Indiana Feels Like Home

My last post of this spring said that we were going to be searching for a new home base in Indiana... and that has occurred. After searching places as far away as Rochester, we decided that was a little farther than we wanted to drive for as often as we expected to do it. We started looking at places closer to where we already were, and where we expected to return often.

Finally, about mid-July, we found a suitable place in a small town not too far away. It was older than we preferred, and had been rented out for a few years (meaning it needed some work), but after a thorough inspection by us and a qualified home inspector, and then a few back and forth negotiations with the owner, we finally put forth a solid offer that was accepted.

We closed on the place on August 25th, five days later than originally planned, due to some of the requested repairs being done by qualified contractors on their schedule. Even after closing, we had some initial cleanup and repairs to do before we felt comfortable with moving in. It was another five days before we got all our "local" stuff moved in from our hosts farm garage and our trailer brought here. But all was as expected, meaning no further surprises.

On September 13th, we headed for Arkansas to retrieve the rest of our stuff from our storage unit. We arrived Sunday night, and used the camping capabilities of our minivan to overnight at the local Walmart. The next morning we drove about 30 miles farther south to pick up a 6 x 12 enclosed cargo trailer at U-Haul. We immediately headed straight for our storage unit to empty it out.

I thought I had calculated carefully, but as it turns out, not everything would fit into the 396 cubic foot cargo trailer, even with it packed to the roof like a sardine can! Much of the smaller and lighter stuff had to go into the van and storage pod on the roof. This brought about another minor surprise. We had intended to leave early and overnight at the Marion, Illinois Walmart, as we had done several times before, but now there was no room to sleep in the van!

We finished loading around 3:30 and got a head start for home. We made it as far as Poplar Bluff and sought out a motel for the night, which was just as well, as we knew we would both sleep better with showers and a comfortable rest. We headed north again on the morning of the 15th. The trailer capacity of a maximum of 4400# (which we didn't exceed) was well within the towing limits of the van, and it handled perfectly all the way home. Although I was equipped for electric brakes and load compensation bars, we didn't need either. Their long straight tongue was such that we had no place to clamp on the chain support brackets for the torsion bars, and the trailer was equipped with a surge brake, which is far superior to electric brakes. Although it put more weight on the rear of the van than I preferred, it wasn't excessive, and it handled fine.

It was not quite dark when we arrived home, but we only unloaded what we had to, saving the majority of it for the next day. Everything went well, except for the piano. We had three steps to go up, and my plywood ramp wasn't as long as it needed to be. We wrestled with that piano for over a half-hour, but we finally got it up the steps without damage!

The next day, the 17th, we took the rented trailer to Valparaiso to load up furniture at two different locations before heading home again. The last piece was a three section couch with a recliner on each end, and no, it doesn't come apart! With flat dollies, we were able to get it moved and up onto the porch, but then no matter what we tried, it wouldn't fit through our 32"-wide entry door! We had never considered that, because nearly all entry doors on newer houses are 36"! We ended up covering the couch with a tarp and leaving it on the front porch until we could figure out what to do with it. We returned the trailer to a local U-Haul dealer on the morning of the 18th.

It took a few days, and some measuring and considering, but I finally realized that if we removed the front vinyl replacement window from its wooden frame, that we would have enough width and height. It took some doing on the outer trim, but as soon as the window came out, Sharon and I lifted the couch through the window, one end at a time, keeping the lower end on a flat dolly the whole time. The window went back in the same way it came out... with some difficulty, but I got it done. One piece of wooden outer trim split in the process of removing it and had to be glued back together before reassembly, but next spring, it's all going to get repainted, so no big deal.

Since then, we have been busy with all the normal tasks of unpacking, sorting, organizing, getting this place in shape and running the errands that we have to run. But you probably want to know more about the house itself.

By the style, I would say this house was probably built around the 1930s, just like the house that I grew up in (built in 1941), except this one is a single story with 9' ceilings throughout. It's what I would call a "craftsman" style house, which was typical of well-built houses of that time. I also know that sometime in the late 30s they started going to gypsum lath, so that's a good indicator of the date. It's on a single flat lot 75' x 115', in town, with all city/Nipsco utilities. It has blown cellulose insulation in the walls and ceilings and all the windows are vinyl thermopane replacement style windows, meaning they were installed in the existing wood frames, which are still in excellent shape. The siding is metal "double six" lap siding with a wood grain embossed texture.

It's about 1,050 square feet with a huge 29'-2" x 13'-8" living/dining room, two bedrooms, a huge laundry room, a 1-3/4 bath (corner shower, no tub), a rear enclosed porch and there's a 1-1/2 car detached garage with a paved driveway. It also has a nice covered concrete front porch facing the west. The door and window casings throughout are all the wide flat trim with fancy crown molding cornices at the top, and two-piece, wide baseboards. 

The floors are all solid yellow pine hardwood. The living room was the only one not covered, but we have since removed old carpet and found that the floors under it aren't that bad, but they all need refinishing, a project for next year. The kitchen has laminate, which is OK for now, but will get replaced eventually with something better, and more water proof. The bathroom and back porch are vinyl tile.

The roof is about 13 years old, but it's got 30-year architectural grade shingles on both the house and garage, so they have plenty of life in them yet. The house was built with full-dimension native oak, so it is solid as a rock. No cracks in the foundation, either. The walls are wood lath and sand-finish plaster, most of which is in reasonable shape for the age. The laundry room has been covered over with drywall, and will soon have other walls added.

I have already drawn up plans for the large laundry room to be remodeled into a second bathroom, which will be connected to our bedroom, forming a "master bedroom suite". Right now, the bathroom is all the way at the back of the house... very inconvenient. There will still be plenty of room for a smaller laundry room with a hanging rack and folding table.

The house does need a complete rewiring to be brought up to code, but I can do that myself. I haven't been underneath in the 30"-high crawl space to check out the underside, but the home inspector found little wrong with it. He said the metal heat ducts should be wrapped, and a vapor barrier installed over the ground. I would go further and add insulation between the floor joists, but it will all happen as we have the time and money. 

The kitchen cabinets are all "hand built in place" with a hand-built laminate countertop and are all very solid. I can tell by the workmanship that it was quality work at the time it was done (probably upgraded in the 50s or 60s), but could stand a new upgrade... all in good time. It's plenty good enough for now. 

As with most older houses that have not been taken care of properly, there is work to be done, but it's all cosmetic in nature, unlike our last house in Cherokee Village that we bought sight unseen and with no home inspection. That one had all kinds of structural faults that if we fixed them all we would have had more into the place than we would have ever gotten out of it... so we just "existed" there.... for ten long years! With this current house, I don't mind putting some time and money into it. At this point, we have been in the house for two months, and there have been no surprises. Everything has been anticipated. 

The only furniture item we kept from our old house was Sharon's piano. We still have a few furniture items to find, but have obtained everything we need to get by. We have two nice recliners (one electric, one not), a three section couch with recliners on each end, a huge wooden rocker, a large wooden desk and matching wooden file cabinet, with a very comfortable office chair, and a 6-chair solid wood dining table set. In the front guest bedroom we have a chest of drawers and full size bookshelf style bed frame, but we still need to find a box spring and mattress for it. In our bedroom we have a large mirrored dresser and matching end table, but still need a complete queen-sized bed. For now, we are using an Intex inflatable platform bed with a 2" topper on it. It's comfortable enough, but not a "forever" thing.

We also currently need a glass-front hutch and bookshelves. I have enough material here to build the bookshelves, but we're still watching for a hutch.

We also purchased a "like new" stove, washer and dryer that our host at the farm was changing out, but we discovered that someone had removed the gas pipe that originally came up through the floor here when they put in an electric dryer... and unfortunately, ours is gas. So I have to get the gas piping reinstalled before we can use our own laundry. For now, we discovered a nice little laundromat uptown, just a few blocks away.

If I mentioned every little detail about the place, this could end up book length, so I'll leave it here for now. Just know that our RVing and traveling friends (even if its just on Facebook) will always have a driveway to park in if passing through this way in Northwest Indiana. Just let us know a couple days ahead of time to make sure we aren't out running around somewhere ourselves! Our city is listed on Facebook, because I can limit who sees it there. I can text you the address in private. If you aren't on Facebook, comment here with a way to reach you by text, email or phone, and I can let you know where we are.

As for our own traveling, it will be on hold for awhile as we put our time and money into this place. But we do intend to get out and travel again, just not as long or as far. Until we see you on the road again, travel safe and stay well!