Fountains of Youth Offer New Life to Lansing Houses


By age 15, Lansing native Chris Fountain worked full time. By 18, he owned his own house.

Now at 26, and on his third major home renovation on Lansing’s Eastside, Fountain’s story could potentially read like that of an aspiring mogul on a Donald Trump-like real estate bender.

Except for one minor impediment: “I’m a perfectionist,” says Fountain, who also runs his own company, Fountain Exteriors, with his wife, Rivka.

“If I was an entrepreneur,” he says, “I'd be more looking at the dollar end of it: How to make a dollar and what makes more business sense. I’m kind of more hung up on doing it right and the craftsmanship end of it.”

That ethos of stressing aesthetics over acquisitions remains at the foundation of Fountain Exteriors.

Together, Chris and Rivka have presided over Eastside home makeovers on Horton, North Magnolia and Regent Streets, using their talent and eye for perfection to turn dilapidated homes into neighborhood gems.

Raising the Roof

The Fountains live in Dimondale, which serves as the base for Fountain Exteriors, the couple’s roofing business that also subsidizes what the founder describes as a hobby he fell into “accidentally.”

He didn’t have far to fall. While working full-time at Lansing’s popular Riverfront Cycle bicycle shop, he saved enough money to buy a house on Horton Street, right across the street from the Eastside home where he grew up.

 “I was pretty impressed,” says Rivka, who was a junior at Lansing’s New Covenant Christian High School when the couple met. “I was attracted to him. He had a vision and he knew what he wanted to do.”

A chain of life-affirming events—namely his marriage to Rivka when she was 20—eventually led them to move on from the 1916-built ranch at 222 Horton St., where Chris mowed the grass as a youngster.

“We didn’t want to live directly across from my parents,” says Chris, whose father Jim helps market the properties while his mother, Piper, is involved in the street’s neighborhood watch.

When they departed Horton Street, the Fountains left their fingerprints on their old house, having paved the driveway, converted a once water-encrusted basement into two bedrooms, and refinished the hardwood floors upstairs.

The Fountains didn’t want to live across the street from Chris’ parents, but after scouting out other Lansing neighborhoods for another house, they felt the Eastside neighborhood had strong potential in terms of demographics, particularly young couples and seniors.

The Eastside also has a strong percentage of homeownership and a strong sense of community, says Rivka, who also works at Sparrow Health’s Michigan Athletic Club as a program coordinator and gymnastics instructor.

Moving On Up

The couple spared no expense on their next Eastside project—a $40,000 renovation of a turn of a century-old, two-story colonial at 300 North Magnolia Street. It was originally intended to be the Fountains’ dream home.

The 1896-built brick house was in disrepair, says Rivka, who recalls being strongly lobbied by family and friends not to buy the sagging structure that sported a urine-scented brown-shag-carpeted bathroom.

The couple updated the electrical wiring and plumbing while restoring the home's luster with oak floors, cedar gables and other worldly amenities.

One chore involved knocking out the attic floor, which made way for a cathedral ceiling in the upstairs. Rivka, who was pregnant with the couple’s son, Gabriel, remembers being encased in dust after the six hours of robust demolition.

That was nothing compared to the ordeal involved in installing a corner tub with a jacuzzi. The bathing fixture became stuck on the stairwell, requiring Chris to cut a massive hole in the wall while a stressed cohort held the tub for two hours.

“I think he likes to make everything work for me,” says Rivka.

Building on Community

A Sparrow Hospital-based resident and her husband, who moved to Lansing from Arizona a year ago, now benefit from the couples’ Magnolia Street toils. They live in the three-bedroom home, which is a short 10-minute stroll from the hospital.

But the house became a prototype for the Fountain couple’s future aspirations.

“I think, ideally, we would like to get up to five houses that we can essentially completely redo, bring them back to what they were and what they can be and maintain them,” says Chris, who wants tenants “who can appreciate it for what it is, and not just another place to live.”

When acquiring houses, the couple reaches beyond property lines. The Fountains make it a point to meet with neighbors, who appreciate their home remodeling efforts.

One nearby neighbor raves about the Magnolia house, recapping all the interior and exterior improvements as if it were a spectator sport.

“We're very pleased with Chris in the neighborhood,” said Frank Potts, who used to help the previous owner, a 90-year-old woman, with the yard work.

“He’s put a lot of money, a lot sweat and a lot of time into it,” says Potts. “Being such a young guy, it just comes natural to him. Some guys have it and some don’t.”

Those ambitions don’t seem to be derailed by the severe housing slump, either. Immediate financial gratification is not the goal, Chris says.

For example, the Fountains' third home project, located at 116 Regent St., was bought last year with the intent to fix it up and sell it. However, the couple is content to hold onto the property until the market rebounds.

“We’re not making any money monthly. We’re just putting money into it,” Chris says. “Right now it’s fun, and the return will be down the road.”

The laid-back outlook is a sharp contrast to the craftsman’s fastidious methods, which are confirmed by his wife. One ritual includes Chris spending a half-hour at the end of every work day organizing all the tools on his truck, Rivka says.

“I tell him his coworkers are just going to mess it up again,” she says.

Larry O’Connor is a freelance writer who can’t flip a pancake, let alone a house.  

Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.



Photos:

Chris Fountain

Rivka, Chris & Gabriel Fountain in front of 222 Horton Street

The interior of the Horton Street home

Gabriel Fountain with his parents' company sign

The interior of 234 N. Magnolia (photo courtesy of Rivka Fountain)

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie (unless noted)

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