Rowhome Rehab

We've been trying to remodel our Scovill Row Home for over a year now, hitting endless obstacles from contractors who want nothing to do with us. The worst was Giordano Cabinets. The rep who came to our house took one look at the neighborhood (which is predominantly African American and Hispanic) and asked if his crew would be safe here, then gave us an estimate of $62,000 for cabinets and countertops for a 19 square foot kitchen. I can only assume that the estimate was excessively high because they don't want the job.

After living here for twelve years, I can confidently say that the only problem with this neighborhood is the slumlord situation. We still have these jerks coming in and turning good houses into terrible rental properties, never pulling permits for any of the cheap work they do, sometimes converting these small houses into illegal and unsafe multi-families, and then running the properties into the ground.

I think the primary challenge for these row homes, which are listed on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Properties, is their uniqueness. Few people see their potential, because there is nothing else like them in this area. The slumlords see them as cash cows, doing the bare minimum to make them inhabitable.

I lived in Delaware for two years, which may be part of the reason why I like these row homes: brick row houses are commonplace in the mid-Atlantic states. This weekend, I spent some time browsing similar row houses in Philadelphia and Baltimore on realtor.com, looking specifically for ones with the same square footage as the Scovill Row Homes (1024 sq ft).

The Scovill Row Homes were modeled after row homes previously built in Philadelphia, making for a good comparison. Instead of trying to figure out how to fit giant showroom kitchens and bathrooms into our small house, we now have photos of remodeled galley kitchens and tiny bathrooms.

From what I can tell, one or more developers in Philadelphia have been buying up row homes, renovating them, then selling them for $250-350,000. While the Philly real estate market is not the same as Waterbury's, there's no reason why our row homes couldn't look as beautiful inside as theirs.

Here is a sampling of photographs from realtor.com showing row homes that have been recently renovated in Philadelphia. Hopefully, we will be able to find a contractor who is willing to help us make our home look as nice as these.

The black metal railing and gray paint are in many of the newly rehabbed Philadelphia row homes.