East Amana man converts old granary into spacious home

EAST AMANA - The year was 1924. The wagons rolled down the streets of this little village, the horses turning into the entrance of a looming gray structure: the East Amana Granary and Scale House. Loads of rich Iowa grain were weighed; then the drivers guided the horses into the granary itself, beginning the tedious task of sending the grain by elevator up to the third floor.

At least two of the men, Joe and I. Butz (pronounced Boots), carved their names into the rough-hewed walls while idling their time away. Disaster struck the granary after only a year, though: A night fire destroyed the huge building. However, by 1925 the industrious Amana people had rebuilt it.

Now fast forward 90 years, to 2015. Miraculously, the early 1900s granary is a spacious early 21st century home, complete with four bedrooms, three baths, two family rooms and living areas - but still with an aura of vintage charm, a feature that its owner, Brad Daggy, 56, considered mandatory for the 4,672 square-foot home. It's set on two-thirds of an acre in the bucolic land surrounding this hamlet, which wears a perpetual mantle of serenity, and is probably the most peaceful of the seven Amana colonies.

Renovation-wise, Daggy, the ultimate do-it-yourselfer, did the prodigious converting himself, and made sure he kept or added charm. You see it in the massive cottonwood ceiling beams present in practically every room; numerous rough-hewed walls; narrow- and wide-planked floors of fir and pine; tons of new wainscoting, and the unique/antique Amana door locks.

Outside, the roof sports a belvedere structure, a subtype of cupola that is so large Daggy has turned it into a reading room with bookcases. Also on the roof is an intriguing 6-foot weather vane shaped like an arrow, a replica that Daggy made of the original, which now hangs in the house. The building's architectural lines are Spartan, befitting a granary and matching the Amana style of no frills. (Daggy attached a two-stall garage in the same style.)

'I tried to keep a 1920s/1930s feel to the house because I wanted to have it reflect Amana, very simple, not ornate, and to fit the building,” he says.

'My (late) wife, Jackie, and I always wanted to convert a barn into a house,” recalls Daggy. Jacquelin Daggy died at age 51 in a car accident in August 2010. The two had bought the granary in 2007 for more than $36,000 and he had been working on it nights, weekends and vacations for three years, Jackie staining all the new siding and helping with the interior painting. Their children are Asa, 28, of Walford, and Michaela, 26, of Cedar Rapids.

Daggy remembers his attraction to the building: '(The granary) is built like the houses on the street. It lent itself to being a home.” The Amana people liked the fact that the old building would have a new use.

Daggy (of Scandinavian descent) moved into it in November 2010. He grew up on a Humboldt area farm and learned how to fix and build things from his dad. 'Every home I've lived in I've done work to,” says the trim, 6'2” Daggy with a smile. He owns Summit Properties LLC, where he rehabilitates and sells houses in the Cedar Rapids area.

But the granary was a challenge. After it ceased operations in 1990, it was used largely for storage and declined. The corrugated tin roof was shot, so Daggy and his dad replaced it with a steel roof. The siding was beyond saving, so father and son installed a moisture barrier first, then Daggy chose pine Dutch lap siding. Jackie tackled the Herculean job of staining it on both sides; the men applied it and presto: authenticity with durability.

All the wide-planked floors are original; they just needed sanding and an oil finish. All the doors are native Amana. Some even have a 'cat door,” a little cut-out at the bottom of a door that the slim country cats could easily use. Windows are double-paned energy-efficient Andersen, with encased mullions that imitate the multi-paned effect of old Amana windows.

The most expensive components of the 'redo” were two heating/cooling systems, the plumbing, and the spray foam insulation - the only parts of the project that Daggy hired out. A fourth was the roof, which cost $12,000, even with his own labor and donated help. The rest of the work he did largely himself. Without his thousands of hours over the three-plus years, the renovation would have sharply increased the $225,000 Daggy estimates he's put into it. The house was recently appraised at $354,000.

Daggy's grateful for the considerable help from his dad, Dale Daggy of Humboldt and his neighbors, John Huff and William Jasper. He was grateful also to his mom, Gloria, who sewed 33 windows of Amana curtains that blow with the breeze, just as they did 90 years ago.

Some interesting construction facts:

There are 10,000 linear feet of siding and 1.5 miles of quarter round; 1,800 pounds of soda were used for soda-blasting. 'Anything that was going to be exposed, I soda-blasted. It just took off the surface dirt,” explains Daggy. 'The soda is coarser than baking soda but not so harsh as sandblasting.”

Daggy is not only a renovator, but a creator; he also builds furniture. His handiwork can be seen throughout the house. He has a number of family heirlooms, too, including his grandfather's boarding school trunk and his paternal grandmother's quilt and writing desk.

Interior colors are subdued, reminiscent of nature. The 22-by-12-foot kitchen offers a splash of cheer, though: The wainscoted cabinets from Menards are custard yellow, the drawers punctuated with vintage-style pulls. Daggy likes to cook, and the generous kitchen with its narrow-plank floor accommodates that.

His favorite areas are the family room (where the carved Butz names are still seen on the rough wallboards) and the master bedroom, with its cathedral beamed ceiling and king bed he crafted in quarter-sawn white oak. The 32-by-12-foot room has natural light with five windows.

Would Daggy do the renovation all over again? 'Sure,” he replies swiftly. 'I don't like the conventional, I like something with character.”

And that he surely has.