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From humble beginnings...
06-19-2003 07:39:55
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Re: (OT) I'm not pretentious or arrogant...really in reply to 9N'er, 06-19-2003 04:10:58
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My parents set up housekeeping in 1937 in an old uninsulated 2 car garage, with kerosene lamps and a small wood stove and no running water, in Flint, Michigan.
In 1942, they moved to Ypsilanti, Mich. to a new 20X24, 2 bedroom house on a crawl space. My father built a garage out of used lumber (WW2 was in full swing), hand dug a basement and added a utility room.
In 1950 (I was 7), they bought an old run down farm house and barn on 27 acres, about 8 miles away, near Belleville, Mich. It had a hand fired coal furnace and no bathroom. For the next 18 years, before my father died of a heart attack at age 53 in 1968, they improved the house to include 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry room all within the existing house and a gas furnace.
In 1964, my father tore down two old barns and used the materials to build a "new" 24X40 barn.
All the while, we were farming about 120 acres, 80 of it rented, and he was working in a factory.
In 1966, my father bought a small 2 beedroom, one bath house for $600 that had to be moved 8 miles. We placed it on 3/4 acre of the home place and, in 1967, I moved my wife and 1 year old son out of a mobile home park and moved into it 2 days before I left for army basic training.
We lived there 17 years and raised our 3 kids and I don't remember how many dogs and cats. While there I added 2 beedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, built a 24X24 garage attached with an 8x10 breezeway. We put a 12x12 addition on the living room and remodeled the 1934 kitchen up to all new cabinets. I also installed aluminum siding on the whole structure.
In 1983, we bought 6 acres, about 10 miles away in Ypsilanti Township. We bought a 2 bedroom mobile home in 1984 and moved out of our house.
We lived in that mobile home for 16 months. My oldest son left for the Marine Corps 2 days after we moved so there were only 2 teenagers to deal with in these "new" accomodations.
In 1985, we built our 3 bedroom, 1 bath, walkout basement "dream house". Here it is 18 years later and we don't like it.
I have the space to build again but we probably will not do it. I have other hills to climb.
My point in all of this is, ingore the lazy a--ed jealous people who frown on your efforts.
My father always commented positivly about the farms that looked a lot worse than ours. He said, "they are trying to be productive".
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