We had decided that we would like to try a vacation home rental, and it was a good fit for us since we had family up in the area willing to help out. It's a couple of miles from Cedar Point Amusement Park and had beach access. The house was old and worn out, build somewhere between 1900 and 1950, depending on what local is telling the tale, or which property record you were reading. It's quaint on the outside, but when you looked inside, well...most of our visitors said, "Meh." But oh, how it looked to me, in my head! Fortunatley, my husband trusted me and my "visions of sugar plums."
It had lovely lovely old wood beam ceilings and under old carpet and paint were beautiful hardwood floors. The walls were this and that, among it, old fashioned patterned wall paper and real wood beadboard. It was love at first site, although you are going to have a hard time believing it....
The kitchen had a drop ceiling, that was falling down and
under the drop celling was a celling put together with this and then, including
some kind of shingles and a door, presumably taken off of the master bedroom at
some point and installed in the ceiling.
The hatch to the attic was then sawed out of one of the door panels (of
course!)
But I haven’t even told you about the most interesting piece
of the house. The bomb shelter! Yep, this house comes complete with a bomb
shelter. The old home owners told us it
was a storm shelter. They also told us
that they had gotten quotes of $1,000-$2,000 to remove it. But, one gentlemen who lives down the street, stopped by to chat with us and
told us that he grew up in the house and his mother was quite afraid a coming
Soviet nuclear attack and had it installed in the 1950’s. Other rumors include that they only had money
to buy braces for their daughter or a bomb shelter and choose the later. The mum was also rumored to be a beautiful,
if eccentric, ballerina.
Needless to say, the quotes we have gotten to remove our
little piece of history range from $5,000 (from the contractor working next
door, willing to do it, while the garage next door is being removed) to
$10,000, since it’s difficult to get heavy machinery into the small space. I currently have it listed on
craigslist..free to a good home, if you are willing to move it!
In all reality, it will probably become a lovely
conversation piece or odd destination attraction, perhaps we’ll side it in
cedar and put a deck/hot tub on top of it! You just never know!
So, back to the house.
The full bathroom that was in the house is terrible. It’s walls, and ceiling are old fashioned
mylar and in terrible shape. The bathtub
and walls are currently being held together with duct tape of some kind and the
window is cracked. It needs fixed and it’s
next on the agenda for next summer, although we have run out of time and money
for this year! I have beautiful ideas of what I want this room to look
like. There is a half bath off of the
master which is comical. It has pink
plastic tile on the walls and cork on the ceiling. It was all held together
with duct tape when we bought the house.
Our wonderful contractor, removed the duct tape and put up a temporary,
but much improved fix. It is like a
mobile home half bath, with s mini sink and mini mirror, and almost mini toilet. Our plans are to remove the wall to the
closet and make it a full bath.
Currently we are well toward finished on this project and I couldn't be happier! Stay tuned for my next post!
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