Sash Mob! Update
In August 2019, Heritage Ohio partnered with Preserve! Toledo and the Lucas County Land Bank to host their Sash Mob! wood window restoration workshop at a Land Bank-owned Dutch Colonial on Collins Street in Toledo’s Old West End neighborhood. Lindsay Jones of Blind Eye Restoration lead the two-day workshop and participants learned the “ropes” from scraping, to reglazing, to replacing rope and reattaching weights. Kyle Sword of Pilkington, North America provided a glass-cutting demonstration and Pilkington generously provided all needed replacement glass.
Vacant for at least 4 years with decades of deferred maintenance, the window work was the first stop on the path to rehabilitation for the little (for the Old West End anyway) house. Post Sash Mob!, the Land Bank decided that it would handle the renovation of the property itself for sale to an owner-occupant. “Given the lower values in this part of the Old West End, we knew that the best way to save this home and create a homeownership opportunity would be by completing the work ourselves,” said David Mann, President & CEO of the Land Bank.
Though slightly delayed by COVID, work got underway in summer of 2020. ARK Restoration and Construction of Toledo served as the construction manager, overseeing the major repair items, including the replacement of one wall of the foundation, along with the Land Bank’s construction staff. Land Bank employees took care of a few smaller tasks, like painting, in part via a painting party in which everyone rolled up their sleeves.
The house was ready to hit the market in October and it didn’t last long! An offer was accepted after only three days for one of the highest prices per square foot in recent times. The sale closed on November 12th, and if the house could talk, we’d wager it would say it’s so excited to be a “home for the holidays” again!
This was Preserve! Toledo’s first hands-on preservation workshop and the organization is excited to offer more hands-on learning opportunities post-COVID. Empowering people to “do preservation” which can be as simple as learning the skills to keep their old homes in good repair is central to the organization’s mission.
As for the Land Bank, “creating homeownership by preserving our community’s housing assets has always been a core mission, but it truly comes to life in a project like this one!”
A special thank you to the sponsors of the 2019 Sash Mob! that helped make this project successful.
