How the Efrata couple plan to lovingly restore Granny Anne Swigart’s former home [photos] | Home & Garden

“I was looking for a project to keep me busy,” Glenn said. “I’ve always liked this house. It’s been vacant for a long time, so I thought it sold many years ago.

“It was a foreclosure. I basically bought it from a bank,” he said. “It was sold for public sale in 2009. I don’t know what happened from there.”

The house was built around 1878 on land purchased by James and Catherine (Bitzer) Bryson from Henry Winters, according to records kept by the Cocarico Valley Historical Society. The current half-sized house was sold to John J. Eschlemann in 1889 for $ 3,400. Between 1911 and 1913, after three more owners, the last was Coroner Elmore Miller, Lancaster County. I don’t know when the expansion took place, but Miller moved his medical practice there. He kept it until his death in 1941, sold it to William E. and Minerva Eirich, and soon to Christian and Versa (Brosman) Evie.

When Bertha died in 1985, the house was handed over to his sister Anne, the president and CEO of D & E.

Efratabon Mandy Star knew her through Anne’s sister Emily Spreader.

“I helped Emily take care of her,” she said.

Now the house belongs to them. So where should we start?

“We removed 13 debris from the outside,” Mandy said.

In doing so, Mandy said they found a stone patio “buried under the feet of the leaves.” Small rooms just inside and to the right. The room has a gas fireplace. On the ground floor bathroom and to the left of the main entrance are two large rooms illuminated by many windows. Behind it is a small room in a spacious greenhouse.

“This is probably everyone’s favorite room,” Mandy said. “I will probably put a lot of plants here.”

The problem with this range built into the island is as bad as many of the marble countertops throughout the room. In some places, most of the marble is completely missing.

“We’ll probably cut everything out and start over,” Glenn said. Three bedrooms and one and a half baths. The entire east was Anne’s very large bedroom, with a clothing closet the same size as the small bedroom. Ann reportedly had a sitting area by the front window. Behind the bedroom is her very large bathroom, which may have doubled as her personal hair salon.

“When Anne had it, I wanted to see it,” Mandy said. “She was always very careful, so I think the bedroom was finished in the same way.”

There are two more bedrooms in the attic, but Mandy said he “needs work.”

On both the upper and lower floors, small rooms were created surrounded by what used to be porch.

Considering how vacant the house was, it looks better than I had hoped for. The roof was intact and leak-free, except for one or two damaged slate. Almost the same can be said internally.

“Structurally, most wood is still in good condition and looks good,” Glenn said. “Electricity seems to be working. We are currently working on plumbing. It has copper pipes and after sitting in the sky the copper pipes tend to be blown away. What in a project like this? Every time I turn it on, I get unexpected problems, especially with pipes. ”In the early stages of the refurbishment, the focus was on the outside of the house.

“I’m sanding the chimney and outer wall chipping paint,” Mandy said. “These are currently my two projects. I need to focus on these two. Yes, otherwise you will be overwhelmed. “

Glen is fine and Mandy is focused on the wall.

“When I walked for the first time, I saw the wallpaper. I don’t like to take it down, so that’s our arrangement. She takes down the wallpaper and I paint,” he said. ..

Stulls wants to complete all external work, except internal, in the summer and work internally when the cold season begins.

Stulls are not new to this type of project. Together they refurbished an old farmhouse on Hamon Avenue about 15 years ago.

“This isn’t too bad, except that we have a lot of wallpapers to remove,” Glenn says.

In addition, Mandy’s father, Bob, owns a liner builder.

Also, one of the couple’s sons works at Rineer, “he comes once a week to help us.”

Glenn’s father was also useful for the repair project and was watching him at work.

“He taught me some skills.”

For Stulls, it’s the labor of love.

“I like to come here and work on it,” Glenn said. “I hope one day I will return to my former glory.”

Mandy agrees.

“I enjoy it,” she said. “It’s a fun project.”

Larry Alexander is a correspondent for Efrata Review.