Pat Barrett and his wife, Patti Walker, were hunting for reclaimed wood for their dream home in Oregon if they got a call in a contractor buddy. It directed them to a small demolition site where a team of local pupils was removing plaster in an old property.
The pupils had discovered large hand-hewn larchwood logs below the surface. It was, in fact, an intact one-room cabin, with a handwritten letter, dated 1874, tucked into the doorjamb. “They thought I might like a few of the wood for my house undertaking,” Barrett says. “But I wanted the whole cabin.”
Barrett and Walker purchased the cabin for $6,000. They took photographs, tagged and cataloged each piece of wood and wrote detailed notes about the way in which the cabin fit together. Then they hauled it off, piece by piece, to their lot and incorporated it in their house’s layout as their primary bedroom.
“I often lie in bed and wonder, ‘Who would be the men and women who left this cabin? What were their lives like?'” Barrett says. “It’s an honor to live in a place that owns such soul”
at a Glance
Who lives here: Pat Barrett, Patti Walker and their cat, Chica
Location: Halfway, Oregon
Size: 1,840 square feet; 2 bedrooms, 21/2 baths
Sarah Greenman
The first cabin now constitutes the left wing of the couple’s house. A exterior wall faces the front lawn and combines beautifully with all the newest building (to the right). Russian sage and other low-water plants scatter the garden.
Sarah Greenman
Before going to Halfway, the couple lived and worked in Seattle. They happened upon their Eastern Oregon property after returning from New Mexico, in which they had been hunting for retirement home. They fell in love with Pine Valley because of its verdant property and serene vistas. “If it’s a fantastic place for berries, it’s a fantastic place for individuals,” says Barrett, an aspiring gardener.
Sarah Greenman
The first cabin matches the remainder of the house at the front door (left). What was when the cabin’s front entrance and exterior wall today functions as an inside wall and a door to the bedroom (right).
Barrett and Walker together reassembled the cabin, keeping its comprehensive craftsmanship. “The logs are hand hewn,” Barrett says. “They had been fashioned at a time when there wasn’t a wood mill or any sort of power source. Somebody really knew what they were doing. The dovetail joints are amazing, and each piece fits perfectly.”
Sarah Greenman
The cabin wall gives a beautiful background for the living room, outfitted with rustic, well-made furnishings. Kurt Lorance, a local carpenter, hand crafted the coffee table and helped Barrett trim the windows and install the baseboards. “Kurt is an impeccable craftsman, and I’ve heard a lot just watching him perform,” Barrett says. Evenly spaced notches in one of those cabin logs indicate the place where cross beams once affirmed a sleeping loft.
Windows: Marvin Windows
Sarah Greenman
Simple furnishings and Southwest fabrics outfit the bedroom. Barrett installed knotty pine ceilings and flooring of salvaged wood, which were subsequently painted. Walker, who loves to comb secondhand and secondhand stores, located this small chandelier for an antiques store in Baker City, Oregon. “I love waking up in the room,” Barrett says.
Sarah Greenman
The cabin was held with cottonwood spikes that slid . The couple pieced it back together with long, heavy steel screws to encourage the extended beams.
Then they utilized thick foam between the logs for insulation, spending eight collectively caulking and sealing the beams Log Jam chinking.
Sarah Greenman
After an extensive search for an iron bed, the couple found Northwest Ironworks in Weiser, Idaho. “I only drew up a sketch of everything we desired, and they made this beautiful piece for us,” Barrett says. “And it was a fraction of the price of the flimsy tubular metal beds we had been finding at the big stores”
The corner doors are first to the cabin. One contributes to the garden, and the other contributes to the main toilet.
Sarah Greenman
Conventional square terra-cotta tiles and natural lighting make a warm, cocoon-like vibe in the primary bathroom. Lorance made this armoire from recycled wood; it stores linens and bath towels.
Sarah Greenman
The bath has an extra-long claw-foot soaking bathtub along with a whirlpool bathtub.
Wall plaster: American Clay Company
Sarah Greenman
The inside wall of the toilet had become the cabin’s exterior back wall. The couple cut into the cabin wall to make a nook for the toilet. “Once we decided the cabin was going to be our bedroom, we could begin creating the remainder of the house about it,” Barrett says.
Sarah Greenman
Sarah Greenman
Walker is a magician with tile and grout. She had been amassing tile for at least 30 years in the expectation of using it one day within her fantasy home. Hand-tiled sinks, countertops, walls and backsplashes have been found all around the house.
The couple share a particular affinity for the Southwest. This is reflected in the house’s aesthetic, for instance, tiled foyer, plaster walls and lots of exposed wood.
Sarah Greenman
The great room opens to the dining room and kitchen. Wood beams, columns and corbels, also reflective of Southwest architecture, support the top floor.
“We’re not Sheetrock kind of folks,” Barrett says. “We did not have a time frame for finishing the house. It was important to us that the home was a piece of art as opposed to a rush job”
Flooring: Douglas fir, Bear Creek Lumber; ceiling: Canadian knotty pine
Sarah Greenman
Walker did a lot of the plaster work in the house herself. To accomplish the desired appearance, she hands tinted the clay using five colors in the American Clay Company — Santa Fe Tan, Colorado Red, Mohave Sand, Chocolat and Guadalupe Sand. Walker loves the result but says, “It took forever!”
Chandelier: Builder’s Lighting
Sarah Greenman
Walker’s mantra when working on the home: “Intention, goal, goal.” She’s been collecting images of interiors and exteriors for at least 30 decades, so when the time to construct her own dream home came, she had a wealth of tools from which to draw.
Large timbers and natural materials assisted the couple achieve a Southwest craftsman tone. Barrett, who is color blind, says, “Patti is the notion person, and I’m the follow-through. She’s got a great eye, and I trust her judgment. When Patti chooses some thing, I simply go with it, and it always ends up.”
Wood-burning stove: Hearth Stone; dining chairs: consignment store
Sarah Greenman
Sue Barrett, Barrett’s sister, painted the kitchen bar. Walker found an old porch place at a regional secondhand store and sawed it in half to function as support beams to the counter.
Pendant lights: Builder’s Lighting
Sarah Greenman
A pressed-tin backsplash sets the platform for a showstopping royal-blue Lacanche range. The Mexican vinyl trim at the base of the backsplash has been a purchase on a Juarez trip. They were the first items the couple purchased for the kitchen, Walker says. “That was when I’d no clue what the kitchen was about to look like”
Sarah Greenman
The top floor consists of an anteroom, a guest room and a full bathroom. A single bed rests on top of the staircase; an inside window brings natural light into the enclosed toilet. The end result of the railing is a piece of salvaged wood from the website where the couple found the first cabin.
Sarah Greenman
An inviting guest room overlooks a pine-tree-covered landscape and creek. Natural light floods this restful upstairs area and shines to a brass guest bed, located at a neighborhood garage sale.
Sarah Greenman
A cheery retro café dining table and chairs sit on an outdoor gravel patio. From here it is possible to observe a large grassy lawn and a barn past the house.
Sarah Greenman
The couple built this multifunctional barn since the house’s first outbuilding. The lower floor is a workshop that once saved the 140-year-old cabin before it became integrated into the primary property. The floor is a flat when constructing their dream house in which the couple lived for a long time. “I loved living in that little place,” Barrett says. “Now it acts as a guest space when family and friends come to see.”
Sarah Greenman
A wide front porch with lime- plus lemon-colored garden chairs greets guests. “I’d farms in my loved ones, and I adored these Midwest farmhouse porches,” Barrett says. “So I pushed for the porch”
Sarah Greenman
It’s obvious to all who enter that each corner of their home has been lovingly and mindfully crafted by Walker and Barrett, revealed here.
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