News 5 Sept 2013. A compromise has finally been reached with Swedish Pizza.

Swedish Pizza and their landowner have already sucked and spiked the old brick septic tank that was leaking filthy water into our building. Next they must install a much larger rain gutter and downspout that will protect our brick wall from rainwater splash and overflow from their kitchen roof.

If these interventions are completely effective, as we all hope, then water on that side of the building will be eliminated. We will install a waterproof drain underneath the SP kitchen and, so long as their kitchen pipes don't leak, we will finally have a dry outer wall on House 29A.

If everything goes as planned, 029A will be ready by the end of November. Only 25 months late!

And now back to 2011 and 2012:

2011

After 5 years of negotiations we finally signed the lease for House 29 in July 2011. The owners told us that if we did not take the lease right away, they would rent to some Koreans who would tear it down!

We are not sure when House 029 was built, probably around 1933. Our historian is tracking the building's story now. In the mean time, we are cleaning out termites, old wiring, dust, and lots of 1970s foam ceilings.

House 29 is actually two buildings, an older front building (we are calling it 29A) that is a 10 x 10 square building divided into four rooms plus a peaked loft under the roof. Behind it is a two storey cement building that appears to have been built in the 1970s. This building has become apartments 29B and 29C.

Up till a few weeks ago, the front building had no indoor toilet; the toilet and shower were in a small cement building in back. We built a toilet indoors, and demolished the one outside. The rear building has one toilet on each floor (the one upstairs was probably added some time after original constuction), but one of the three downstairs rooms had no access to either of the indoor toilets and anyone sleeping there had to use the outdoor toilet. What were the builders thinking of with this strange arrangement?

The kitchen in the back building was twice the size of any of the rooms. Why???? This, coupled with the odd room layout maked modernizing this building an interesting design puzzle.

2012

The back building has been completed and is available for rent. Two one-bedroom apartments, each with a different feel. A small garden area has been designed between the front and back buildings and a wall of orchids has begun.