In about 4 weeks Hayley and I will be leaving our condo in The Clem and moving to our new house in Grosse Pointe Park. Though I've said many times that I would never live in Grosse Pointe, I have to admit the houses there are pretty hard to match. The most enticing feature for me, after we began looking at these old houses, was their accessible 3rd level attic areas. And when I say accessible, I mean and actual door and staircase which lead up to 1 or more finished or unfinished rooms. Our new house has 1 finished room (10x14) and 1 unfinished on the 3 floor, which had me hooked right away. Now, to those who are familiar or who grew up in old houses, this may seem like nothing special; but, to those, like myself, who grew up in relatively new home or in the modern suburbs, having an accessible 3rd level is a whole new experience. For Hayley and I in particular, it has the unique benefit of allowing us to keep our home office (we both work from home) separate and on its own floor. 3rd level aside though, the house has many other cool amenities common to old homes, such as 80 year old red oak floors throughout, leaded glass windows on the exterior of the house as well as many of the doors in the home (most of these old houses have 1 or more doors for every room in the house), plaster walls, and radiator heat throughout.
Now, with that said, all that charm definitely comes at a price ;). Over the coming months I will be posting some details on the various projects I have planed to make the house more energy efficient and retrofitting it for a high tech and gadget lifestyle. Should be fun!