The 2nd Empire Strikes Back REPAIR FUND

Hi, my name is Kaleb Higgins from St. Louis, MO, and I'm on a journey repairing my 1890's 2nd Empire home using products and skillsets that were originally used in the construction of my home. Over the last two years, my wife Kim and I have been working on replacing all our systems and making sure our home is dried in. We've had our flat roof replaced, and several brick walls were crumbling and had to be rebuilt and tuckpointed. The entire house needed to be replumbed and new electricity installed. New water service had to be brought into the home, and new windows had to be remade and installed. We even have a new HVAC system for the 1st floor and basement. The purchase of the house and all these repairs have been made without a loan. We've looked into getting a loan by refinancing the house but to do so; a few things must be completed first: the structure must be dried in 100%, and the home must have a working kitchen and bathroom. We were well on our way to getting the house dried in. Our only issues are a few windows (which we have, they need to be installed) and the mansard portion of our roof. The mansard roof is our current issue. We have a historic carpenter hired (2 years ago), and he has run all our replacement woodwork. It's done and ready to be put back together. We were so close to getting this back up until a windstorm blew off one of our dormers. We also have a lift that recently started acting up. We have a working bathroom so that's good, but we our in the middle of our basement kitchen. We had to slow that process down because of a sewer lateral issue that started to push sewage back into the house.

The sewer lateral under our home has been replaced, but the lateral from the house to the back alley was scoped two years ago and was in good operable condition. This past summer, we had two 1000-year storm events within the same week that resulted in our sewer lateral under our yard to cave in. We will have a contractor fixing this situation soon (fingers crossed that the winter weather holds off until this is complete).

I've had a personal policy in the past of not allowing my supporters to help with the costs of our restoration, and I'm very hesitant to even put this up. We want to give value and not be a burden on anyone else. However, I asked everyone a few weeks ago for their thoughts on us doing this, and everyone was overwhelmingly in favor of it. So here it is. No one needs to give. We will love you just the same, and we're extremely grateful that you give us your time each week.