So, do we change the name of our blog?

Our building is NOT a W.O.W. building

   

Are we going to let information, facts they're called, change the name of our blog? In a nutshell, our building was the Benson Waterworks, then an ice house, it eventually was a mushroom growing warehouse, an American Legion clubhouse, and a church owned party spot before being rescued and dragged into living condition by Justin. (All of those descriptors above are close enough to the facts for me.)

So, the cornerstone of our building has Woodmen of the World on it because they helped raised money to fund the final addition to the building, not because it was a Woodmen of the World Lodge. We have now embraced the pumping station origins of the building, and will be using it as a jumping off point for renovations and decorating..hopefully not too pinteresty.

In case you haven't read the history, which is uber interesting, click here and spend a while learning about Benson Camp 288. (I'm still going to call it that, facts be damned.)

My Omaha Obsession

Waterworks-Benson, Nebraska

     
This picture was found by Miss Cassette, the author of myomahaobsession.com. She found it in a book she owned, Benson, Nebraska1887-1987. This is our sweet little building...with trees and a water works structures. Pretty cool!
And Justin just shared this picture in higher resolution from the Facebook page of the Benson Historical Society:

     

In this picture you can see that there are two different buildings, and there is space in the
middle of the two. This picture explains a lot about the quirkiness of the building; there are three separate buildings joined into one. Wow!

Let's check in on the progress of Benson Camp:

Power washing is looking good!

   

The front of the building is looking great, tuck pointing is moving right along in the midst of sweltering temps. Hopefully the new roof will start soon...it is scheduled for end of June. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed for Thrasher to squeeze us into their schedules-seems with all the rain we had they are very, very busy.

Soon to be our sweet little home...come on workers, let's get things moving!

Chip, chip, chip...and the master bathroom

I spent some time and chipped away at the wall.

This wall is outside the kitchen and next to the north wall. It is in the large
front room where the new garage door will be.
This is after I spent a little time chipping away...Justin had started it and I wanted to see how
easy or difficult it would be to get the paint and plaster/whatever off the bricks.

And this is what it looked like after an hour or so of chip, chip, chipping. It will not be an easy job and
I totally get the look of partially exposed brick walls.

The Master Bathroom

View of the master bathroom from the hallway.
What can I say?

From the hallway, looking into the shower.

This is ready to be an awesome shower! All it needs is a little work.

What I found on ebay!

A WOW Ceremonial Axe

     OK, I probably could have taken a better picture of this axe head...without the newspaper behind 

it. I was just so excited when it came in the mail that I took a picture immediately! What are we 

going to do with this totally perfect axe head you ask? For WOW related decorations of course. We 

will not be acquiring a goat, but we might ask you for the secret password if you try to come visit.

More Before pics...because you can't take before pics forever

Front Room

The front room is uber cool! and huge...

     This is a panoramic view of the front door and the front half of the room. The room is about 40 

feet across and we plan to remove these stud walls and open up the space. There are 6 windows, 3 

on each side of the front door.

     Plan for the front door: build a foyer, similar to a phone booth, to provide a wind break and

provide storage. Hopefully with large windows to keep the feel of openness while stopping winter 

air from coming in.

     I don't have a picture of the inside showing where the garage door will be reinstalled. To the left 

of the stud wall room we will rip out cinder blocks and put a garage door back in where there 

originally was one. This will open to the fenced in side yard and be so cool I can't stand it!

Kitchen

The kitchen has brick or cinder block walls so they are not going anywhere.

     This is a view towards the front of the building. The wall you see will also be removed so

this will open to the large front room. To the left if you walk through the door will be the new 

garage door leading to the fenced in side yard. 

My dream kitchen! As if it mattered to me. This is the view towards the back of the building.

Behind this wall is the first bathroom, in fact, that plastic bag is stuck in a hole opening to the 

bathroom. Below the sink, on the right, there is a large opening directly to the bathroom.

View to the south of the kitchen. This door opens directly to the fenced in yard. There is a transom 

over the door that will eventually let in amazing light. Plans: build a deck between this door and the 

garage door.

Power washing has begun!

 Power wash day 1

Just a glimpse of the bricks under the paint...


Only the front part of the building will be power washed-
the stucco on the rest of the building will be repaired.

Here's a before pic with the power wash area. 

It will be the area with the two windows and the soon-to-be

garage door in-between them. 

The yellowish part is stucco-it covers about 2/3 of the side of the building. 

The possibilities are endless...

Over the weekend we wandered around NFM getting ideas for refrigerators, stoves, microwaves,

washer/dryer, sinks, countertops, couches...

I saw this truck bed and realized we could have this in our living space if we want!

All it needs is a ton of cushions and it's set-truck bed as furniture. 

Some 'Before' pictures to make you jealous

Here are a few pictures from inside. We need to take and post more pictures so that we have a complete view of the interior.

Inside the back door, this is the laundry room looking towards the hallway.
The glass block is the shower for the future master bath.
To the right is the shop and (fingers crossed) future garage.

Inside hallway, looking from the laundry/shop area toward the front door.
The brick wall on the left has two side by side bathrooms with the kitchen just past them.
On the right you can see the master bedroom door, further down is the door for the office/second bedroom.

View of the shop looking to the northeast corner.
There is a huge fireplace against the north wall. 

Shop looking from the northeast corner towards the door to the hallway. 

Sadly, we don't have any before pictures of the kitchen and the huge front room. Or of the bathrooms and bedrooms. We'll definitely get those pictures taken and posted soon. I do have some pics of walls that I've started chipping away at the plaster.

May 20, 2016

May 20, 2016

Today we closed on our new building! It's in Benson and it's uber cool. It's everything we wanted in a building when we started dreaming about moving out of Dundee. All it needs is a lot of work...and a pile of money. We'll see what we can do and get done with what we got. 

This building was a Woodmen of the World Camp. We're not sure what that is, but we now own Benson Camp 288! Here's a close up with the date 1913, and a list of names: