Getting Decked, Or Raise High the Barge Beam, Carpenters

With a tip of the hat to J.D. Salinger for the second title, I'll talk about getting decked today. The crew finished the rafter braces and worked on getting the barge beam into place. Since I haven't posted since Friday, here's how the place looked this morning:

To remind you, here's how it looked on Wednesday:

John worked out the birdsmouth cuts for the barge board. The lookouts will have 6" x 6" boxes built off the the posts that we placed yesterday. Shimming and trimming were the order of the day in getting it just right:

After the barge boards were set it was time to put up the facia board on the rafter tails so that we could start to put down the decking. Taryl came to pull on the last rafter tail as I was face nailing the facia board. When I straightened up to put my hammer in the loop on my overalls, my foot slipped under all the shingle crap we had knocked loose. I threw my hand out to catch the rafter tail and of course the hammer in my hand decks Taryl right in the temple. After that we decided to go to lunch.

I was worried that Taryl wouldn't speak to me after that, but it wasn't the case and he even paid for everyone's lunch. We're deciding now whether or not to do that to him every time before lunch, or make a rule that whoever gets hit pays...

After lunch John planed the corner off the facia to make sure the decking would lay down squarely on the rafter tails, and we start putting up the beadboard decking:

After getting the beadboard down we worked at getting the 3/4 ply decking over the rest, then went back and glued and nailed 7/16 deck over the beadboard to make a sandwich the same thickness as the 3/4 decking. Here's a picture with everything but the cripple cut pieces to the valley of the gable:

While we worked today the roofer came and parked his trailer for the tearoff in the driveway turn around, and the geothermal driller came and dropped off 5 200' lengths of plastic tubing that will be buried in the yard. He is supposed to begin tomorrow (Wednesday) and roof tearoff starts Thursday. F & L plan to button up the walls tomorrow and get the hell out of Dodge for a while. Thankfully I'll be teaching tomorrow and won't be endangering any of my workers.

An Apology To My Crew/ Aviation Grade Spruce

First off, I'll apologize to my crew: I'm sorry I haven't taken any pictures the last two work days, I will publicly say that they have not been slacking! Since the last post, they framed the rest of the sitting room, cut the shingles where the valleys for the gable will go, put in the ridge beam, and finished the roof rafters and valleys. They worked on the lookouts for the decorative boxes, figured the bird's mouth cut for the barge board over those boxes, and picked out sheathing that will replicate the look of beadboard in the overhang.

We recycled the 2x6 rafters that were cut from the old roof when we opened up for the gable. I had cleaned all those pieces on Friday. We used them to fill the bottom of the roof rafters at the ceiling height. The pieces we removed were just over 12 feet long and we needed just under 10. John noticed as we were making diagonal cuts to fit them into place that the 4 of the 5 boards were knot free with straight grain that deviated less than one inch over the 12 foot length, meaning that they would be considered "aviation grade" acceptable for use in building planes. Since both he and Pete are licensed pilots, it was a shame to throw these back into the roof, but we agreed it was keeping in spirit of over engineered building that is constant throughout the house.

Today we will sheath and "button up" the gable and get ready for the roofers to come on Thursday. Thursday will be somewhat like D-Day as the following are also going to show up that day:

• Drillers for the geothermal pipes
  
• Electrician to put in new 200 amp service
  
• Plumber to talk about new 2nd floor bathroom
  

The F&L Crew have decided to make themselves scarce starting Thursday for a while, since every one of them has a long list of spousal requests to be completed. Pete is going to Texas with his family for an annual trip to visit friends. My builders have certainly earned some time off.

A Little Off the Top, Please

Yesterday I was on the roof tearing off shingles and Lisa was getting her hair cut. Guess which one of us ended up in the doctor's office getting stitches?

We did a lot yesterday. Here is a shot at 9:30 AM with our bracing up at the spot where we would cut into the roof for the gable:

John went home last night and worked out all the framing details for the gable and rough opening for the window:

We marked our corners on the inside of the roof and drilled holes through to the outside so we would have points to snap a chalk line on to mark our tear off area. Then we sent Pete up with a saw to cut through the shingles only:

John suggested cutting a portal so we wouldn't have to go up and down the ladder:

There were a full three layers of shingles on the roof:

That really boogered up the saw blades so we decided to go for lunch, get more blades, and call Taryl's son Eric to hire him for the afternoon tearing off shingles. We he came we went back to work:

Lisa came by and expressed her approval, she dropped Laurel with me and went to get a haircut. After getting the whole area stripped Taryl said he didn't like getting his picture taken:

Eric, Pete and I finished loading the truck, and Pete, Laurel and I went to the dump:

We came back in time to see the last rafter being cut after all the sheathing had been removed:

It was time to go and dance in the new sitting room, which happened to coincide with our afternoon doughnut break (see Pete's hand):

While we had been working in the morning John had been framing the outer wall, as well as helping tear off. Now we were ready to put the frame in place:

We covered it with a tarp and called it a day:

Today we will do the side framing and begin rafters.

Yes, Lisa's stylist was razor cutting around her ear and slipped, sending her to the doc for two stitches. The haircut was free.

Up and Away

Yesterday was a big day of lifting things into place.

We got the in floor beams ready on Tuesday. Here is one, first cut, then put into place:

 We got the 15' LVL that spans the top of the stairway opening in place yesterday. Shelly (the architect) had originally put a support post on her plans that would have fallen about 2/3 of the way along the run, because in the standard tables to calculate roof load the largest house is 36' deep. Foxcroft is 46' deep and 34' wide. The folks at the lumber yard said there were pretty certain it would carry the whole load from two points. The building inspector said that if an engineer signed off on the load capacity we could go without the middle post. Fortunately the best engineer in town is a former junior high student of Pete's so we took her the info on the LVL and the roof. According to her calculations, our beam could carry a max of 700 lbs/sq. ft. The roof load is 500 lbs/sq ft. so we got our stamp.

This LVL is a doubled 11 3/4 beam (imagine a taller version of the ones above doubled and nailed together). John wasn't able to come in yesterday morning, so we were quite concerned how 3 middle aged guys would be able to lift it into place. Fortunately my good friends next door have a son who will be playing football for the University of Iowa in the fall. We got Alex and a buddy who was over there to come up and popped that puppy into place in no time. Unfortunately I wasn't able to shoot pics while we were doing it. But here is the beam in place:

Then in the afternoon the lumber truck came with our sticks to frame the walls. They didn't send a boom truck like we asked but with their lift they could get 10 feet up. So Taryl stood on top of the lumber and handed it through the 2nd floot window to John and I. Pete strategically left to get the engineer's stamp 5 minutes before the lumber came. I was too afraid to get a pic of Taryl on the lift for fear that by capturing it, something bad would happen. Imagine a tall man on top of the lumber!

Today we will likely cut into the roof and begin to frame the gable...

Meet My Crew

Who are F&L Builders you ask? Well they are three colleagues of mine who all teach in the Iowa City Community Schools, and do construction on the side. Here's a little bit about each of them:

I've known Pete the longest, he and I go back to 1985. He teaches 7th grade language arts, and is an incredible teacher and writer. I helped Pete put a screened porch on the back of his house in 1989 or so, it was a brutally hot summer, and we learned a lot in doing it. Pete is the communications director of F&L, handles contacts with the trades, and is very much the organized one. He spends a lot of time thinking about improvements to the plans, and is fond of saying "If low e windows were available to the craftsman era builders, I'm sure they would have used them."

Nice uniforms!

Taryl is Pete's teaching partner, at the junior high language arts and social studies classes are blocked together back to back. He is a midwestern farm kid who started working construction as a teenager. Besides building he was also a firefighter before deciding to get into a little less physically strenuous line of work (boy was he wrong in his choices). Taryl is the voice of experience, goes at everything with a gusto, and has great tools.

John is also a latecomer to teaching, he is a Chicago Art Institute grad, who worked as a finish carpenter before getting teaching certification. He has gone between assignments in art and industrial technology (read SHOP). John is my fellow old house lover having completely re-habbed one great old place before buying the one next to it and starting over. He is a great generalist, competent in wiring, building, and finish work. John has spent a fair amount of time at Foxcroft commenting that "There certainly are a lot of different ways you can wire a double switch." We were looking at a ceiling box that had five other wires running out of it at the time.

So why the name F&L? Pete's idea of course, as a committed Hunter Thompson fan, it stand for "Fear and Loathing."

We Passed!

The building inspector came yesterday morning and approved the holes for the footings in the basement, and the posts in the walls on first floor. I was teaching so I didn't get to be present. My crew said the only thing he really wanted to know was did they build the new basement stairs? They answered no, that was the new owner and there was a father-in-law involved also, which apparently satisfied the inspector that he was dealing with capable builders. (The stairs replaced an even worse set, and were done in one afternoon, and yes they seem a little crooked and have a big step at the bottom!)

We made the channels for the in-floor LAMS yesterday and today will be putting up the ones that will go at the ceiling along the top of the stairway. I tooks some photos but forgot to bring the camera home.

I also took the last load of brush to the dump and managed to have the gate of the trailer fall off as I was leaving. A carriage bolt had worked loose and fell somewhere, I couldn't find it, but managed to heave the gate onto the bed of the trailer at an angle that was stable enough to get it back to the house. I took a good deal of abuse back at Foxcroft for doing that. The trailer is an ancient one of Taryl's that we have all used for various projects. I hauled a total of 10 tons of limestone in it when building the patio in our current home.

I really should do an entry about my crew. Perhaps I'll post this and work on it now.

Septuagenarians with Saws

My in-laws came from the Quad Cities yesterday, and George brought his chain saw. Lisa had asked if he'd help clear the yard some time. At 72 George is still pretty fit and healthy. He arrived and started to work clearing the scrub along the driveway. Then all hell broke loose.


Helen's mother passed away in 1970, we think all major yard maintenance stopped then, everywhere is completely overgrown, and out of control. I have already cut and hauled quite a lot of brush, but as a musician I am partial to my digits, so I tend to work with a limb saw or a lopper.

George took out hackberries and other scrub along the driveway for a while, then pointed to the plum tree on the front hill. It was planted in the 1940's and was growing sideways out of the hillside, and completely obscured the right side of the house from the front. I said go for it, and we took that out. We then moved to the maple that was forked too low on the left side of the front, and trimmed to keep just the main trunk. He then took out two major limbs off the walnut that were hangining over the driveway and porch roof respectively. All in all, noticeable improvements in a little over an hour and a half. I knew I could load the cut brush up on a trailer on Monday and take it to be chipped at the city landfill.


I left to show our current home to a couple interested in buying, and imagine my surprise when I return after an hour to find that the amount we cut in front was doubled by what he chopped out in back. The entire yard in back was a huge pile of cut trees and limbs. I looked at Lisa and she shrugged her shoulders, We knew it should happen but thought it could have waited, but oh well. We now can really see al l the neighbors sheds, garages, and other outbuildings, that were concealed, but know that the lilacs should come back in a couple of years. Since the workers will be inside for a while, this now gives Lisa a lot more yard to work with while she can't do much indoors!

Making Our Points (We're on the LVL)

Friday's job was to locate the four load points that will carry the weight of the gable down to the foundation. Since the gable will not extend all the way to the exterior wall in back there will be in floor LVL beams that span from the exterior wall to the load bearing wall on the interior.

On the exterior wall those points fell
•Above the back door




•Just to the north of the windows in the back bedroom



On the interior wall those points fell:
•In the wall between the kitchen and dining room



•Right at the corner of the hallway leading upstairs


So the crew started chalking lines, cutting plaster, getting engineered lumber (LVL) for the header to carry the point from above the back door to around both sides. Figuring where the open the the shingles from outside the house so as to not have to open plaster in the one room I've already completed. Of course everywehere we needed to go had light switches, or outlets, corner bead, or other interesting challenges.

What did I do during all this? I dropped two more loads of trash from the attic into the truck and hauled away, along with all the big plaster from the closet. I showed our current home to another prospective buyer, and did toenail in the last 2x4 beam next to the back door (I bent it over at the end, dammit)

Monday we will finish the posts.

They're Here!

Today is the first official day of summer for me. Yesterday was the final teacher work day of the 2004-05 school year. What this means at Foxcroft is that the construction crew (F&L Construction) made up of three teacher colleages are at the house beginning demolition for the second floor finishing.

In order to determine how much support is needed for the gable in back they are going to take out the bump out into the kitchen that is made by the back bedroom closet. We had planned to remove this anyway since we will use the closet door to go from the kitchen to the family room, which will be in the back bedroom. I went over at lunch in between the workshops I'm teaching and shot a few fast pics.

 ABOVE AND BELOW: kitchen with the broom closet removed

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ABOVE AND BELOW: Bedroom closet bump out, the next to go

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ABOVE AND BELOW: Cut out in attic floor for HVAC

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ABOVE: A look at the back where the gable will be added.

To quote Navin Johnson, "Things are going to start happening to me now!"

Wild Parsnip OUCH! Painful! (and not pretty)

WARNING! THERE ARE REALLY GROSS PICTURES IN THIS POST!

Quick! Try to say this three times fast:

"PHYTO-PHOTO-DERMATITIS"

What does that word mean? how about a good definition from the June 1999 issue of
Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine

"There are chemicals in wild parsnip called psoralens (precisely, furocoumarins) that cause what dermatologists call "phyto-photo-dermatitis." That means an inflammation (itis) of the skin (derm) induced by a plant (phyto) with the help of sunlight (photo). When absorbed by skin, furocoumarins are energized by ultraviolet light (present during sunny and cloudy days) causing them to bind with nuclear DNA and cell membranes. This process destroys cells and skin tissue, though the reaction takes time to produce visible damage."

Guess who has been occasionally working in the back yard clearing the areas that haven't been touched in 35 years? I started noticing a bit of a itching on Monday May 30th, saw a bit of what looked like maybe poison ivy on Tuesday. Had enormous blisters on both of my arms on Wednesday. I was sure it couldn't get any worse, but by Thursday I ended up wrapping both arms in gauze bandanges so the blisters wouldn't weep through my shirts at work. Finally went to the doc on Friday. When I said I knew we had already cleared all the poison ivy, she took out a picture of wild parsnip and asked if we had any. We have quite a bit in the yard I said, and she gave me the info cited above. Just in case it was poison ivy I get to take all the steroids and antihistimines too, but they really won't do much for wild parsnip.

Here's how I look one week after the blisters started to appear:

I'm feeling better thanks, but my family really does not like me on steroids. The up side could be that I might be able to move the 8.5 foot long radiator without any help.

Old Guy vs. THE RADIATOR

The plumber came on Wednesday and drained the boiler, which led to Lisa asking, "Does this mean we're committed to geothermal heating?" My answer was, "Yes, but we're can still back out right up until we start dropping the pipes." I was itching to get to the next step of finishing the music room: getting the floor stripped.

I'm an old guy, and I tend to work alone on this house restoration stuff, which can be difficult when it's time to tackle (cue sinister music) THE RADIATOR. The radiator in the music room has 29 fins and is just over six feet long. It's two feet tall and over 10 inches wide. When asked to estimate it's weight the plumber said, "Gee, I dunno, 500 lbs?" I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Fortunately, I used to teach 5th grade, so I have more than a passing familiarity with simple machines. Borrowing a low clearance jack from my brother, I went to the rental store and got two heavy duty roller trucks. I set out by trying to lift the radiator as close to the middle as I could to maximize the lift on the upper end.

I soon realized that I would soon be hitting the underside of the window sill, so I very delicately tried to move the raised end out away from the wall. As soon as I did that I heard creaking noises from the down end and knew that I was probably tearing up the floor on the other end. So I lowered the radiator and went to get some scrap wood. I raised the other side (previously the down side, and put wood under it and went back to the original end which was away from the wall and raised it enough to slide the truck under.

I then lowered the radiator onto the truck and proceeded to raise the other end and wiggle it away from the wall, getting the truck under the other end too.

Knowing I needed to make sure the radiator stayed secure on the trucks I wrapped a rope among the fins. I could then turn the radiator so I could move it out of the music room.

I put it in the living room and let it hang out with its biggest brother

That puppy is eight and a half feet long with 41 fins!

I was feeling pretty good, I had done this in well under an hour and could work on stripping the floor. Then Sunday came and I started thinking about how can I get the trucks back to the rental store by Tuesday? I was certain, I couldn't get that thing out of the house myself, so I talked to my brother and he and his sons came Monday to help. Once again using simple machine knowledge I put 2 fourteen foot 2x12's down on the back porch.

and we got it down pretty easily. We rolled it onto boards in the yard, and removed the trucks.

Now all I have to do is find someone who wants it! Seriously if you want a set, let me know, every one has the original metal cover that came with them, see the pic of the big one, it has some pretty bad contact paper over it but the covers are cool. One idea I had was to make them benches in the back yard, but Lisa isn't buying that one, yet.

-Mike

And There Were Roses... (And Indian Girl Tents)

It seems that one benefit to getting rid of the overgrown arbor vitae is that the two rose bushes in front of the house are blooming. I don't know a lot about roses, we have a great rambler at the old place that is a white Dorothy Perkins, which is unbelievably vigorous. We never bury the canes for the winter or do anything that I've read about for ramblers, and this thing will have canes that grow nearly 20 feet a year. Anyway, there are two very old roses on either side of the walk coming up to the porch. Here is a picture of them spliced into one shot:

Anyone out there have any idea what these are? Lisa thinks they may be in the primrose family as they seem to close at night and open up again. The white ones bloomed first and now the red ones are just starting to open up. These things look like small trees the main trunks at the base are nearly 2" in diameter. I'm wary of chopping away at the old stuff without knowing what they are, and the best way to maintain them.

Another byproduct of vigorous whacking away at our overgrown yard is a good collection of tree limbs, I'd been saving the bigger ones, and have been making various tepees and tents with the girls. Here is our latest model:

I have to think that Helen is smiling on these activities. One leftover from the estate sale was a burlap sack Indian dress that given other things we found was probably an old campfire girl uniform, probably circa 1922. A bead weaving loom and some campfire girl patches that were found with it were sold. I just found some Girl Scout books from the 1930's in the attic a few weeks ago, it seems she was an adult leader too.

Back to Square One

Well, our prospective buyer on our old place pulled out, citing the contingency that it was cost prohibitive to meet current code for a medical office. (Our neighborhood is zoned residential office, due to its proximity to Mercy Hospital) So we are back to square one on that front. If anyone wants a great place in a town that's consistently in Top 10 lists for places to be (last week's news was that the Iowa City Community Schools are ranked as the #5 public school district in the U.S. by some national economic development consortium) drop me a line!

At Foxcroft Lisa and finished stripping the old varnish off baseboard and around the French doors. I then rented a floor buffer and stripped the floor too. Next step will be wood bleaching some water stains, then staining and varnishing the baseboard.

Frank Lloyd Wright for SALE!

I am here in Mason City, IA this week being an artist in residence. MC is one of my favorite places in Iowa to visit,with so much great architecture both public and private buildings.One of the most prominent is the Park House Hotel,the only standing FLW hotel in the world, and it's for sale here is a link to a web page about the hotel:

http://www.wrightiniowa.com/intended.php

The city council was having a private group restore it, but got impatient and now are thinking of selling it on ebay. Get your checkbooks out folks!

It has been very rainy but I hope to get out today and shoot some of my favorite buildings, especially Rock Falls Rock Glen.

Pass the Hash

Lots of little things to report on:

• We had our first party at the new place. Lisa's staff came over after school on Friday, and some of my fellow tech people did too. The house is a great place to host a party, the key in the future will be to not move in any more furniture! I had the camera and neglected to take any pictures.
  
• Also on Friday I got my bill from the foundation contractor which stated all work had been completed, but they had never come back to finish sealing the inside cracks. I called and the receptionist said that Terry was in Iowa City and would call me. Imagine my surprise when I pull up to the house after picking up the girls at school to find a huge truck and backhoe in the driveway. Of course Lisa's teachers had already begun to arrive as well. I came in and two guys were in the basement patching. I told them to be sure and grab some food on their way out.
  
• Saturday morning was my parents garage sale, they have moved out of their big foursquare and are selling what was left over from their 3 day big time tag sale. My station was the garage itself, as opposed to the first floor of the house or the basement. Imagine my surprise when my father hands me an apron emblazoned with "Gordon Van Tine" advertising on the front. (Art and Crafts enthusiasists know that these folks were a major seller of pre cut "kit homes" in the early 20th century, and were headquartered in Davenport, Iowa.) All the millwork in our old house is from one of their catalogs that I happen to have found at Foxcroft. I'm certain all of Foxcroft's millwork is from there also.
  
• Saturday was the first playgroup at the new place as well. Rowan has two other friends who also live in neighborhoods without many kids so we rotate getting them together on Saturday mornings. Two other new neighborhood kids came over also. There are lots of children our kids age here, and since it is basically a dead end street, they just run wild around the neighborhood. That will be a huge change for us.
  
• I will be in Mason City, IA all next week, I will take my camera and post photos from there, it is the home of the only extant Frank Lloyd Wright hotel in the world, and Rock Falls Rock Glenn is the only Prairie style subdivision in the U.S. both are really fascinating.
  

War Council

Last night I got my architect, builders, and geothermal contractor together to talk about our plan for finishing the upstairs and renovating the heating system. I think it was time well spent. We now have the beginnings of a timeline and are able to think out what needs to happen when. The first step will be to bring in new electrical service, the geothermal needs 200 amp, even though it won't pull nearly that much. We'll put in a 200 amp 40 circuit box. The builders will start on June 9th and open up the back roof for the 2nd floor gable. That will need to be framed and covered by June 20 when the roofers will arrive. I will start pulling radiators on first floor as I am finishing floors downstairs, and once the framing is in place upstairs ductwork can be run throughout the house. Drilling for the geothermal pipes can happen any time this summer. Now the plan is in place we can begin to watch it fall apart!

CORAL GABLES SUB-DIVISION OF IOWA CITY

I was moving the barrister bookcases last week so I could start on painting the library ceiling. The bookcases were moved into the house in 1928 and probably hadn't moved since, judging by the dust. As I was lifting off a section I came across an advertising piece touting "University Heights: The Coral Gables Sub-Division of Iowa City." The piece is big, 21" x 27" and folds up to be mailed. The lots are advertised as being $500 and up. I know I have an earlier one somewhere that says $300 and up. I think this was produced in 1925 or maybe as late as 1926. The maps have Foxcroft shaded in pencil, likely done by Bess herself. Koser Brothers were the developers and Mr. Lee Koser, the real estate half, built his home next to Foxcroft, and Mr. George Koser, the lawyer half, moved his home from Manville Heights to just down the street. The writing pushes all the modern advances and notes that "A future home here, overlooking the Golf Links and some of the largest buildings in the world. Drive out and inspect this location." Well, the Golf Links are why our street is named "Golfview," but in 1929 the golf course was moved farther west and north so that a new Iowa football stadium (currently known as Kinnick Stadium) could be built. The largest buildings in the world would be the new University Hospital, which was at it's competion in 1925 the largest structure in terms of area covered in the U.S.

Here is the text from my favorite portion, which is on the side not pictured above. It's a mixture of facts, hype and a dash of greed thrown in for good measure:

BIG MONEY IN
WEST SIDE REAL ESTATE
West Side real estate now offers the best opportunity for good investment since the beginning of Iowa City. The immediate building program of the University on the West Side is almost equal to the amount of buildings done by the University on the East Side during the past fifty years. The resale value of Real Estate on the West Side has been as high as 300 to 400 per cent. (this does not however include buildings, because their value is governed by cost of labor and material.) On March 1, 1918 we purchased an acre of ground from the Cannon estate for about $2,000. 1921 we sold this acre for $4,000, and last year this acre was divided into lots and sold for a total amoun of around $14,000. About 12 years ago Byington's Addition was laid out, covering the ground now occupied by the Quadrangle and new Field House. Lots were offered for $300 to $500. Only a few lots were sold until the University purchased the land for $5,000. Today a lot would be worth $5,000 or more. Around 1920 we were offered the land now covering Melrose Circle for $5,000. Today, this land, now divided nto lots could not be purchased for less than $23,000. About ten years ago we sold a lot on Melrose Avenue and South Grand Avenue for $800. Two years ago the University paid around $5,500 for this lot. In the year 1921 we were selling lots on Melrose Avenue for $700 to $800 that are now priced around $4,000 and $5,000. On March 1, 1916 we sold thirty acres of the land now a part of University Heights, for $350 per acre, and in 1923 ---only seven years afterwards--- we purchased it back at $1,000 per acre. Many other illustrations could be given of the wonderful increase in value of property along Melrose Avenue, and yet the building program of the Univerity on the West Side has just started. It is now too late to buy lots close in on Melrose Avenue for $700 or $800---the time was 1920. Now is the time to buy lots on Melrose Avenue in University Heights to sell in 1930. Unless you buy you cannot sell. Unless you take some chance you cannot reap the profits. The building program of the University on the West Side is assured and for that reason an investment in Rest Estate on the West Side near University Campus must increase in value.

The football stadium is currently undergoing an $89 million dollar renovation, and an undeveloped chunk of ravine between Iowa City and University Heights sold last year and is going to be developed into sports condos starting at $200K.