Couple restores 100+ year old house in Boston-Edison

[SWMAP]

My house in SW Detroit is nowhere near as nice as your Grandmother's house. Its just a little frame house. The nicest ameenities that I found when I moved in 30 years ago were the pocket doors to the front room and a little scullery with a an original farmhouse sink. The bathroom had been cheaply modernized in the 1970's.
I have put a good amount of money into the house - a brick walk, a restored porch, and a pretty kitchen [[saving the sink from a landfill) and a very pretty but simple new bathroom with subway tile and marble. It is my intention to honor my house and make the neighborhood better for my having been here. No one else is doing the same around me - but okay.

I looked up the original owner of my house and tracked down her grand-daughter-in-law. I know that Margaret was born in Ireland and widowed young by a railroad accident that took her husband when he was employed by the rairoad. She was able to buy her house outright in an era when most people rented. She attended Holy Redeemer Church, as I do. It makes me a little happy to wash the dishes in the same sink she used and dust her floors.

Neither of my grandparents houses on the east side [[Hurlbut Ave and Beneteau St.) survive. My parents house in the jefferson Chalmers neighborhood is torn down as well. I would save one of them if they existed. I think the walls absorb happy energy!

[RickBeall]

My house in SW Detroit is nowhere near as nice as your Grandmother's house. Its just a little frame house. The nicest ameenities that I found when I moved in 30 years ago were the pocket doors to the front room and a little scullery with a an original farmhouse sink. The bathroom had been cheaply modernized in the 1970's.
I have put a good amount of money into the house - a brick walk, a restored porch, and a pretty kitchen [[saving the sink from a landfill) and a very pretty but simple new bathroom with subway tile and marble. It is my intention to honor my house and make the neighborhood better for my having been here. No one else is doing the same around me - but okay.

I looked up the original owner of my house and tracked down her grand-daughter-in-law. I know that Margaret was born in Ireland and widowed young by a railroad accident that took her husband when he was employed by the rairoad. She was able to buy her house outright in an era when most people rented. She attended Holy Redeemer Church, as I do. It makes me a little happy to wash the dishes in the same sink she used and dust her floors.

Neither of my grandparents houses on the east side [[Hurlbut Ave and Beneteau St.) survive. My parents house in the jefferson Chalmers neighborhood is torn down as well. I would save one of them if they existed. I think the walls absorb happy energy!

Hi SWMAP,

Obviously you are a person whose joy radiates from the inside out. Your home sounds beautiful. I think you have "reverse adopted" the previous owner of the house, that is, you adopted someone in the past. Very cool!

"I think the walls absorb happy energy". I love old floors with the marks of previous use, old window casements. In old kitchens you can imagine all the joy and Thanksgiving dinners created there. So I agree with you!