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
40 years ago we moved back to Michigan after a 4 year assignment with Ford Motor Company in Indiana. We bought a nice subdivision home with excellent neighbors on a quiet street with an adjacent commons area, perfect for our young son to make new friends. The commons had plenty of space for the neighborhood kids to play, highlighted by a sledding area called Snake Hill which provided hours of winter fun.
The father of one of his new friends had a boat he stored at a marina on a nearby lake and the next summer, we were invited onto the boat one Sunday afternoon. It was perfect day and a real eye opener for my wife and me, as we were able to observe homes on the lake from the backside, with their walkouts, beaches, decks and boat docks.
From that moment on, it became our goal to someday live on a lake.
Nine years later, we realized our dream. But it sure didn’t come easy. Over that period we had driven down countless streets with lakefront homes checking out literally dozens of lakes shown on the map above within a reasonable drive to Dearborn where I worked. We were also diligently saving our money, mostly by purchasing Ford stock, since the company provided a 50% match. Fortunately while we were looking, Ford was doing well and the stock increased nicely each year to the point by 1989, we had accumulated enough stock and equity in our real estate holdings to afford a lakefront home. Our taste for lake life was somewhat satisfied on an interim basis in 1984 when we purchased a vacation condo with lake privileges up north on a golf course. By selling our home, condo up north and the accumulated Ford stock and of course a mortgage, we could roll the funds into a lakefront home and save the time making the weekend trips to the condo.
So our search intensified; however, at that time there were no easy ways to find places for sale like today via the internet. We did have a realtor searching, but eventually found a place on our own one weekend while driving down the street of homes on Upper Straits Lake in the village of Orchard Lake, about a 35-45 minute drive from Dearborn depending on traffic. A lady was walking along the street at the time, so we pulled over and asked her if there were any homes for sale in the neighborhood. She replied that their home may be for sale and invited us in to take a look. We readily accepted the offer and proceeded to their lakefront home.
The place was a ranch-style home shown above that had been built in the 1950’s but had been remodeled over the years. Needless to say, it was somewhat dated. I loved the view of the lake but my wife was more interested in other details of the home, like the layout, kitchen, baths, etc. Before the tour began, the lady’s husband, in his bathrobe, came into the living room where we were sitting. When the lady introduced us and told him we were interested in buying their home, he jokingly claimed he didn’t realize the home was for sale! However, we did tour the home and found it somewhat to our liking, but departed before really discussing specifics because the homeowners indicated they had considered downsizing to a nearby condo development that had yet to be built, so weren’t in a position to sell immediately.
But about a week or so later, my wife interestingly noticed a for sale-by-owner listing in the paper for the same lakefront property, so we contacted the owners and discovered they had indeed decided to sell the property after kicking off construction of the nearby condo, which would take 9 months to complete. They expressed a desire to sell to someone willing to wait while their condo was being built. Since we had two places to sell anyway before having the downpayment to buy the property, we worked out the terms of a purchase, locking up the sale with a deposit. To this day, my wife feels we overpaid while I was finally glad to have a lakefront home we could enjoy that would appreciate faster than non-lakefront homes. But I had an ulterior motive for justifying the price, as the street abutted a golf course belonging to Orchard Lake Country Club. My ultimate plan was to golf on weekend mornings and boat during the afternoons! So we were both right.
Both of our places soon were put on the market and we sold the condo up north almost immediately. But before our existing home sold, we requested a visit to our future lakefront home to take some photos and measurements, which the existing homeowners readily agreed to allow. So when we pulled onto the property, my wife immediately went in but I noticed two neighbors across the street talking, so took the opportunity to introduce myself. The two neighbors were both men who were 20 or so years older than me; each tried to out do each other in being a curmudgeon towards me, literally treating me like a young punk encroaching into their fiefdom, setting me straight in no unclear terms! As I was getting hotter and hotter under the collar by the minute, my wife suddenly appeared and they magically transformed to real gentlemen, graciously welcoming us to the neighborhood. Debby won them over in an instant, and so thankfully we became great friends from that point on. They later admitted it was all a show.
About that time, there was a Homearama in our area, so we decided to check it out for some fresh ideas for our new home. One of the featured models was a two story home including a walkout we really liked that had almost the same footprint as the lakefront home we were buying. We hadn’t brought a camera (no cell phones in those days), so I literally created the following sketches of the front and back on a napkin while getting a bite to eat after the Homearama.
Fortunately while all this was going on, our savings increased and Ford stock continued to appreciate, and after doing the math, I figured we could afford to turn the ranch-style lakefront home we were buying into a more modern design like the Homearama model. We consulted an architect and builder who confirmed my estimates, along with the private banking branch of Manufacturers Bank established during the Great Depression by Henry Ford to help employees with their banking needs by offering low rates and flexible down payment terms ideal for our situation.
So we started the ball rolling on a fixed fee, design-build approach for the major reno project, including a pre-approved construction/mortgage loan leveraging our Ford stock and home equity as down payment. We took our home off the market until the renovations were nearly complete, plus I sadly sold several classic Corvettes to generate more cash. When we shared our plans with both our parents, they thought we were nuts!
Fish Report readers, tune in next week for the rest of the story and the real “fun" stuff!
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