Jackie Taylor, 63, hangs out with his dog Rufus inside his open kitchen in his upstairs flat that he has almost finished renovating in Lakewood. Taylor broke down a wall to the left to give the kitchen and open feel. The entire kitchen redo has only cost $2,000 with used materials, he said. (Lisa DeJong/The Plain Dealer)
He prides himself on creating an affordable vintage space where everything is restored, repaired and reused. Most of the materials came from Habitat for Humanity.
“At first I bought it as an investment,” says Taylor, who paid $200,000 for the building. “But after spending so much time here working on the apartments, I thought, ‘I really like it here.'”
Jackie Taylor had to scrape all the white paint off of the original woodwork which includes built-in bookcases and a bench in the living room of his 1920s apartment. (Lisa DeJong/The Plain Dealer)