There’s some doubt about my position on the Rose Garden. Let me start by saying that you have to walk into it with eyes wide open. There’s a lot of neglect and a lot of resulting damage, but if you aren’t in it for the quick flip, you have a chance to make it work. I’ll explain in detail:
Let’s suppose that we have a group that wants to own a house for the purpose of staying there, not renting to others. Now let’s suppose that the intention was NOT to “flip” the house, but to retain ownership.
Okay, stay with me here. The Rose Garden has a lot of problems, but the structural problems are the only ones you need to address immediately. All cosmetic issues can wait, and with time, you can apply the labor instead of paying for someone to come in and do the work quickly.
I’m talking months, here, not years, but it takes WILL POWER to actually see the project through, and that, only you can come up with.
Stay on target, Luke. Stay with me here, keep on track, don’t lose sight of the goal. What is the goal? A living space that is easily shared, and I can tell you exactly how to go about this.
- BATHROOMS — Everybody needs their own bathroom, and even a small bathroom is better than none at all. Extra bathtubs or showers can WAIT until there’s more money, and you might be able to work out the bathroom usage with only three bathrooms, I don’t have any way of knowing that.
- BEDROOMS — Of course everyone must have their own bedroom, one per couple. Bedrooms can be minimal upon moving in, then worked on as you see the need and the opportunities for good design, which I’d keep in mind throughout the repairs.
- KITCHEN — One kitchen serves all, and you need to make agreements on preparing foods, storing foods, handling foods, etc. BEFORE MOVING IN.
- CLOSETS — If I can make do with two tiny holes in the wall, so can you.
- WORK SPACE — Ah, the most important of all, and the Rose Garden does not lend itself well to workspaces, so here’s where I apply new knowledge: CREATE YOUR OWN WORKSPACE with a Tuff Shed. It will cost you MAXIMUM WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS, plus great carpeting, drywall, paint, windows and even clerestory windows, if you want them, great secure locking doors, ventilation or air conditioning, everything you could want in a private studio, and the best part is that EACH TENANT HAS HIS OR HER OWN STUDIO at a cost of about $10,000 apiece.
- HOME BUSINESS STUDIO — Want to meet someone to sell them some artwork? Why not drop a “By Appointment Only” Tuff Shed where clients can come see the artwork, books, incenses, oils, jewelry, candles, meditation aids, CDs, DVDs and more, that you can put into your very own home business shop. You can’t open it to the general public — it has to be by appointment only, but that can really work for you, to insure that the client means business, not just wasting your time. If this were located at the Rose Garden, I wouldn’t have to drive to town to meet clients — I could sell very high end jewelry, rare art books, coins, etc., plus do art classes, guitar classes, jewelry classes and small class lectures, and so can you. I can earn good money and wouldn’t have to endure a long drive, with your help in this way, and that would go a long way toward making a better financial picture for everyone.
- FOOD SERVICE — You are allowed by law to open a Home Kitchen and sell food right on your own property. You need a minimal license and food-handler’s license to do this, and hot apple pie and coffee could be sold, with a small sign right on the highway. I bet you’d get more traffic than you could imagine, which might present a problem, but for the moment, it’s worth exploring, eh?
- BUILDING SERVICE — You could go into business creating small studio spaces or shops for people who are interested in the Tiny House Concept, which is becoming popular enough that the county has a man in the planning department who will shepherd you through the process in minutes, because Tuff Shed Plans are pre-approved and they merely rubber-stamp the application and run you through the department as fast as they can get rid of you. This is due to the extreme national popularity of the Tiny House Movement. Look it up and see what I mean. You’re no longer the only one out there who wants to set up a Tiny House. Only thing is, it can’t be on raw land — there must be a main house first, with all the services in.
The fact that raw land can’t take a Tuff Shed is very important, and that’s why I came up with this alternate plan, where you DON’T live in the shed, you use it as a work space, office, gallery, bookstore, craft area, ceramic studio, glassworking studio, jewelry studio or painting and sculpting studio, which is where I’m taking mine, once I get the finances for it — I’ll order it when the cash is here, and it will be installed within a week.
I can then design the inside as a studio, as a bookstore, as a jewelry mart, as a coffee and donut stand, and as a movements dojo, etc. — in each incarnation, I’ll take photos and make a walk-through video to show the uses to which this building can be put, but mostly keep in mind that you LIVE in the house, and WORK in the Tuff Shed.
This way, there’s no plumbing issues, no septic issues, no kitchen issues, no toilet installation issues, no permit issues at all, no permits, period, none needed for a shed that’s 12′ x 16′, which is plenty big enough for one person to paint, sculpt and more in.
I plan to put that studio on THE STUDIO TOUR, which happens every year and there are other tours on which you could get as well, so your studio, TOTALLY SEPARATE FROM YOUR LIVING QUARTERS, would get traffic, about 1,000 people, a year, coming through on Art Tour Day. In addition, you could put up listings of the more than 1,000 items I have for placement in your shop, if you want them there.
I can easily walk over to the shop to meet a Rembrandt Print client or a jewelry client of mine or of yours. I can easily walk over to the Rose Garden for a consultation, and can also give lectures there or in a larger Tuff Shed that you might want to build for just such occasions.
The Institute could rent the workshop space for a workshop, as well. If you get the extra tall model, you can put a second floor up there for storage or extra sleeping space during workshops, if you’re so inclined (positional pun intended, after some deliberation).
I’m going to make a bet. I’d get a termite inspection for sure, to find out exactly what’s wrong. In my opinion, there’s about $100,000 worth of damage to the building overall, but the actual repairs needed, I’m guessing, without supporting factual data, just a guess, that the EMERGENCY STRUCTURAL REPAIRS will amount to slightly less than $60,000, if you don’t have to worry about a fast-flip resale, and as I understand it, you don’t.
Now, you’d have to be rather careful about the septic system, with a number of folks, but I know many families of 12 or more and yes, they’re mostly Catholic, who live successfully on a septic system, but you do have to be very aware of your personal impact on the system, which is, in the case of folks inclined to work ideas, all to the good. Keeps you on your toes, makes you stay alive more often in the day when there’s something that requires extreme attention, and the septic system does, or you’ll rue the day.
There’s an incredible pond there on the Rose Garden property, and it needs tending, as does the once-beautiful lawn with its once-beautiful olive trees which are, alas, all gone now, but could easily be restored, and olive oil could be harvested and sold in your Tiny Country Store, along with eggs and farm produce from our land garden and from the 35 acres garden, which they plan to run as a truck farm, so that might work out well.
So let’s see how that works out:
- You’ll need to buck up something for the Rose Garden Mortgage, my guess is around $20,000 apiece — making about $100,000 down, 33%, probably more than you need.
- Then each party will need to spend $10,000 — that’s the installed price — for your private studio/store/workspace that can be set up in the back area, not in view from the road.
- In addition, you’d each need to put in somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 for urgent repairs that cannot be put off a day longer. The damage is remarkable, but repairable with some time and effort. Neglect is not a good practice on any level or on any subject.
- Then the group would supply collectively (I use the word “collective” advisedly and with some reserve, having been associated with a grade school that apparently brainwashed its students to share things equally among themselves) the $10,000 I would need to get the store built and decorated. I would supply many items for the shop, and the group would share the profits, to be used by them any way they wish, either personally for support or donations to the Ashram or both or neither, it’s your call and you can change and adjust as conditions require, of course. It’s your money, is what I mean to say. The Institute gets the wholesale, you get the rest.
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PLAN:
With my plan to make your living quarters in the house and your work space in the Tuff Sheds, thus eliminating the need for plumbing and additional septic lines, fields and tanks, which, believe me, you don’t want to tangle with the County on, you should be able to ADDITIONALLY TO THE ROSE GARDEN AND TUFF SHEDS, raise the $300,000 cash needed to buy up the Institute’s mortgage on the Land.
The HOLDERS OF THE MORTGAGE would own the mortgage on the Land.
The Institute would then make monthly payments to the mortgage holding group, until, with everyone’s help over a three-year period, we can raise the cash to finally pay off the loan completely, which is my personal targeted goal. At the moment, we are in danger and need help NOW to handle this odd situation created by the Wall Street bankers, and MUST find a mortgage holder that will accept us, which is YOU, there is no other.
The banks and many other lenders we’ve contacted and tried to work with have all agreed that we’re good for the loan, have never missed a payment in over 45 years, but banks just won’t lend to nonprofits, ONLY BECAUSE they don’t want the negative publicity if they have to foreclose on a church or nonprofit agency. They won’t have to ever, with us, but they won’t change their nationwide policy for us or anyone else, no matter how big and financially strong they are, and that includes the biggest churches in the land. All nonprofits must pay cash, and that’s a fact we can’t get around.
So we’re asking for a group of our Work Circle folks to get together and BUY our mortgage, which we then pay on the same usual monthly basis we’ve been paying for decades without issue.
We then work to pay off the mortgage, which I hope will happen within three years, and the property is permanently safeguarded for eternity or the next Solar Nova, whichever comes first.
If you can actualize this quickly, I believe that I can increase our income potential by several hundreds of times, and we can better help the community.
I hope this clarifies my position on the matter.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby