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:


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


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.



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


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.


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







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



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.





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












This was the downstairs bathroom.


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.



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


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.



The northwest bedroom.





The southeast bedroom.





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.





The entire hallway used to be painted like a madhouse.


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






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.


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.


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.


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.