Coon Rapids sells Home for Generations house
by Peter Bodley
Managing editor
One of two homes currently being remodeled as part of the city of Coon Rapids’ Home for Generations program has been sold.
The Coon Rapids Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) has approved a purchase agreement with Michelle Weber of Andover for the sale of the 537 109th Ave. N.W. property.
But the closing won’t occur until after the post-construction open houses at that home as well as the second property now being remodeling at 10911 Dogwood St. N.W., according to Kristin DeGrande, city of Coon Rapids neighborhood coordinator.
However, the home on 109th Avenue won’t be listed for sale as will the Dogwood Street property at the time of the open houses, DeGrande said.
The first open house is scheduled Sunday, May 22, noon to 4 p.m., with a series of other open houses to take place in June.
The sale came out of the blue, DeGrande said.
She received an e-mail from Weber in early April expressing interest in buying the property on 109th Avenue.
But Weber wanted to expand the scope of the remodeling under way at the house, according to DeGrande.
Instead of an 18-inch cantilever extending from the back of the kitchen to create more room, Weber wanted an eight-foot addition constructed on to the length of back of the house, including a full basement foundation, some 224 square feet, DeGrande said.
That construction was part of the purchase agreement negotiated with Weber and approved by the HRA, which comprises the seven members of the city council.
The addition will make rooms, including the kitchen and dining room, inside the home larger, DeGrande said.
In addition, a mud room will be added, but the solar panels that have been installed on the garage as part of the demonstration project will be removed once the open houses are completed, she said.
However, two dormers constructed on the upper floor of the home will stay.
The Orrin Thompson 1.5-story home was built in 1959.
The original remodeling budget for this home was $45,000, but the extra work has added $12,500 to the cost, DeGrande said.
The purchase agreement has a sale price of $160,025.
According to DeGrande, the HRA purchased the property for $93,664 late last year plus some other purchase-associated costs.
“We will break even, which is our goal with the Home for Generations projects,” she said.
Weber is selling her townhome because it is too small and she has been interested in the city’s Home for Generations project from the beginning, DeGrande said.
Weber originally looked at the Juniper Street rambler, the first Home for Generations project that was remodeled and sold in 2009, but it was too small in size, according to DeGrande.
And Weber found the home on Crooked Lake Boulevard, which was remodeled last year and is still on the market for sale, too large, as was the Dogwood Street property currently being remodeled, DeGrande said.
The purchase agreement negotiations with Weber put a two-week hold on remodeling, so the 109th Avenue home will probably not be completed in time for the May 22 open house, but it will be open to the public to view nonetheless, she said.
The remodeler, Lennox Builders, is not changing the sustainability focus of the project, DeGrande said.
All the building materials being used on the project are repurposed, reused or renewed, she said.
Outside, there will be extensive landscaping with the use of rain barrels to capture the runoff from the gutters with that water being used to irrigate the yard, DeGrande said.
And inside dual-flush toilets will be installed, she said.
Both the 109th and Dogwood homes were vacant and foreclosed when purchased by the HRA for the Home for Generations program.
They were the third and fourth homes acquired by the HRA for the program, which not only remodels and sells the homes, but also gives residents ideas to upgrade and modernize their homes at an affordable price.
A fifth home, an Orrin Thompson rambler at 11635 Xavis St. N.W. in the Thompson Heights neighborhood just west of Coon Rapids High School, was purchased by the HRA earlier this year for the Home for Generations program.
But remodeling on that home won’t start until either late this year or early in 2012.
The 1962 split-level home on Dogwood Street, which had been vacant since June 2010, was purchased for $100,000 and has a $55,000 remodeling budget.
Dercon Construction was hired by the city for the work at the Dogwood Street residence.
In the case of the Dogwood Street home, tiles have been purchased at a discount price from Menard’s for the floors in the home, DeGrande said.
The wall separating the kitchen/dining room from the living room has been removed to open up the house and provide more room.
According to Dean Marquette of Dercon Construction, the kitchen is being moved from the front to the back of the home and the living room from the back to the front.
In addition, a front entry way is being constructed to make the property look much more attractive from the street.
As well, Dercon is putting a new exterior on to the home with natural stone on the bottom four feet, then vinyl siding, Marquette said.
The first home purchased through the Home for Generations program was a 1950s rambler on the 11600 block of Juniper Street N.W. The remodeled home was sold in the summer of 2009.
Remodeling work on the second home, a 1970s split-level on the 12900 block of Crooked Lake Boulevard, was completed last summer and the house was put on the market in August 2010.
The house has not yet been sold.
Peter Bodley is at peter.bodley@ecm-inc.com
