1893 Victorian Farmhouse

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.