Lakefront Home (cont'd) - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Lakefront Home (cont’d)

Last week’s blog documented our 9 year search starting 40 years ago in 1982 for a lakefront home. Once found, we then started on a major renovation project as described in this week’s blog edition. The architect was amazing as he took my handcrafted sketch of the Homearama model shown in last week’s blog and turned it into the rendition shown above.

Fortunately, the sellers had the original drawings of the home built in 1954 that allowed the architect to salvage literally the entire lower walk-out level including a beautiful oak bar and stone fireplace as well as the main level library with mahogany paneling & shelving, a limestone fireplace and bay window. A deck and greenhouse were also reused, along with many windows and doors. Since we raised the ceilings, decorative leaded glass transoms were added above the repurposed doors.

In addition, the HVAC systems were relatively new and could be redeployed. And finally, the remodel was designed to utilize the existing foundation without increasing the footprint to speed up the project, reduce cost and hold down the property tax assessment after completion, thanks to a quirk in our local ordinance basing assessments on the footprint rather than overall square footage. By August 1, 1989, the condo that our sellers were having constructed was finally complete, so we closed on our lakefront home, beginning the demo that very day. Our son even lent a hand!

A consignment company came in to remove anything of value that we didn’t plan to reuse, including the wood as it was being removed by the demo company. First to come off was the roof and any walls and windows not salvageable. Large blue tarps were put over all the areas being salvaged.

But guess what happened the very next day, August 2, 1990? Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Ford stock tanked literally overnight throwing our plans amuck. Had the invasion occurred a day earlier, we probably would have chickened out and called off or at a minimum delayed the demo. The US was at war while our lakefront home had no roof! But carry on we did; instead of selling Ford Stock to pay for the reno, we held onto it hoping it would recover (it did, but 4 years later) while good old Manufacturers Bank came to the rescue with additional construction funding and also a lower interest rate.

Plus, we had record rainfall while the roof was off that seriously (but fortunately didn’t) threatened the wood finishes in the lower level and library that we were trying to salvage. To assure so, I can vividly recall checking on and securing the tarps during several heavy rain and windstorms. Needless to say, the start of the project was very troublesome. On the other hand, construction delays were minimized and cost surprisingly dropped as the war literally put a temporary halt to nearly all area construction except ours.

Progress was quick and by the time of the first snowfall, the framing had been completed, the new roof added and all the brick laid.

That allowed the electrical, plumbing and drywall work to proceed inside over the winter ahead of schedule under cover of the new roof and redeployed HVAC system.

One problem we ran into was the main staircase, as a post was needed to make it more structurally sound. But it was aesthetically obtrusive, as we were expecting a suspended stair without the post evident on the left side of this photo. The post is now gone, thanks to some creative compression of the staircase to literally squeeze and anchor it in a suspended manner.

Once the plumbing, electrical and drywall were completed by early summer, finish carpentry was started and cabinets installed. We could see the finish line so we then put our existing house on the market for sale. Fortunately Desert Storm only took 43 days to retake Kuwait from Saddam, which boosted the stock market to record highs. With the economy back on track, our home sold quickly and it appeared the timing would be perfect for us to move directly out of our old place into our new. But a snafu hit again, as the regular painter recommended by our builder was ill, and the replacement painter was slow and did such a terrible job, everything had to be repainted by yet a third painter, delaying our move in date a month.

That meant we had to come up with temporary shelter. Fortunately, we were able to store our furnishings in the garage, as the poor paint job in that area was acceptable. But we rented a furnished apartment that happened to be right below 3 college-age guys who kept ungodly hours, literally keeping us up all night with their partying. It was the worst; we’d complain to them and the apartment management to no avail. Finally the painting was done, we moved in, bought a boat and joined the golf club next door. Next week’s blog will highlight some of the best moments of living on the lake for over 30 years. Stay tuned.

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