Friday, August 9, 2013

There's been a bit of drama, unnecessary drama in my opinion, in the Thumb this week.

The 'front' of the house which faces east and looks out over Lake Huron. The three windows on the left are garage windows. The front entrance is off the porch in the front. The outlines of the hip roof are visible now.

Clair Kramer, my builder, wanted to tie the house into the water line which was brought down from Lakeshore Road, M-25, to the properties in the 'subdivision' in 2004, so he went to the Forestville Village Hall to make the arrangements earlier this week.

The corner of the house closest to the camera will be the bedroom with a window overlooking Lake Huron on the left of the corner and a doorwall to the yard on the right.

They told him that we would have to prove the assessment fee, $2,700.00, was paid back then. We found out that I'm the third owner since then. The fee to tie in now is up to about $7,500.00 - which seems like a huge increase in less than ten years, at least to me. If we couldn't prove it was paid back then, then we would have to pay the higher fee.

The back porch doorwall and to the right of it the kitchen window which faces west.

I did not know who owned the property back then. I assumed it belonged to the people I bought it from. Nope.

Those two windows (with a doorwall from the front porch out of sight to the right) face east and overlook Lake Huron.

Helen Warczinsky, the lady in charge of taxes for Delaware Township, where the village of Forestville is located, has retired. Even so - - she went back to the boxes where that information was stored (in the basement of the township offices?) and searched through the boxes. She found the proof that it was paid in one lump sum.

The floor plan is 'open'. In the distance is the corner doorwall from my bedroom to the yard, The double windows of the gathering room and the doorwall from the front porch are on the right. There will be a double-sided fireplace, about four feet beyond where the more distant sawhorse is located, between my bedroom and the gathering room.

Here's where it gets more interesting. Home owners had two choices - only - in 2004. We did not know that.

The garage. In front of the garage are evergreens and some Russian olive bushes - for now.

They could pay the assessment in one lump sum or they could have the assessment stretched out over several years and added on to their taxes. Not paying was not an option!

This is the west-facing 'rear' of the house. As always, clicking on photos enlarges them.

So the assessment had to have been paid, one way or the other, in 2004 and the drama was unnecessary - but we didn't find out that 'not paying' was not an option until just yesterday. Things did not have to get a little crazy.

I had a very nice talk with Jeff and Sharon who own one of the houses north of my property. The subdivision I belong to is going to spray the beach phragmites with an environmentally safe chemical approved by the Department of Environmental Quality this fall and I wanted to make my northern neighbors aware of that.

The west end of the pole barn has been turned into a workshop for the builders. Works out very nice especially when the weather isn't nice - - and we've had a lot of not very nice construction weather.