HOME
A Home a Century in the Making A La Crosse family builds their future while connecting to the past. BY SARAH ARENDT-BEYER | PHOTOS BY ATYPIK STUDIO
A restored Colonial Revival Foursquare near the heart of La Crosse provides a modern, comfortable home for a young family.
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ourtney Lokken and her husband, Lucas Schwaller, moved to La Crosse in January 2015 after the birth of their first child to be closer to family. The house they chose to call home was the very first one their realtor showed them, though they did look at other houses before buying it. The home is a Colonial Revival Foursquare built in 1920 or 1921 by Ori Sorensen, a builder and architect who also served as La Crosse’s mayor. It ticked a lot of boxes: great structure, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a yard in the back. Best of all was its location: situated near downtown La Crosse, it was close to parks, bike trails, the La Crosse Family YMCA, the Children’s Museum of La Crosse, shops and restaurants. Having most recently lived in Chicago where walking was part of daily life, “we knew we wanted that walkable lifestyle,” Lokken says. “When we moved here, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, let’s look for an old house to restore,” Lokken says. However, her uncles Jay Lokken and Ken Riley had been restoring houses since she was young. “I think in the back of my mind, I always was watching the work that they were doing and appreciating the work that they were doing. I have
really amazing memories of family Christmases in the old homes that they had restored. So I think they had a pretty big influence, and we definitely tapped into their expertise during the process.” IN NEED OF A LITTLE LOVE “It was by no means the worst condition house that you could imagine,” Lokken says, “but it had chipping paint everywhere. And all the woodwork inside was painted with layers and layers and LAYERS of paint, and the floors were in bad shape, and all the walls were cracking.” Yet, they could see its potential. The family moved in and began renovating. Courtney and Lucas did much of the demolition themselves but hired experts for nearly everything else. They enlisted the help of a friend and gutted the kitchen and dining room, ripping up tiles and even tearing down walls. “Once we opened it up, we were really able to see the potential for the space,” Lokken notes. At that point they brought in Wisconsin Building Supply to draw up kitchen designs. The end result is beautiful. Warm and inviting, the dining room flows into the kitchen, which has an island at the www.crwmagazine.com DECEMBER/JANUARY 2022 23
