Spring is here...almost. 2019

Here we are in April of 2019. 2 more weeks until our 1yr move in anniversary. We survived the deep freeze of January. Then a tornado which came way to close in March. Many neighbors didnt come through that so well. It was the first time Karen and I experienced a tornado. Cant say I ever want to experience it again.

So progress on the house has been slow. Its just been to cold and we are both just working to much. I may have stated it before but we are working harder than ever on getting debt paid off so this whole part of our journey and coming years wont be so stressful. Its going well but we will need some time to get where we want to be.

This year we really want to enjoy more time riding (Harley) in the sunshine and exploring this wonderful state. We will try and post fun times out and about too.

We have dear friends that are coming into town this summer for an extended stay and some much needed catching up and game time :-). We hope to be able to take care of some big projects while they are here as well. Replace plumbing with PEX and relocate some of the fixtures to help avoid freezing pipes on the outer walls, cut some much needed wood for this next winter and possibly get the kitchen walls demoed, sheetrocked and possibly new counter tops and cabinets if we can find the right deals.

Karen and I have decided to not be so determined on the historical renovation of this home but to have some fun and make it a decent fun place to live. Maybe some barn wood walls and or pallet wood accents. A fun tile shower and expand the bathroom a bit.

We spent some time in the last couple days working on one of the bedrooms upstairs. Pulled up carpet to reveal linoleum and pulled that up to reveal wood floors. Not hardwood floors of course but typical wood floors in a house this old. Ill need to use my phone to post pics to this blog later since all my photos are on my phone. We also took down the drop ceiling which exposed plaster ceilings that are crumbling. Over all the room is in pretty good shape. It appears that the previous owners sheetrocked over the plaster walls up to the drop ceiling so me may be able to complete the work in this room fairly quickly LOL....Maybe.

We also started taking the cabinets down in the kitchen to prepare for demoing the plaster and or putting sheetrock over it. We are leaning towards taking the plaster down on both the walls and ceiling and starting over. We will let you all know what we finally decide and do.

We are very excited to warm up around here a bit. In February we decided to move from the den we had lived in since moving here to the living room Ben and Ashley used when they were here. It made more sense to be in a room that was being heated buy the furnace especially when we started running out of wood and the temps dropped drastically. The room we were living in gets extremely cold if the woodstove is not burning wood. With that being said the power and gas bills for the last 4 months have been very high. hopefully they will start coming down once it warms up and we can use that money to put towards debt or the projects we have planned for this summer.



I think thats about all we have for this update. Id like to post more often as the year progresses. Ill be back soon to post some pics to this post. Thanks for looking.

 

Happy Holidays - Huge update

Where to start?  So in July I decided to go back to work. Im driving charter busses for Indian Trails here in Owosso, MI. It's been interesting to say the least. I've found myself in Chicago, Milwaukee, St Ignace, South Bend, IN and Washington DC and of course lots of places in between. Ive been working a minimum of 60 hours a week since I started so the house has not gotten the time we wanted to give it. Karen also decided to go back to work and found a job close at the local BP station here in Bancroft. So far she is enjoying it so for the mean time we can chip away at the debt we probably should have taken care of before starting this adventure. Live and learn.

Here is a current pic of the house. We now suspect its a bit older that 1855 but have no proof of it.

The home was owned by The Carruthers in the mid 1800s. We've seen other writings that it may have been built by Hosea Baker. Possibly the first stick built house in the county.

See below for an interesting history of the area.

SHIAWASSEE TOWNSHIP The earliest settlers to the township were, A.L. and B.O. Williams, who purchased land in section 25. They came from Grand Blanc and settled on their land in 1831. They quickly built a trading post to trade with the Indians and other pioneers. Soon they had a hotel, store and bank, known as The Shiawassee Exchange. When the brother's moved to Owosso Twp. in 1833 and sold their business to Andrew Parsons and Lemuel Brown. Although John Tinklepaugh was the areas first farmer, he didn't stay very long. Charles Bacon came in 1836 and was followed by Lucius Beach. Beach bought property in Shiawasseetown. Soon there was a hotel, store, post office and tavern, located in a two-story building. School was, oddly enough, held in the tavern along with court hearings. The town also had a carding mill, sawmill and other businesses. The little village of Newburg was founded by Hosea Baker, who came in 1833 to section 14. The village got it's name from Dr. Nicholas P. Harder, who had lived near Newburgh, New York. John Gramley was the first postmaster. Another small town was Fremont. John W. Gilbert and Issacs M. Banks were the first settlers in 1841. They originally called it Florence but this was later changed. They built the store and postoffice. Alonzo Howard was postmaster. The town would soon have three taverns a school and church. Like many of the smaller towns and villages of Shiawassee County, Fremont declined with the coming of the railroad. Bancroft would benefit from the railroad depot there in 1877. The town had a saw mill, planing mill, flour mill and two elevators. A school and churches were added. Early settlers to the township included; Wm. Newberry, A.G. Warren, G.W. Warren, Ephriam Wright, Jordan Holcomb, J.S. Harder, John Lemon, Joesph Parmenter, and O.E. Moore.

I tend to believe this home was the home built by Hosea Baker then sold to The Carruthers. Check out this link as well. I hope to be able to network with some local history enthusiasts to help confirm this. 

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micounty/4763144.0001.001/50?page=root;rgn=full+text;size=100;view=image;q1=Hosea+Baker

So much has happened since the last update....Its difficult to know where to start. Here we are in December. This time last year Karen and I came to Michigan and purchased this home. Time flies.
Ive done alot of work in the basement. Tore out much of the old wood shelves and got rid of lots of old jars and remnant wood lying around. Much of which was literally molded and rotting. 
Instead of a lake in the basement that the sump pump was installed in the middle of we were able to install a sump pump enclosure...Not recalling what its actually called and unfortunately I cant locate the pictures right now. I will later.  This one will have to do for now.

Recently we also took out the sliding glass door that led out to the back of the house. I'm surprised it didn't just fall out. We had a guy come to help install a new sliding door that we purchased at Home Depot and he recommended we don't install the door in that location until we install some sort of footing in the location. Concerned that the door may break once the freezing temps arrive  later in the winter. So we built a wall instead. Hopefully this will only be until Spring when we can install a good footing for the slider. 

We also had Tom come back and install a furnace for us. He is the same contractor that installed the Water Heater for us. Unfortunately his helper was recently killed when he was hit by a Semi on Interstate 69. I couldnt beleive it when I heard the news. RIP buddy.

KAren and I also spent some time insulating some of the ducting in the basement to help with the heating.

We have also replaced the front door to the house. One of the things we noticed when we moved into this home was that the front door swung out and the piuns to remove the door were on the outside of the house....we had a good laugh when we discovered that!

We also had to do some work to the wood stove chimney system. some of the bricks had fallen out and we definitely needed to have this working. Winter is coming.

I think that will be it for today. I hope to keep more up to date as we move forward. Thanks for checking in with us. 

Outings

On April 22nd we decided its time to get out and go for a drive and explore some properties from my past. My sisters too. We drove to Lapeer, MI then to Walled Lake, MI and find the homes we lived in as children and the homes of our grandparents and parents. The High School our mom went to also. My sister has a great memory as she was a bit older when our parents left Michigan. Its was really a fantastic day.

On the 29th Karen and I decide on another ride (In the car BTW). We travelled into Saginaw then up into the thumb of Michigan to Caseville, Port Austin and along the shore to Port Huron. It was great to see Lake Huron. It had been so long. The last time was in 1983? when I flew out from Califonia and stayed with my grandparents in Alpena.

We also ended up attending a Detroit Tiger game on May 16th. It was a Mothers Day present form our Son and Daughter in law.

Thank you!

Harley time.

At this point I'm a bit bummed I dont have my motorcycle in my life that we decide its time to go back to Salt Lake City and get my Harley. I start searching Google Flights and discover I can get to SLC for $100 on Frontier Airlines. there is a layover in Denver but I'm just happy to get there for $100 so the layover is no big deal. On May 8th I flew to SLC and my daughter picked me up. I stayed the night and got up early then got on my MC and started the journey o Michigan. For those that dont know its a long distance but almost entirely on HWY 80 until you get to Chicago then I-94 to I-69 to Bancroft Michigan. 1650 miles. I am a certified long distance rider so Im not to concerned with the trip. Very excited actually. I get up early and go...

Park City, Evanston, Laramie, Cheyenne and then into Nebraska. Lincoln, Omaha. Im not a huge fan of Nebraska but I find a cheap hotel and spend the night in York, NE after 850 miles on the bike. I get up early and proceed onward to Iowa. Des Moines and eastern Iowa are really nice. Illinois? Don't get me started...LOL. There is a toll on HWY 80 and that hwy is in terrible condition. The toll takers are rude and I'm just not a happy camper. I've been on other hwys in and around Chicago and there are so many tolls I cant stand it. Not a fan of Chicago or Illinois. I proceed on into Indiana and then Michigan. I get home at about 10pm which is about 40 hours or so after leaving SLC. Its nice to be home.

Hot water?

It's time for another update. Today is May 23rd and there's plenty to blog about...lol.

Now that spring has arrived we have landscaping to take care of on top of the rest of the projects with the house. So we had to go buy a lawnmower. We got a nice self propelled Craftsman at ACE Hardware.  We are spending a good amount of time mowing and trimming.

After a fare amount of time we made the decision to have the water heater replaced with an electric water heater. I may have mentioned in a prior post that we were red tagged by the gas company regarding the venting of the water heater and furnace when he came to turn the gas on. the vents were just crumbling and the chimney is not in good shape. For now we will avoid using any of that. When we go to replace the heater we will probably get a high efficiency heater that vents and pulls from a system that goes through the wall to the outside.

I contacted a local contractor who gave me the name of another gentleman who may have time to help with the water heater asap.  I get a hold of Tom and he has a project he needs to finish up and will be able to contact me in a few days. Finally we talk and I go buy the water heater at Home Depot and leave it there for him to stop and pick it up in the morning before he comes over. Another problem is we don't have 220V in the basement for this water heater and Tom says not to worry he can run 220v down there no problem. Tom and his helper show up and get to work. after just a few hours they have it done and Tom shows me the bill and Im amazed. he stopped and picked up the water heater then had to run for parts. Bottom line this project labor cost me $80 + parts and the water heater. I'm so grateful for Tom. Thanks!! 

Now here is where it gets interesting. Same day we have some weather issues. High winds are in the forecast for the day and indeed there are some high winds. Approximately 1 hour after the water heater is installed and running my wife and I are in the basement working on the furnace ducting that has fallen down and needs to be re strapped to the floor joices. Suddenly we here a crash and the lights go out. I know exactly what just happened. Earlier in the day I had been out on the deck looking at a tree (Ash) I believe that appeared dead thinking I hope that tree doesn't fall during these high winds. that would take out the power to the house and create more issues.

Guess what?  It happened. No power for 2 days. Damn it was nice having hot water for an hour...lol. Its already been nearly a month with no hot water whats a couple more days....no joke. The power went out May 4th and came back on when Consumers Energy showed up and fixed the lines on the 6th.

Drains and continued issues. Kids head back.

Sorry about jumping around a bit. Ive never blogged before. Ben and Ashley have to go back to Utah and finish out a lease on an apartment. They are gonna try and be back the first part of June.

We have running water and unfortunately the kitchen sink backs up. Hmmmm. I'm really hoping its not a septic issue. Luckily the shower isnt backed up or the toilet so Karen and I go down stairs to investigate. The drain for the kitchen sink drops into the basement and runs up hill about 10ft then drops back down into the main sewer pipe and finally out to the septic system. I find a cleanout and pull it apart. Nothing but stink! I finally decide to try and run water up the drain and see what happens. The pressure builds and I cant hold the hose up there with my hands any longer. I pull the hose off the end of the pipe and here comes the blockage. Oh my it stinks like nobody's business. I'm not sure exactly what it was....animals, debris or what but it all came out into the sump of the basement. Problem solved.

Bathroom drain. Upon further inspection we find that the drain pipe from the bathroom sink is disconnected from the sewer main in a remote section of the basement. The bathroom is an add on. In 1855 there was no running water and inside toilets. I'm concerned I wont be able to fit in the space that goes into this section of the basement. Karen agrees to.give it a try. We get the proper lighting setup and I help her into the crawl space. She finds the problem and puts the plastic pipe into the main sewer pipe. She backs out and thats another issue taken care of.

Faucets. After playing with faucets and cleaning them out we decide to replace the kitchen and shower faucets. I havent soldered copper pipe in sometime but it went very well while replacing the shower faucet. Ill attach photos. More to come.

Moving in...at least the first part

It turns out its a bit harder than I thought to write about our journey. Today is May 14th. We've been in the house just about 30 days already. What a whirl wind its been.

When we moved in all we had was electricity. Thank goodness that seems to work well. The other thing we have is a wood stove. Of course it was very cold at night here in Michigan in April. We located some wood around the property and we have a neighbor who offered us plenty of wood he had too. We moved essentials in the evening we arrived (beds) and called ot a night. We started a fire and tried to relax and settle in for the night. This house hadnt been lived in for years and is admittedly a bit creepy. Oh and we have no water so we had some bottled water on hand. There is a well but after closer inspection there are broken pipes all over in the basement. This will be a priority moving forward.

We got up the next morning and began unpacking the rest of what was in the truck. We decided that we would set up camp in the den. So what I call the den is a converted garage. It has a wood stove a wood box and is fairly clean after putting sometime into it. It will likely be the most comfortable room in the house for sometime.

The bathroom. Well the toilet looked like you wouls think after uears and years.of no use. Just a mess. We used water from the sump pump to flush and thank goodness it worked. It wasnt pretty but it worked.

We spent a lot of time the first few days trying to stay warm and clean things up a bit while trying to figure out why the lights didnt work in the basement (we really need to fix broken water pipes). Ben and I got some flashlights and used and extension cord for some lighting and began the task of fixing pipe. All the different types of pipes in the basement failed under the cold temps of Michigan over the years. Also I forgot to mention we have the well as a water supply and used this for flushing toilets too. The water that came out of the well for the first couple days would only be good for that. Absolutley disgusting. We repaired plastic, copper and galvanized pipe. On about the 4th or 5th day here we actually had running water. Sort of. We had to take faucets apart multiple times to clear debris. Rust flakes and dirt everywhere in the system. Finally we have running water. Its cold and kind of nasty but its water.

Gas. On Thursday we have the gas company come out and turn on the gas. Of course we are hoping for the best. He shows up and gets the gas turned on but red tags us on the venting for the water heater and heater. The tubing literally falls apart in your hands. In the mean time we find out the water heater doesnt work and the heater should but who knows.

Thats gonna be it for this update but there is way more to come. Thanks for reading our blog. Here are some pics I think you might like.