House 4

Our next stop turned out to be a repossesed home which had been remodeled by the bank to help it sell. The main result was cheap, but new, upgrades, such as cabinets, carpet, and paint.

This home was not in a nice area, and we were struck with the cheap quality of the work that had been done.

Since this one had one of the best maintained basements we saw, I'll describe what they call a "Michigan basement," apparently because they are found nowhere else. A Michigan basement is characterized by its structure made of stones stacked on one another, filled with dirt and concrete. Further, the floor is typically dirt, and there is often not enough room to stand. Every house we saw had a basement like this, and this picture is easily of the nicest such basement we saw. In some cases concrete had been added to the floor, which makes the ceiling even lower.

Here's a more colorful description I found:

"The short story is that a Michigan Basement means a basement with a dirt floor. But to say that is so bland, so flat. It leaves out so many of the nuances that make a Michigan Basement truly a thing to be remembered. Things like: a rickety staircase that descends at a 45-degree angle where there are no backboards, so you look down into a black abyss; where the last step is missing so you crash, with your laundry falling everywhere, onto the damp, moldy floor. Then there are the cobwebs hanging down like drapes in a Martha Stewart nightmare; and the old wooden barrels left over from kraut-making days; the musty furniture, preserve jars, and the long chest that looks disturbingly like a coffin."