Introduction and the start of my search

Welcome to "Todd Keebler's: This New House".

A year ago I purchased a 20' x 72' garage at 7 Uxor Way in the Southside with the intention of turning it into a place to live. The previous owners used it as a garage for storing and fixing race cars, zoned as a residential auxiliary building; before that, it was used to make furniture. It's located in a narrow alley between 13th and 14th St approximately half a block behind Dee's Cafe.

The story starts long before the purchase though. At the end of 2004 I began my search for a unique, non-house building to turn into a place to live. A nickelodeon turned VFW hall in Polish Hill by Gooski's was the first building I considered. The structure itself was in good condition, made from cool looking ceramic blocks. However, the roof and floor of the building had caved in years ago into the basement... along with a car previously parked inside. The project was daunting, but the more difficult part was the leins placed on the building years ago. After the property was foreclosed and the city took ownership, the debts on the building were sold off to a third party called Capital Assets for a fraction of their worth. Capital Assets was asking for the full $16,000 dollars, despite having recieved them for most likely a 10th of that. Clearly, I had no interest in paying these fees so began to draft a letter to Capital Assets offering them a small portion of the money. Before sending this letter I visited a number of properties for sale in the neighborhood.... after seeing the low prices and poor conditions of these houses I became skeptical that putting a large sum of money into the VFW hall was a good investment. I looked into other recent house sales in the area and found that despite the improvements made to some of the properties, their sale price was still minimal. Although I think Polish Hill has a lot of potential in terms of existing buildings, proximity to downtown, the Strip District, Oakland and Bloomfield, view of the city and general charm.... at the same time, I just couldn't take the financial risk involved in the area.

Next I'll update the blog with pictures of the VFW hall and the next building I looked at: the Turner Detective Agency.