Cheap Old Houses by Elizabeth Finkelstein & Ethan Finkelstein

Author:Elizabeth Finkelstein & Ethan Finkelstein [Finkelstein, Elizabeth & Finkelstein, Ethan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Published: 2023-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

A $110,000 Urban Homestead

Kamaria + Dakarai: Detroit, Michigan

Roots are important to Kamaria Gray and Dakarai Carter of Detroit, Michigan. It’s fundamental to their past—they met while working at a nonprofit guiding youth on how to cook healthy, fulfilling meals using fresh fruits and vegetables. A part of the program even allowed students to get their hands in the dirt and grow their own ingredients. The passion for learning how to cultivate food and community was important, and they both knew this interest would be a through line in their future lives. So when they heard about the cheap old house for sale with the small greenhouse and an acre of land, they began thinking of ways the property could be a gardening-based conduit to growth and connection with the neighborhood. They bought it for $110,000.

The house is their way of establishing roots, too. It has been a staple of their East Side neighborhood since it was built in 1948, replete with five bedrooms and period details scattered throughout. And it’s their first home together, both as a couple and as a family with their new baby, Cozi.

They love their vintage kitchen. A beadboard chair rail bands around the room, culminating at the giant bay window with its deep shelf and a scallop-front metal radiator cover. On top of the shelf are a menagerie of plants basking in sunlight.

Throughout, there are details large and small with throwback vibes: the original built-in vanity station in one bathroom with circular salmon-colored floor tiles, the curlicue newel post, the patchwork of parallelogram tiles in the entryway, and the genuine oversized doorbell chimes hanging in the hallway, awaiting repair.

And then there’s the open-ended display of vintage wallpaper. In the dining room, there’s an embossed square pattern in a muted shade of pink. The foyer has a pattern of beige-colored rosebuds tucked inside gold diamonds. In Cozi’s room, a dainty vine pattern with green tendrils cursives across a cream-colored background. The belle of it all is the bold green-and-turquoise cameo pattern splayed across the living room, equal parts grounding and explosive with color.

“The kitchen hutch is one of my favorite pieces, but the pickup story is so chaotic,” says Kamaria. “Just imagine my sister and me traveling with that thing hanging on by a thread in my little PT Cruiser convertible.”

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