The three dogs sat at attention like soldiers dressed in silky coats. Dachshunds Frankie, Lillie and Coco patiently waited for their owner, Bryn Vaaler, to give them a treat.
The dogs were one of the reasons Vaaler and his wife, Schelly Braden, moved from a 3,800-square-foot condo to a charming, albeit compact, Cape Cod in Minneapolis. It had a fenced-in backyard where the "girls" could run and play.
"After taking the dogs for walks to find grass for 14 years," said Braden, a Coldwell Banker Burnet real estate agent, "we were ready for a change."
The couple's former residence was in Station 23 Lofts, converted to condos in 1991, on Hennepin Avenue S. near the Uptown area of Minneapolis. The three-level home boasted 14-foot-high ceilings, brick walls and arched window openings. But the couple's adult daughters were living out of state, and "we were only using a third of the space," Braden said.
They decided that buying a right-sized single-family home would be the key to downsizing to a simpler style of living, while reducing their monthly expenses. A house would also have a yard, giving Braden an opportunity to learn to garden.
But before long, Braden and Vaaler felt like discouraged buyers on HGTV's "House Hunters." They had scrutinized more than 15 homes located close to mass transit to downtown Minneapolis, where Vaaler works as an attorney at Dorsey & Whitney. None of the houses was the right fit. Meanwhile, their fire station condo had sold in five days, so time was running out.
Then Braden's colleague Ruth Whitney Bowe mentioned that she was considering selling her home. Would they want to take a look?
The couple immediately were charmed by the quaint 1939 Cape Cod in Linden Hills. The living room and bedroom walls were covered in dark knotty pine, and the kitchen sorely needed updating, but the two main-floor bedrooms boosted the home's renovation potential.
