The Beck Street House

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THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

April 11, 2019

Thank you so much to everyone who has shared their excitement, stories, and memories about this house over the last few days! When we started planning our website, we never would have thought so many people (like community members and past bed and breakfast guests) would end up sharing their memories of this special place with us! We’ve also been contacted by numerous family members of the previous owner – all of whom have shared how special of a place this was, and how excited they are that we’re sharing our photos and story so they can follow along. 

We are so excited about this passion project, but as we read through comments and messages, we realized that people have a lot of questions, so here we go! 

WHY “THE BECK STREET HOUSE?”

We decided to name our website “The Beck Street House” because, well, this truly is the Beck Street House! It was built in 1876 by Fred Beck I, who was considered a founding father of the town we live in. The photo above shows Fred Beck (in front of the bottom left window), with his wife, Barbara, and his children. The photo also shows two maple tree saplings, which flank both sides of our house today. Not a lot has stayed the same since this photo was taken, but our house does still boast the original gingerbread trim, which we plan to keep!

When we originally talked about creating a website for our house, we threw around the idea of naming it something related to ducks, but it just didn’t feel right. We eventually came up with the idea of “The Beck Street House,” and we knew it was the name we had been looking for. 

WHY THIS HOUSE?

Like we mentioned in our first post, we sorta came across this house unexpectedly. We had just moved back to the area (more on that in a bit), and Laryssa set up an appointment with a real estate agent to check out another house in the area that ended up not being the right fit for us. Afterward, he invited us to check out another house that he had just gotten the keys to the day before. In fact, the listing hadn’t even been posted on the real estate agent’s website yet. 

We knew when we walked in the house for the first time that it was home. Seriously. It was everything we wanted – filled with character and charm, but still had room for us to make it our own. As we walked the house we could see ourselves in it for a lifetime. Nothing about the house felt boring, contractor-grade, or prefabricated. It felt well-loved and cared for. It felt like a home. It felt like our home.

WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THE DUCKS? 

What ducks? No, just kidding. This house actually use to be the Tree Haven Bed and Breakfast starting in 1988. More specifically, it was a bed and breakfast popular with hunters visiting the area (our town is known for duck hunting and exceptional fishing.) The previous owner was also an avid decoy carver, and used the shed outback and a small workshop in the basement to practice his carving skills. A newspaper article from 2001 says “The hunters reap additional benefits from the owners, who provide a basement for duck cleaning, a freezer for duck storage, and a dryer and clothesline to dry and hang hunting garb.”

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE AREA?

Laryssa is originally from the area, and Alan grew up on the other side of the state. Never in a million years did we think we would find ourselves here. When we talked about our future, moving back to one of hometowns was never a part of our conversations.

A few days before our local school district’s calendar year was about to start, and a month before our apartment lease was going to end, we got an opportunity that we couldn’t say no to – the chance for Alan to work as the agriculture teacher at a district that means so much to both of us. It was a whirlwind. Alan went from working at home, to preparing for an interview, accepting a job, setting up a classroom, and teaching students in just five days. Above is a photo taken the morning of Alan’s first day of teaching. We didn’t really know what our plans were, or what the future held. We were fortunate that Laryssa’s parents lived right down the road which made this quick transition possible. We ended up staying there for five months (thanks mom and dad!) before closing on our forever house – The Beck Street House. 

WHAT’S THE FIRST PROJECT YOU HAVE PLANNED? 

We’ve been living here for close to three months, actually! Our first project was clearing out our storage units. We really lucked out on this one. We closed on a Tuesday, and in order to avoid another month’s worth of rent, we had to be out by the next day. We were able to empty both of our storage units the night we closed on the house (Thanks Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Dave!). 

We lucked out again as Alan had an entire week of snowdays the week after we moved in. After unpacking all of our boxes, we got right to work tearing down wallpaper in our dining room, kitchen, and family room. When we took that last piece of wallpaper down, we realized we were in way over our heads. The walls underneath hadn’t been painted – which meant they had to be spackled, sanded, primed, primed again, and then painted. We went through almost entire gallon of drywall plaster between these three rooms, and then the sanding caused the dust to fly everywhere [we’re still finding trace amounts of dust almost two months later.] Painting these three rooms have already changed our house so much, and we can’t wait to share the results with you. 

Thanks again for all of the love. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! 

Alan + Laryssa

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Two young lovebirds working to make our first house our forever home. Tag along as we tackle DIY projects, drop gallons of paint, and use the occasional filthy word.

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Our poor front yard. Year after year, it can't seem to catch a break. Last year, we lost a huge part of our beautiful maple tree, and this year, we're having two trees taken down (one already down just waiting on it to be milled), and our utility company is replacing a gas line.
We really need to get around to writing a blog post about our new desks, but are struggling to come up with a witty title. Anyway, we are loving our new @autonomousdotai SmartDesks. When we both started working from home, our temporary solution, which stuck around for 12+ months, was our old dining room table from our first apartment. With two laptops and two extra monitors, we literally had no space. Now? So much room for activities!
It's been a while since we've updated our blog or posted on Instagram, but we thought we'd blow the dust off today and share one of our favorite traditions. Since 2017, we've ordered a polymer clay portrait from @littleclayland. Check out our latest blog post to see more! Link in our bio! #TheBeckStreetHouse
Having an [almost] finished dining room is seriously the greatest thing. We’ve been working on this room in some way or another for the past two years we’ve lived here, including some window trim we put up, decided a few minutes later that we hated it, and it sat for almost a year 🥴. We splurged and bought our first real dining room set - a beautiful cherry set from a local furniture company [@gaschofurniture] and it definitely completes the space. We’re so darn excited that it has a leaf too. Still on the to do list is figure out some window treatments and switch out the light for something more our style. Oh, and new flooring someday. And house plants. Definitely more house plants.
Here we go again! We want to blog more this year, and we're kicking off 2021 with a post recapping our 2020 (in a really, really long run-on sentence), sharing our goals for The Beck Street House, along with a list of projects (with sarcastic commentary) we're hoping to cross off the list between now and December 31.
Merry Christmas from the Beck Street House! We are obsessed with this original water color painting of our favorite place on Earth from Laryssa’s sister. It’s perfect; right down to Barkley’s one floppy ear and one stiff ear. Merry Christmas!

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Our poor front yard. Year after year, it can't see Our poor front yard. Year after year, it can't seem to catch a break. Last year, we lost a huge part of our beautiful maple tree, and this year, we're having two trees taken down (one already down just waiting on it to be milled), and our utility company is replacing a gas line. 

Makin' the Beverly Hillbillies look good. 

#TheBeckStreetHouse
We really need to get around to writing a blog pos We really need to get around to writing a blog post about our new desks, but are struggling to come up with a witty title. Anyway, we are loving our new @autonomousdotai SmartDesks. When we both started working from home, our temporary solution, which stuck around for 12+ months, was our old dining room table from our first apartment. With two laptops and two extra monitors, we literally had no space. Now? So much room for activities!

#TheBeckStreetHouse
It's been a while since we've updated our blog or It's been a while since we've updated our blog or posted on Instagram, but we thought we'd blow the dust off today and share one of our favorite traditions. Since 2017, we've ordered a polymer clay portrait from @littleclayland. Check out our latest blog post to see more! Link in our bio! #TheBeckStreetHouse
Having an [almost] finished dining room is serious Having an [almost] finished dining room is seriously the greatest thing. We’ve been working on this room in some way or another for the past two years we’ve lived here, including some window trim we put up, decided a few minutes later that we hated it, and it sat for almost a year 🥴. We splurged and bought our first real dining room set - a beautiful cherry set from a local furniture company [@gaschofurniture] and it definitely completes the space. We’re so darn excited that it has a leaf too. Still on the to do list is figure out some window treatments and switch out the light for something more our style. Oh, and new flooring someday. And house plants. Definitely more house plants.

#TheBeckStreetHouse
Here we go again! We want to blog more this year, Here we go again! We want to blog more this year, and we're kicking off 2021 with a post recapping our 2020 (in a really, really long run-on sentence), sharing our goals for The Beck Street House, along with a list of projects (with sarcastic commentary) we're hoping to cross off the list between now and December 31.
Take a look for yourself! New blog post is up! Link in bio! #TheBeckStreetHouse
Merry Christmas from the Beck Street House! We are Merry Christmas from the Beck Street House! We are obsessed with this original water color painting of our favorite place on Earth from Laryssa’s sister. It’s perfect; right down to Barkley’s one floppy ear and one stiff ear. Merry Christmas! 

A+L+L+B 

#TheBeckStreetHouse
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