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Manhattan Remodel and Cape Cod Affordable > Episode 4: Falmouth's Model for Quality Affordable Housing

Landscaping in the Falmouth Affordable House Development and Finished Interior of a Single Family Home

Project: Manhattan Remodel and Cape Cod Affordable, Episode 4, Part 3

Bob visits with John Druley of Quaker Homes in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Druley is developing a parcel of land in Falmouth that will have eight homes, two of them affordable for families earing a modest income. Bob and Druley discuss the reality of housing in Falmouth, where one-acre building lots are required for new housing. A lot, Druley explains, will sell for around $300,000 with no construction. For this development, Druley has invoked Massachusetts' Act 40B to gain relief from zoning restrictions such as the one-acre minimum lot size. In return, Druley must make 20 percent of the homes available as affordable homes, for those earning up to 80 percent of the area's median income. The lots are 10,000 sqaure feet with a 40-foot setback from the road, 10-foot sidelines, and a 45 to 50-foot backyard. The homes are 1,800-square-foot Capes with attached garages, clad in white cedar shingles, with skylights, architectural-style roof shingles, and no-maintenance, energy-efficient vinyl windows. Druley explains that the affordable and market-priced homes must be indistinguisable in design, materials, and layout. The state assigns a 40B auditor to monitor the project and assure that no corners are cut on the affordable homes, and that the developer earns no more than 20 percent profit from the development. Druley explains that the market-priced homes in the neighborhood will sell for between $375,000 and $400,000, which will help offset the $119,900 selling price for the affordable homes.

Part 1: Discussing Falmouth's Model for Affordable Housing
Part 2: Tour of an Affordable Home
Part 3: Landscaping in the Falmouth Affordable House Development and Finished Interior of a Single Family Home: Bob joins John Druley at another of the Quaker Homes that is nearly completed and ready for landscaping. This home is virtually the same as the first-time homebuyer model that Bob visited under construction. Landscaping will be standard for all of the homes with gardens out front, a picket fence and rose bushes, a clamshell driveway, and cobblestone edging. Initially, the septic systems were problematic for Druley since the burden of eight homes with lawns on the groundwater system and adjacent salt ponds presented concerns for the enviromental review board. According to Title 5, denitrification systems costing about $7,000 apiece would be required for each of the homes. Druley proposed reducing the size of the lawns, using low-nitrate fertilizers, and passing the savings on to the two affordable homes in the development. This further reduced the selling price of the homes from $145,000 to $119,900. Bob and John Druley of Quaker Homes in Falmouth, Massachusetts, tour the interior of a finished single-family home in the development Druley is building with Act 40B approval. This model has features not selected for the affordable, first-time homebuyer model, including a loft-style living room and upstairs bedrooms at each end of the house. This is a standard floor plan, but one that is better suited to empty-nesters than to young families. The Palladian window in the front is a standard option that allows lots of light to enter the home. Hardwood floors or tile throughout the downstairs rooms are standard, as is the deck off the kitchen and dining area.
Part 4: Tour of the Completed Interior of an Affordable Home

This project deals with two very different notions of home. Bob begins on New York City's Upper West Side, where an 1890s Brownstone is revitalized through high-quality craftsmanship and sensitive design. New York's past meets its present, as the entire floor is recaptured and refurbished to create a spacious urban apartment on the doorstep of Central Park.

At the same time, Bob works with a Cape Cod developer to apply Massachusetts land use statute 40B to create affordable housing, and a neighborhood of homes in Mashpee, MA. These Energy Star certified homes show how quality building practices and reasonable asking prices can work together to provide livable, affordable homes and neighborhoods to those who work in our communities.

Also from Manhattan Remodel and Cape Cod Affordable

Episode 1 - A New Lift for a Manhattan Brownstone
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Description:
Bob is on Manhattan's Upper West Side to renew a 2,000-square-foot Brownstone apartment. First, he looks at what made Brownstones significant, including their details and façades.<br> <br> Inside the building, Bob shows how the space was cut up in the 1940s to make a warren of rooms. These walls and finishes will be removed as the space is gutted to prepare for new studs, walls, plumbing, and finishes.<br> <br> Pieces will be salvaged for architectural resale, including the pink sink from the bathroom and the retro cabinets in the kitchen, but everything else will go. Bob also visits Central Park, its caretakers, trees, and monuments.
Episode 2 - Demolition in the Manhattan Brownstone
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Description:
The big story is the cornice molding found in tact when the drop ceiling came down. The molding will set a tone for the main living space, where the bricks have been removed to install a flue liner and drafting fireplace. All of the 40s wall, surface, and ceiling treatments are gone, along with the lath and plaster, leaving the bare brick and exposed joists from the original construction. Remodels have cut into the joist work or damaged it, so some reworking will be necessary to build up for the floors and ceilings. The floor joists are sistered to make a level, solid footing for the Georgia-Pacific Plytanium subflooring that goes under the wood floor. Laser levels allow the carpenters to set level lines throughout the apartment horizontally for the floor and vertically for the new steel studs they are installing. Finally, a flexible flue liner is run through the wall, and up the chimney for the new fireplace.
Episode 3 - Building Affordable Homes on Cape Cod
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Description:
Affordable housing is the story in this project as Bob heads to Mashpee, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, where a state law is helping put higher density, affordable housing in place for four families who live and work in the community. Bob meets Pat Fiero of the Housing Assistance Corporation who explains the hurdles faced by families needing to live near their workplaces in a town where the average home price is $450,000. Bob visits Mashpee Commons and looks at mixed-use development that is providing a town center, housing, commercial property, recreational space, and a new church as a start to this new town development. Bob also meets the developer, Joe Valle, who explains the challenges in developing affordable housing and how this project was made possible by invoking Massachusetts? 40B land use and development law. On site, Bob Bevilaqua moves the earth to prepare the sites, shows the tie-offs for electrical and phone lines, and explains the drainage plan.
Episode 8 - Installing Drop Ceilings, Custom Windows, and Mechanicals
Episode 9 - Paneling the Kitchen, Installing Hot Water, and Hanging Doors
Episode 10 - Cladding, Insulating, and Zoning for an Affordable Home
Episode 13 - Installing Pre-Hung Doors, Hardwood Floors, and Gutters
Episode 14 - Affordable HVAC, Painting, Kitchen Cabinets and Counters
Episode 15 - Installing Glazed Wall Tile and a Pedestal Sink
Episode 16 - Refurbishing Wrought Iron, Custom Kitchen Cabinets, Profile Molding
Episode 17 - Kitchens, Feng Shui, and Energy Star Homes
Episode 18 - Finishing Details in the Manhattan Brownstone

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