Last week, we were in Hillsdale, Michigan, in the south central part of the state. It is a relatively poor region, with no big cities, mostly small to medium-sized towns. Allen, along US12, is a center of antiques, with many dealers along the highway. I never tired of the drive from Hillsdale to Coldwater, where we were staying (Hillsdale itself has little hotel space, and what rooms there are fill up fast for the many conferences held there). It’s an agricultural area, and the college is its biggest educational institution. On our last day there, we drove around the area to see what I could find to photograph. Here is what I found.
I first saw this house on the highway, the first time we drove into Coldwater, and I noticed it was for sale! A fellow attendee at the conference told me that it had been remodeled into retail space, but the retailers couldn’t make it pay, so now it is on the market again. It is a fine, old 19th Century house, and I would have loved to see the inside of it.
This old barn caught my eye, notice the red edging on the roof.
Abandoned old house. What stories could it tell?
Snow-covered field with wheat stubble. When the snow melts, the field gets watered by Mother Nature.
Downed tree, barn.
Leafless trees, Hillsdale College Campus
I saw some lovely scenery around the Hillsdale area, and I’m looking forward to returning.
Calling-all-RushBabes 
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“Allen, along US12, is a center of antiques”
The problem with flying or riding your motorcycle anywhere. You can’t bring stuff home. 😁
I am getting ready to retire and thinking about where (not Washington) that will be. One requirement is non-insane leftist government and another is inexpensive housing. Taxes come into play but so long as they aren’t obscene, I am OK with paying them. I would like a relatively large house with a good sized shop, preferably old, because I like old houses. I want to continue to work on motorcycles, I want more space to do some basic woodworking, and I would like to have room to display and work on my relatively extensive collection of antique sewing machines. Oh, and maintain my own vehicles, to the extent that I physically can.
That being said, went to Abilene, Kansas last summer on the way home from Texas. I have cousins. Turns out that beautiful old houses with full basements are selling for under $200K. Why am I telling you this story? Well that “abandoned” house reminded me that my cousins bought five acres and a house from their cousin for $15K just outside of Abilene. It’s in the tree belt so not available for farming, it’s the house his aunt was born, lived, and died in. It is a teardown, so they’ll build a house. Hang on just a second. Turns out it isn’t. It’s perfectly fine except for needed everything redone. The plumbing, the electrical, the insulation, and the outside siding. They repainted the walls, sanded the floors, sealed up the hole in the downstairs bathroom wall where the blacksnakes came in to rest, had an electrician friend redo that for them, a plumber friend redo that, and a contractor friend is working to redo the insulation and siding. They now have a really nice four bedroom house, three up and one down, with a bath and a half, surrounded by trees. It has no modern conveniences but they’ve spent the last thirty years as missionaries in the Philippines so are pretty used to that.
So what do I think when you post pictures of an “abandoned” house? Hmm. How bad is it really? 😁
But I’m not going to live in Michigan. Not in a state where they reelect the strict schoolmistress, even after the garbage she put them through during Covid, up to and including the hypocrisy of the rules not applying to her. It’s not because of one politician, but the attitude of the people that what she did deserved reelection.