Despite the rainy cold weather we have started digging for the Skinny Project foundations. Hopefully this will set us up to make some real progress over the days of nice weather that Mother Nature has kindly scheduled for us. If all goes well we should have our footers poured by Friday and be ready to get these things up out of the ground we have just broken.
We will be trying to document this project in as much detail as we can. Expect ongoing pictures and videos as this hole in the ground becomes three homes. As always, if you have any questions or comments, let us know in the comments.
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It looks like you’ve discovered some old bricks. From earlier houses on the properties? Do you suppose there was this much enthusiasm and attention when the Victorian-era bricklayers set to work on sites like these 150 years ago?
Nearly every vacant lot in Philadelphia once had a building on it. When the city took its big population dip many of those homes were abandoned and fell into disrepair. Those homes were then torn down by the city which essentially involved knocking them into their own basements, removing all the wood and other degradable materials and burying the rubble in 6 inches of topsoil. Bricks are plentiful in every hole we dig. This one also turned up a decent stash of yarn today.
Any opportunities to re-use the found bricks in the homes? Is something like that a requirement for LEED certification, or could it at least provide additional points?
I’m not necessarily thinking as external facade, but maybe in some artistic way inside, on an accent wall or something like that. It’s a nice green move to recycle, and it also might help provide some historical reference for the houses. Just a thought.
As one of the future residents in this project, I’d love to have one or two of the bricks that I can display in my house as a conversation piece. It would be a nice symbolic tie to the history of the neighborhood. Even cooler: a pile of bricks to use as pavers for some back yard landscaping.
Any interest in renting the remaining unit? If so how much?
Apparently you have started providing basements?
What criteria are behind the decision?