Holden Village Restoration, Renovation & Replacement Project

Chris Gustafson, owner of Vintage Window Restoration had an exciting adventure from May 2021 to early October 2021. He and his family made the difficult choice to put the business on hold for a few months to work in a remote community named Holden Village located in North Central Washington, in the heart of the North Cascade Mountains.

But to show his dedication to the community for when he returned, he spent a great effort to still be in communication with potential clients and guide them to waiting upon his return, or to be guided to other professionals to reference.   Phone service did not exist and satellite internet was extremely limited, but we did it.  Here is the story since we were proud of what we did, where we did it, and for whom we had the pleasure of having such a great opportunity to bond with our young family and great outdoors.

No roads lead to Holden Village, which makes the journey itself exceptional. Most visitors arrive by boat, taking the historic Lady of the Lake ferry from Chelan or Fields Point to the Lucerne boat dock. There are also a small proportion of visitors who choose to complete the pilgrimage on foot – hiking into the Village from trails connected to the Pacific Crest Trail.  The isolation of the Village creates room for a unique way of life at Holden.

Chris’s job was to lead the restoration of this historic mining village’s structures, porches, and facades from the foundation to the roof. This was a unique opportunity to live in a very remote setting with all the needed amenities for a family.

Chris had mixed feelings about putting his business on a hiatus but looked forward to time with family, a bounty of outdoor recreation, and serving the mission of Holden Village.

Look closely at the scenery to get an idea of the changing environment as time passed.  First we introduce Lodge 4, before we began any work.  Lodge 4 living space for short term quests, mostly volunteers. The structure had been neglected in maintenance for decades, and is almost 90 years old. 

Here are some volunteers working in the beginning of the Lodge 4 Restoration Project.  We began by removing porch components intact, pulling nails, and maintaining a safe working environment.

Screw jacks are helping raise the log columns to straighten the 2nd floor.  The log columns sunk 2.5″ into the framing. We found evidence of the columns original locations, and then we used transits and levels to cross reference the amount of sag that occurred.

Here we show the new porch floor, steps and guard rails.The railing will be stained or painted once the wood thoroughly dries. It is fresh cut wood, so it can take a season before drying out. 

Now we head up to the completion of the second floor: The direction of the project for the porch was to preserve and replace what was only necessary. The guard rails were scraped and sanded, reinforced with screws for security. The flooring had the paint removed, and hand scrapped to a finish. There were heavily deteriorated floor boards that had replacements milled and woven into the original flooring boards that are not in photo.  The south end of the porch had many sub floor boards replaced and new flooring boards installed.

Here we share the completed Porch Project: The full restoration and repair of the main floor, preservation of the second floor, and Purlin replacement is in full view.  Notice the seasonal changes too from start to finish, and never forget how remote the environment is.

The other major project we worked on was the Chalet 6.  Here we show what it looked like before we started our work.

Here we are getting started for the major stabilization and repairs.

When completed we had a new concrete footing, new column, stabilized roof, new stair way and a partial flooring replacement.

We were so grateful for the community of Holden Village to give us this opportunity and so enjoyed the experience, in addition to being to help out with these restoration efforts.  It was great meeting you all, and thanks again to the many customers who were willing to wait upon our return to begin their projects.

We hope you enjoy this part of the Vintage Window Restorations story.