I know there has been a lot of Detroit talk lately, so I thought I'd post this.
bunnymendelbaum, I haven't commented yet but I'm somewhat following your saga! I'm a Detroit native who spent the last several years in NC and now I'm back home in Michigan. I'm curious to see what you end up doing!
Nicole Curtis, star of HGTV’s “Rehab Addict,” has announced her latest fixer-upper: a beautiful but rundown 1876 house in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood.
“I think we’ve finally found a way to make the numbers work,” Curtis told WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), in an intervew you can right here.
The house was designed by the architectural firm Brush & Mason for Ransom Gillis, a wholesale dry goods merchant. Henry T. Brush designed a number of homes in late-19th-century Detroit. His assistant, a young George D. Mason, would go on to become one of Detroit’s most prolific architects, designing everything from the Masonic Temple to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.
The Gillis House stands at 205 Alfred St., on the northeast corner of John R. It is just north of Comerica Park and a few blocks east of the soon-to-be-built Detroit Red Wings hockey arena, making it a prime prospect for redevelopment. The house sat empty and rotting for decades. About a decade ago, the city helped to shore up its roof and foundation, likely sparing it from the same demolition fate that has met most of the neighborhood, which was once filled with Victorian mansions for Detroit’s wealthy and elite.
The house is nothing but a brick shell these days, but there are still plenty of great architectural features on the outside of the house that make it worth saving, including the iconic turret on the southwest corner of the house. Curtis, who grew up in Lake Orion and considers Detroit her “home base” these days, says she plans to get started on the Gillis House this summer.
“The energy here is unreal and it’s unmatched anywhere else,” Curtis told WXYZ. “For doing what I do, to be in a city that’s excited for us to be here and not fighting us? It’s a huge thing.”
New Detroit episodes of “Rehab Addict” air starting April 9 on HGTV.
You can take a peek inside and learn more history about the Gillis House on HistoricDetroit.org.
I can't even bring myself to read the article because I'm so GD fed up with the real estate market here.
There's nothing too controversial. A little history of the house, a positive description of the neighborhood, and a positive quote from the host about how she's happy to be back in her hometown.
Post by bunnymendelbaum on Mar 25, 2015 18:59:01 GMT -5
Do they say how much she paid? Or the address?
ETA: got the address but it doesn't look like the sale is public. They bought it from the city which fucking irritates me even more. Sell me the stupid GD lots Detroit!!!!!!
I LOVE that show! Its the only home reno one I watch anymore, I got disgusted with the crap the others do like smashing up perfectly good cabinets with sledgehammers for effect rather than salvaging them and selling or donating them. However, there's a new producer or editor this season and I do NOT LIKE IT. Too much of the bullshit edits like lots of quick-cuts, getting stupid angles for shooting. The last episode I watched, they did 2 minutes of showing her dad put hinges on a cabinet from DIFFERENT ANGLES...OOOOOO. And an overview of the episode at the beginning, middle, and end which ends up being like 1/4 of the show at that point!