A Note From Josh: Continuing the Story

The last days of a project can be some of the most stressful of the whole job. The end of our work on the Brigham and Mary Ann Young Home in Nauvoo, Illinois, was no exception.

By our last day, the house was already open to the public. I was there doing some very minor touch-up work, and the visitors were coming through.

Families come to Historic Nauvoo from all over the world, and a lot of them stop at the Young Home. That day I got to meet some of them. They were some of the nicest people I've met, and some of them were really interested in the house.

Every so often I'd hear someone say something like, "You know what? I think they just finished a restoration on this house." That was my cue. I'd chime in and ask, "Do you want to see something pretty cool?"

Then I'd show them a few pictures. Over the winter, a metal scaffold enclosure had been built up around the entire house. Inside it, the roof and both wings came off, and our masons rebuilt the wings while it snowed outside. Standing there looking at the finished house, people could hardly picture it.

Most people aren't around construction every day, so I think it's special for them to get a look behind the curtain at how this kind of work actually happens. They were so appreciative. Honestly, so was I. I was grateful for the chance to be a small part of their story and their time in Nauvoo.

A lot of the visitors that day never knew the house had just been through a major restoration. To me, that's the best compliment a historic restoration can get.

The house turned out beautifully. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set out to do this project the right way, and they followed through on it. It's a special thing to watch an owner carry out a project like this one, and I'm grateful we got to be part of it.

When you walk inside now, you feel like you've stepped straight back into the 1840s. I don't have a better word for it than magical. The missionaries who work in the house do a wonderful job telling the story of the early Saints and the pioneers who settled Nauvoo, and the house gives them the right place to tell it.

Brigham and Mary Ann Young moved into this house in 1843 and left it in 1846 to head west. More than 180 years later, families are still walking through their front door.

That's what I love about this work. We aren't the beginning of a building's story, and we won't be the end of it. We get to write one chapter, and our job is to write it well enough that the next generation gets to keep reading.

We were lucky on this one to be part of it from start to finish. We came in during budgeting, before a single brick came out of the wall, and we stayed through the last touch-up. Westland Construction and CRSA were both new partners for us, along with the Church's historic sites team, and the whole group just clicked. Problems came up, the way they always do on a building this old, and we worked through them together. Jason Burg led our team on the main restoration, and it shows.

Most of what we do, people never see. Joints get repointed, walls get stabilized, and the building keeps standing. That's how it should be. But every once in a while you get to stand outside a building you helped save and watch a family walk up to it with no idea what it took. Those are the parts of this job I enjoy most.

This was one of the most challenging projects we've ever taken on. It was also the most rewarding one I've ever been a part of, and I hope we get to do more work in Nauvoo.

If you want to see how the restoration came together, the full project is here.

Josh