Four years ago this month we bought the Bluestem. It has been an adventurous couple of years- we have learned so much about patience, hard work and resilience. There has been a lot of tears, anxiety & doubt- but also a lot of laughter, family & friendship, happiness and inspiration too.

Creating an environment where our family can thrive has been our driving force behind this project and part of why we started this business- so we can share that with our customers too!

Our before & after photos to date: as you will see, there is still some finish work to be done- most notable, painting the outside of the house (sigh) but we are hopeful to sneak in a few weekends to get that done this fall.

Living Room & Fireplace

We opened up walls to create a more open floor plan. We loved the brick fireplace but a whole wall was too much. Eventually we hope to add a gas insert.

Dining Room, Laundry Room and Sun Porch

We took out a small “bedroom” to create a first floor laundry room which Alicia loves. We used old cabinets for storage, a vintage galvanized tub and an old door to finish off the room. In the dining room, we built a cabinet from reclaimed wood and window for doors and refinished a build in cabinet for a buffet. The sun porch is a big project on our list- we will paint the concrete floor, add wood to the walls and add custom built in storage cubbies for jackets, boots etc… We also have a dutch door that was given to us for the front door!

Downstairs Bonus Room

We tore out the only useful bedroom in the whole house to make an open concept bonus room- currently a playroom for the girls. While this meant big sacrifices in the beginning (we had NO bedrooms for awhile) we love that the have big open spaces on the main level.

We also rebuilt the stairs using boards we found down in the cellar. We have a vintage railing we will put up too!

Main Bathroom

We used a salvaged cast iron tub from a job and a dresser from a family members basement for this room. We reconfigured the entry door, stole the closet from the laundry room to add a large storage cabinet and used an old window for the door.

Kitchen

This is the main hub of the house. All custom built cabinets made in the Bluestem Shop- complete with a cast iron sink and poured concrete countertops. We added a few built in cabinets using old windows for doors and Rob built a custom island made out of the beams we salvaged from the upstairs addition. We created an eat in area with built in benches for extra storage and a custom table made from an old bowling alley. The door is a salvaged school house door which we completed with a stained glass piece made with plates.

The Upstairs

At first this was our closet/guest bedroom. We ripped the entire second story off and put up a full second floor. The upstairs now has a 4 bedroom (including a master suite with bathroom and walk in closet), 1.5 baths and a home office. So worth the wait and the investment.