In a Former Life: Gas Station

 

This is a story about changes. Home changes. Moving. Buying, renovating and selling. It would take hours to tell the entire story, so plan on getting snippets and tidbits for awhile. But eventually it should become clear how and why we've done so much moving in a town of less than 5000 in the past few years.

While acquiring a building for Vaughn's cabinet shop, we obtained two extras. A run-down building once owned by Hooten Oil Company that was moved on the property many years back. And a darling old gas station measuring 24 x 24.

Somewhere along the way a former owner had made the gas station into a makeshift studio apartment. Oh. And it was once used as a Smoke Shop. This is how it looked when we walked into it the first day.

We had just sold our home and had only a month to move out. So that day, that very day...we decided to renovate the gas station and move into it while building our today home. The expression about turning a sow's ear into a silk purse comes to mind.

Our home, just about 3 weeks later. Vaughn added one wall for a bedroom. The wall is behind the dresser and mirror. He also added a gas heater with a fireplace surround, just for coziness sake.
Shelves were put up to accommodate the things we needed in the tiny kitchen.
(Most of our belongings went into storage.)

Our son, Parker, came home from college once and awhile and he slept in a loft we built above the bathroom. (You can see the fence-like walls for his "bedroom".)

Another BEFORE picture. Walking in the front door, this is what you would have seen. Concrete floors, basically nothing to create a home with. Vaughn stained the floors and used this tiny set of cabinets to create a counter and bar, along with a new apartment sized stove. The washer/dryer went across from the bar, creating a galley kitchen. What an efficient use of space!

This is a photo taken AFTER the renovation was complete. Wow. You can see a living room, kitchen and dining area in this photo. One window in the front of the house (about 5 feet in front of the couch) brought in some natural light. We also put a storm door on the side door, which was over to the left of this view. We lived here for about a year.

In a former life: a gas station. In this life: a home.