A Real Estate Story of the Uncommon Kind

My husband and a builder friend literally built a mini empire of real estate holdings. I wasn’t there when the first house was built.  When I arrived on the scene, my husband built on a sixteen by twenty four sunroom for me, though.  It turned out to be the same size as our park model camper we later built on Sandusky Bay.  Eventually our building projects extended to two more houses.

In planning our Lake Erie retirement house we spared no expenses.  This house is located close to Marblehead.  The design is Cape Cod, but it really wasn’t that much smaller than our house in country with the sun room.  A big factor that highlighted our retirement is that the new Lakeside house has a lot less yard work than our country acreage we left behind in Central Ohio.

In the frame of mind that retirement brings, we never once thought there would still be another house building project in the future.  Nor did we have the mindset that we’d be around that long after signing retirement documents that included new insurance.  These had provisions that included dismemberment of body parts and a host of other morbidities.  Consequently, the fact that we would be leaving the Lakeside home to posterity made our building project into a much larger issue than simply building a house.

For me, the new house would also represent a legacy.  This is something we’d be leaving behind for the world – a statement about our lives.  So thoughts of posterity affected a lot of the choices of materials we’d use on the interior and exterior.

We chose cementuous siding instead of the currently popular, affordable vinyl siding. Cementuous siding is molded to look like cedar, and is made of cement plus aggregate. I wanted to leave something of value, and the cementuous siding will still be here long after we’re gone.  The insulating factor keeps it cool in summer and warm in winter.  The homeowners insurance is cheaper because this kind of siding is fireproof.

However, with cementuous being a new type of siding back then, we didn’t know  each “board” weighed ten pounds.  Most of the siding required hoisting these ten pound boards up a ladder. 

We used double pane, tilt in windows which also gives protection from the Noreasters that come along in winter.  Stainless steel and brass fixtures went into the bathrooms.  We ordered custom cabinetry for there and the kitchen.  The list goes on.

Our house is now being considered for a possible inclusion into a fenced in resort where property is always coveted. After considerable coaxing and complaining, I got to talk to the CEO of the resort, and he arranged new pavement for our street.  This makes a big difference.  The value of our house immediately goes up twenty percent.  If and when we are included in the resort, the value of the house becomes thirty percent more than it was.  Even though the economy is sluggish, the motivation to instill an intrinsic, heartfelt quality may be a saving grace that buffers the problems of the current economy.




Index to more articles