• A group opportunity. Invite your friends.
  • 13 people are interested
 

Learn House Repair and Restoration Skills and Save History!

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ORGANIZATION: FRIENDS OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION

  • A group opportunity. Invite your friends.
  • 13 people are interested
Houser-Metzger House
In progress!

FHP is restoring a house very important to the City of Iowa City. There are a number of tasks that need to be completed. In return we can teach you how to learn tasks that are fun, easy, and may save you thousands of dollars in your own home repair or remodel.

Tasks that need to be complete include:

  • Hanging drywall
  • Drywall taping, sanding and joining old plaster and new drywall together
  • Repairing plaster
  • Window restoration (far more energy efficient and last forever for $50 vs buying a vinyl window for $500 and having to replace it in 11 years)
  • Repairing/refinishing shellac (if woodwork has "alligatored"/bubbled into crusty dark bumps)
  • Floor restoration (restoring your hardwood floors without sanding)
  • Stripping paint with an eco-friendly, nontoxic, soy-based paint and finish stripper.
  • Interior priming/painting (we can even teach you how to paint a stairwell)
  • Taping for painters
  • Wood repair
  • Tiling
  • Building simple cabinetry & cellar doors (at specific times)
  • Safely removing lead paint
  • Porch restoration/restoration
  • 20-year exterior paint job (when it is no longer freezing at night)
  • Planting (after ground thaws)
All projects are ongoing and staff members are at the house most days. Please contact Alicia at alicia@ic-fhp.org or 319.331.5113 to learn more. We accept one individual up to large groups. For projects that involve lead paint or dangerous tools, you must be 18 years old to volunteer. Under 18, with a guardian’s permission, you may participate in all other tasks. FHP cannot thank you enough for considering volunteering!

More opportunities with FRIENDS OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION

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About FRIENDS OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION

Location:

PO BOX 2001, IOWA CITY, IA 52244, US

Mission Statement

The mission of Friends of Historic Preservation is to encourage the preservation of historic buildings, landscapes, and neighborhoods in Southeast Iowa through a combination of public education efforts, advocacy measures, and rehabilitation projects.

Description

FHP advocacy work includes preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods and being advocates for those without a voice. We host and speak to dozens of groups each year. We assist people in their historic tax applications, nomination forms, and grants.

Education programing includes hands-on projects such as window restoration, floor restoration, painting classes, laying a reclaimed floor, and others. Other classes include, historic tax credits, historic register nominations, and researching your home.

Our devotion to sustainability includes the Salvage Barn, where volunteers and staff remove architectural features that would be lost when a building is razed. The items are then brought to the Salvage Barn to prevent them from becoming landfill material. FHP saves houses from demolition, rehabilitating them into single family homes. Our current project the Houser-Metzger House, now located at 623 College St in Iowa City, was once on Iowa Ave and slated for demolition. The house qualifies for the National Register of Historic Places and is important to the history of Iowa City. In 2013 FHP opened Iowa City’s only tool lending library, which enables individuals to use tools for their own projects. FHP is in the process of opening a second Tool Lending Library and Salvage Barn at the historic Mills Seed Building in Washington, IA. Every year FHP cohosts Craft Your Environment at the Recycling Center, where all vendors must incorporate recycled materials into their projects.

CAUSE AREAS

Arts & Culture
Education & Literacy
Environment
Arts & Culture, Education & Literacy, Environment

WHEN

We'll work with your schedule.

WHERE

Houser-Metzger House623 E College StreetIowa City, IA 52240

(41.658604,-91.52631)
 

SKILLS

  • Interior / Exterior Decorating
  • Architecture
  • Construction
  • Woodworking
  • Home Repair
  • Carpentry

GOOD FOR

  • Group

REQUIREMENTS

  • As much or as little time as you want
  • Will except court ordered community service, with the exception of those convicted of violent crime.

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