A journal about life in Wisconsin, decorating, and restoring an 1893 Queen Anne Victorian built by Civil War veteran John Olson Wrolstad and his wife Mathea. Read on to see lots of old photographs, and read stories of the second owners Thomas and Maren Quien, and their children who filled the house with memories for 90 years. Very First Photo I Took of the House Feb 18, 2007 - 30 minutes after we bought the house.
West Side of the Front Porch - near the entrance door to the dining room
The rails, spindles, and ballasters. Steps are toast, and upon closer inspection we realize new material is required.
Black carpenter ants and moisture brought decay to the wrap around front porch. The posts were rotted from the base upwards about 12",
The walls downstairs are 10.5 ft. Scaffolds were used during the rennovation. Constant vacuuming required to keep up with the dust. Otherwise we'd being blowing dust around all the finished painted walls in the other rooms. 
Our moto: "You can save a lot of money doing the work yourself."
We had a plaster contractor from Appleton look at the walls and ceilings in the house (3,000 sq. ft). He wanted $26,000 to put 1/4 drywall over the ceilings and walls. Another plaster contractor looked at the house and said, "The walls are in fine shape--repair the cracks and skim coat". Having the second opinion saved us $25,000.
It hasn't been easy, but my husband tackled each room. If you stick with it, it takes about a month's work per room. My husband put up new drywall ceilings. Each crack was repaired with Durabond plaster and flexible web tape. Sanded, then ready for skim coat plaster. Then sanded, then second layer of skim coat plaster. Then sanded, and evaluated for areas requiring more plaster, then sanded.
After the plastering was complete and the woodwork washed and taped, Zinzer 1-2-3 latex primer over the ceiling and walls. Two coats worked best. First coat really sopped up the paint, and of course second coat much less.
Two topcoats of latex. The kitchen is Valspar "Aged Photo" Tan, the dining room "Flaming Sunset" Red, "Bewitch" in the library, and "Barely Brown" in the Office/Music Room. A custom mix of "Barely Brown" and Brunnette" is the living room color.
We topped off each room with a double molding my husband picked out. The molding was the last thing installed in each room.
West wall of the kitchen with new light fixture hung. The electrical upgrade was finished in the kitchen. Husband continued to re-wire the entire house during the fall and winter months of 2007.
This is the west wall of the kitchen as we first saw it February 18, 2007.
We'd been interested in the house since we first saw it from the driveway in 2001. We contacted the owner Donna Osen and asked if she would be interested in selling the house. She said no.
We continued writing to Donna, and ocassionally telephoning her for the next six years. Each time she said no, but one time she gave us hope by saying "look--if I ever decide to sell the house you'll be the first person I'll call, ok?"
From 2001 to 2007 almost weekly we drove by the house on our way to get groceries in Stevens Point. Sometimes we would sit in the driveway a little while and just look at the house. Silly us! We always referred to the house as "our house". I remember telling a neighbor that my husband and I were smitten by the old house and we hoped someday we could buy it. The neighbor laughed at me and said, "yeah, you and about two hundred other people would like to buy that house".
During our trips by the old house we could see the wrap around porch was failing and the cedar shingles on the porch roof were covered with green moss. The house had been vaccant since the 1970s. The Quien daughters continued to heat the house during the winter, and have the lawn mowed though no one lived there.
