Simply put, I'm looking for some of you, many of you in fact, to donate small amounts of money amounting to enough to purchase this building. $79,000 is a lot of money, I know. It would be nice if someone would be willing to donate the money required to purchase this building, though I don't see that as too likely. Most people who have lots of cash on hand could care less about an urban neighborhood area anywhere. Still, the project I've got in mind is both an artistic endeavor, as well as it is a worthwhile and socially noble urban renewal project on a small scale. Simply put, it's do-able. And once done, it can serve as a model for how to do it again.

I have enough funds of my own (and the lifelong skills) to completely restore this building to its original grandeur, as well as to furnish it, and bring the final goal of this project to fruition. I'm able to do all that, because as I am setting this up, the expenditure of those funds won't risk the modest financial security it has taken my wife and me a lifetime to create for ourselves.

We are going to owner-occupy this building, restore it, rent out the apartments and make some really nice rental units for other people to live in. That's the project here. We will eventually sell this building, but only to someone else who will owner-occupy it, and keep it as rental housing. If this one goes well, and I live long enough, I can see going on to another building, or even teaching what I know to others, and helping to fund them so they can do the same thing. No one is going to get rich doing this, but, in the end, I hope to create an owner-occupant rental housing business model, and, that a lot of other people get decent places and sustainable communities in which to live.

Rental housing makes sense. It is more economical than condominium conversions or single family homes could ever be. Urban living shouldn't be about being a millionaire who can afford a penthouse in a high rise. It shouldn't be about plunking down half your income every month for mortgage payments on a condominium only to get whacked by all the added expenses that were unforeseen when the contract to purchase was signed. Urban living should be about good, affordable rental housing to live in when you're young, when you're old, when and you're middle aged too. A landlord should be in the business of providing decent, convenient and affordable housing. His rental units should be made desirable by his keeping tenants happy so that the rental business in which he is employed goes along smoothly and modestly profitably. Everyone should be happy, the tenants and the landlord, and, I believe this is possible.

So, this is how to do your part should you be so inclined. Just so you know and understand, my wife and I sold our small fifty-acre farm here in northern Maine last year. We toured around the northeast and out through Ohio and into Michigan last spring. We came back to northern Maine just to settle our minds and make a decision about what we would do next. And, this project is what we've decided.

This is my current snail-mail address:

Don Robertson - 34 Main Street # 103 - Limestone, Maine 04750-1378

My telephone number is (207)325-4205 But if you try to call, don't be surprised if you get a seemingly endless busy signal. We have dial-up internet access. It's better to send me an email, the address for which is [email protected]

Here's a PayPal "Donate Button" for those who want to toss some bucks our way and say, "Good luck!"

Anyone serious about making a large donation should send us a personal check. PayPal skims a small percentage from every transaction, And a "small percentage" adds up to about fifteen bucks, if you're going to send a thousand dollars, which would be really nice, in any event.

Whether or not you are going to contribute to the cause, check back periodically. I'll be posting the results of the fund-raising efforts, and hopefully in not too long a period of time, pictures of our progress at 1732 Vine Street. And, if this property is bought before we can get to it, there are plenty of others, and we'll find something.

It's the idea as it meshes with my skills and interests that is important. Though this is the building I've tentatively chosen after looking at thousands of other buildings in Cincinnati.

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