Many who have cruised, pedalled, skateboarded, or jogged along Alki in the last couple of years have probably noticed that boarded up, neglected, L-shaped brick building called the Shoremont at 2460-2464 Alki Ave. SW and 57th Ave. SW. New owner, Dennis Schilling to the rescue. He spoke to the West Seattle Herald about his project. The amicable Mercer Islander also said you might spot him on the roof these days as he begins transforming the shell to an 8-unit apartment complex. It was a 6-unit building.

"I own it and I'm doing the work on it," he said. "I bought it from some entity of the FDIC around November. In April I finally got my building permit. We're upgrading the wiring, plumbing, putting a new roof on it, bringing it up to energy code, and going back to the original configuration of four, one-bedroom apartments on each side. We just started. They had torn off the roof in preparation to demolish and build (new) condos. It just sat there. I like old brick buildings and it look like a good location so I thought it would be something interesting to work on.

"It's a gorgeous area and I love being there. I had my son up there the other night on the roof helping me, and the volleyball started across the street and people were walking by and he's going, 'Wow. This is nice. I could live here.' I could live here, too.

"There are not a lot of layers of command, so you might see me up on the roof with a hammer in my hand."