Andrew Ownbey Restoration LLC

10/14/2026

Shutters that didn’t rot for 260+ years hanging in the same place began to rot 4 years after one coat of latex paint. The painters and paint makers all say it’s the wood… I say ban latex !

10/01/2026

I spent some time today with Amelia Jensen | Artriage, llc investing the loft over the kitchen at Hayes today. Heavy soot buildup from a substantial roof fire has left the place with some good evidence for former partitions. We were able to identify the location of a number of previous sections of the walls that created both living and storage rooms. The heavy whitewash layers show well defined lines.
Slide to photo 3 and 4 to see lump’s of what appears to be wool covered with lime wash. It was jammed into the cracks as insulation. This space is finally starting to make sense but there is still a lot to learn. Oh and we ran into Juliana Falk too!

09/19/2026

Shingles make great shims.
This one is well preserved late 18th century example gives clues as to how it was produced. I tried to capture the facets with raking light that show the the rounded corners were created with the draw knife on the horse at the same time the shingle was dressed and chamfered on the top 1/3 to account for the overlap. New shingles are typically sawn to long wedge with corners rounded with a saw. Riven shingles were not. ( not that I’ve seen so far).
This one, along with most I see, is actually riven with flat grain. Not vertical or quarter. Again, I can show more examples of flat grain in early shingles than I can quarter or vertical. They knew what they were doing and knew how to do it quickly.
Last shot is just a nicely preserved grille that survived the Ivey.

09/18/2026

Typically we assume that early siding was always “dressed” or planed smooth. This is a perfectly preserved unpainted example of late 18th century siding protected from the weather that shows the original saw marks and beaded edges. It is on a one of Edenton’s best late 18th century houses. Sometimes we just don’t quite understand what the details really looked like until we see them like this.

09/07/2026

A nice example of lime mortar performing its sacrificial role for over 250 years. It simply needs to be raked out and repointed. Maintained properly with compatible materials this wall will stand for millennia.

09/06/2026

This is an incredible example of spalling bricks caused by bricks that are “softer” than the mortar. I found this on a chimney in Bertie county Nc years ago. Spalling happens when the face of the brick is forced to retain moisture then as it expels, mineral deposits accumulate near the surface and crystallize sheering the face off. Freezing can cause this too.
In a nutshell the mortar should be able to expel moisture through capillary action and act as a sacrificial element. This allows the mortar to “fail” before the bricks. Mortar is more easily replaced than bricks. Period mortars were not made from putty so don’t waste your money on putty unless you are laying/pointing rubbed bricks. We make lime rich dry slaked mortars from quicklime to match original pre-portland cement mortars when applicable, just like they did in the period.

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.