PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A high-flying display tied to a destructive New Year's Eve house fire kept contractors busy in Plainfield Township Friday.
Everyone, including the family cat, got out safely after a heater in a chicken coop on the property caught fire and spread to the adjacent home.
It sparked just before 10:00 a.m. at the property off West River Drive on Abrigador Trail, the Plainfield Township Fire Department said.
The fire and subsequent emergency response left a large portion of the home damaged and in need of repair, including extensive work the homeowner never expected.
The view from Lisa Gordon’s front porch looks a bit different these days.
“This is kind of exciting to be completely honest,” Gordon related.
By the time our crew got there, contractors had spent the last several days cutting posts, pulling blocks and getting the building airborne.
To prevent it from falling like a house of cards, a complex system of four pneumatic jacks and stacked wooden supports—controlled via a truck in the driveway--cradled the two yellow I-beams bearing the building’s weight.
The work stems from an unwelcome surprise Gordon said she received as the family began looking into rebuilding their home of the last several decades.
“Plainfield Township requires you come into compliance if you have 25-percent damage,” Gordon noted, explaining the stringent requirements applied to the project. Her home sits upon a floodplain.
“Which means one foot above the 100 year flood zone or flood level. So they just updated all the flood maps and everything. So I had to go just a little bit higher than expected.
Insurance, Gordon noted, had covered a portion of the bill, but raising a house doesn’t exactly come at a bargain…
The extra out of her pocket cost means she’ll be doing some of the left-over restoration work herself, with the help of sweat equity from friends.
As for the heavy lifting, however, she’ll leave to the pros.
The work proceeded quickly and carefully as crews lifted the building some 42-inches above the existing foundation. In only a few hours, Gordon’s house was fully airborne and ready to get its new foundation, which was set to be installed by another crew in the coming days.
“It just kind of shocked me how fast everybody was ready to go,” she related. “They only required about two weeks to raise the house and put brick under it.”
In spite of the process and its pains, Gordon’s spirits still appeared to be running high. When life gives you lemons…
“I get to extend my deck out and do some fun things that I've always wanted and I get to add a lot of character to the house,” she laughed. “This is a great opportunity to just start fresh.”
The timeline for completion of the extensive renovations was unclear, though Gordon expected the remaining work to require several months.
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