TACOMA, Wash. — It has been nearly 50 years since Mario and Susan Oblak last stepped inside Tacoma's Rust Mansion. That's about to change.
"There she is," Susan said. "Ten-Oh-One North I."
It was here, on the top floor that the couple met. She was a 23-year-old speech pathologist who lived in one apartment. He was a 23-year-old sculptor living in another.
"I mean how often does it happen that people who live across the hall from each other, you know, get married?" Susan asked.
For the past three months, owner Ashley Burks has been busy restoring the "White House of The West" back to its former glory.
"My time here is coming to an end," Burks said.
She purchased the house for $2.5 million and invested about a million dollars in renovations. She wants to have the iconic home back on the market well before the Fourth of July.
"It's going to be really exciting but also it's kind of like finishing the last chapter of your favorite book," she said.
Before that happened, Burks invited the Oblaks to the mansion where they met. Susan had sent KING 5 Evening an email about a previous story. Now she and her husband were climbing two sets of stairs up to the former maid's quarters, where they each had separate apartments in 1973.
"This was my bedroom," she said as she walked into a room. "Holy smokes! It hasn't even changed at all!"
"Was it the same light fixture?" her husband asked.
"I don't remember that," she said. "I just remember the beds being built-in."
Mario Oblak lived across the hall. Now it was his turn to visit his old apartment.
"Wow, I've gotten goosebumps," he said as he opened the door. "Oh my god! This is it Look at it. It's so small!"
The two met when Susan needed to borrow chairs for a party.
"We met and just connected instantly," Mario said.
"We started dating and we were married nine months later," his wife said.
Mario compared the visit to time travel.
"I just never dreamt in my wildest dreams that I would set foot back into the space," he said. "It's incredible."
"And it's the same, basically," Susan added.
But the couple has changed.
"We have two beautiful kids that we could not be prouder of and a brand new grandson," Mario said.
"We waited a long time for that," his wife added.
They've been back before, just to walk around the outside, but this time they got to add a new memory to all the old ones. For our camera, they reenacted the moment Susan knocked on the door asking to borrow Mario's chairs.
"Well, hello," Mario said as he opened the door. "You're back!"
And for a moment all those years seemed to disappear and it was 1973 all over again.
"You know it all happened quickly," Mario said. "I think that's why we have such great memories of this place."
When they left Mario and Susan walked away arm in arm from the Rust Mansion.
"That was fun," she said.
Morrison House/Sotheby's International Realty is the exclusive broker for the Rust Mansion.
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