Maple Park?

[dioscorides]

Sounds like you found a house with some deferred maintenance issues. Should make for a good price! Are you a handy guy who knows a claw hammer from a wrecking bar? Know what DWV stands for? Enjoy cruising through Lowes, HD or Best Hardware even if you have no intention of buying anything? Like adventure? Seriously, I just loved old homes but I still had to buy a home repair manual when I first moved in to find out all the things dad never told me about living in a house from a different century.

Windows are important on these old homes because other than the lack of insulation in the walls, most of the leakage comes from them. Replacing, rehabbing or good storm windows will have a tremendous positive effect on your bills and comfort level.

We painstakingly rebuilt most of our windows. 42 windows, most of them 10 lights that were painted shut. Sometimes stripping them if there were too many layers of paint. Sometimes we got lucky and only had to free up the windows with a flat blade, scrape them, sand them glaze them and repaint them. Remember, there is lead paint within those 80 years of paint jobs. Pretty sure I used to be smarter than I am now. I wanted to save them because the glass in them has irregular waves that add character. Ya gotta love this kind of work though. Otherwise replacing them with approved double insulated windows is the way to go.

Taking out a tree is expensive and may actually reduce your property value as well as raise your utility bills. Get an estimate from a reputable guy about whether it can be saved and merely trimmed up. Talk to PSO too. They are now working in this area removing trees that pose line problems.

Working on these old homes is like restoring an old classic car. Lots of people will help you with hard earned advice and good sources for your needs. And, I have heard stories about the association playing hardball, but mostly those are "notable" homes that have displayed questionable taste. Be glad they are there. Otherwise we'd all have aluminum windows and fancy iron porch railings along with lower sale prices.

ha! haven't ever classified myself as a "handyman".  i'm decent at repairing small things here and there.  my dad is pretty good at larger projects.  never really rubbed off, i guess.  i don't know if we are patient enough to rehab all the windows ourselves.  you never know though.  thanks for the advice of talking to PSO.  we do have an arborist that we have used a couple times at our current house for a very large maple tree in the back yard.  we will definitely have him look at the trees before we do anything to them.  thanks again for your responses.

[dioscorides]

Call Ed or Amanda with the Tulsa Preservation Commission and talk with them about rehabbing in an Historic Preservation district.  Both are very approachable, nice to work with, and know their stuff.  I know the process is free and doesn't take a long time.  Remember, it's only the facade of the house that is subject to scrutiny.

No HOA or other controlling entity for these neighborhoods.

http://www.tulsapreservationcommission.org/

will do. thanks!

[dioscorides]

We live across Peoria in the Swan Lake neighborhood and have looked at many homes in the North Maple Ridge area you are calling Maple Park. It is a very nice and desirable neighborhood, as is Swan Lake. We really like the area as a whole, and we love the house we are in now (1928 2 story red brick).  From a neighborhood persepctive, I like Swan Lake better cause you have easy walking access to BOTH Cherry St and Utica Square as well as Swan Lake park and the Marquette playground for our kids, which is a great place to visit.  From an overall "houses available" perspective, I like North Maple Ridge better as the homes tend to be a little larger and on bigger lots (in general).  

We have the same "historical preservation" zoning in Swan Lake that exists in Maple Ridge.  I have talked to the preservation people about our house and things I would like to do the the exterior (replace windows, restore siding in dormers) and have found them to be very easy to work with/talk to, although I have never done any of the projects I talked to them about...I chose to repair existing windows vs replace as the new windows I wanted to use were expensive (double paned/6panel windows are expensive...the vinyl option is viable with internal divider, but I did not want to go that route as our bathroom window was done that way by a previous owner and I think it looks bad...).  

They are VERY eager to help and also very nice people.  Their role (my opinion) is more to advise/educate homeowners on how to best achieve a value adding restoration project and not to be the "Preservation Police".  Some people don't like this as they feel like it takes away from personal property rights...I like it because it protects my investment by keeping the integrity of the neighborhood intact as much as possible.  Plus it is a free sounding board to bounce ideas off of and they may give you insight you would have otherwise not had the benefit of.

I think in the long run the property values have shown the historic preservation zoning is worth it's weight in gold.  I have seen my property value go up by about 40% (according to zillow.com) since we moved in a few years ago...and I expect there is still upside to be had on some homes that have maintenance needs like the one you describe!  Good luck in your decision and make sure and scope out available houses in the Swan Lake neighborhood if you haven't already!

thanks for the input and the link to the guidelines (we were looking for something like that).  it makes feel better about the "preservation police".