Advantages of Urban Cottages

Versatility of Use
Urban cottages are small enough to be affordable, but large enough to support many different lifestyles, including single occupants, home offices, couples, couples with children, those needing a low maintenance lifestyle and those wanting a connection to the outdoors, those with multiple cars, and those taking advantage of other mean of transportation. With versatility comes the ability to live in the same home for many years and a broad spectrum of potential buyers when its time to sell.

Easy to finance
Single family homes have a greater number of financing methods available then any other housing type. This is a great advantage over the constantly changing financing restrictions for multifamily urban living options. It makes urban cottages easier to buy, easier to evaluate, and easer to sell.

Affordable, Quality Space
Urban cottages take advantage of and celebrate every space inside and out. Keeping thing small allows for the use of high quality finishes at reasonable costs. Scarcity of space promotes efficiency of it design and use. Money that is normally wasted on ostentatious and unnecessary square footage is used to create effective solutions to the demands of a modern lifestyle.

Individuality
Each cottage is different and becomes more unique as it is changed over time to suit the needs and taste of its owner. It has its own street presence. Your home is the “green house, with the picket fence and big porch”, not the unit on the fifth floor, half way down the hall.

Independence
An urban house’s can be customized and improved approved to your taste. If can be expanded to fit your needs. Home owners can benefit from the added value of improvements that differentiate your home from the neighbor’s. The uniformity and restrictions of both urban multifamily units or suburban homes, reduces the ability to benefit from increases.

Charm
Of all the properties one’s home can have, charm is the most desirable. Charm makes a house a home. Charm is the result of subtly and taste, but it has a value that anyone can appreciate.  No housing type can compete with the charm of a historically detailed cottage with a porch and flower garden.

Community & Privacy
Urban cottages are built close together, creating a feeling of community and a place where you can sit on your front porch while chatting with a passer by. But if well designed, they also provide private indoor and outdoor spaces that give a sense of separateness without a feeling of being enclosed.

Manageable Exterior Spaces
All of us need a connection to the outdoors, but huge green yards are major environmental problem and are difficult and expensive to maintain. By contrast, a small urban lawn or garden can easily be maintained, or it can be turned into an incredible design feature for very little money and effort.

Green Living
Urban living is green living. All the transportation and infrastructure costs of suburban homes make urban homes inherently more efficient. Also, the typical cottage is made from materials with a much lower inherent energy cost then the cement and steel of a high rise. The efficient use of land and of interior space, the lack of common area construction costs, heating and lighting, and the use of high efficiency appliances and insulation makes urban cottage living one of the greenest lifestyles available.

Rosegarten Project Getting Started

Rosengarten Park Update       

Cleaning up the Buildings

Last week, we started cleanup work on the block.  To help the appearance of the street we asked permission to move the boards securing the vacant properties from the outside to the inside of the houses.  Where visible through the windows, the boards were covered with black felt paper to disguise their presence.  We also removed the unsightly lattice covering the front porch of 515 S. Saunders and the cattle-pen-like boards that enclosed the porch at 512 S. Saunders.

 

Cleaning up the Yards

We have been mowing, pruning, edging, and cutting back the undergrowth around the houses and on the vacant lots.  We are not cutting down any trees and are also being careful to preserve an abundance of mature Wisteria vines around the site.   To clean up the streetscape, we will be adding salvaged brick to some of the spaces between the curb and sidewalk along Cabarrus and Saunders.  This work will continue as we start work on the houses.

 

Increased Security, Horse Patrols, and Other Police Enforcement

Each vacant house has been strongly secured and posted with no-trespassing signs.  The Raleigh Police Department is working with us to keep the street under control by patrolling via horseback, bike, and car.  The effectiveness of this was shown to us when we were confronted by two officers on horseback after showing one house to a potential buyer! 

 

Great Response to Initial Sales Offer

In order to progress as fast as possible with the restoration project, we put a couple houses on the market in their pre-renovation states.  These properties are to be sold with covenants requiring their immediate restoration to historic specs, restrictions against renting in the first year, and with the restrictive covenants of the HOA to ensure that each property contributes to the neighborhood restoration project.  The large number of inquires we received in the few days they have been on the market was inspiring.  We have had multiple showings and are now working to solidify sales terms with a few prospective buyers.  We are currently considering whether to offer additional pre-renovation properties.

 

Historic Research

We met with representatives of the Raleigh Historic Districts staff last week and laid out a path that will hopefully lead to both national and local historic designations.   Our online and NC State Archive research has already lead to the discovery of a number of interesting historical facts.  The next step is to schedule a site tour with national historic districts representative.

 

Renovations to Start Next Week - New Sign Going Up

We have secured the funds for the first renovations.  If the City Council confirms the BED committee’s 6 month extensions Tuesday, we will begin work.  To celebrate, we will be installing a large sign on the corner of W. Cabbarus and S. Saunders announcing the long awaited start of the project.