Pre-renovation
It’s fairly common throughout the city–houses that have seen better times–and of course, there are as many reasons as houses.
A small selection of such homes have been featured in this space for just shy of four years. The focal point of this column and the structures featured herein has always been to question the appropriateness of drastic and unsympathetic alterations and sometimes-infill projects. A number of readers have argued how unaffordable appropriate renovations are and have asked what resources are available. While maintaining any home is a large financial investment, we advocate for use of appropriate materials and discourage alterations that detract from the original intent of the architect.
You may be saying: “WTH? Why don’t I know about this?” Exactly. A major Indy resource of interest to all you old house lovers who can help you with (an appropriate) restoration is Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership (INHP), which offers a variety of programs and assistance. There are classes on home ownership–preparing future homeowners for responsible home ownership (a class most everyone could benefit from).
Revive Indy allows buyers to purchase a house like this one above, and turn it into the one below. Renovation costs can be rolled into the house loan. Imagine finding your dream fixer-upper and being able to fund the necessary renovations…
Post-renovation
The Ecohouse Energy Efficiency Loan is a low-interest loan that allows residents to make their house more energy efficient (Indy winters are no joke). HI featured an amazing story of a Woodruff Place family that used the Ecohouse Loan last year that will quickly pay for itself in saved energy expenditures.
THIS was transformed…
…to THIS with the help of INHP.
INHP also works in concert with many Indianapolis Community Development Corporations (CDC’s) to focus efforts in a certain part of the city. For example King Park Area, Mapleton-Fall Creek work in their geographic boundaries to improve the area and assist homeowners. INHP can tell you if you live within the boundaries of a CDC.
Keep this resource handy. So many people may not have heard of community resources like this, but if you are a homeowner, or would like to be, you may want to check out INHP. And now you know!
