New life for old home featured on Everett tour

  • By Andrea Brown Herald Writer
  • Friday, September 6, 2013 1:24pm
  • LifeEverett

Her favorite room is the kitchen.

His favorite place is the bedroom.

All the rooms are pretty sweet in the Rucker Avenue home renovated by Oliver and Julie Batson.

Just for the fun of it, you can pick the room you like best on the Historic Everett Home Tour. The self-guided tour on Sept. 14 features eight homes in north Everett, including a California Craftsman bungelow, a Queen Anne cottage and a house with eight jukeboxes.

The Batsons’ two-story home was built as a boarding house in 1920. It was stuck in the 1960s when the couple bought it in 2011.

“We’d fixed up one old house prior to this so it wasn’t too daunting,” Oliver Batson said, “especially since she does all the work.”

Indeed. She did the design, scraping, soaking, staining and research.

“I did the heavy lifting,” he said, “and tried to earn some of the money to pay for it.”

He’s an Everett Clinic oncologist at Providence Regional Cancer Partnership. The couple moved from Bothell to be closer to his work, walking distance in this case.

It wasn’t easy to get the right digs for their two dogs, five grown children and a grandbaby on the way.

They looked for a long time before finding the house on the corner lot with the private outdoor courtyard and leaded glass windows.

“It was love at first sight,” Julie Batson said.

When they went through the front door, the sweeping staircase in the foyer added to the love, even with the green floor tiles and painted banister.

The Batsons saw beyond the unsightly updates and envisioned the home in its original splendor. A contractor helped make it happen.

Still, it was a massive undertaking.

“I was thinking we could live in the basement,” she said, “but that was wishful thinking.”

So, they pretty much stayed put in Bothell, with him occasionally bunking on an air mattress in the basement.

They only replaced what could not be re-enameled and refitted.

“We kept the hardware, and soaked the paint off it. We kept everything we could save,” said Julie Batson, who owns two vintage shops, Cranberry Cottage in Bothell and Vintage by the Bay in Oregon.

“I love old things. I make things out of old pieces. I made a hall tree out of a door,” she said.

She turned an old radio cabinet into a glass-front liquor cabinet. Industrial sawhorses from a yard sale hold a beveled glass top that is her desk.

And the coffee table?

“That’s an old industrial cart out of a factory,” she said. “I painted it with chalk paint and waxed it.”

The list goes on, with evidence of her creative genius throughout the rooms.

“I’m not a very good sitter. I’m always active and busy and my mind never stops,” she said.

Her husband is her buffer half. “He’s the muscle behind it. He’s a good sport.”

Urban life is a contrast to their former rural Bothell homestead, but it’s no fishbowl.

The master suite is a scenic retreat. “It has a beautiful view of the bay,” Oliver Batson said.

His wife likes the neighborhood feel.

“It’s quiet. You can look out and watch the people walk by,” she said. “We’re all about community. People walk their dogs at night. It is so friendly.”

And it got even friendlier. Her parents recently moved from Camano Island to a house a few blocks away.

“I ride my bike down to their house every morning,” she said.

Andrea Brown; 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com

Historic tour

The self-guided Historic Everett Home Tour on Sept. 14 features eight homes in north Everett.

Tickets are $20 for members and $23 for nonmembers and can be purchased in advance at J. Matheson Gifts, 2615 Colby Ave.; Home Inspirations, 1502 Hewitt Ave.; or at www.brownpapertickets.com.

On tour day tickets can be purchased and brochures picked up from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Van Valey House, 2130 Colby Ave.

For more information, go to www.historiceverett.org or call 425-870-6699.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.