I was lucky to find history and a family photo of Mr. and Mrs. John Olson Wrolstad and some of their children in 1893 when they built our home.

Mr. Wrolstad was a civil war veteran, a logger, a storekeeper, and mill owner.

Mr. and Mrs. Wrolstad were married in December 1867. They had 12 children. Mr. Wrolstad passed away in 1907, and his wife Mathea (Johannesdatter Norde) in 1909.

c1915 South Bend Malleable wood cook stove, original to the house

We ate our first meal in the house October 2007. My husband fired up the old wood cook stove. I remember it well. I was up on the scaffold in the dining room. I smiled because I could smell the woodcook stove and if you love the smell of a fireplace on a cold day, you know that cozy and enjoyable odor. Until this time, I only smelled a musty house vaccant since the mid 1970s and sorely needing our help.

As I applied latex primer to newly restored plaster walls, suddenly I smelled Virginia ham! Oh my. It smelled so good, and I called out to my husband to tell him how wonderful the ham smelled. He laughed and said, what you are smelling is a pot of Bush's bean and weinners I'm cooking on the cook stove. Nonetheless, it smelled like ham to me! What a wonderful lunch.

At this moment (one year later October 2008) I sit at my computer typing this, and I look through the window sheers to see the roofline and the chimney of the summer kitchen with its faint swirls of smoke, and of course inside the house there's no mistaking the smell of the wood fire from the 1915 South Bend Malleable wood cook stove. I love living here.

Restoration and History of our 1893 Victorian Farmhouse

2001 was the first time we saw this beautiful 1893 Victorian Farmhouse, we were immediately smitten.