A Radiantly Remodeled Midcentury Rummer Home Lists for $925K in Oregon

In 2019, Fay Ou-Yang and Martin Sanmiguel bought a classic Rummer in Beaverton, Oregon, so-called because the 1960s home was built by famed local builder Robert Rummer. Described as "Oregon’s answer to Eichler," Rummer was heavily influenced by the esteemed California developer and built about 750 post-and-beam houses in the Portland area between 1959 and the mid-1970s. In recent years, Rummers have become hot commodities on the local real estate market. 

When Fay and Martin bought this 1968 residence, the midcentury structure had seen some striking modifications. For instance, the atrium just inside the entrance— which is a hallmark of Rummer’s designs—had been enclosed into a glazed vestibule of sorts, complete with a roof and wooden floors. "Our first undertaking was to restore the atrium," says Fay, who liked how that space in particular evoked traditional indoor/outdoor Japanese architecture. Having lived in both New York City and Kyoto, Japan, the homeowners wanted to combine an industrial aesthetic with a Japanese influence, while also returning the Rummer back to its roots. 

Once the atrium was done, the couple started stripping back layers of flooring to get to the original concrete. "Of course, if we were going to do that, we had to restore the roofline, just to get that value and the beauty back," says Fay. The project soon snowballed into a full-scale remodel of the home. "We joke around with our friends about how it was a naive mistake to start the whole thing," says Fay. But the more the homeowners intervened, the more they noticed when certain elements didn’t coalesce. "It’s like, okay, now this doesn’t look right. One bathroom is renovated, but the other isn’t," says Fay. "So, it was just one thing after another, after another."