This Salem, Oregon, home has been undergoing remodeling for 18 years, transforming into a beautiful refuge. Geri and Sal Ortega have done everything from building cabinetry and furniture to placing rock and tile, to installing windows and built-ins. The yearlong construction has been done in stages over a period of weeks and months at a time. “I would call our style ‘that the artless art,'” Sal says. “The materials, the colours and colors of this wood, the texture and colour of steel and concrete where we’ve managed to utilize it, the smoothness and colour of the plaster finish we have about the walls, and also how the light interacts with these surfaces would be exactly what I listen to.”
in a Glance
Who lives here: Sal and Geri Ortega and their 3 cats Ernie, Girlfriend and Annie
Location: Laurel Springs neighborhood of Salem, Oregon
Size: 3,100 square feet; 1 bedroom, 3 baths
Louise Lakier
The living room’s vaulted ceiling created space for a library with open shelving plus also a custom sliding ladder. Reclaimed fir from Barnwood Naturals adds heat to the high ceiling. Sal constructed a wall with two archways between the living room and the kitchen to divide the two rooms.
Red oak finished with a water-based foam grounds that the entire first floor. Geri hand created and set up the floor tiles.
Louise Lakier
For one of the first jobs, the couple enclosed a patio to create this beautiful sunroom with an open truss ceiling that looks out onto the garden. “Weekend mornings in the summer at the sunroom are our favourite time of the season,” Sal says.
The concrete floors have two- by 4-foot strips used as leveling manuals and decorative details. The stained glass doorway is from a salvaged window from Europe. Sal was fortunate to receive several from a friend and incorporated the jeweled glass throughout the home.
Doors: Home Depot
Louise Lakier
The new sunroom signaled a shift in the layout of the home. “It was the very first region of the home combining high ceilings, natural materials, wood windows and lots of natural lighting,” states Sal. His longtime friend Rigoberto Avina helped him plaster and build the sunroom, and helped with a number of other areas of the home.
Sal constructed or repurposed many of the home furnishings, including the table. The dining chairs are all antiques.
Louise Lakier
Sal and Geri hired a contractor, Golden Rule Remodeling, to create this library and music room, framing the new roof and clerestory windows. Sal’s lovely black and white photographs with custom-made frames line the walls and match the vibrant stained glass.
Louise Lakier
Sal constructed the stereo cabinet and bank of drawers for CDs on each side of the existing brick fireplace using an assortment of woods, including cherry and walnut.
“What’s funny is how much our furniture, carpeting — or lack thereof — and bookshelf choices and placement have been affected by our cats,” Sal says. “Geri was getting upset in the size and cost of the library/music room speakers until she noticed just how much our older cat liked music. His favourite songs is J.S. Bach.”
Chairs: Thos. Moser
Louise Lakier
The island, pantry and fridge enclosures were constructed by Sal. The rest of the current cabinets were stripped and refinished, and also the timber doors were replaced with glass insets. The couple added a skylight, and Geri designed, fired, glazed and set up on the tile mosaic backsplash.
Eighteen years after Sal built the refrigerator enclosure, the couple had a new version. But much to their dismay, contemporary refrigerators were all an inch larger than their 35-inch-wide enclosure. After a long search, they discovered a glass-door version that fit in the opening and didn’t conquer the small kitchen.
Refrigerator: Kelly’s Appliances in Salem; wine fridge: Standard TV and Appliances at Portland
Louise Lakier
An archway in the butler’s pantry reveals a beam of colored light flowing into the living room. Painted with chalkboard paint, the cabinet door is the perfect place for writing shopping lists.
Louise Lakier
Sal and Geri set up the piled stone walls with backer board, chicken wire along with a scratch coating of mastic. The sturdy wood article column was a 16 find from the Rebuilding Center.
Louise Lakier
Sal constructed this dining table along with the cabinets at the stair wall.
Dining seats: Napa Style
Louise Lakier
The TV room also serves as a guest room. Tile was laid over the original concrete floor. The beams are original to your home. Sal constructed the coffee table, toddlers and TV cupboard.
Louise Lakier
Geri’s mother made this bedroom quilt for the couple of years. Sal made the bed to add four pullout drawers to compensate for a lack of storage in the sack. He also constructed new wood dividers and closetdoors, and set up new carpeting, to create this cozy sleeping area.
Louise Lakier
Geri designed and put in on the wall fresco and tile backsplash in the bathroom. Sal constructed the window, counter and medication cupboard.
Louise Lakier
The kitchen extends into the front of the home, providing space for a homemade breakfast table and plate hutches. The table base is a refurbished railroad port, salvaged from Rejuvenation in Portland.
“Creating the furniture goes much quicker than deciding on the hardware to get this,” Sal says. “It took years to find just the right drawer pulls to your china hutch. My table saw stopped working after 17 years of faithful service, and Geri’s response was, ‘Just don’t turn it into a coffee table.'”
Louise Lakier
Sal added to an existing window and door at the craft room to create a bank of windows. The timber flooring is prefinished teak from Lumber Liquidators.
Seating: Restoration Hardware and Rejuvenation
Louise Lakier
Sal constructed the sliding door to the upstairs roomfrom stuff he had available.
Louise Lakier
Although he has moved around a lot, Sal has lugged this job desk anyplace. This distance is where he generates mats because of their photographs. His set of old and new cameras sits on the shelves.
Rotating lighting fixture: Restoration Hardware
Louise Lakier
A bank of drawers sits on a salvaged cart with a custom-made shirt. One of Geri’s student’s parents gifted her the metal plate with cutout letters.
Louise Lakier
The ranch-style home sits on a coastal Salem road. Other than some raised and altered rooflines, paint and trim, the exterior stays comparatively the same — that the magical occurred inside.
View more photographs from this home
You can read that the Ortegas’ site about their home’s transformation in The Marcial Chronicles.