Re: [UC] Cost of "historically correct" work

[Dan Myers]

I hate to rain on your parade, Al,  but does a crappy job of estimates to do the same work not in compliance with Electrical and other codes help increase the value of your property? I would think not. In fact, it might just catch on fire or deteriorate away without those codes. I am sorry you feel code compliance isn't a necessity for a church.  Also, stabilizing a bell tower sounds pretty important- I don't think you would hire Joe Shmoe off the street to do it. Church organizations always have fund-raisers to "put on a new roof" or whatever- this should be one of them. Why should a Church worry about property value? And who can put a value on a house of G-d?   So I don't see your point-- you are comparing apples to metal.(not even in the same fruit category) I don't see the comparison. Where are the estimates for non code compliance and how do those repairs increase the property? .I bet you might get less of a % of an investment with the non-code estimate than with the code-compliant estimates. (and no worries later)   Just my delayed-since-I-was-on-vacation opinion,   Dan Myers ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 4:02 PM Subject: [UC] Cost of "historically correct" work The question has been raised several times on this list about the cost of "historically correct" repairs, as opposed to -- say -- quality work that doesn't necessarily comply with the letter of some book written by the folks at the Department of the Interior in Washington DC (home of pork).   Here are some figures, not directly applicable to your house or mine, that show how far afield this thing can get. The following is a quote from the findings of the Commonwealth Court in sustaining the judgement of the Court of Common Pleas that the Historical Commission was violating the 5th Amendment in denying the Church of Christ (63rd & Vine) a demolition permit and trying to force them to restore their building. "The court noted testimony regarding the $823,329 cost estimate for stabilizing the bell tower, which would increase the value of the property from $300,000 to $500,000, and the $3,063,500 cost estimate for bringing the property into Code compliance, which would increase the property value to $1.2 million." If you still think those new chestnut windows, oak doors, custom-turned porch spindles, or one-off precisely-proportioned doric columns will increase the value of your property, maybe you should think again... $3 million to increase the value of the property by $900,000 doesn't sound like a sound investment to me.   Al Krigman (Left of Ivan Groznyj)