http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog a new studio, a new home Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:30:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Looks like I was quoted in this month's Oregon Business Magazine. A Brief article on the merits of live/work spaces. It's a short piece, and mostly about the concept, rather than specifics. http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/livework-in-oregon-business-magazine Left hook from the economy. Right cross from the banks. Multiple uppercuts from the mortgage industry. A 10-round knockout. For those of you who've been following along, it's been a real treat sharing this process over the last year and a half. As of today, I'm officially abandoning the live/work project. ... http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/im-done Bad news. After reaching terms with the bank, they've gone back on their initial commitment. The first terms were not favorable, but if I held my nose, I could tolerate it. The new terms are just abysmal. They've increased their fees to 2 points, are requiring all sorts of new documentation ... http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/banks-taking-everything-and-giving-nothing Well, it feels almost surreal, but the city has our permit ready. Meaning, if I put down my money, we could break ground. Of course, this is all theoretical, since the bank is behaving like...well, most banks. More on that shortly. http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/permit-is-ready Received a new appraisal yesterday. It's better, but still short of what we needed to complete the project. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the lending process, here's how it works: Banks will loan you a certain amount of money based on the appraised value of your project. To ... http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/setback-no-375-appraisal Well, tomorrow is THE DAY. The bank's appraiser will be coming by the house to do a walk-through. This will be the second appraisal of the current home and Live/Work Propoert. The number we need to hit is ambitious, BUT the new appraiser agrees that it's valid to use duplexes ... http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/good-thoughts I recently met with Taylor Watkins of Watkins and Associates. Taylor was referred by Beth of Living Spaces Design, as well as Renee and Lorie of Rose City Mortgage. Sadly, Taylor had an emergency come up and wasn't able to help us with the project. However, once he's back to ... http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/an-appraiser-to-admire I recently had the pleasure of meeting Eric Storm and Beth Meredith of the design firm Living Spaces. Eric and Beth stumbled across my site and invited me to lunch to discuss ADUs. Without going into too much detail, we had a great conversation about the ADU program, it's shortcomings, and ... http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/living-spaces-better-design-smaller-footprint I'm introducing a new category to the site this week. It's called "Heroes." The idea is to highlight individuals, businesses, and organizations that have contributed to the project. Initially, I was going to call this category "Heroes and Villains" but decided that the "Villains" just weren't worth my time or ... http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/livework-heroes (and how they can fix it) Those of you following this website know that for over a year (17 months, but who's counting?) I've been trying to get our ADU project off the ground. We've won some major battles (land use adjustments) suffered some small setbacks (NIMBY neighbors) and learned a ... http://www.shawnbusse.com/private/houseblog/why-portlands-adu-program-is-flawed