The four pictures in today’s post to me sum up everything that’s wrong with this city.
When I see moronic renovations like this it makes me think there is no hope.
One of my readers sent me an email this spring, saying the house at 839 Assumption was up for sale. I drove by to check it out, only to see the “SOLD” signs already on the lawn. I came home a punched it up on the MLS site, and saw it had been listed for $49,000. Yowsers, that’s cheap!
I drove by a month or two ago, and there was nothing new going on. For some reason, I drove by yesterday afternoon, and noticed that it’s been…. uh,”renovated”.
Today
Before
Today
Before
————-
According to my research the house was built around 1906. It’s sad how a century of history can be bashed away and covered with vinyl siding. All the trim and the fan from the front peak? Gone! The century old porch details and columns? Gone!
There are a million houses in the core that look like the “now” shot, but very few “before”‘ houses. Most people however, just don’t care.
Sigh.
BTW – Great job picking those narrow windows that don’t open. Just what everyone wants, windows that don’t open.
History notwithstanding, I’m a front porch kinda guy – what a shame to lose even that feature in a great old house. If you ever wonder why “neighbourhoods are dieing out, look no further.
must of been a sale on those windows or something. terrible…. i hate the whole boom of shows on tv showing people how to sell broken down homes for profit. they never care about the character of the house or quality of the work it seems.
I’ve been by there a few times – it’s basically gutted – nothing left of the original with what seems to be new construction in the footprint of the old house. I hope that at least some of the old features were salvaged and are somewhere else – but I’m not optomistic.
Very very sad.
I can’t imagine why anyone would choose NEW windows that don’t open – it’s bad enough moving into an old house with windows that have been painted shut. It doesn’t seem safe.
Seeing stuff like that just brings tears to my eyes. The wood is cedar. It’s not rotted. It just needed a fresh coat of paint. It’s so meaningless. It tells you something about the kind of classless people that now live in this city. They’re now doing that to the brick houses across from the WIllistead on Chilver.
What’s wrong with windsows that don’t open? (sarcasm). Trust me, they are the devil’s ass.
I am suprised it wasn’t stucco’ed! All of the trim was either covered over or ripped out. DO people not realize that there is a market for this stuff? Why not allow someone else to takeit off for free if they are going to re-use it? I could have used some of that woodwark on my house, especially the gable fan. Do people realize how difficult it is to find this stuff?
Well, another lost gem.
Jane, when you say youi have been there and it is gutted. Do you mean the interior or just exterior?
With a ceiling on real estate values on core area houses like this, owners who don’t subscribe to our mindset on this subject will take the path of least resistance and least cost, especially if all they want to do is flip the house for profit. I’ve known of people who have bought old homes and lovingly restored them them while paying close attention to their architectural and historical merits. It wasn’t cheap, but the results were amazing. And when they were done, they had something with value in the final result. You can pump all the money you want into a house on Assumption, and it will still only creep up in value. I’m not saying I like seeing what happened here, just saying I can understand the owner’s perspective a bit too. If the owner had done something to keep the front porch in-tact (as someone pointed out already) and put a nice picture window on the first floor and proper opening windows upstairs, I think it would have been a more practical reno, albeit still robbing the character the house was gifted with 100 years ago.
It’s like they’re getting ready for a war, and bunkering down.
ME, I drove by so I didn’t thoroughly “inspect ” the “project”, but it was down to the barest of bones – just some interior stud walls by the looks of it. when I first saw it I thought it was a demo.
Unfortunately I think that in this particular neighbourhood, the interior would have been pretty well stripped of any original features – a lot of the outside was sitll amazing though.
Windsor’s planning department should be ashamed of itself
You should send those pictures to be considered for “Eyesore of the Month” on James Howard Kunstler’s website (http://kunstler.com/)
JHK would have a feild day in Windsor!!!
That’s the ugliest remuddle I have ever seen.
It’s a shame these homes are not restored to their original glory.
I’m just waiting for George and David to blame this on the unions again.
I’m guessing the family that’s in the market for a $49,000 home is probably not in the market for a full restoration.
Once again, we are given a first-hand look at how the narrow-minded, quick buck mentality of our city’s residents has allowed another priceless gem to fall victim to the forces of expediency and mediocrity. If the CAW displayed the same kind of concern for local architecture that it does for winos, panhandlers and deadbeats, Windsor would be a whole lot nicer to look at.
You got your wish Guido.
Speaking of deadbeats, don’t forget the expected 8,000 unskilled Mexican illegals from Florida that the Windsor Star reports will be getting free hotel stay, food, and welfare paid for by this city’s social services just for claiming refugee status. If I went to the US, Germany, or France, and claimed refugee status, they wouldn’t give me a two-week free vacation that includes free hotel stay, food, and welfare–I’d be deported right away for even trying a stunt like that. I’m gonna feel all warm and fuzzy after seeing my property tax bill skyrocket from it this year. How come I can’t claim refugee status in Europe for a free vacation because of Canada’s high taxes?
Maybe the Mexicans are the solution to the problem of old home restorations – usually labor is a big part of the cost – well, here’s your cheap labor, served up by the hot steaming plateful!
We could always become Tuscon Arizona. The pay of an average workers wage is approx.$10.00/hr because of all of the illegals AND the low edcuation rate. Since Windsor doesn’t have a hope in hell of coming out of this tailspin soon, maybe we could employ more people at a less wage in the construction/reno business. (tongue-in-cheek of course).
Yeah, I’m really happy we are paying for these people too. 3% tax hike, 86% WUC hike and now paying for illegals…life is grand… If you don’t work in this city.
What do illegal immigrants have to do with this house? I guess once one starts grinding an axe, it keeps spinning even when it isn’t appropriate.
Did you read today’s paper? So far, it’s cost us $229,000 for these past couple weeks. Fee hotel stay. Free food. Free welfare. And, FREE LEGAL AID. WTF? It doesn’t happen in any other country than Canada.
Shawn, it’s appropriate and here’s what it has to do with it.
It’s because of CAW’s influence that we have the highest per capital number of public housing and subsidized units owned by Windsor Social Housing. Toronto’s per capita apartments isn’t even as high as ours.
It’s because of CAW’s influence that anyone can get welfare in this city. It’s one thing if you’re disabled. But, if you’re able bodied and healthy, no problem. I’ve met students going to the University of Windsor and getting FREE welfare to pay their rent. That’s includes full dental coverage. If this city’s welfare policies weren’t so lax, they wouldn’t be getting it. That’s from CAW’s brainwashing. Why work for $10 an hour when it’s so easy to get free welfare? CAW doesn’t want scabs working for $10/hr, so let’s make it easy for them to get welfare so they don’t work. These are illegals who have the street smarts to have found work in the United States for the past 10 years while living as an illegal in Florida, so do you think they wouldn’t be able to find jobs to pay for their own shelter while visiting Windsor? Give me a break. And, this takes a huge bite out of the budget for other worthy projects like the arts, heritage preservation, etc.
It gets better.. The get rich quick real estate investors who have no concern for heritage preservation love to snap up these cheap houses and destroy them. The tax base motivates them to do this. True apartment buildings and high rises are taxed at three times the percentage rate than regular houses and these pseudo rental properties like the duplexes above, so let’s make them as cheap to maintain as possible like adding styrofoam and vinyl siding to the exterior to save on heat and painting and carpentry while glorifying the neighbourhood with modern day trash.
And, here’s the best part. Since we’ve flooded the market with these units, we’re gonna create a demand for it by renting them to everyone through easily obtainable city welfare programs like these Mexican Refugees applicants.
So, the guys who wreck the city with cheap vinyl clad housing conversions win, the dead beat refugees on free welfare win, and the ones who sweat like hell paying for all in the city this loose. No wonder why so many people with money have moved to the county like Russell Woods in Tecumseh because they are so fed up with what’s going on in this city.
David, just on your first point, this happens in every wealthy country, not just Canada. Every developed country. Every single one.
No, they have to have a legitimate reasons such as political asylum to remain on an immigration claim, such as they were a political leader, the party changed, and there were threats made to their life, or they have to have a trade or skill in demand, or they have to have a significant amount of money they will invest here (as immigrants from Hong Kong did), or they’ve got a sponser in Canada. Poverty in Mexico is not a valid reason and that’s their basis. Talk to a US Immigration officer. If a Mexican crosses the US border and applies for immigration based on poverty, the US Immigration officer will send them on a plane to Mexico or ship them back by van Mexico the very same day. No hearing. No being put up in a hotel, getting welfare, and a free legal aid lawyer. Automatic and immediate deportation.
The same should be the case here. What they should be doing, as is the case with other countries, is go to the country’s embassy, in this instance, the Canadian Embassy in the US and apply for immigration at the Canadian embassy. If they just go through the border without permission from the Canadian Embassy, they broke the rules and should be automatically deported. If they want to immigrate to Canada from Mexico, then it’s the same thing. Apply at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico for permission to immigrate to Canada. No permission, no entry. That’s why they have embassies. That’s the way it is with other countries.
There’s also serious security concerns. How do I know that someone with the experience to sneak into the US and slip under the radar of US immigration for 10 years as an illegal isn’t using their street smarts to participate in illegal activity? How do I know they aren’t smuggling guns or drugs into Canada? They also don’t have US Passports or high security identification, so how do I know that they aren’t coming here with fraudulent identification from Mexico? How do I know a Mexican isn’t really a wanted Al-Quada terrorist trying to get identification. Last summer, I remember reading an article in the paper that Al-Quada terrorists were thwarted by RCMP just hours before they were going to blow up the CN Tower with enough fire power and explosives to pull it off.
This is wrong. They’re coming to Canada and applying on grounds of poverty in Mexico and getting free welfare in the process. Not acceptable. Mexico is in NAFTA. They are a democracy. Their citizens need to deal with their own problems and not create social and security problems in Canada.
John Turner was right back in 1988. He told the voters the truth about Free Trade but ended up losing to Brian Mulroney and his gang of liars, crooks and con artists. Canada has lost more than we could ever hope to gain from free trade with the Americans. Where the hell are you now Johnny?
George. You might want t o look at Free Trade again. It has been a boom to canada’s economy. Unfortunately Windsor didn’t take advantage of it. I am not going to do your work but check out the GNP of Canada and the increase of companies in Canada due to Free Trade.
Initially yes, it hit us (but the world itself went into recession as well) but we cam e out much stronger with Free trad. How else were we giog to compete against a unified Europe in the ’90s and the Asian bloc?
What has killed us of late is Chretien’s deals with China…gee I wonder where most of our plants are going now?
Damned… Chinese… built… crappy… union… made…. renovations… free… trade… Mulroney… Aaaargh!
See? I’m all broken up about that house, and obviously so is everyone else
I see that the new owners actually care about something!
They are going before the Committee Of Adjustment on Wednesday, October 10 (voting day) to ask for relief to save the 2 storey addition to the rear of the building.
Wouldn’t want to actually save anything of value, now, would we?
Oh, of course, they wouldn’t want their renovated triplex to turn back into a duplex. Less rental income.