From eyesore to great family home
A two-story home on the corner of the 400 block of North Eighth Street in Brainerd was built in 1903 and has seen its good and bad days over the century.
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People from all walks of life, from homeowners to renters, have walked the hallways and stairways and have made memories over the years. The first homeowner was a machinist from the Northern Pacific Railroad yards and current owners Andrew and Shelly Olander hope to be the last owners of the home - at least in their lifetime.
Andrew and Shelly Olander's house on Eighth Street in Brainerd looked this way (left) before they did any work to it. The results of their work (right) shows a what became a more appealing part of the north Brainerd neighborhood.
The Olanders purchased the home that was sitting vacant and in foreclosure last summer. The home was falling apart. The roof leaked, the siding was falling apart and the home became an eyesore in the neighborhood.
"We wanted this home," said Andrew Olander. "We love the property, the character and the details in the woodwork of this home. We plan to fix it up. This could be a great family home and we don't plan to leave. We are really passionate about this home."
Four-year-old DeClan Olander walked up the stairs this week to show visitors his room.
The Olanders were living about a block away from the foreclosed house when they purchased it for about $54,000.
"We wanted to buy it before we bought the other house, but they wanted $200,000 for it," said Olander. "We fixed up the old house we had and when this house went into foreclosure we sold our old house in four days. We put our bid in on the foreclosed home on a Saturday and the bank accepted our offer the following Monday."
Shelly Olander said before the house became vacant it was a rental property for three tenants. It had been a rental property since the 1950s and it went through two remodels, in the '50s and '70s.
Andrew Olander talked about some of the remodeling projects he and his wife Shelly have been working on while he stood in the entrance of the kitchen in his north Brainerd home.
Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
When the Olanders, who have two young boys, Declan, 4, and Lincoln, 2, moved into the home, there was no running water for about a month. Andrew Olander said the water was shut off when the house was vacant, but not all the way. So new plumbing had to be installed, which he did by himself.
"When we told our families that we were going to fix up this house they told us, 'You're lucky you're young,' because it will be a lot of work," said Andrew Olander.
The Olanders applied for a construction loan to fix things in the home that were in dire need, such as the roof and the siding. Andrew Olander said the roof had four layers of old shingles that had to be removed. He said they installed vinyl siding over the chipped, white paint board.
"We didn't want to be painting the house every year so we decided to do vinyl," said Shelly Olander. "We wanted it to be maintenance-free."
Andrew and Shelly Olander sat on the front porch with their sons, Lincoln, 2, and DeClan, 4, at their north Brainerd home. The Olanders fixed up the home that was in foreclosure and they plan to live in the home for the rest of their life.Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
The Olanders also cleared out trees and tore down an old fence and the screen that was on the front porch.
The Olanders said they still would like to do some landscaping and a put a picket fence around their lot.
Inside the home, the Olanders have done a lot of work, but still have a lot more to do. The couple tore out all the carpets in the house. They said there was carpet in every room, but the dining room. The Olanders said they were hoping that they'd find hardwood floors under all the carpets, but that was not the case.
The Olanders took down a few walls to open up the house. The house was closed off because it served as a triplex. When taking down a wall in the family area on the east side of the house they found French doors inside the wall that they're able to salvage. They used the French doors in another part of the house.
The Olanders want to take their toy room on the main floor and turn it into a pantry for the kitchen and create a laundry room. On the upper level, the Olanders took out a kitchen and created a temporary laundry room and a children's bedroom.
The Olanders replaced all the fixtures in the home and painted the walls in warm tones to make it cozy. The couple restored as much of the original wood as they could.
The Olanders still have a lot of work to do on the 3,000-square-foot house that includes an unfinished basement and an attic that has 800 square feet of livable space. The couple said it may take them another 10 years to complete the work on the house, but they are happy and proud that they've been able to do most the work themselves.
"People have been really appreciative of us fixing up this house," said Andrew Olander. "A lot of the neighbors were scared that they were going to have to demolish this house."
JENNIFER STOCKINGER may be reached at jennifer.stockinger@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5851.