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DAWSON - Frank and Shari Aabye say they love to travel. But now they've settled down in an old Skelly gas station in Dawson.

"This is the place," Frank Aabye said, looking at "Astoria Station," the loft-style home he and his wife have built out of the gas station and adjoining garage, which had stood empty. "I've said this was the last move, unless we go into a rest home."

The Aabyes, who are originally from the Fargo-Moorhead area, moved into the station and began renovating in the summer of 2004. Since then, the unusual home has gotten some attention from local residents and media. A photo of the station even appeared in a promotional magazine for the U.S. Highway 75 corridor. But, Frank Aabye said, "We're not trying to push anything. This is home."

The property started out as a Sinclair station in the 1928 and became a Skelly station later on, Aabye said. In the late 1960s, Dawson resident Amer Boras removed the gas tanks and pumps and operated the station as a garage. It was vacant when the Aabyes came through Dawson and noticed its scenic location on the Lac qui Parle River.

At the time, Shari Aabye said, the couple was living in Benson. The Aabyes had also spent a few years traveling and living outside Minnesota when Frank retired as the Perham postmaster in 1992.

"We were driving on 212, and I thought, 'Let's go down the main street of Dawson,'" Shari Aabye said. They had always wanted a riverfront home, and seeing a restored gas station in nearby Madison, Minn., gave the Aabyes the idea to do something similar.

"People in town liked that we were fixing (the station) up," Shari Aabye said. "If it hadn't been fixed up, it probably would have been torn down."

However, turning a working garage into a house was far from easy. Frank Aabye estimated that it took about two years to finish renovations. The work started with some heavy cleanup.

"The bricks were full of grease, and there was oil on the floor," Shari Aabye said. The station presented some construction challenges as well. Even simple projects like replacing a door or window could take a week, Frank Aabye said, because the frame would have to be pried out of the station's concrete and brick walls.

"It's built like a fortress," he said of the station.

The Aabyes also faced setbacks like a collapsed sewer line in the station's basement, all while living in the middle of the renovations.

"And especially when I'm a neatnik, sheesh," Shari Aabye said with a smile. But, she added, it wasn't hard to adjust - you just pick a job and do it. "It was never really a mess."

The gas station office became a formal parlor filled with family heirlooms, while two of the garage bays and an addition behind the parlor were converted into a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath areas. The Aabyes named the house "Astoria Station" after Astoria, Ore., where they once lived briefly.

A few details from the old filling station, like ductwork and the chains that used to support the garage doors, are still visible in the finished house. The Aabyes placed a restored gas pump and oilers outside, along with a vintage car that Frank Aabye jokingly referred to as "the lawn ornament."

The look might even be real enough to fool some people, Shari Aabye said.

"Once a little boy came to the door and asked if he could use the bathroom. I think he might have thought it was still a gas station," she said. "People would ask us if we were going to sell gas."