Gilbert gets back to the simple life

What else would you expect from a Little House on the Prairie star? Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls Wilder on the historical TV drama, now lives in a small home in Upstate New York. She dubs the house The Cabbage — a portmanteau of “cabin” and “cottage” — and it sits on 14 wooded acres in the Catskills. Gilbert and her husband, Thirtysomething star Timothy Busfield, call the place home along with their rescue dog, Chicago.

The two bought the property for US$98,000 in January 2019. It was filled with mould, mildew and mice — plus the previous owners’ junk and an eye-watering odour. And there was only one bathroom, if you didn’t count the outhouse.

Still, Gilbert saw potential. Above the dropped ceiling in the kitchen was a cathedral ceiling. She could make a music room out of the loft. And there was pine panelling as well as a fireplace in the living room.

“As I stared up at one of the rotting deer heads on the wall, a lifetime of therapy kicked in and I thought I could do something here,” Gilbert writes in her new memoir, Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Discovered. “I just had to look past the crap.”

The two gave The Cabbage a thorough cleaning. Gilbert decoupaged cabinets with clipped magazine recipes, built a ceiling fan and reupholstered a couch and a loveseat, The New York Times reports. They used recycled bowling-alley wood to make floating shelves, and decorated with tchotchkes throughout.

Outside, they built a chicken coop and raised beds for an herb-and-vegetable garden. Professionals were called in for the demolition, plumbing and rewiring tasks.

“This is what I’ve always wanted,” Gilbert told People magazine in early May.

She and Busfield still retain a rented apartment in Manhattan. Little House on the Prairie aired nine seasons from 1974 to 1983.