Often, or at least once a year or so, we do a project as part of a community redevelopment program. These are generally whole house renovations and usually sold to low-income families.
About a month ago we finished a project in conjunction with Union Studio Architects and ONE Neighborhood Builders (formerly Olneyville Housing).
The house at first was completely boarded up and gutted (sorry, didn’t get a photo). There was a redesign of the layout to allow the house to have two legal apartments.
Many times when houses are renovated and sold in this manner, they are done as cheaply and “uninteresting” as possible; there are few decorative features to the house. For this project we put a little extra effort into giving it some of these features.
One aspect that we focused on was salvaging as much of the existing wood flooring as possible. The floors on the first two levels were able to be saved and were repaired, sanded down, and refinished.
Original Floors
The baseboards installed throughout the house are nice and wide. And the window sills are deep, replicating “the volume ” of the original moldings
Many of the balusters on the front stairway were salvaged. A few were not able to be saved, so complimentary replacements were found at the salvage warehouse kept by the Providence Revolving Fund. The handrail is also original to the house.
The original front door was also able to be salvaged.
Another item included in this house was a laundry room in the 2nd floor apartment. If you’ve ever trudged all your laundry down to the basement from the 2nd floor you know how much of a convenience this feature is!
Overall, we worked closely with the designers to add in a few of these more aesthetically pleasing features. Features that we hope will be enjoyed by the new family soon to be living there.
Casa Buena Builders, Inc. 
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