Creative updates
The stories within the walls are what make a house a home. Rod and Karen Sprague’s home in Chattaroy has many stories to tell.
Karen Sprague’s family has owned it since the 1940s. Because each generation has left its mark, the original 400-square-foot cabin has grown into a 3,000-square-foot home.
In 1974, Sprague moved back to the home where she’d grown up, to raise her children. Like their predecessors, she and Rod have added their touch. They recently created a new entryway which was inspired by their visit to Oak Park, Ill., home of the world’s largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings.
“I wanted a front door folks would use,” Karen Sprague said.
The original entryway sat at an awkward angle, so most visitors came in the back. But now, a slate pathway leads to large beveled glass doors with stained-glass accents. The straight-grain fir floor in the entry matches the flooring in the original living room. Panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows incorporate Wright’s use of natural light and open space, as do the large skylights.
“I love the feel of the entry when I walk into my home,” Karen Sprague said.
The additional square footage gained in the remodel gave her space for a sewing room. The cutting table is an original counter from the Crescent department store’s sandwich shop.
Sprague’s prize treasure is a 1950s Ironrite Mangle. A relic of the time when housewives ironed everything, including sheets and draperies, Sprague now uses this large electric mangle to press her quilt tops. “I have what every quilter wants,” she said.
The kitchen is a special place for Sprague. Generations of women have cooked, canned and cared for friends and family in this room. Now, she says, her grandchildren are learning to cook in a new way – boxed macaroni and cheese and brownie mixes.
The Spragues added an indoor swimming pool in the 1970s for their kids. The unglazed tile floor in the adjoining family room can withstand water tracked in from the pool. A view of the surrounding farmland is visible through sliding glass doors.
To make the most of their beautiful setting, the Spragues updated the master bedroom. New floor-to-ceiling windows allow the Spragues to wake up to the morning sun and a view of Mount Spokane.
The most unusual change to the home is the wedding cake room. The couple met Andrey Krolyuk, a recent immigrant from Russia, who needed work. He’d complained about how bland and boring American decorating is. With the Spragues’ permission he painted and decorated the room using a molded plaster decorating technique common in Russian homes. The resulting scallops and trim around the room, including the ceiling, reminds them of frosting on a wedding cake.
Although they have updated most of the home, there’s one thing the couple will never change – the clothesline. It still stands where Sprague’s grandmother once pegged up clothes. As Karen Sprague hangs her laundry she says she can hear her grandmother whisper, “Undergarments on the inside, away from public view, colored clothes on the shady part of the line and whites in the full sun.”