Renovation Process Update

 I've been gone for two months - working in Santa Barbara on a big project - and have just now gotten back into the swing of things here at home, and that includes thinking about Ephraim.

So here is a quick update: Russell Bezette began the adobe renovation in October and made six trips to Ephraim over the next month, finishing the project before Thanksgiving. He took most of these photos to document the process. He is truly an expert on these old buildings with a life-time of experience, and a great love for his craft. It was truly a pleasure to work with him. I think he is up for another Utah Heritage award.

A heartfelt thanks to all those who gave donations to fund this project, and the exterior renovation that will continue this Spring.

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Back bedroom before wall excavation.

Southeast failed corner. Russell found this wall in urgent need of repair and close to collapse.

After adobe repair and first coat of mud plaster.

After second coat of mud plaster.

After final coat. Bizette also repaired the chimney during excavation and now the old wood stove can be put in place again.

After exterior south wall excavation.

Here you see how the failed adobes are removed and the wall is re-built.

After repair of the stem wall and stucco scratch coat.

Blue room before and after.

Before and after.

After second coat of mud plaster.

After final coat of mud plaster. Bizette used local soils sourced from the west side of town, by the city dump. It is hard to grasp just how much raw material it takes to do this kind of repair - literally tons.

The Out Buildings: Before & After

Outbuildings like barns, chicken coops, outhouses, granaries, sheds, and carriage houses, are often overlooked and under-appreciated in historic neighborhoods. Although simple in design and usually small in scale, they tell the story of the development of the home-site and the neighborhood, adding a visible layer of history and information. This is why we thought it was important to preserve these buildings for the next generation to explore.

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The Granary with a new metal roof.

Interior with new pine rafters. I had the roofers, Alpine Summit Roofing, save the old boards. Even though they were mostly rotted through, I find old barn wood irresistible and I'm sure they can be used for something. 

Granary floor after cleaning - I wasn't sure if it even had a floor.

The outhouse with a new cedar shingle roof. We also had the whole thing moved over, away from the encroaching trees onto a new timber base. According to Grandma Wanda, it's been moved all over the place.

The old two-seater is ready for business!

Cleaning out the Granary

Of course we couldn't throw anything away! We even sifted through the dirt that we shoveled off the floor boards (I didn't even know if it still had a floor ) to make sure we didn't miss anything interesting or valuable. As the saying goes: "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

Saving the Outhouse and Granary

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After this last winter, the outhouse was ready to fall over. The floor was caving-in and half of the roof had fallen through.

We attempted to shore up the structure two years ago, but the whole thing needed to be picked-up and moved over onto a new base, away from the encroaching trees.

The boards of the granary roof had also been falling through for some time.

I wanted to preserve these structures, so I hired the guys at Alpine Summit Roofing in Ephraim to do both projects.

We decided to do a metal roof on the granary and a cedar shingle roof on the outhouse.

Luckily, the walls were still stable.

Blue Room

Remember this? Dirt from the adobe wall was pouring out from under the beloved silvery-blue wallpaper I had admired throughout my childhood. It was going to have to come off.

So, we knew there were some deterioration issues in the blue room, especially on the east wall in the area of the closet and under the stairway.

The cleared out room. Trent begins to demo the closet.

Meanwhile I am removing the famous silvery blue wallpaper down to the original earthen plaster.

Here you see how the front northeast corner of the house has really settled and there are cracks in the exterior stucco and a vine coming through. Here you can also see how the original floor boards were once painted red.

For the record, Trent in a good sport and actually doesn't mind doing these projects. He also likes hanging out in Ephraim because it's a nice change from the studio in SLC.

Don't you love finding all the wallpaper under the wallpaper? Here you can also see that the ceiling used to be painted salmon pink! I think Jennie was partial to salmon pink.

See the previous patch job under the window and the way the adobes start to have holes toward the corner?

Here you see the construction: the adobe bricks with mud plaster in between, multiple coats of earthen plaster and then traces of the white-wash or lime-wash that was the original protective and decorative wall finish.

See the daylight coming through from a crack in the exterior? Yikes!

Stairway

This is the stairway in a house moved from Sanpete County to Heritage Village at This is the Place State Park in SLC. It is an adobe structure from the same time period. I think our stairway used to look similar to this.

We decided to tear off the 70's paneling to see the space under the stairs. Grandma Wanda told me that they used to keep their shoes under the stairs and that there used to be a door here, to the upstairs.

Wondering what we'll find!


Trent, tearing off the paneling.


Now we see that the space under the stairs was used for storage, where there are still some plank shelves. I'm glad we did this because there is some caving here to the adobe wall that needs to be repaired. I think it could be related to an exterior water leak.