Davis/Draper House

05/22/2026

Late nights.

04/19/2026

Don’t worry…we’re still working on this beauty!
Sometimes life gets in the way…
and you make family a prioirty. ❤️
(3 kids graduating, moving three kids, health, weddings, funerals…oh, and we renovated and opened another shop in Marion…Uptown Scribe!)

The inside basics (unsexy stuff like furnace work…)
are almost done.

Then the fun begins.
marion

11/04/2022

All we want to do is:
1.) Save old buildings
2.) Respect Marion's history and authentic City Square Park and Uptown
3.) Bring something unique to the community
4.) Support local
5.) Have fun (and keep our sense of humor!)

That's all :-)

Uptown Marion received a $100,000 Main Street Iowa Challenge Grant for the Davis-Draper Building from the Iowa Economic Development Authority, the district said Thursday.

11/03/2022

Here we go!
A huge CONGRATULATIONS to ALL of the Main Street Iowa Challenge Grant recipients across the state!
A huge thank you to the Marion Chamber of Commerce (Brooke Prouty Jill Ackerman Tami Taylor Schlamp and the Uptown Board of Directors) for your support and inspiration.
And a huge thank you to all of you that work and want to keep our Main Streets vibrant and our historic buildings intact.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) awarded $934,430 in Main Street Iowa Challenge Grants to 10 communities around the state, including Marion,

04/18/2022

Peeling away the onion...

The middle room actually had five layers of floor coverings ....
carpet
linoleum
subfloor
red & black tile tile
tar paper.
The hidden treasure appears to be a wide plank, pine floor.
Our house, which is actually a bit older, had similar flooring in the upstairs bedrooms. Hopefully this will turn out just as cool.
A bit rustic, but warm and inviting.
There’s still several rooms downstairs and all the rooms upstairs to reveal.
Dick is addicted to the project already.

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!🐇

04/10/2022

Remember when we said we didn’t think there were hardwood floors under the carpet?
WE WERE WRONG!
4 layers down (carpet, a couple layers of some sort of linoleum, plus a sub floor...)
it looks like there is!!!
Hopefully it’s in decent enough shape that we can refinish it...
Stay tuned.

02/27/2022

...and so it begins.

Dick has barely been able to contain himself with this next project.
After a pipe burst last month (freezing temps), it gave him the green light to tear down a drop ceiling that was already going to be replaced.
One sad discovery is that we don’t think there’s hardwood under the carpet on the main level. That doesn’t mean that maybe some of the rooms have it, as we haven’t checked every room yet. But what we’ve pulled up thus far is plywood underneath.

Today’s projects:
Continue to tear down the area damaged by the broken water pipe (drop ceilings) and prepare some of the walls for patching and painting. Removing and storing floorboards for the moment.
Removal of wall paper and chair rail.

Stay tuned...

07/06/2021

Did a little landscaping this weekend...had a little help from these two (and a huge amount of help from Dick and Ek Rizer)

07/06/2021

Night views

07/04/2021

1902.