April 2, 2011

The Buchanan House Part V: 2008-Present -- Renovation in Progress


The Buchanan house was purchased by my mother and brother on August 4, 2008. The plan was to be repaid by a third investor, who then literally fled the country. We decided to renovate and rent out the home. My mother quitclaimed her interest in the house to me on October 22, 2009. I've spent more than two years renovating the house with a *lot* of help from a *lot* of people, and we've been fortunate to have good renters tolerant of the ongoing repairs. The renovation is maybe 85% complete. The house has a new roof, all new plumbing, and was completely rewired. Both porches had to be completely replaced. The house was about half gutted, but if I could do it all over, I would gut the house completely. Here are some examples of what we've accomplished:

old-porch
This was actually taken after a lot of the porch had been torn down.

porch2
The new porch (not yet fully complete due to our lack of money) was constructed by
Donald St. Pierre, a carpenter raised in Corktown who now resides in Wyandotte.


parlor-window1
The parlor window was boarded up with doors when we first saw the house.

parlor-window2
Photo courtesy of Joseph C. Krause, who took sent me the photo at the
last minute when I realized I didn't have a shot of this perspective.

parlor-during1
It's a miracle the parlor fireplace was still intact.

parlor-red1


parlor-during2

parlor-red2
This photo is a little dated. More furniture has been added to the room.


familyroom-repairs
I believe I am reglazing a window in this photo. All of the original wood windows in the bedrooms have been preserved, with only storm windows added for energy efficiency.

familyroom-187


kitchen-doorway-gutted
This is looking from the dining room into the kitchen. The doorway was originally much smaller.

kitchen-doorway-finished


kitchen1

kitchen-gutted

kitchen-finished


powder1
This was the downstairs bathroom.

powder2
A closet was removed from the family room, allowing more space for the
bathroom. The doorway was also moved from the kitchen to the hallway.


bathroom0
The upstairs bathroom window was almost completely
covered by a very poorly placed wall.

bathroom-after
This view is actually 90 degrees to the right of the first photo. We
took over the closet space from a bedroom to make the bathroom larger.


northwest
The northwest bedroom.

northwest-after


southeast
The southeast bedroom.

southeast3


laundry500
We turned the bedroom whose closet we took away into an upstairs laundry room.
This photo is actually not that old--the room was just the last to be remodeled.

laundry600


up-halla1
The entire hallway used to be painted like a madhouse.

up-halla2
The stairway is now the biggest eyesore in the house. I plan
on stripping and refinishing the whole thing. (Some day.)

up-hallb1

up-hallb2


The Buchanan house was used as a filming location for a scene in episode 4 of season 1 of Detroit 1-8-7, entitled "Royal Bubbles/Needle Drop". The scene was filmed on August 26, 2010, and the episode aired October 12. The film crew paid myself and the renters locations fees as well as repainted the exterior of the house to be a much more calm shade of yellow than it had been previously.

187-diningroom
John Michael Hill as Detective Damon Washington in the
dining room of the Buchanan house. Photo courtesy of ABC.


I was able to track down some of the people associated with the house's past. I contacted Peter Buchanan, a descendant of Patrick Buchanan--a past owner of the land on which the house was built, and brother to the home's first owner, Susan Buchanan. He came to visit the house during the renovation.

peter-buchanan
Myself with Peter Buchanan.


I also found Paul and Tony Saliba, two brothers born in the home who gave me a great deal of the information that appeared in my last post.

Bagley and Marilyn pics 009
Paul Saliba, Anthony Saliba, and myself.


The renovations will continue throughout 2011. Now that it's getting warmer, the obviously needed exterior renovations will have to be completed. Expect to see more photos by next fall.

mildyellow

3 comments:

  1. The current state of the formerly blue bedroom:

    http://www.unibrows.com/images/unistudio.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  2. It looks fantastic!! Keep up the good work. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a beautiful bathroom. The two of you did an amazing job.
    Renovations in Brixton

    ReplyDelete