Couple buys house in Emmons, fixes it up for retirement

Three years ago, Albert Lean Cathy Otterman and her husband, Kent, decided to buy a house in rural Freeborn County.

The couple wanted to move out into the country, but at first couldn’t find a house in their price range that they liked.

Then one day — on Otterman’s birthday — they saw a house online in rural Emmons.

“It was bank-owned, and it was so cheap we just laughed and said, ‘Let’s go out here and look at it just for fun,’” she said. “It looked terrible, but we liked that it’s so quiet out here. It was like I could see what it could be.”

Otterman said there was a bird’s nest in the soffit and a dead raccoon in the attic. The pipes had frozen and a door had been kicked in. The house had been empty for at least a few months.

“It was a mess,” she said.

But the drawbacks weren’t enough to keep the Ottermans away. They purchased the house, and Otterman has been working to fix it up ever since as they continue to live in Albert Lea. The couple hopes to live there after they retire.

Otterman, who took interior design classes in college and worked as a master plan designer at Dayton’s department store, started renovating in the kitchen.

She said she saved the original cupboards, but cut the front panels out and instead put in glass. She ripped out what was behind the cupboards, took out the old counter and sink, reinforced and painted the cabinets, got a new counter from Freeborn Lumber, cut a hole to put a new sink in, made an island and painted the walls.

She said she painted more than once as she had originally wanted an all-white kitchen with some grays. In the end, she decided on a pale green for the walls with white cabinets.

Eventually, Otterman said, she hopes to make the kitchen larger with an addition to the house and put in a planked ceiling.

In addition to the kitchen, Otterman renovated the main floor bathroom.

She said she ripped everything out of that room except for the vanity and started over.

She took a class to learn how to do Granicrete countertops, floors and showers, and practiced doing them in a half bathroom upstairs before doing the larger bathroom.

“I figured that was small, and if I messed that up it wasn’t a big deal,” she said.

In addition to the countertops, floors and showers, she said she had to patch some walls. The ceiling wasn’t in the best shape either, so she covered it with a plastic ceiling that looks like tin that came in pieces that were 3 feet by 2 feet that she put together.

She ultimately painted the vanity three times before she got the color right and then lastly made the shower curtain and blind for the room.

Otterman said though she and her husband hope to someday retire at the country home, in the meantime they use it for family parties.

She works at Crossroads Church part time as an administrative assistant and spends her other days working on the house. She has two grown children who are both married, and one grandchild.

“I look at it as a hobby,” she said. “It’s relaxing to me. It doesn’t really matter to me how long it takes. It wouldn’t be fun if I felt it was rushed. We’re not in a big hurry.”