Its been almost one year since we looked at and purchased a foreclosed cabin/cottage on Houghton Lake.
This 2200 square foot cottage was unique in that it had an existing ,intact 1950’s cabin smack dab in the middle of it. The cabin has two sets of stairs one going to the front addition, added on to the front of the cabin and the second going to the back addition, added to the back of the cabin.
We have nicknamed the cottage “Cabbage” cabin + cottage = cabbage
We purchased the cottage in the summer of 2015, when the housing market in Michigan had still not yet recovered. The second home market was even worse, so many cottages that summer were for sale around the lake. The cottage was in a bank foreclosure and listed for a very cheap price due to the fact that it had a “mold problem” and had been vacant for 4 years.
We figured that the cottage just needed cosmetic work, plus our dear family friend was in the mold removal business. Whatever problems we ran into with mold could be fixed with his help.
What we did not know at the time, that in the spring with the wind just right and the lake level up, the area around the cottage and around the other homes had a tendency to flood. This now would explain the “mold problem”. LESSON ONE.…….
So we now know that the lake periodically will come over the concrete sea wall and flood the existing area. So our initial fix to this problem was to eliminate all the busted concrete around the cottage and sock tile the perimeter of the foundation. We installed sump pumps in the front on either corner toward the lake. With water draining into the sock tile around the perimeter we used the pumps to move water back into the lake. Problem solved…or so we thought…….
So now that problem was solved we went about trying to fix the interior of the cottage. The upstairs was fine, just outdated 70’s paneling. We spent quite a few weekends painting the 70’s paneling white and cleaning so we could stay there during renovations (our house is a 3 hour drive from the cottage)
Next came the main floor with all the mold problems. This turned out to be a bigger problem. As you can see in the side picture, we not only had mold but dirt and roots growing into the cottage once we pulled back the carpet. From the years that the 
cottage had flooded, the sill plates had rotted away. Along with the sill plates, the 2 x 4 walls were also rotted. The front of the cottage was only held up by two large nails.
This now explains why the windows were falling out of their sills. The entire first floor sill plates were rotted away, with no structural support holding up the two story 2200 square foot cottage.
Above is a video taken from the back of the cottage, where the kitchen had been. As you can see by this video of Jim, the wall is freely moving. We installed jack plates(like the one in front of the window) around the entire first floor perimeter, just to hold up the cottage.
