Full Speed Ahead

Conditional Use Permit Approved!

I (Mike) went to the Planning Board meeting tonight seeking the final approval of our Conditional Use application. After a few questions about the property and explaining what kind of activities would go on (they seemed confused that homeschoolers would need space away from home for anything 🙂 ) I received a very enthusiastic and energetic approval.  We now have approval to use this property as we intended. 

What’s Next…

Now that we have the permit, the bank will set a closing date to finalize the sale.   Please pray that they won’t drag their feet on this…we want to get to work!  We hope to tackle as much of the renovations on our own (with the help of those of you who have offered) to save some money but there will be a few things to do that are out of our league.   Still, our goal is to have the schoolhouse ready for use by September.

about those renovations… We’ve had folks ask us what exactly needs to be done so we wanted to share the list in a little more detail…

• Painting – Full exterior and Interior (we may try and strip the paint from the interior woodwork – molding and wainscoting – to bring it back to the original varnished wood.  That may prove to be a nightmare, in which case, we’d repaint in something other than bright purple or green!
• Porch Repairs – There is a small enclosed porch surrounding one of the side exits that needs to be torn down to be replaced by a new landing, stairs and railing.  The ramp access at the other side needs some repair work as well…replace missing balusters etc…
• Siding – Some of the wood clapboards on the exterior should be replaced. The slats in the bell cupola need to have some repair and replacement.
• Gutters – We’ve had a gutter contractor quote the work to replace some of the broken gutters contributing to excess moisture in the basement and to add some more gutters where there aren’t any.
• Ceiling – The existing drop ceiling tiles and insulation need to be removed and replaced.  We really wanted to remove the drop ceiling completely to restore the original ceiling but that would be significantly more expensive to do and would also  increase our heating/cooling costs.  Perhaps down the road we can rethink the idea of bringing back the original ceiling.
• Heating System Replacement – We have access to a great deal on a new furnace, new registers, duct work and oil tanks. We just need to rip the old system out and replace it all. We hope to do some of this ourselves  but will still need to hire a heating contractor to do a good portion of it…any good HVAC contractors in the homeschool community??
• Plumbing Work – Nothing major, we want to remove a couple toilets, replace a couple other ones, relocate a couple sinks.
• Interior Carpentry – We want to turn one toilet room into a closet, change a door location on another and remove another one to enlarge the space intended for a kitchen.  This back “room” will become the kitchen – cabinets, counters, appliances all need to be installed. A little demolition will be required. Want to work in some shelving and storage space throughout as well.  Hope to install mirrors and barres in one of the classrooms to offer a nice space for dance or martial arts classes. There are multiple blackboards in the 2 main classrooms that need to be repaired/replaced.  Need to rip up the old carpet and replace it with new flooring in the center room and kitchen area…the 2 main classrooms will keep their original wood floors.
• Electrical Work – We’ll be looking for an electrical contractor to work on a few things – adding a subpanel to the system or replacing the breaker box (100AMP system with room for more, but it has a smaller circuit panel to begin with), adding a few circuits for the kitchen, doing some remediation on a potentially missing main grounding wire.
• Exterior Walkway and Fences – Repair some breaks in the chain link fence, replace the railing for the stairs down the hill to the field, and repair some of the wooden steps. Lot of general sprucing up needed around the property.
• Repointing – Not as big a priority but I see a grinder and some mortar in my future for some repointing along the foundation.
• Playground – If the budget allows, we hope to install some playground equipment on the field…we’ll have to get creative…we could easily blow our whole budget on commercial playground structures!  There is one small a-frame swing set already in place but it has been there for a LONG time.  We will definitely accept help on this part of the project to create and build our own!

Interior layout…

When you walk into the front center entrance, you’ll find a small foyer with a 600 sq.ft classroom to your left and another to your right. Straight ahead is the center room measuring 10×12, this is where the rope to the bell hangs down.  Along the back of the building is the “plumbing wall” that was added on to house the bathrooms and kitchen space. We’ve purchased an upright piano that will be in one of the classrooms and we plan to purchase a full compliment of folding tables and chairs for your use.  We’re keeping an eye out for a good price on a new or used Screenflex portable room partition which would allow us to split one of the large classrooms, as needed, for even more flexibility.

As soon as we close we’ll send more notes out about planned work days for those who wish to help. We’ll be open for tours as we work! If you think you might want to use this space for the 2012-2013  school year, please let us know!