked to reply to your question. First, I'm very pleased that you have fallen in love with one of the neighborhood houses. There are many folks who felt the same and have bought and rehabbed wonderful old houses here. I am one of them! Second, River Bend generally has a lower rate of crime than surrounding neighborhoods. However, that continues to be a challenging issue for us. Last summer was definitely not good. We are fortunate to have a new Chief of Police who has become very involved in improving neighborhood/law relations. Last summer she formed the Neighborhood Enforcement Strike Force (NEST) which had a huge impact on crime in our neighborhood and other neighborhoods. We have been told that a similar initiative will be launched this spring and summer. We have also been told that a new vice and narcotics patrol unit is being formed and will start this summer. This will be an evening patrol for the whole city, and it has been many years since such a unit was part of the police force.

We also strongly believe that landlords who are indifferent to the activities of their tenants are contributing factors to crime. In the last two years we have successfully sued landlords to hold them responsible for the criminal and nuisance activities of their tenants. We are getting the message out that landlords cannot just collect rent without being held accountable.

Lastly, we cannot do any of these things without the committed participation of members of our association. We have a strong organization and we do our best to address the concerns of the neighborhood.

I would be happy to put you in touch with other residents to get their perspectives. Thanks very much for your interest in River Bend.

Jeanne Johnson

River Bend

Pamlyn — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:18:24 -0700

Do any of you live in this neighborhood? I'm afraid I've fallen in love with a house... right by the corner the man was shot last summer. It seems that there is slow improvement there-- can anyone give any comments?
Feel free to contact me directly.

Beautiful!

kelli.griffis — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:43:39 -0700

That's a beautiful restoration job! I'll be restoring what's left of the woodwork in my house to the original finish. Fortunately, like was said before, they just painted over the varnish, which means I may be able to chip most of the paint off without really having to refinish all the wood. I'll post pictures once I get started.

Paint!

RenovateDSM — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:56:03 -0700

A lot of beautiful woodwork has been painted in the name of "progress". Fortunately, when woodwork like this is painted, it is not done correctly (stripping the varnish, sanding, priming, and two coats of paint). This actually makes it easier to take back to the original finish.

What a great article!

kelli.griffis — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 11:29:04 -0700

Thanks for sharing this! I'm so excited to see the rehabbing crowd getting press in Des Moines.

Replacing Built In Cabinetry

RenovateDSM — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:36:03 -0700

I am amazed at some of the beautiful craftsmanship that so many Des Moines homes (even some of the the very modest bungalows) exhibit. Perhaps if you have a space where it is obvious a built in buffet once existed, you could try to approximate the look with a mix of stylistically appropriate stock cabinets and some custom shelving. This would be a relatively cost-effective approach - I'll try to pull together a detail to post on this site in the future.

I'm so jealous of your

kelli.griffis — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:18:48 -0700

I'm so jealous of your lovely built-in buffet. Mine was a sad victim of some past remuddling of my house.

Follow Along!

RenovateDSM — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:48:32 -0700

Wow, what a wonderful blog! This web site documents the trials and successes of a young couple renovating their historic Des Moines bungalow. Pictures and descriptions abound and there is a lot of great information to be gleaned from the passionate entries.

A definite must-read!

Excellent examples

RenovateDSM — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:35:35 -0700

Thanks for posting these photos! When I wrote this article, I had already torn out all the knob and tube in my own renovation. These photos show both the "knobs" (used to turn corners with the wiring) and the "tubes" (which serve as a sheath to protect the wire when it penetrates through studs and joists).

It's the Details...

RenovateDSM — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:31:42 -0700

It's a testament to the craftsmanship of the time that your modest bungalow would have pieces of "cabinetry" like this. Things like this are what make historic homes so desirable and unique. Wouldn't it be great if you could find a replica of one of those black rotary phones to go in there!

Historic Storm Windows

RenovateDSM — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:27:29 -0700

This is not your mother's storm window! Before the aluminum triple track storm window us young'uns know was invented, they used wood storm windows like this to help conserve heat during winter. They had to be manually put in place each fall and they stayed there until spring when they were taken down. This one has true divided lites, which means that the wood muntins are actually structural - they support the individual panes. Thanks for sharing, Kelli!

Photos of knob and tube wiring in my house

kelli.griffis — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:08:40 -0700

These are all hosted on http://www.flickr.com:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1121/911099085_aa...
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1359/911951796_ee...
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1292/980057793_f9...