Saving the Station house – the makeover of a lifetime

Do you think you can buy a house for the price of dinner?

No, you’re wrong – you can!  (Assuming you said no)

You might remember some articles I’ve posted about my brother Peter in Sweden. He is becoming quite the name back home as his passion to rescue beautiful old buildings and villages is getting a big following.  (You can check out a previous post here on what crimes modern society commits.)

Well, he might be up to the biggest task yet…When the old station house in Molkom  (20 minutes from my house back home) was going to be torn down, he stepped in, and this time in a very personal way.

He bought it.

This beautiful old bud building that once was a working elegant train station has seen years of wear and tear and neglect. It’s been everything from a pizzeria, to school rooms, to office building, but the decision finally came to tear it down. It was said it had bad water damage, and all kinds of problems and was no longer worth keeping.

Much to the dismay of people in town.

Many of the old homes just don’t fit in to modern way of life.

This is how it looks today. Yes, in need of a serious makeover!

So my brother stepped in and convinced the city not to tear it down instead to sell it to him, and yes they thought it was trash, so he got this whole house for the the price of a really good dinner.

Yes, it’s true.

When we were home for Christmas he was on the cover of all the local papers.

People love when someone rescues old houses and turn them back to their old beauty.

Thank You Peter for inspiring us all!

The plan was that a local TV station back home was making a series of the revival of this house for television, and that local artisans would get involved. But as luck had it the TV station folded.  So now we’re looking for Plan B. The plan is to turn the house back in to it’s original state and make the inside an “office hotel”.

Office space for entrepreneurs.

We all went out on a cold (of course) but sunny day, to visit.

Inside the ugly exterior the old wood work still exists.

Can’t wait to follow this renovation! It has to get to warmer temperatures before any of this can begin.

This is where people stood to wait for the train over a hundred years ago. Looking a lot fancier than us!

The train still passes here four times a day.

The inside has left overs from the various lives of the house. This room was an educational facility.

Unfortunately all the old interior details from train station life have been removed.

Left overs from a pizzeria.

These are the old windows with moss in between the glass. This is something they did to make the windows less drafty in cold temperatures.

We went across the street to a little cafeteria and saw this in the window….

A GINGERBREAD COPY OF THE OLD STATION HOUSE!!

I’m so happy my brother took the risk to take this on. Clearly it’s a beloved building in this little town.

How can we just tear down our history?

What are we leaving our future generations?

I’m so excited to do what I can to help Peter complete this.

Who knows…perhaps this is the perfect project for “This Old House”?

Do you have any great ideas? A contracting company? A TV station?  Feel like being adventurous?

Seriously CALL ME.

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10 thoughts on “Saving the Station house – the makeover of a lifetime

  1. Congratulations to your brother for his well earned recognition. I read the other post too – it's so sad when beautifully scaled buildings are replaced w/out of scale eyesores. I live in Country Club Hills and it is being ruined one tear down after another. Also loved the reading the post about the history of your house on the lake. Happy New Year and hope you find someone to cover the renovation.

    1. Please stop them! They just tore down a gorgeous old farm in my neighbor hood and built 20 horrible Mc Mansions. Ruined the whole vibe of where we live.

  2. What a fantastic story! I love it and I'm so excited to see the continuation of this great idea. Your brother rocks for taking this chance and leap of faith. What an inspiration! Cheers!

  3. What a great story! I love it when people see the beauty in these old places and help save them. Well done to your brother for being one of those people! I think a series following its restoration would be fantastic, hopefully a TV producer out there thinks the same way!

  4. Great! He's a real hero, and this is not the only house he's been saving what I understand. Loved how beautiful it looked in the old days. I can see it as a great office hotel, and with your interior design. : )

  5. Well, if the place is still workable, then I guess it's worth the save. I mean, it's not like the structure is so deteriorated that it's on the verge of collapse or anything like that.

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