  Skylark Member Username: Skylark Post Number: 10 Registered: 08-2007 |
The house on Lakeshore with the biggest Christmas display didn't decorate this year. Anyone know why? I kind of miss the angels, reindeer, and the zillion lights. | ||
Aoife Member Username: Aoife Post Number: 45 Registered: 04-2007 |
Are you talking about the one at the corner of Moross? | ||
The_rock Member Username: The_rock Post Number: 2040 Registered: 11-2003 |
I think he is referring to the home on Lakeshore south of the GPYC and north of Lochmoor Blvd. in the Shores. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 449 Registered: 08-2007 |
to see a list of Tacky Christmas Lights check out this mapping site: http://www.tackylighttour.com/ christmas_lights/tourbyzipcode .aspx?zip=48204&country=US there is a house in Livonia that has over 30,000 lights, a blow-up Santa and some flying reindeer all timed to music. The guy has a low power fm broadcast transmitter and you tune your car radio to the station and watch/listen. below is a youtube vid of xmas lights wired to "Dueling Banjos". If you watch the vid wait until the end when the banjo's kick into high gear. It's worth a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =m5Tb9e-4FXU Mrs. Gnome and I talked to guy and he puts in about 80 hours setting it up and 10 months programing his computer. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4133 Registered: 02-2005 |
Maybe the people moved out. I'd hate to be the person that inherited those expectations. There are plenty of other good lights/decorations on Lakeshore. I'm a fan of the great colored lights on the front of the Harmon-Booth house at the end of Washington, as well as the Buck-Wardwell House at Three Mile Drive and Jefferson. Both have a great presence without being ostentatious. | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 677 Registered: 02-2007 |
Quote: "below is a youtube vid of xmas lights wired to "Dueling Banjos". " OMG thats funny.. I'll bet his neighbors are most impressed... I love the huge santa flashing, seems to appear out of nowhere. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 451 Registered: 08-2007 |
Sstashmoo, you should see the display in person if you want to be impressed. As tacky as the whole thing is, I gotta tell you, you can't leave without smiling. I also talked to a couple of his neighbors and they didn't seem to mind at all. The house is tucked into a little sub behind the Wonderland mall. All-in-all, it's a must see if for no other reason than it puts Clark Griswold's display to shame. | ||
Sbradke Member Username: Sbradke Post Number: 36 Registered: 05-2007 |
Here's the website. http://www.bazillionlights.com /index.html | ||
Sstashmoo Member Username: Sstashmoo Post Number: 679 Registered: 02-2007 |
How do ya upstage that? It would take something "Nucular" | ||
Skylark Member Username: Skylark Post Number: 11 Registered: 08-2007 |
The house on the corner of Moross & Lakeshore is quite spectacular, but I was referring to 741 Lakeshore closer to Lochmoor. Over the last several years the display has become more lavish. Last year even the house next door was part of the extravaganza. This year there's only a wreath on the door.  | ||
Gsgeorge Member Username: Gsgeorge Post Number: 416 Registered: 08-2006 |
Head out to Orchard Lake for some cool light displays at homes and at historic St. Mary's Preparatory (Michigan Military Academy). | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4136 Registered: 02-2005 |
I love Christmas and everything it stands for (in a real sense, not in the sense of shopping/partying), and I think that a reasonably-sized display of lights etc. in honor of it is great, but I think some of these examples which we are celebrating are a waste of energy, and driving long distances to see them is an additional waste of energy. I think people get obsessed with the superficial, and associate their own Christmas "feeling" with stuff like lights and parties, and, in this, some important themes get lost. | ||
Cub Member Username: Cub Post Number: 98 Registered: 02-2007 |
Stay home. LOL. Sorry I could not resist.^ | ||
3rdworldcity Member Username: 3rdworldcity Post Number: 987 Registered: 01-2005 |
No lights this year? Could it be that Depression has hit the Pointes? That display at 741 Lakeshore is reputed to have cost over $50,000 last year. Seeing is believing. The display required some major crane work. I drove down Lakeshore Saturday and counted 19 or 20 houses for sale between GPYC and Fisher, all on the west (land) side of Lakeshore. Some of the for-sale signs have been there for a long time. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4138 Registered: 02-2005 |
Perhaps that's because 95 percent of that stretch has WATER on the east side of the street? There are a lot of second homes there on/near Lakeshore, and obviously an aging population. I don't think that what you saw is a sign of anything other than a bunch of people giving the market a shot because they can't take Michigan anymore and want to move to Florida or Europe. I look at Lakeshore Drive as mostly investment homes that fluctuate very closely with the health of the Detroit economy and the levels of new money being pumped in (or away) from the area. A fair amount of the homes on Lakeshore do not have any historic status etc. that make them especially unique. I think the people who have their homes on the market in that area now are going for a quick sell. They realize that we are probably in a trough, and though the prices are a bit low, they anticipate a lot of potential buyers to come looking because they will recognize that this is a trough. Being investments, those Lakeshore homes often turn over quickly, which means a lot of these people perhaps bought these homes only 2-3 years ago, when the market was already depressed. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 743 Registered: 07-2007 |
Most are being sold because they either are getting old, kids are gone and need to scale down, they died and kids don't want to pay 50K a year in taxes, or a new job forced them to move. | ||
3rdworldcity Member Username: 3rdworldcity Post Number: 988 Registered: 01-2005 |
Of course most of the length of Lakeshore I travelled is opposite the water. However, about 15 blocks have homes on both sides of the street; there were several for-sale signs on the east side of the street I did NOT count. I have several past and current business associates and friends who live in the Pointes (including three on Lakeshore opposite the lake) and am told that homes in the Pointes are taking from 1 to 2 years to sell. There are more homes for sale along the lake than there have ever been. I don't know the reason there are so many and neither does anyone else on here unless they're Realtors in the Pointes. There are many reasons people are selling I'm sure. However, they don't include the allegation that most of the homes along there are "investment" or "second" homes. Nonsense. (Many of those folks probably have "second" homes but the residents there consider those homes their primary residences. Call Jim Saros.) My point is that times are bad across most income levels, and the affluent in the Pointes are no exceptions. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4140 Registered: 02-2005 |
Times are bad because more people are leaving the region than entering, at all levels of income, and there are jitters in the lending market. I understand what your saying and I'm saying that I'm not surprised and not freaking out. Asking people to sign up to purchase behemoth homes with huge tax bills is a tall order, and that will keep those homes on the market for awhile. Plus, those homes are already decked out and by and large not even that old. That gives current buyers little potential to invest in them, and if I were a buyer I'd lean towards smaller homes with more potential. I stand by my theory that most of these homeowners are prepared to wait it out because it doesn't make a huge difference to them when exactly they sell. They just have their fishing line out and are waiting for a bite, even if it's not the busiest time yet...to invoke some east side imagery. |
