The cottage was built in 1947. Our Grandmother–Ardella’s sister, Ruth–had drawn up the original plans for the home, as she did for many of Grandpa’s building projects–even though she had basically no education in the field of Architecture. Every decade or so, an addition would be made to the house. The end result was a little like a mini-museum of American History. Walking through the house, the era of each addition would be evident. Here are a few examples.
The 70s were well represented with the wood-paneled walls and macrame wall-hangings and pot-holders
Aunt Ardella was the ultimate DIYer–before DIY was cool! And not a casual one, at that. She created her own watering system–building a drip-system from PVC pipe, her own electrical system (as you can see below), tackled plumbing, and pretty much anything else that was needed. One time she dug a massive trench under the house so that she could access some pipes that needed to be fixed. She did the digging and the plumbing all by herself. She had some one with more experience check on her work, but she did it herself. She would often come up with creative ways of tackling the issues that come with home ownership. And while many of her ideas were ingenious, very few were up to current code regulations. Renovating the cottage was going to be a pretty serious undertaking!
Due to the age of the home and the many issues involving current building codes, we have had to gut most of the house. Where possible we are keeping/updating original features that add charm, like the fireplace in the front room and the many unique niches and built-ins through out the house. We recently found the original plans for the house and will display those!
Our designs will pay tribute to the history of the home and it’s Southern Utah location while adopting the comforts, conveniences, and technology of today. We are also adding an entire full bathroom to the up-stairs level for the convenience of our guests, completely modernizing the kitchen, and working with the city to make sure we are up to code on all safety features.
This is truly a labor of love! We can’t wait to show you the Afters!
Jean, Carma Morris here, from Tuesday nights at the Springville L:DSFS. I’m so jazzed to see your site up! Our extended Fam is on the hunt for a venue for our FamCamp2019, (likely early summer) so I’m following Ardella’s Cottage progress closely! GOOD LUCK!
Carma!!! I’m so happy to see you here! Please do, we would love to have you💕
Looking at possibly booking this next Summer for a wedding reception. Can you tell me what dates you have available and pricing?
Hi Kendra! While we love wedding, we are not currently zoned to rent out for them. Seeing as changes in zoning would require some big changes at the city level, we aren’t anticipating opening as a reception venue any time soon. Keep us in mind for lodging or more intimate events related to your wedding. We are getting set-up on VRBO and Airbnb, and will have the calendar posted as soon as that is finalized. Are you on the mailing list to be notified when bookings go live?