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.

Moving Part 1

So we went and picked up our rental truck Sunday morning 4/15/18 at 8am. We used Budget Rental Trucks simply because they were the cheapest. It was a 16' box truck. They were out of 26' trucks which looking back now probably would have been the way to go. We swung by our storage unit and picked up what we had there then off to the house. I have to thank my kids for all the help. Mom and I couldn't have done it without you. We quickly realize the truck is undersized and we will leave plenty behind for the next trip. Not to mention the vehicles. I have 2 old ford trucks 1 Harley and 2 4runners (Projects) plus my sons Subaru. We get all loaded up and by 4pm we are ready to roll. Ben and Ashley are in the Prius, Mom is in the Sonata and I'm in the truck and we take off for Michigan. Ben and Ashley have a couple things they need to take care of before leaving the valley and will catch up with us down the road. Its a 1650 mile journey if anyone's interested. We actually make it to almost Laramie, WY before the kids "catch up" unfortunately they got a speeding ticket which further complicated issues. None the less we are all back together and heading for Michigan. We end up covering alot of ground and decide that we are gonna get a hotel in Des Moines, IA and relax. We order some BUffalo Wild Wings and sleep like babies. Oh and I think I failed to mention we are traveling with our 10 yr old Black Lab Whitney.

The next morning we all partook of the free breakfast provided and hit the road. All is well and we decide to take HWY 88 once we get into Illinois so Ashley can see the town she was born in. I will never do this again...lol. Hwy 88 urned into a TOLLWAY/CONSTRUCTION NIGHTMARE. of course we dont have cash and so getting back to Hwy 80/94 takes way longer than it would have been had we stayed on 80.

Long story somewhat shorter, we make it to Michigan and to the house. Its early evening and we unpack some of the essential things we need for the night like beds and such. Keep in mind we have electricity at the house and nothing else...more on that soon.

The Move

I failed to mention in my last post that my youngest son (Ben) and his girlfriend (Ashley) will be helping with the move and it's still a bit uncertain how long they will live in Michigan but we are grateful for their help. I'm pretty sure it would be impossible for Karen and I to do it all ourselves.

We will begin Sunday when we go get a moving truck and start loading. We hope to be on the road Monday. We've done a lot of packing and feel like we are ready for the first trip. We will keep you all posted on our progress. Michigan here we come.

The Beginning and an Introduction.

Hi everyone. My wife and I (T.J.) have embarked on what some will think is a crazy unrealistic adventure. Sometimes I think those folks may be right.

In late 2017 we took a family vacation to Detroit, Michigan to see a Detroit Lions football game. Our first ever. We are all big fans. Let me explain...I was born in Michigan and have been a Lions fan all my life. It turns out most of my family are now Lions fans.  My mom was a Michigan native and all of that side of the family is or was from Michigan. We enjoyed ourselves very much and when we got home it didn't take to long for me to start looking at property in Michigan. We aren't wealthy so we were looking for properties that were inexpensive and with usable land of a decent size for gardening and other outdoor activities. We prefer a rural area. We were OK with a fixer because we've done some DIY projects on homes we've owned in the past. I looked and looked. I saw a property in Bancroft Michigan and showed it to my wife (Karen). At first I think we were both amazed that this 1855 Colonial home on nearly 2 acres was a possibility for us. Oh and the Shiawassee River is literally across the street. So we kept going back to the website and thinking about it. We looked at a lot of property throughout Michigan and kept coming back to this one in Bancroft. They had listed the property a year or so earlier for nearly $70k. The current price was $40k. All we had were pictures to look at so I contacted a realtor in Michigan to help. Mark Rutenber out of Pontiac. www.markrutenbersells.com
Mark and I seemed to hit it off pretty good right off the bat. Once we got to talking I told him I was originally born in Pontiac as was he. Mark went to the property which was probably 60 miles away from him and took a video of the property inside and out. This was a huge help. Karen and I looked into the little town of Bancroft and looked into the history of the home. We decided we would come up with the cash and proceed with the purchase.

As I stated before, we are not wealthy. I have some retirement money and that's about it. We decided to tap into that money buy the property and move to Michigan. My wife and I were full time employees. Here's another interesting fact. We live in SLC, Utah and have for about 8 years. Prior to that we lived in Northern California.   

Karen and I took a little road trip in December and purchased the property.

We believe this home to be of Italianate Architecture. Welcome to our journey. Now we focus on moving.