Budget Breakdown: A $336K Cottage Renovation Gives an Oregon Widow a Fresh Start

Barbara McDonald’s architect son updated the 1946 home by raising the ceilings, opening the floor plan, and installing low-cost, durable materials like Richlite and Marmoleum.

May 2, 2024 - 17:34

Budget Breakdown: A $336K Cottage Renovation Gives an Oregon Widow a Fresh Start

Barbara McDonald’s architect son updated the 1946 home by raising the ceilings, opening the floor plan, and installing low-cost, durable materials like Richlite and Marmoleum.

The Orchard Street Residence was renovated from a humble 1946 cottage in a neighborhood of mostly pre-World War II houses.

In 2016, after Barbara McDonald lost her husband, legendary track and field coach Dick Brown (who coached 1980s world-champion distance runner Mary Slaney), she was ready to say goodbye to their spacious home north of Eugene, Oregon’s city center. It was the end of a chapter, and she was ready to make new connections.

After the death of her husband, Eugene, Oregon, resident Barbara McDonald purchased a 1946 single-level cottage and hired her son, architect Ben McDonald, for a renovation.

"I found it a little bit isolated, as nice as it was," she explains of the home they shared. "I really wanted to be where things were a little bit more vibrant, so I started to look around the University of Oregon, where I could be near friends, walk, and ride my bike."

A close friend knew of a house going up for sale in her neighborhood, a 1946 two-bedroom on Orchard Street. From here, Barbara could hear the roar of the crowd less than a mile away at the university’s famous Hayward Field during track meets, a reminder of her late husband’s legacy.