

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.
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Finished Upstairs Bathroom Today

In a house like ours, built in 1893, we have to create storage where there is none. We've added this chest of drawers and a jelly cabinet to the right of the pedestal sink to hold medicine cabinet stuff, shaving, cosmetics, hairdryer, etc. I'll take some measurements of cabinet to add some baskets--to sort/hold those items.


I purchased the bathing beauties from The Dane's Home (Antiques) in Waupaca, WI and reframed it to go with the bathroom colors.
Above is the cinamon colored jelly cabinet, and oiled teak flooring--also a cinamon color we admire against the grayed blue-green eucaplytus colored beadboard, a Valspar latex semi-gloss paint color called Bewitch. We painted a bedroom downstairs the same color. I picked up the jelly cabinet at a second hand store in Appleton several years ago. It was in my kitchen at our former home.
Mom and I finished the wallpapering yesterday. This morning while Jon was finishing work on the clawfoot tub connection, I hung the white lace curtains--which really help cut the bright light reflecting off the aluminum colored standing steel roof. The roof is in amazing condition--it was installed new during the mid 1950s. We re-painted the roof June 2007 right after we purchased the house.
Monday, May 18, 2009
New Flooring Finished in Upstairs Bath
Above is the view if you were sitting in the clawfoot tub. Purposely, we're putting the tub in front of the double windows and a little to the right to provide a view of the old barn. Also, moving the tub to the right of the windows makes more space at the pedestal sink.
Above are the connections in the flooring for the water supply lines and drain to the clawfoot tub.
Above is the west wall. Temporary placement of the tub until the flooring is installed. The door shown here is a wedge shaped storage closet (huge). There is a matching wedge shaped closet on the opposite (east) wall--where I have the laundry room.
Above - The east wall during installation of flooring. You can see east door here to wedge shaped closet housing my laundry room. Just enough space for a little person like me to wash, dry, & hang up clothes.

Here is the south wall with double windows. The tub will sit in front of the windows, but a little off center to the right (west).

Above is the west wall, and temporary location of tub during floor installation. The doors are sanded, primed, and ready for top coat of semi-gloss latex. I'm sticking with white to go with the white tub, pedestal sink, and toilet.
Here is the south wall with double windows. The tub will sit in front of the windows, but a little off center to the right (west).
Above is the west wall, and temporary location of tub during floor installation. The doors are sanded, primed, and ready for top coat of semi-gloss latex. I'm sticking with white to go with the white tub, pedestal sink, and toilet.
Above is the south wall of the bathroom with the double windows where the tub will be located. Not much chance of anyone seeing the bather in the nude, due to the roof line. The room is photographed a bit dark, but I took these photos at 5:30a this morning.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Discovering The Previous Owners - The Qvien Family

I received this beautiful family photo from Barbara Osen great granddaughter of Thomas Qvien (pronounced Ka-veen'). We are so honored to show this photograph in our home.
Front: Thomas and Maren (Gurholt) Qvien. Standing are their children: Bessie, Gusta, Peter, and Ragnhild.
Barbara brought me other unmarked photos. I found one or two which I thought might be older photos of Bessie and Ragnhild. To get a better look I scanned the original family photograph, then made detail images of each person. I began with the "known" photo of Bessie, a detail image from the family photo, and reversed the detail image.