By Elisabeth Dunham for Oregon Home
When home buyers talk about finding the house after a long search, they invariably get to the part where they describe something about the place that hooked them. It might be an inviting open floor plan or the way light shone through the windows or just a sense of coming home.
But for Kevin Atchley there were no such moment. The way he tells it, he had only a sense of grim determination when he walked into the 1949 bunker-like ranch that would become his home. “I think I was exhausted and regretting the amount of financial investment I had put into the search for a house,” says Atchley, 40 “But wheels were in motion and I realized ‘Well here I am and I’m going to have to make the best of it.”
Four years later, with a lot of help from his partner, Laleña Dolby, he’s done a lot more than that.
One of many nearly identical homes built for returning World War II veterans in the Cully neighborhood near Northeast Fremont, the house has gone from bland to bold, with an interior that is rustic and modern, combining elements of natural with artwork that seems to tell stories of weekend road trips down dusty country roads.
It’s a huge departure from what Atchley recalls seeing that first day. “The blandness was appealing only after I started cutting walls out. At first it was like ‘This place is so horrendous I don’t even want to invite people over.' It looked like it had been dipped in taupe.”
When home buyers talk about finding the house after a long search, they invariably get to the part where they describe something about the place that hooked them. It might be an inviting open floor plan or the way light shone through the windows or just a sense of coming home.
But for Kevin Atchley there were no such moment. The way he tells it, he had only a sense of grim determination when he walked into the 1949 bunker-like ranch that would become his home. “I think I was exhausted and regretting the amount of financial investment I had put into the search for a house,” says Atchley, 40 “But wheels were in motion and I realized ‘Well here I am and I’m going to have to make the best of it.”
Four years later, with a lot of help from his partner, Laleña Dolby, he’s done a lot more than that.
One of many nearly identical homes built for returning World War II veterans in the Cully neighborhood near Northeast Fremont, the house has gone from bland to bold, with an interior that is rustic and modern, combining elements of natural with artwork that seems to tell stories of weekend road trips down dusty country roads.
It’s a huge departure from what Atchley recalls seeing that first day. “The blandness was appealing only after I started cutting walls out. At first it was like ‘This place is so horrendous I don’t even want to invite people over.' It looked like it had been dipped in taupe.”