Michelle Cardwell first fell in love with the kitchen.
It wasn’t furnished – actually, it was completely bare. And the floor was about to beak. And the walls were covered in dirt. But she saw the potential.
She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she knew she had to get this Queen Anne Farmhouse, even though her husband disagreed.
“There wasn’t anything in there,” Darin Cardwell said.
Michelle Cardwell loved that kitchen enough that she convinced him to buy this old, rundown, vandalized house Feb. 14, 2017.
Just over a year later, they’ve rebuilt it into what it is today, an unmissable white house in the woods on State Road 48 in west Bloomington that operates as a bed and breakfast. In its first nine weeks of service, it has been booked every weekend.
Only the original windows remain in Michelle Cardwell's kitchen. An antique island sits in the middle and a modern fridge and a big oven line the walls.
They call it the Beaumont House, named after the family that owned it from 1916 to 1993. The five rooms are each named after different important people in the house’s history, including the preacher and his daughter who built the house in the late 1800s.
Michelle Cardwell has been flipping houses since 2005, and Darin Cardwell left his job in heavy utilities with Bloomington in 2015 to join her full time. They bought Beaumont House with the intention of renovating it like the rest.
But it would be the last house they’d ever flip.
“We’re not getting any younger,” Michelle Cardwell said
Over time, because they were looking to retire to less physical jobs, the couple decided to renovate the two-bedroom house into five-bedroom B&B. They live out back in a 1969 camper and run the B&B full time.
Inside, modern technology is placed throughout. They have TVs, refrigerators and microwaves in each room.
Yet, all technology is hidden as much as possible to preserve the authenticity of the renovation.
The family room walls are Peacock Plume, a blue color from the late 1800s. Above one of the couches is a wooden frame Michelle Cardwell found during the refurbishment. Inside is a piece of the floral vinyl carpet she found upstairs.
“I refinish houses the way they would’ve felt originally, or how I think they should feel,” Michelle Cardwell said.
In one room, “Bad Boys” can still faintly be seen painted on the ground despite sanding and repainting, Michelle Cardwell said. It’s a reminder of a time when the house was only home to vandalism.
Michelle Cardwell tried to reuse as much as possible.
“Everything,” Darin Cardwell said. “We saved everything.”
Outside, old chimney liners act as flower pots and old roof panels act as a fence around a fire pit, separating the people from the road.
But the Cardwells couldn’t furnish the entire house through reuse.
About once or twice a week, they would go to second hand or antique stores and buy whatever they liked. Michelle Cardwell made sure to buy things over time and not on a room-by-room basis so the entire house would have a cohesive feel.
She tried her best to make these items authentic, too, which is why a toaster sits on an old wooden school desk with several etchings made from a child in its previous life.
“I bring everything with me and put it where it needs a home,” Michelle Cardwell said.
The Cardwells are already looking at expanding.
Currently, their property includes the B&B, a pasture for their four goats — Maybelline, Penny, Lucy and Diamond — along with two dogs — Callie and Ruger — and the camper that they live in.
They also just recently set up a bee colony and put up a pavilion. Michelle hopes to start a garden and get some chickens next summer.
“I want to cook with everything from here,” she said.
The couple also has plans to put up a chapel and barn in the next year so they can host weddings. Receptions can be held in the barn, and they will move into that building, too.
“Once you stay in a B&B, you don’t want to stay in a hotel,” Michelle Cardwell said.
