Andrew Ownbey Restoration LLC

08/30/2026

I’ve seen this dovetail plank smokehouse from the road since I was a kid and finally I got to see it up close. Check out the lock mechanism dapeede told me about. It’s a wooden rod slid through a small hole cut in the corner of the planks.
This building was moved to its location and looks like it’s lost some height from the bottom, but otherwise is a good example of the form. I’d date it to 1800 or so.

08/23/2026

We picked the hottest week to do the heaviest job but the guys worked hard and made good progress. My goal was to have the sills sitting on blocks by Thursday. We finished them Wednesday and started standing posts until the storms rolled in Thursday afternoon. The shop just got a lot bigger with the 37’ x18’ frame out and the stables are looking more stable every day.
Good work David, Andrew, Will, and Brandon! dapeede Andrew White Will Carr Brandon Savage

08/19/2026

EVM Foundation

We are working hard to save this incredible structure !

‘Extraordinary undertaking’ aims to save rare survivor of early 1800s life in NC
READ MORE: bit.ly/4gBFOC5

08/06/2026

We made the decision to remove the rear wall of the stables since every stud has to be repaired and much of the siding was already replaced. With the sills finished we are able to fit the tenons on the splices to their corresponding mortises. We are trying to save as much original material as possible while using traditional repair methods.

07/31/2026

We set up dual planing benches this afternoon to knock out an order of hand planed facia boards for Blair Shores Builders. We ran the smoothing planes over them then a 1/2 side beading plane. These will go on the porch of the Coffield house on East King st. in Edenton where they installed some beams we planed and scarffed together last week.

07/25/2026

Hayes Stables sill joinery progress from yesterday:
Nothing complicated, just straight & half dovetail notches, scarfs, and mortise & tenons. Of the 110’ of original sills we have about 5’ left intact enough to give us the information we need to know about the size, style, and spacing of these 133 joints.

07/23/2026

We scarfed together some local yella’ pine from Thomas Nixon at Old Ferry Sawmill. These 20’ 6x10’s were joined to form the 37’ front sill. I’m grateful to have a good local source of custom milled material!

07/11/2026

As we begin the restoration of the stables at Hayes we carefully document any any evidence we can find of its original configuration. The 84’ long building clearly began as two separate structures. The left side had a floor throughout the entire structure based on the evidence and even some original flooring I found in 3 stalls. This is a rare surviving example of a stable from the first half of the 19th century so there will be a lot learned from the work about to happen. Thanks to the devotion of the Elizabeth Van Moore Foundation we can save this important window into the equine history of Eastern North Carolina.

07/07/2026

The circa 1760 sash locks on the Cupola House windows are quite rare. The lenticular (eye-shaped) escutcheon is mounted to the lower sash with a threaded plate inlet into the upper sash both at the center of the meeting rails. They line up in the closed position so a threaded thumb screw could lock them together. Sadly the screws are all missing and only two escutcheons survive.

06/28/2026

We continued the work on the mid 19th century timber frame “carriage house” at Beverly Hall this week. The corner posts have up and down braces and two offset tenons for the header and end girt/joist. This makes it tricky to replace the post that was rotted from top to bottom but we were able to work the new post, header and up-brace back in and pin them in place. Good work and .nathaniel.white.