Norwoodville, just north of Des Moines in Delaware Township, started as a coal-mining village — one of several small camps that grew up around the mines on Polk County's north side, each with its own character but sharing the same basic layout: small residential lots, narrow streets, homes built close together for workers rather than spread out like farmland. That pattern is still visible in a lot of Norwoodville's older housing, even as the area's filled in with more recent construction around it.
Working on a house built for a coal-camp lot is a different exercise than working on a modern suburban lot — less room to expand out, more reason to think carefully about how an addition or renovation actually fits the property.
Small lots take more planning, not less ambition. We're set up for both.
