Another setback for the Wells Sherman House

Yesterday was supposed to be the day that we FINALLY moved the historic 1858 Wells-Sherman House to its new permanent location downtown. I assumed that we had all of our ducks in a row, i's dotted, t's crossed and were ready to roll, but somehow, something with moving the utilities got overlooked and the move was abruptly cancelled on Friday, prompting a flurry of letting people know so that they would not show up on Saturday disappointed that the house wasn't moving. I feel so angry, frustrated and deflated, because this is the latest in what has become a long series of setbacks for this project, already a year behind schedule with a possibility of another year if we can't get the house moved by mid-autumn. The window is rapidly closing and at best, we have about 6 weeks before we lose another season and have to wait until next year. At this rate, we may as well keep it where it is, forgo a basement and just build a foundation where it is and be done with it, especially if we encounter more screw ups, delays and so forth. Parking should not be an issue because there is a new parking garage nearby that could be used if need be. I think that the fates are trying to point us to keeping it where it is, which I am increasingly in favor of doing, given the all of the baloney that we've encountered trying to get it downtown. It just doesn't seem feasible to do it anymore, and since the project is already behind by a full year and we have a tenant waiting to get in, we may as well just leave it where it is and begin restoration now. I just don't see the point in waiting any longer. It's already sitting in a good location, it's still downtown, and the ratty building next door where we had planned to move it has serious drainage issues that are not being addressed and could jeopardize this house and flood the basement. The owner of that building does not seem interested in fixing his drainage problems and the building, while once beautiful and over 100 years old, is in serious disrepair and would take over $200,000 to repair and bring up to code. Its foundation is crumbling, the exterior is in awful shape, there is a very noticeable crack running from roof to foundation on the south side of the building, and some of the exterior ornamentation is crumbling.

It's sad that the building is in such a state of deterioration, but it's been allowed to crumble over a very long period of time because of an owner who either does not have the money to keep up the property or does not really care. If the drainage issue is not addressed, I don't really want our historic house to be endangered by a careless owner who won't fix a problem that could spell serious trouble for our project. It may be just as well to leave the house where it is and forget trying to get it to a location that is proving to be too problematic in more ways than one. I'm weary of the wait and I think that we should just give it up and keep the house where it is and begin restoration immediately so that we can begin to fundraise for restoration and at least get our tenant in as soon as we get the upstairs ready for her to move her office in. We've waited long enough. Time to get this project underway now. More waiting and more delays and more glitches and more issues are only going to continue the negative publicity that this whole thing has generated as a result of the frivolous lawsuit that was taken against us. I just can't see people getting behind this with all of these constant delays and holdups that have dogged this thing from the get-go. People are already beginning to question what is taking us so long to get underway. Yes, it's stuff that hasn't been our fault, but still, I don't think that it looks particularly good to keep having this thing held up year after year by one thing after another. The project is already well over a year late in getting underway and if we don't resolve this latest delay issue soon, we'll be looking at the house sitting where it is until next year, further delaying this already frustrating historic preservation project. My patience is wearing thin. I want to get started NOW, not next year. I do hope that, once this latest delay is resolved, that we can get this thing moving and get started with interior restoration. Exterior restoration will certainly have to wait until next year with winter coming on soon, but we can certainly spend the colder months of the year inside fixing it up, and I so greatly look forward to spending many a weekend doing so. I just hope that we can get this thing going SOON. I'm sick and tired of waiting!