News

Renovations completed

By Scott Wagar

05/14/2013

After spending months on renovating the former Ace Hardware building in downtown Bottineau, Fred and Lisa Kainz have opened their doors to Kainz Villa, a multifunctional structure which is going to be in full use by mid-June.

“Lisa and I spent close to a year, or 2,000 hours, working on the building,” Fred Kainz said. “But, it’s finally finished and we are excited to get some people using the building.”

To understand the longevity of the project, Fred and Lisa did the majority of all the renovation work on the structure, which holds 3,000 square feet. Fred and Lisa rehabilitated the building into a business space on the main floor and apartments on the second floor.

MAIN FLOOR

The structure is 115 years old, and when the renovations started on the 2,000 square feet on the main floor they planned to keep some of the historical aspect of the building in place, which they succeeded in some aspects, but had to let other antiquities go.

“We left the original 1897 Victorian tin ceiling in place and painted it purple,” Fred said. “We were going to refinish the original floors, too, but after we got everything out of the building there were so many holes from conduit runs, heating and patches every where, we had to carpet the floor instead.”

Fred added that he wished he could have brought back the original windows, which were the full height of the building, but he was unable to because they decided to place apartments on the second floor.

When he acquired the building, its heating source was two propane heaters on the ceiling, which he switched over to electricity to heat the entire building.

APARTMENTS

The second floor of the building, which was utilized as a storage facility and workshop when it was a hardware store, was stripped down to the frame and Fred and Lisa constructed three apartments upstairs.

“All our two bedroom apartments have 10-foot ceilings with the exception of the apartment in the back of building, which has a nine foot ceiling because that was the old work shop when it was a hardware store,” Fred said. “Apartment one has hickory cabinets, apartment two has white cabinets and apartment three has oak cabinets. All three apartments have hardwood laminated floors and all have windows.

“Apartment one also has a full bath and shower, while apartments two and three only have baths,” Fred added. “And, there is a shared laundry facility with set ups for future duel stacked washers and dryers. We also installed Point of Use on Demand heated water, which means there are no water heaters and when you turn the water on you get hot water immediately.”  

Apartment one has 700 square feet, apartment two has 650 square feet and apartment three has 590 square feet. Each apartment also has four jacks for television, phone, internet and other equipment.
There are two entrances to the upstairs apartments, which includes one from Main Street and a wooden staircase in the back of building. There are also parking spaces for Kainz Villa’s residents with additional parking space behind Suchan’s apartment building for residents who have more than one vehicle.

UTILIZATION     

The main floor has been leased out by Jeff and Echo Schriver who are opening a sporting goods store sometime in the middle of June. The Schrivers are also going to establish an archery range in the basement of the building for individuals to sharpen their shooting skills with a bow.

Fred and Lisa already have one apartment rented out and are in the application process of renting the remaining two apartments.