We Buy a House
By James Donahue
When the decision was made to buy a house, Doris and I spent a lot of time with a local real estate agent, looking at a wide variety of houses, ranging from low-cost fixer-uppers to the ultimate . . . a fine brick mansion with fenced in manicured yard and steps leading down the lake bluff to a boat dock and storage structure. The latter sold for a whopping one million dollars, something unheard of in 1964.
After much searching, pencil pushing and calculating, we decided on a beautiful two-story four-bedroom stucco house in a quiet neighborhood that we felt would be the perfect place to raise our children. The house had a hot water heating system with an oil-fired boiler. There was a large kitchen with a breakfast nook, a half bath off the kitchen, a dining room, living room and bedroom on the main floor. There also was an enclosed rear laundry room.
The house had two staircases leading to the second floor. One was behind a door in the dining room. The other was an open staircase from the living room that led to a hallway that opened to a full bath with walk-in shower and three other bedrooms. An additional unfinished room opened from the rear bedroom and was a second floor over the laundry room.
There was a garage in the side yard and a paved driveway leading to it. We had a large chestnut tree in the yard that gave us lots of shade. It was a fine house with a wrap-around porch that led to doors that opened to the living and dining rooms. We bought that fine house for about $21,000 in 1963. Our neighbors included the publisher of the South Haven Tribune on one side of us, and the owner and operator of the local Ace Hardware on the other.
What was nice about the property is that there was a tree-filled ravine located directly behind the house. The ravine divided our neighborhood from the houses along a busy main street about a block away where traffic entered and left the downtown area. At one point in that long street we lived on, the sidewalk intersected with a walkway that passed over a tall bridge that took walkers over the ravine.
When we first moved into the house I put a desk in the basement and set up an office there. The basement had three rooms and a darkroom, which I set up for possible use. I considered using a small room at the front of the basement for my model railroad layout, although I never quite got around to that. There were too many other public improvement projects that demanded my attention first.
Because I was working in the basement I became aware that a brick wall at the bottom of the stairs was suffering from water damage. Every time it rained or we had a spring snow melt, the wall became very damp. I solved this problem by digging the dirt out along the outside of the wall, then coating it with roofing tar and covering that with a plastic sheet. It did the job. Then I spent time chipping away the rotted parts of the bricks and rebuilding the damaged bricks with a plastic contact material. Once hardened I painted the bricks a brick-red color. The wall looked so nice I decided to give the same inside treatment to my “train room” before starting to lay out my HO Gauge train layout.
Before getting to that job, however, we discovered that some cracks had developed in the stucco siding of the house. I decided that they needed to be sealed and repaired before the winter frost caused extensive damage. This turned into a major job.
One day I was in a used furniture and junk store and bought a large oak roll-top desk. I had a friend help me move it home with his pickup and we moved it into the downstairs bedroom where I planned to set up my office. The desk was so large I had to remove the door stops from the painted door frame so we could slide it into the room. This exposed the original woodwork and we were surprised to see that it appeared to be birds-eye maple. Out of curiosity I decided to strip the wood frame and discovered that all of it was made of birds-eye maple.
I continued stripping the wood in the dining room and all of it, the window and door frames, plus the mop boards were all birds-eye maple. I continued on under the archway into the adjoining living room, and it was the same thing. The only wood that wasn’t birds-eye maple was on the wall under the open staircase. This wood was all solid oak. I finished stripping all of the woodwork and then finished it with a clear wood finish. The final job was something to behold. Our neighbors all had to come in to admire the woodwork in our house.
We sold the house a few years after that. One of our selling points was the birds-eye maple woodwork. A few months after we moved I happened to be in the Ace Hardware store. Our former neighbor came up to me and said: “You know what those people did to your house? They painted the woodwork.”
While we lived in that house we took in a black kitten that grew to be a beautiful cat. The cat, which I just named “Cat,” adopted me. He and I were buddies. That animal was always on my desk and would lie on the papers I was working on so I would give it attention. I used to be able to hold my arms and hands out and the cat would jump up off the floor into my arms. I really liked that cat. When we moved out of that house the cat would not move with us. He kept returning the house where he grew up. One day I think he was struck and killed crossing one of the busy roads. He just disappeared.
By James Donahue
When the decision was made to buy a house, Doris and I spent a lot of time with a local real estate agent, looking at a wide variety of houses, ranging from low-cost fixer-uppers to the ultimate . . . a fine brick mansion with fenced in manicured yard and steps leading down the lake bluff to a boat dock and storage structure. The latter sold for a whopping one million dollars, something unheard of in 1964.
After much searching, pencil pushing and calculating, we decided on a beautiful two-story four-bedroom stucco house in a quiet neighborhood that we felt would be the perfect place to raise our children. The house had a hot water heating system with an oil-fired boiler. There was a large kitchen with a breakfast nook, a half bath off the kitchen, a dining room, living room and bedroom on the main floor. There also was an enclosed rear laundry room.
The house had two staircases leading to the second floor. One was behind a door in the dining room. The other was an open staircase from the living room that led to a hallway that opened to a full bath with walk-in shower and three other bedrooms. An additional unfinished room opened from the rear bedroom and was a second floor over the laundry room.
There was a garage in the side yard and a paved driveway leading to it. We had a large chestnut tree in the yard that gave us lots of shade. It was a fine house with a wrap-around porch that led to doors that opened to the living and dining rooms. We bought that fine house for about $21,000 in 1963. Our neighbors included the publisher of the South Haven Tribune on one side of us, and the owner and operator of the local Ace Hardware on the other.
What was nice about the property is that there was a tree-filled ravine located directly behind the house. The ravine divided our neighborhood from the houses along a busy main street about a block away where traffic entered and left the downtown area. At one point in that long street we lived on, the sidewalk intersected with a walkway that passed over a tall bridge that took walkers over the ravine.
When we first moved into the house I put a desk in the basement and set up an office there. The basement had three rooms and a darkroom, which I set up for possible use. I considered using a small room at the front of the basement for my model railroad layout, although I never quite got around to that. There were too many other public improvement projects that demanded my attention first.
Because I was working in the basement I became aware that a brick wall at the bottom of the stairs was suffering from water damage. Every time it rained or we had a spring snow melt, the wall became very damp. I solved this problem by digging the dirt out along the outside of the wall, then coating it with roofing tar and covering that with a plastic sheet. It did the job. Then I spent time chipping away the rotted parts of the bricks and rebuilding the damaged bricks with a plastic contact material. Once hardened I painted the bricks a brick-red color. The wall looked so nice I decided to give the same inside treatment to my “train room” before starting to lay out my HO Gauge train layout.
Before getting to that job, however, we discovered that some cracks had developed in the stucco siding of the house. I decided that they needed to be sealed and repaired before the winter frost caused extensive damage. This turned into a major job.
One day I was in a used furniture and junk store and bought a large oak roll-top desk. I had a friend help me move it home with his pickup and we moved it into the downstairs bedroom where I planned to set up my office. The desk was so large I had to remove the door stops from the painted door frame so we could slide it into the room. This exposed the original woodwork and we were surprised to see that it appeared to be birds-eye maple. Out of curiosity I decided to strip the wood frame and discovered that all of it was made of birds-eye maple.
I continued stripping the wood in the dining room and all of it, the window and door frames, plus the mop boards were all birds-eye maple. I continued on under the archway into the adjoining living room, and it was the same thing. The only wood that wasn’t birds-eye maple was on the wall under the open staircase. This wood was all solid oak. I finished stripping all of the woodwork and then finished it with a clear wood finish. The final job was something to behold. Our neighbors all had to come in to admire the woodwork in our house.
We sold the house a few years after that. One of our selling points was the birds-eye maple woodwork. A few months after we moved I happened to be in the Ace Hardware store. Our former neighbor came up to me and said: “You know what those people did to your house? They painted the woodwork.”
While we lived in that house we took in a black kitten that grew to be a beautiful cat. The cat, which I just named “Cat,” adopted me. He and I were buddies. That animal was always on my desk and would lie on the papers I was working on so I would give it attention. I used to be able to hold my arms and hands out and the cat would jump up off the floor into my arms. I really liked that cat. When we moved out of that house the cat would not move with us. He kept returning the house where he grew up. One day I think he was struck and killed crossing one of the busy roads. He just disappeared.