farm tour

In addition to the treasure filled barn, there are three buildings on the farm, a house, a granary, and a studio. (the house and the granary are more than a 150 years old!) The buildings were not in such good shape and when they bought the property Rick and Toni began remodeling. Since they were doing most of the work themselves, they enlisted the help of family and friends, and most importantly Ryan, who, along with his wife Zoe, has a small firm in Minneapolis- Edit Design/Build Studio.
They turned the granary, which was being used as a house for rodents and birds, into a guest house.
They took off the roof, stripped the house down to bare stone walls and rebuilt the inside putting in a small kitchenette and living room heated by a wood stove downstairs,

And a bedroom upstairs. Ryan sited the bed in the dormer of the roof, giving whomever is lucky enough to sleep there panoramic views of the prairie as they wake up in the morning.
The studio is immaculate, and filled with furniture and other projects Rick is working on.

I’m always impressed with how thought out everything is. The shelves are lined with felt so when Rick puts his tools away they don’t get dull. (isn’t that dentist’s lamp as task lamp cool?)

The house is sort of like two tiny houses, one stone, one wood, up against each other to make an "L". Recently, they put a small addition onto the wood part of the house, expanding the kitchen and adding a room upstairs.

The materials used are remarkable, as are the stories of where they came from. Just as with all the stuff in the barn, Rick scrounged, traded, and scavenged to find the most amazing things, and they've used them in usual, and very unexpected ways.

I love the mix of old and new, handmade and manufactured, traditional and contemporary in everything from the buildings themselves to the objects on the shelves.

Even though there are many things not quite done (they are doing all the work themselves!) it’s the attention to detail that strikes me most- it's the kind of attention to craft that is far too often reserved for pieces of fine furniture.
Photos by Ryan, Steven and me. (good ones by Ryan.)