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Derek and Becky Tonn and their daughters Libby, 6, and Ellie, 3 live in a home of hidden treasures. “It was vacant for eight months, and everybody saw it as great potential but too much work,” Derek says. “Every room had dirty white walls, cracks everywhere and some of them had writing on them. The front porch was literally starting to fall toward the street.” Even in tough shape, the Tonns thought, “Way too much potential, period, to not buy it.” But it was not until they went upstairs and saw the massive stain glass window that the family said, “We must have this house.”

When Derek and Becky first moved into the house in Springfield, Minnesota five years ago with their then one-year-old daughter Libby, the first thing they did was clean, fix some of the plaster and put on a fresh coat of paint. “We didn’t want to do anything big and structural until we knew more about it,” Derek says. “We just figure six or seven projects a year, eight or nine years later, and we are about half way through that. If we saw a photo of something, we try to put it back that way. We’ve tried to make sure we are consistent with the original blueprints.”

In September 2007, the HGTV Network show, If Walls Could Talk, was in the area and featured the Tonn’s home. “They had an appraiser from Connecticut appraise the stain glass, the side board in the dining room and the sconces in the living room,” Becky says. According to the appraiser, the window was worth approximately $18,000. The sconces, which turned out to be Stuben Glass, were worth between $600 and $800 for the pair.

For Derek and Libby, renovating the home is like a treasure hunt. The family never knows what little photo or toy they might find around the next corner or behind the next baseboard.