Standing in a nearly empty parking lot off Meadowview Drive in Edwardsburg, South Bend resident Mary Kotinek points to a grouping of flowers underneath a windowsill.

“Those are all new,” Kotinek said. “We are really making an effort to make things look nice.”

Kotinek and her husband William recently took over ownership of the Meadowview Apartments in Edwardsburg from her in-laws, who have owned the complex since 1995.

“My husband has always kind of wanted to take over the apartments from his dad,” Kotinek said. “[My in-laws] were ready to retire and travel and do other things, so buying the apartments was just something my husband really wanted to do.”

Since taking over the complex, William, who is currently battling cancer, and Mary have been hard at work remodeling the apartments.

“We are trying to improve the apartment complex in general,”  Mary Kotinek said. “It needed a lot of updating and maintenance. We are trying to give it a facelift and make it a nicer part of the community.”

To begin the renovation of the apartments, the Kotineks spent days trimming trees, planting flowers, cleaning parking lots and working on the landscaping of the property. Currently, the husband and wife duo are remodeling the interior of vacant apartments to update features and improve the overall aesthetics of the apartments.

Future remodeling plans include building a fence around the dumpster, hooking up to the sewer, replacing the roofs and having a large, stone sign installed at the entrance to the complex.

“The sign is a big thing for us that we really want,” Kotinek said. “We haven’t settled on a price or anything yet, though.”

Most of the future remodelling plans are scheduled to take place in the spring of 2018.

For the most part, the remodeling has been going smoothly, Kotinek said, but she and her husband ran into a bump in the road when they decided they wanted to repave the drive leading into the apartment complex.

Though the Kotineks are willing to pay for the repaving of Meadowview Drive themselves, they do not know what they are allowed to do with the area. They have gone to county, Ontwa Township and Edwardsburg Village official and have received conflicting reports about which municipality has ownership of the road and where the road begins and ends. 

Nearly a month has passed since the Kotineks’ first inquiry into the matter, yet they still have not received heard back from any officials, they said.

“The road isn’t bad, we just want to have it repaved and have our apartments done at the same time,” Kotinek said. “But nobody knows how long the road is or what we can do.”

The zoning and road commission did not respond for comment on this matter.

Despite the issue with the road, Kotinek is happy with remodeling that she and her husband have been able to accomplish.

Down the road, the Kotineks even have plans to expand, with potential plans to add more apartment buildings to the complex.

Until the remodeling is complete, the couple will work toward getting involved and ingrained in the Edwardsburg community.

“I don’t know a lot about Edwardsburg, but I live right over the state line, so we aren’t far away,” Kotinek said. “We’ve been going to meetings and things and trying to get to know people.”