Inspection Day

                                      Friday 7/18/2014

Our next step to the purchasing of the property was the inspection.

I hung out with Mallery and took more pictures, while Joe followed the inspector around.

Here the inspector dug down to the septic tank and further down the yard the septic field to make sure everything looked good. Every house that we looked at had spetic and well water except for the grey house that we put a low ball offer on. If you are going to live around a lake up here, you most likely will have septic tank and a well.

Here is a view of our 2 1/2 car garage. You can also see the hose hookup here. The hose runs under the road and is inserted into the lake with a pump. When we water the yard, we just use the lake water.

Mallery checked out the yard and approved. As you can see the owners takes real good care of their yard. Mallery loves weed free soft green grass, and this was perfect in her opinion.

We decided to go hang out on the porch while we waited for the inspection to be over.

We wished we could have put the porch swing in our offer, but because of the other people who were also offering, we didn't want to get too greedy. Maybe they will leave it here for us. At least we can pray they will! Mallery and I swung in the swing while enjoying the views

First thing Joe and I want to do is remove some of these trees to open up our water view. Second, is to put in a white picket fence so Mallery can have the full run of the front yard, and I don't have to worry about our grandkids either when they visit.

Mallery checking out our deck. Joe doesn't like the two levels of the deck. He said it is too easy for someone to miss the step and fall, like our mom's.

A nice spot next to the garage to park an extra car or boat trailer. The present owner purchased this lot where the garage is now, and built the garage. Sure glad he did for us!

The inspector checks out the upper attic of the garage, while Joe watched. The whole length  above the garage is boarded giving us lots of storage area. At one end of the garage attic is a window to bring in light.

On the end of the garage is a work room for Joe.

Behind the garage is where the owners store their 5th wheel. They have been going south for the winter for 8 years now.

Behind the garage, RV spot is the rest of the second lot that he purchased. There he has a pole building with a wood chip floor. The owner keeps his wood, mower and other stuff like that in there.

This road is a private road to our house and to a few others on this street to their back yards. This is one thing Joe was not crazy about with this property. All the homes have front street drives, so this road is not used very often.

Here the shared access road goes behind the house. It is paved just to the back  far side of the house. The owner paved it himself to prevent erosion. The woods on the other side of the shared road is not part of this property.

I asked the inspector what that black stain line was on the back of the house. He said it is just where water runs off the roof and splashed off the ground onto the house. He said it would power wash off easily. He recommends we put up gutters. Some people in the north don't believe in gutters because they get so much snow and it can block and dam up with ice. The last section of the house is an old log cabin garage that was sided in when the new middle section of the house was added on in the 70's. 

There are 4 doors into this house. This is the back alley door.

The last section of the house is the original old log cabin that was sided after the new section was added to it. It was built on a cement slab. The old log cabin was built in the late 40's or early 50's.

I was wondering where I was going to walk Mallery since there are no sidewalks in this neighborhood. This back private alley is just perfect. We walked to almost the end, and then turned back toward our the house. The shared access road also dumps out on the other end to Lake Shore Road. The house you see in this picture is our neighbor.

There is also a door next to the picture window in the old log cabin section that comes out onto the deck.

The inspection at this point had been going on for 2 hours. Mallery and I decided to go back down to the lake as it was getting hot and I wanted to catch a breeze that didn't smell. (The  inspector was running water from a  hose into the septic tank to make sure the septic field was working good, creating a nasty smell that was drifting up to the porch).

We took a little foot bridge from the yard to cross the ditch to the street.

Looking south from the road.

Looking north from the road.

We wonder if the owners will leave the flag pole. Note the in ground fire pit.

Joe had originally planned on seeing if we could get the boat in at the end of a back and forth offer. As you all know that didn't work out, because we basically got into a bidding war. Maybe he won't want it and we can buy it off him for a good fishing boat for Joe. We also want to get a good used pontoon boat.

We know his boat fits on the boat hoist already. Mallery is unsure about this dock stuff.

Pump house for the water hose that goes underground to the front yard.

The water was cold for a moment, but boy did it feel good there after. Sorry about the white legs, but these days they only get tan when I wear shorts. I am not into that tanning stuff anymore. I am vain, but not that vain anymore. There are some rights to getting older you know.

Looking south from the dock.

Looking north from  the dock.

Looking east from the lakeshore yard.

Hope they leave that swing also, but most likely we will have to buy it if they don't want it. We don't have much furniture because we sold most big stuff 5 1/2 years ago. It is going to cost us a bit to refurnish a house again.

OK, I will show you the inside, with pictures I took the first time we saw this place. I am going into the south side door. Now remember, the house you will get on lakefront property is much less of a house then you will get off lakefront property. One of the houses we looked at that was 2 blocks from a Walloon Lake was a really nice and updated home with a finished basement, walk in closets, 2 sink master bath, huge beautiful shower, the works for $290,000, but not boat dock access. We had to decide why we were here in the first place, " to be on the water".

I call this the mud room. Any suggestions on what I can do with this section of the house.

The first door to the left you go into the old garage. The owners use this room for storage. Joe wants to turn this into a man cave.

At the end of the mud room/hall, is a very small 1/2 bathroom. This hall room also has two closets, one with shelves and one as a coat closet.

From the hall/mudroom we come into the dining room.

The fourth door is the slider onto the deck.

Almost none of the houses we have looked at have central air. The average summer temps are in the 70's, so the people just open the doors and windows facing the lakes for a breeze. The owners do have this portable air conditioner in the dining room. We hope they leave it for us, as it is vented from the crawl space underneath.

From the dining room we go into the master bedroom. There are two closets on one side of the bedroom, and

a small full bathrom and another small closet on the other side of the room.

The kitchen is nothing fancy or updated, but a nice size, and very clean and maintained. Move in ready. I am so excited to use the dishwasher since I have been hand washing dishes for almost 6 years now. Who cares if it isn't stainless, it's a dishwasher, that all I care about. There is also a reverse osmosis water filtration under the sink  that I am excited about.

Perhaps we can purchase the stools.

From the kitchen is the second mudroom/ laundry room/ coat closet/ hall to the back alley door. If I really wanted to enlarge the master bath, I could use one of these closets to add another sink in the master bath. The washer and dryer stay. Yea, one less thing to not have to buy.

There is cabinetry across from the washer and dryer for laundry supplies, and this counter will make a great folding area for the clean cloths.

From the kitchen we go into the old log cabin area. When I first started to look at the homes up in Northern Michigan, I hated the old cabin look. But after seeing so many (online- 2 we wanted to see but sold before we got into them) I started to see the charm in them.

Looking from the fireplace back toward the kitchen. The old  log cabin kitchen used to be where the couch and built in cabinetry is now.

One of the bedrooms is an office. We will be making it into a bedroom for our guests.

Another small full  bathroom off the two log cabin bedrooms.

This is the larger of the two bedrooms that will be the bunk room for the grand kids or who ever comes to visit. The inspection went really well, so we close on the house on Monday.

Back home at Magnus RV Park in Petoskey for the evening sunset.

Because our lakehome sits on the west shore, we will not get these awesome sunsets. Instead we will be getting sun rises. I am going to turn a new leaf and go to bed early and get up early anyway because it is healthier for you. This time next year we will see if I can accomplish this new habit and get pictures of sun rises instead.

All in all, from all the house hunting, location trumped our decision on the house we are buying. Boyne City was our first choice for towns. We wanted to be on a bigger lake, and Lake Charlevoix is definitely big. I had many wants, 1) lakefront, 2) bigger house, 3) a place for a garden, and maybe a place for 4) goats and chickens. Joe had by far less wants, 1) lakefront on a big beautiful lake. Mallery want even less, 1) a yard with great grass.

In the end, we fulfilled almost all our wants, so we give "Our God and Lord" all the glory for our new summer home! He led us to this beautiful area of the United States just at the perfect time when I was wearing down from travel, and needed a home base once again. Joe and I had two dreams when we retired. The first was to travel the USA in a motor home and then live in a lakefront home. We will be starting our second chapter of  our retirement dreams soon. God You are so Good to us, and we say "Thank you for loving us so much".