A couple weeks ago, CityView columnist Kent Carlson wrote an article discussing his primal need to renovate. He started with a fixer-upper in Highland Park that he converted back from a four family to a single family home. He moved on to another "reducing" project behind Terrace Hill, and is now living in and renovating a former opera house outside of Des Moines. He has found creative uses for interesting architectural salvage pieces such as teller cages, old windows, and even a front porch from another house!

The key quote: "It's easy to become overwhelmed by renovation projects. That's why it is so important to find somebody even crazier that you can use as a reference point."

Read the whole article called "The Renovator: Still Crazy After All These Years" online at http://dmcityview.com/archives/2007/09sep/09-06-07/guest.shtml.