Family restoring old fire station into their new home

By Trevor Sochocki, James Paxson

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    STANTON, Michigan (WNEM) — A local couple continues to rebuild after their home was destroyed during flooding last Spring.

“It’ll be our home. Our forever home,” Jennafer Trumble said.

“Well, we have a pre-existing fire station in the community that was closed down and a new one constructed down the road here a little way. We are turning it into our home,” Charlie Trumble said.

Like so many other Sanford residents, parts of Jennafer and Charlie Trumble’s old home were flooded last May. They sold the place, moved with their two sons temporarily to Midland, and then saw the old Jerome Township Fire Station up for sale.

“And this opportunity came up and we thought it would be cool to kind of like recycle or reuse an older building. There’s a lot of rehab going on in Sanford right now too so we kind of thought that right now would be the most opportune time to make something like that happen,” Jennafer Trumble said.

They bought it for just under 150,000 dollars and they are going to spend at least that much renovating. They say the math on the utilities and other costs checks out.

“We thought a lot of people would think we’re crazy for attempting to do this but that’s been the opposite as well. The enthusiasm from the community and friends and family just been overwhelming, it’s been great,” Charlie Trumble said.

Despite material shortages and a wild housing market, the couple is rebuilding a community staple.

“I think it’s unique. It’s not something that you’d see all the time so for a relatively small town I think it’s kind of a fun and exciting new adventure for everybody to be involved in,” Jennafer Trumble said.

With painters coming Monday and Charlie Trumble working on electricity, all they need is flooring and they can move in hopefully a couple of weeks.

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