120-year-old log house recently brought back to life

When Basin was just a baby, not at its very beginning, but shortly thereafter a woman came to town. She had a team of mules and a buckboard. In 1905 she bought a piece of property in what would have been the southwestern outskirts of Basin.  Then she set about to collect the materials to build her house. We know that her name was Ida Hand. We know that she cut and hauled all of the logs for her house down from the Big Horn Mountains herself. The county records show a structure on the property by 1910 and legend has it that it was completed in 1912. 

From there the house has been loved by people in the Basin area for years. Some names that came up as having lived in the house are: Jack and Jean Kelly in the 40’s, Ben Coleman, Warren Spriggs in the early 1970’s, Gary Waddingham in the 80’s and the Passage brothers. 

The house was built almost on the dirt. There were some river rocks put under the bottom logs, but the sturdiness of the logs have kept it mostly straight through over 100 years. The original house was actually quite small. Eventually a basement was dug under part of it to allow the installation of water and sewer. Probably at that time a basement pantry room was also added. At some time in its life an upstairs was added. After the last residents were gone, the house sat empty for several years,  being allowed to settle into a state of disrepair. 

Last year that all changed, Christie Christopherson, who was raised in Basin and admittedly would take a longer way home from school just so she could walk past the house because she loved it, bought the house with the intention of restoring it and either renting it out or living in it after retirement. She had already renovated her mother’s house on Sixth street and had been using it as a place to stay when she came to take drone photos of the Big Horn Mountains and visit family that still lives here. 

“I was happy to get the house,” Christie said, “My partner Scott Covington thought I was crazy I am sure, but he rolled his sleeves up and got right in there with me.” 

The renovation began and while still living in Austin, Texas created some problems, Christie and Scott hired contractors, and set about to make the house liveable again. Then as is always the case, things don’t go as planned. Christie lost her job in Austin. 

“It was a two edged sword. It meant I would have more time to spend here in Basin and work on the house, but it also meant that money was going to get very, very tight, “ Christie said. “I questioned my sanity almost daily about the purchase of the house, but somehow I knew that I was the one who was appointed to bring this house back to life.”

There were huge things that had to be done, the downstairs bedroom had major damage from a hole in the roof and the flooring all had to be taken up, even the subfloor was damaged. Everything had to go back to the floor joists and be rebuilt from there. The upstairs bathroom had to be totally reconfigured, the kitchen floor had to be taken clear down to the dirt under the house. None of the floors are level, none of the walls are plumb, but all of that adds to the charm of a house that has stood the test of time over 120 years. 

“Once I got started I knew I had to finish it, “ Christie quipped. “I couldn’t just stop in the middle, no matter how tired I was, how stressed, how short the money was, I just knew that I had to finish the job I started. Sometimes my biggest challenge was to get out of my own way.” 

There were some lovely surprises during the teardown phase, like finding windows behind a plywood wall surrounding the fireplace, which is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship made with river rock sourced locally. They also found paper milk bottle tops, but sadly they didn’t find any treasure. 

Christie is the first to acknowledge that she had plenty of help in bringing the house back to life. “The main contributors to the project were; Wyo. Junk out of Cody who did initial cleanup and some demo work, Bar S Bar Electric, Pete’s Plumbing, my daughter and her family Heather and Bryan Evans, and my grandkids Addison, Hannah and Bennett. They redid the fireplace wall among other projects. Jeff Eaton from Greybull who built the kitchen from the dirt up to the cabinets and backsplash and window trim and of course my life partner Scott Covington.”

Once the renovation work was done, then came the work of furnishing it and making it look lived in. They hope to rent it furnished to traveling health care workers for the time being, but may eventually decide to live in it themselves. 

“When I put the living room together the night before the open house and I sat basking in the coziness of the house, from the tiny bathroom with the tub under the staircase, the trapdoor in the back hallway. The beautiful refrigerator we found for the kitchen, to the refurbished furniture I found in Meeteetse that was done by Leslie with Beehive Wyoming, and even to the creaky stairs. I knew that I needed this house and this house needed me.”

So the project is nearly done, there are still some things that need to be done to the porch. The rotten wood has been removed, but the rebuild will come next spring after Christie and her partner have some time to rest, recuperate and save some money to continue. Christie knew that people in Basin had been watching the project with interest, many of them expressing interest in seeing it once it was done. So last Saturday they held an open house to let people see what they had accomplished. It was well attended and there were even some tears shed at the transformation of the old log house that had been allowed to fall into disrepair.   

“I find it totally fitting that the house built by a woman in the early 1900’s could be brought back to life by a woman 120 years later. It was much more complicated than the first renovation I did, “ Christie said and then jokingly added. “But wow, what a learning experience. Please Send Money!!!