The Nelson House: A Farmhouse Revival

The Nelson House: A Farmhouse Revival Documenting the restoration of a 1906 Folk Victorian with updates, stories, and photos from the process.

Pete Nelson ventured into the wilds of Northern Wisconsin in the Town of Gordon around 1896 and set up a saloon at the busy railhead of this lumber town. He built a home which stayed in the family untouched for years until the 1970's when it was abandoned. This is the effort to restore and preserve this home as closely as possible to the original form and function of it's period design which represents decades of life in the rural areas of our country.

Why Put Old-Fashioned Paint on an Old House?One of the things we’ve learned while working on the Nelson House is that ol...
09/02/2026

Why Put Old-Fashioned Paint on an Old House?

One of the things we’ve learned while working on the Nelson House is that old buildings were designed around very different materials than modern buildings.

And sometimes the old materials simply work better with them.

Modern acrylic and latex exterior paints are excellent products. They dry quickly, cover well, and are easy to use.

But they generally work by creating a protective film over the wood.

Linseed oil paint approaches the problem differently.

Instead of simply covering the siding, the oil penetrates into the wood fibers and carries the pigment with it.

That gives it some interesting advantages on old wood.

It can help reduce how readily dry wood absorbs water while still allowing moisture v***r to move through the material. It also tends to weather differently than thick modern coatings. Rather than eventually separating and peeling away in large sheets, traditional linseed oil paint generally becomes thinner, duller, and chalkier as it ages.

Maintenance can often mean cleaning the surface and applying another very thin coat instead of repeatedly stripping layers of failing paint.

It is also incredibly economical in an unusual way.

Linseed oil paint is meant to be applied very thinly.

You don’t load the siding with paint. You brush it out and work it into the wood.

There are tradeoffs.

Linseed oil paint takes patience. Drying depends on oxygen, sunlight, temperature, and humidity. Put it on too thick and you’ll quickly learn why old painters emphasized thin coats.

But the more we learned about it, the more it seemed like a very reasonable answer to a simple question:

What kind of paint makes sense on 120-year-old wooden siding?

Maybe the answer doesn’t have to be a modern one.

08/29/2026

Once we started reading about linseed oil paint, one place kept coming up again and again:

Sweden.

Linseed oil paint has been used on Swedish wooden buildings for centuries. By the 1600s it was already being used on architectural woodwork, and as linseed oil became more readily available, its use expanded.

By the late 1800s and early 1900s, linseed oil paint had become a familiar sight on Swedish wooden houses.

And perhaps the most interesting part is that it never really went away.

Traditional linseed oil paint is still manufactured and used in Sweden today, especially on historic buildings, traditional wooden homes, windows, doors, and other exterior woodwork.

There is an entire preservation tradition built around keeping these old materials and techniques alive.

That caught our attention for another reason.

Peter Nelson, for whom the Nelson House was built in 1906, was born in Sweden.

We have no evidence that Peter personally chose linseed oil paint for this house, and we don’t want to rewrite history where the records don’t exist. But there is something fitting about restoring his old wooden house with a painting tradition that would have been completely familiar in the country where he was born.

More than a century later, Swedish homeowners and preservationists are still brushing remarkably similar paint onto old wooden buildings.

There must be something to it.

We have paint!!!While scraping the Nelson House, we started noticing something interesting.Under the newer layers of pai...
08/28/2026

We have paint!!!

While scraping the Nelson House, we started noticing something interesting.

Under the newer layers of paint, some of the oldest color didn’t seem to simply sit on top of the siding. In places, it looked as though the paint had actually soaked into the wood — almost more like a stain than the thick surface coating we tend to associate with modern house paint.

That got us curious.

The Nelson House was built in 1906, and with so much of the house still made up of its original wood siding, we wanted to better understand what kind of paint might have behaved that way.

That little observation sent us down another old-house rabbit hole.

What we began reading about was linseed oil paint — a traditional paint made primarily from linseed oil and mineral pigments.

Unlike many modern paints that are designed to create a film over the surface, linseed oil penetrates into the wood. The pigment goes with it, becoming much more closely connected to the wood fibers themselves.

Suddenly, what we were seeing while scraping made a lot more sense.

We can’t say with certainty exactly what every layer of paint on the Nelson House was made from, but seeing that old color embedded so deeply in the siding made us curious enough to start looking seriously at the old way of painting wood.

And, as usually happens around here, one question quickly became about twenty.

Any guesses as to what is happening here?!
08/27/2026

Any guesses as to what is happening here?!

08/24/2026

Today is Köttbullens dag — Swedish Meatball Day. 🇸🇪

For the Nelson House, that feels like a fitting little holiday to recognize.

Peter Nelson was born in Sweden in 1865, and although we can’t know exactly what meals were served around this table more than a century ago, dishes like köttbullar — Swedish meatballs — were part of the traditional home cooking that immigrants carried with them across the Atlantic.

By the early 1900s, meatballs served with potatoes, gravy, and preserved berries had become familiar comfort food in Swedish homes: simple ingredients, filling portions, and the kind of meal meant to be shared around a family table.

So tonight, on August 23rd, we’re giving a small nod to Peter’s Swedish roots and to the food traditions that may have followed him all the way to Gordon, Wisconsin.🇸🇪🏡

Some stories leave footprints.While cleaning the original maple floors in the Nelson House, we noticed something that st...
08/06/2026

Some stories leave footprints.

While cleaning the original maple floors in the Nelson House, we noticed something that stopped us in our tracks.

Tiny green paw prints.

They’re the same soft green as the old paint on the living room walls, our guess is mid to late 1930s, suggesting that nearly 100 years ago a family pet—perhaps a curious farm dog or house cat—took a stroll through some wet paint and then wandered through the house, leaving its mark behind. More than likely, no one noticed until the paint had dried, or perhaps they simply smiled and decided to leave them.

It’s a small reminder that this wasn’t just a beautiful Victorian house. It was a working farmhouse.

For families like the Nelsons, the line between home and farm was often blurred. Dogs weren’t just companions—they guarded the property, gathered livestock, kept predators at bay, and eagerly greeted family members returning from the fields. Cats earned their keep by controlling mice in the pantry, cellar, and barn. Both came and went through the house, especially during Wisconsin winters, tracking in snow, mud…and apparently, once upon a time, fresh paint.

These little prints are easy to overlook, but they’re among the most human discoveries we’ve made. They weren’t left by a famous craftsman or carefully planned by the home’s builders. They were left by a beloved animal simply following its family through an ordinary day.

A century later, those footsteps are still here.

It’s moments like these that remind us that historic houses aren’t just collections of lumber and plaster—they’re records of everyday lives. And sometimes, the smallest details tell the biggest stories. 🐾🏡

There is something fitting about painting an old farmhouse the same way the people who built it would have understood.In...
08/01/2026

There is something fitting about painting an old farmhouse the same way the people who built it would have understood.

In 1906, a farmer couldn’t simply drive to the hardware store and choose from hundreds of colors. Paint was often mixed at home or by the local painter from a handful of trusted ingredients. Linseed oil—pressed from flaxseed—served as the binder. Earth and mineral pigments gave the paint its color. A little turpentine helped it flow and soak into the wood. Every bucket was stirred by hand, every coat brushed on one board at a time.

For the Nelson House, we’re following that same tradition.

We’ll be making our own linseed oil paint using a modernized version of a classic Swedish recipe. While we’ll use today’s best practices and carefully selected pigments for consistency and longevity, the heart of the recipe remains more than a century old. The result is a breathable paint that bonds with the wood instead of trapping moisture beneath a plastic film—a finish that ages with dignity rather than peeling away.

The house itself will wear a timeless farmhouse white, made from titanium dioxide and zinc oxide pigments. Although titanium dioxide wasn’t available in 1906, (they would have used lead oxide) it gives us the brilliant, durable white people have come to expect while preserving the traditional appearance of a white-painted farmhouse.

The trim will be finished in a warm Swedish red-orange, colored with dark red iron oxide—a nod to the historic reds that have graced Scandinavian buildings for generations.

Why white houses and red barns?

For generations, white became the color of homes because it represented cleanliness, prosperity, and care. Whitewashed buildings reflected summer heat, brightened long northern winters, and announced that the family had invested the time and expense to protect their home.

Barns told a different story. Across Sweden and later rural America, red iron oxide pigments were inexpensive, abundant, and exceptionally durable. Mixed into linseed oil, they created a weather-resistant coating that stood up to years of sun, rain, snow, and hard farm work. As Swedish immigrants settled across the Upper Midwest, they carried that tradition with them, and the familiar pairing of white houses and red barns became part of the American countryside.

We’re excited to continue that tradition—not by opening a can of factory paint, but by making our own, just as generations before us did.

Sometimes, preserving history isn’t just about how something looks.

It’s about remembering how it was done.

Some pieces of a house seem destined to find their way home.One of those moments happened this week when we were reunite...
07/24/2026

Some pieces of a house seem destined to find their way home.

One of those moments happened this week when we were reunited with the original parlor light fixture—a beautiful Polychrome Riddle four-candle Berry chandelier that once illuminated the heart of the Nelson House.

A heartfelt thank you to our friends Brian Finstad and Robert-Jan Quené for tracking it down and making this reunion possible. And just as importantly, thank you Joel Baird and Lori Mathews Baird , the people who cared for it over the years and saved the Nelson House from the wrecking ball all those years ago. Because of their stewardship, this remarkable fixture survived long enough to return to the room it was meant to grace.

It’s hard to describe what it feels like to hold something that Peter and Annie Nelson likely looked up at over a century ago. Every original piece we bring back isn’t just another restoration project—it’s another thread woven back into the story of this old farmhouse.

The house has a way of finding its missing pieces. We’re just grateful to be part of the journey that brings them home.

What’s in a light?Sometimes, an entire chapter of a home’s history.One of the most rewarding—and admittedly obsessive—pa...
07/07/2026

What’s in a light?

Sometimes, an entire chapter of a home’s history.

One of the most rewarding—and admittedly obsessive—parts of restoring the Nelson House is studying old photographs for the smallest clues. We zoom in on everything: wallpaper, doorknobs, curtain rods, furniture… and yes, even light fixtures.

For months, one particular style of light fixture kept appearing in old photographs of the house. We knew they weren’t original to 1906, but exactly when they had been installed remained a mystery.

After hours of comparing vintage fixtures and conducting a reverse image search, we found an exact match. The fixtures in the Nelson House are identical to ones featured in the 1931 Riddle Light Company catalog.

Suddenly, those lights weren’t just fixtures anymore—they were time markers.

When Peter and Annie Nelson built their home in 1906, electricity was still finding its way into American homes, especially in rural communities. Houses were designed to make the most of daylight, with large windows and bright rooms. After sunset, families relied on kerosene lamps, oil lamps, candles, and, in some areas, gas lighting. Every evening meant filling lamps, trimming wicks, cleaning chimneys, and carefully carrying light from room to room.

Electricity changed all of that.

As electric service spread during the 1920s and 1930s, families eagerly modernized their homes. Electric lighting was brighter, cleaner, safer, and much more convenient. It wasn’t just a utility—it was a symbol of progress.

The Riddle Light Company, founded in the early 1900s, became one of the manufacturers supplying this new generation of lighting. Their catalogs offered well-made fixtures in the latest styles, allowing everyday homeowners to bring modern design into houses that might have been built decades earlier.

So why would the Nelson family replace their original Victorian fixtures with sleek Art Deco lights?

Because that’s exactly what families have always done.

We sometimes think of historic homes as museums, but they never were. They were living, changing family homes. Just as someone today might remodel a kitchen or update a bathroom, homeowners in the 1930s embraced the clean lines and geometric elegance of Art Deco. It was fashionable. It was modern. And it reflected a new era of technology and optimism.

Rather than seeing those fixtures as “not original,” we see them as another authentic layer of the Nelson House’s story. They remind us that this house didn’t stop living in 1906. It continued to grow and change alongside the family who called it home.

Nearly a century later, those same light fixtures have helped us date an important chapter in the house’s history—all from a few old photographs and a lot of detective work.

Sometimes, the best clues are hanging right above our heads.

Have you ever discovered an unexpected piece of history hidden in your own home? We’d love to hear your story—or see a photo—in the comments!

A belated Happy Fourth of July from the Nelson House! 🇺🇸Please forgive the late post—we don’t get the best cell service ...
07/05/2026

A belated Happy Fourth of July from the Nelson House! 🇺🇸

Please forgive the late post—we don’t get the best cell service out here in Gordon, and honestly, that feels fitting for a place like this. Some days the modern world has to wait a little while.

This year we celebrated the way Gordon celebrates today: with Gordon Good Neighbor Days. We sat on the porch, enjoyed the cool breeze, visited with friends, and took in one of those summer evenings that makes all the scraping, sanding, repairing, and restoring feel worth it.

One hundred years ago, in 1926, Peter and Annie Nelson would have been celebrating the nation’s 150th birthday from this same house. By then, the Nelson House was already twenty years old. Its porch had seen children grow up, neighbors stop by, workdays begin and end, and countless ordinary moments that quietly became history.

The Fourth of July in Gordon may have brought flags on porches, community picnics, baseball games, music, speeches, children running through town, and fireworks after dark. Peter, a Swedish immigrant and saloon owner, and Annie, with her Prussian/Kashubian roots, were part of the many immigrant families who built lives here and helped shape this community.

It’s easy to imagine them sitting outside in the evening air, listening to Gordon celebrate around them—the sound of voices, laughter, maybe a band playing somewhere nearby, and fireworks echoing across the trees.

A century later, we’re still here trying to bring this house back, one stubborn layer at a time. And on nights like this, when friends are gathered on the porch and the breeze moves through the old boards, it feels like the house remembers.

Happy belated Fourth from the Nelson House. ❤️🤍💙

Address

14433 S Old Highway 53
Gordon, WI
54838

Telephone

952-303-9375

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