Farm House - Simon Ott

In 2001, after living in Oklahoma for about six years, we decided to go back home to Oregon for a vacation.  Returning to the mountains covered in tall evergreen trees that had surrounded my family and I from birth as well as the peace and rejuvenating lap of waves on the coast made us realize how much we missed our home.  We returned to Oklahoma and put our house (from my previous post) on the market, sold it, and moved back to the Pacific Northwest with no place to land.  After spending three months in hotels and campsites searching all over for where we wanted to live we found this diamond in the rough.  

It wasn't even on the market but the realtor we were working with knew the owner had considered selling recently and called to inquire.  While he was showing it to us he actually fell through the porch.  It was a complete mess and somewhat frightening but we saw the potential.  The first picture was after considerable clearing of brush from the front of the house.  A remodel in the seventies had wrapped the house in aluminum siding and put (now failing) aluminum windows in.   The 1880's house was actually sitting on a boulder foundation.  Two boulders stacked on top of each other with shimming placed about every ten feet with a large beam laid across.  The house was surrounded by 2-1/2 acres located about 5 minutes from a picturesque downtown.  I think we did it justice - showing its true potential.