Detroit Moves to the Woods?
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2020 2:14 pm
It's been a while that I've been considering slowing down. We've dedicated ourselves to no kids, we have very few family connections, and what we really value the most in life is our own time in the outdoors. Living in the city was a necessity for jobs, but we've always wanted to get out. Covid hit, the wife lost her job and can't find a new one paying a while lot, so with significantly diminished income and a WFH situation for me "for the foreseeable future", timing to reestablish somewhere else is prime.
We've visited Traverse City, MI more times than I can count over the last 7 years living in Michigan. We've been in every season, and every time absolutely love it. We've made friends up here and have a small established social circle, and one of those friends bought a house on the water and is selling his current house. House needs work and he had plans of fixing it up before selling it to maximize return. We asked if he'd rent it to us for a month to test out the area, but we're quickly falling in love with the house as well. He's all about a quick transaction between friends to minimize his costs and hassle.
The house is situated on 1.6 acres on top of a bluff on Old Mission Peninsula, in the Grand Traverse Bay. The area reminds of of the mountains in Southern CA...Big Bear or Arrowhead, very hilly, lots of trees, and abundant fresh water. Built in 1980 and 1,600 sq ft, it was a super modern earth berm house, built into the hill with walls, floors, and ceiling all poured reinforced concrete. The most unique feature is something we've dubbed "the treehouse" which is the only visible element of the house from the street...a two story tower into the trees with views of the bay and surrounding hills. It feels like a run-down 80's nature resort/retreat complete with hiking trails around the property and the entire bluff, a sauna in the first floor master, and an indoor in-ground hot tub (that was removed) on the lower level. The community also shares private frontage on the bay, in which we hike to and swim in most mornings, all 20 minutes from downtown Traverse City. It's like no house/area I've ever seen, and our desire to restore it to it's former glory is really strong. Our friend will sell it to us for half of what we can sell our city house for, leaving us ample proceeds to fix the house up, pay off all debts (my truck), and still invest some. Taxes are a quarter of what we pay in the city, for a total monthly obligation in the $1.5k range including mortgage, taxes, insurance. Such a drastic reduction in COL opens up a lot of employment opportunities for both of us, and give us a shot at a significantly more relaxed and easy lifestyle. A partial retirement at 35, if you will.
On to the pictures...
From the street:
Circular driveway, can start to see the house...
Decent size garage, not a lot smaller than mine, only not as high inside
"The treehouse", and rest of the house is under the ground
Down the walkway past the front door
Wood walkway goes to both the first level and bottom level, here's the first level
All windows off the first level, the dirt outside is actually on top of the concrete ceiling of the lower level
A view out doesn't capture the elevation, but you can make out the roof of the nearest neighbor on the lower left of this image
All levels of the house from the outside
Now, to the inside...
Walk in to the stairs up, or down. The stairs up are all steel with wood treads (steel support under them) going up...
And up...
Into the treehouse
The view, cutting down small trees on the property will open this up drastically
Now, downstairs in the living room, all windows. My makeshift office in the corner and the and approve
The kitchen needs love
But the view out has potential
More windows in master
In a somewhat Frank Lloyd Wright style, the bedrooms have these neat built-in dressers. These are solid oak, really well crafted units
Sauna in master bathroom
Onto the bottom level, this needs the most love. Check out this "greenroom" under those boards is a hole for a recessed hot tub. Wiring already present and in good condition. Wood looks worse than it is, the cedar trim isn't rotted, but the windows are toast
Lighted gun case could make epic whisky storage
There's a bedroom and bathroom on the lower level that's in decent shape, but not much to see. The bathroom does have a door out to the green room so you can rinse off after using the hot tub.
I'll take photos on my next hike to show the hiking trails and the water. Will also document the scenery of the area bit more. We're probably 95% doing this at this point. I haven't had a drink or smoke in the last few days because I just don't want to (after doing both daily nearly to excess since March, if not longer). I've never been so relaxed in my life. We'll see how the rest of the month goes, but we're prepping the city house for sale just in case.
We've visited Traverse City, MI more times than I can count over the last 7 years living in Michigan. We've been in every season, and every time absolutely love it. We've made friends up here and have a small established social circle, and one of those friends bought a house on the water and is selling his current house. House needs work and he had plans of fixing it up before selling it to maximize return. We asked if he'd rent it to us for a month to test out the area, but we're quickly falling in love with the house as well. He's all about a quick transaction between friends to minimize his costs and hassle.
The house is situated on 1.6 acres on top of a bluff on Old Mission Peninsula, in the Grand Traverse Bay. The area reminds of of the mountains in Southern CA...Big Bear or Arrowhead, very hilly, lots of trees, and abundant fresh water. Built in 1980 and 1,600 sq ft, it was a super modern earth berm house, built into the hill with walls, floors, and ceiling all poured reinforced concrete. The most unique feature is something we've dubbed "the treehouse" which is the only visible element of the house from the street...a two story tower into the trees with views of the bay and surrounding hills. It feels like a run-down 80's nature resort/retreat complete with hiking trails around the property and the entire bluff, a sauna in the first floor master, and an indoor in-ground hot tub (that was removed) on the lower level. The community also shares private frontage on the bay, in which we hike to and swim in most mornings, all 20 minutes from downtown Traverse City. It's like no house/area I've ever seen, and our desire to restore it to it's former glory is really strong. Our friend will sell it to us for half of what we can sell our city house for, leaving us ample proceeds to fix the house up, pay off all debts (my truck), and still invest some. Taxes are a quarter of what we pay in the city, for a total monthly obligation in the $1.5k range including mortgage, taxes, insurance. Such a drastic reduction in COL opens up a lot of employment opportunities for both of us, and give us a shot at a significantly more relaxed and easy lifestyle. A partial retirement at 35, if you will.
On to the pictures...
From the street:
Circular driveway, can start to see the house...
Decent size garage, not a lot smaller than mine, only not as high inside
"The treehouse", and rest of the house is under the ground
Down the walkway past the front door
Wood walkway goes to both the first level and bottom level, here's the first level
All windows off the first level, the dirt outside is actually on top of the concrete ceiling of the lower level
A view out doesn't capture the elevation, but you can make out the roof of the nearest neighbor on the lower left of this image
All levels of the house from the outside
Now, to the inside...
Walk in to the stairs up, or down. The stairs up are all steel with wood treads (steel support under them) going up...
And up...
Into the treehouse
The view, cutting down small trees on the property will open this up drastically
Now, downstairs in the living room, all windows. My makeshift office in the corner and the and approve
The kitchen needs love
But the view out has potential
More windows in master
In a somewhat Frank Lloyd Wright style, the bedrooms have these neat built-in dressers. These are solid oak, really well crafted units
Sauna in master bathroom
Onto the bottom level, this needs the most love. Check out this "greenroom" under those boards is a hole for a recessed hot tub. Wiring already present and in good condition. Wood looks worse than it is, the cedar trim isn't rotted, but the windows are toast
Lighted gun case could make epic whisky storage
There's a bedroom and bathroom on the lower level that's in decent shape, but not much to see. The bathroom does have a door out to the green room so you can rinse off after using the hot tub.
I'll take photos on my next hike to show the hiking trails and the water. Will also document the scenery of the area bit more. We're probably 95% doing this at this point. I haven't had a drink or smoke in the last few days because I just don't want to (after doing both daily nearly to excess since March, if not longer). I've never been so relaxed in my life. We'll see how the rest of the month goes, but we're prepping the city house for sale just in case.