My husband and I had moved from Detroit right after our marriage, nearly 40 years ago. We decided to return in 2019, and quickly discovered the house that ticked all our boxes: Craftsman era foursquare, on the water, in need of love but not beyond my (I'm the rehabber, while my husband pays the bills!) abilities, and close to family. The layout probably didn't make sense to most buyers, but I saw perfection. It has separate office spaces for Bill and me and a great, circular layout that can only be described as Arts and Crafts Open Concept! It immediately felt like "us" and we pretty much purchased it from the other side of the country.
The strange smell I noticed on the walkthrough quickly proved potentially dangerous, as the indoor koi pond (which hadn't been cleaned in...forever?) and numerous, gigantic, dying plants were pumping out massive amounts of harmful bacteria and mold. On top of that, we had loose asbestos flooring in the moldy basement and asbestos pipe wrap on all the radiator ducts. Faced with this, I called in a pro who, outside of immediately breaking a light fixture (sigh), did a good and thorough job of mitigating the funk. Beyond the basement and koi room, his testing made us aware of a leak on the second floor. We would have eventually discovered it, but it was great to hit the ground running with it repaired. He even removed the dishwasher when it was discovered that it smelled like the 3rd level of hell and was beyond saving.
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