Photographer Logan Havens was between gigs when he began to look for a renovation project where he lives in Tucson, Arizona. Within his price range and a three-mile radius of downtown, where he wanted to be, “there were, like, two options,” he says. One in particular had a cracked facade and awkward additions, among other issues—no street appeal here. But a parapet hinted that it might be a historic adobe original to the Barrio Kroeger Lane neighborhood, one of Tucson’s oldest.

The location, in fact, is what ultimately convinced Logan and his partner, designer Gustavo Silva, to purchase the home for $142,000 and make it their primary address. Regular bike rides downtown and to a favorite plant nursery in the neighborhood would take them right past the 1930s property, which is situated along the Santa Cruz River. “You can see downtown from the backyard,” says Logan. Now it was a matter of restoring the original structure while bringing in a few modern touches—including plywood-fronted cabinetry, a stainless-steel kitchen, and air-conditioning.

A Fundamental House

Gustavo: The house was pretty nondescript. It wasn’t easy to see the potential.

Logan: The windows were boarded up. The previous owners, the original family who built it, had added closets that closed off some doorways. There was a brick addition at the front, and the bathroom was an add-on off the back that was unpermitted.

Gustavo: When we visited for the first time, Logan took a photo inside the drop ceiling. He was like, “Hey, there are wooden beams. The walls are adobe. It has good bones.” There was something here to rescue, so we were like, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Back to the Start

Logan: The first couple of months, I would come here every day. I put stuff left in the house on Craigslist for free, like a boat in the backyard; started stripping plaster off the walls; and looked for someone that could repair the adobe—someone that could help with the things I couldn’t do myself.

Gustavo: We took off the two additions to the house. We were like, “Let’s take off anything that isn’t original and try to fit everything within the original footprint.” That was the challenge.

Logan: Some areas of the house had been covered in concrete plaster, which traps moisture and creates “coving,” where the walls decay from the inside. So we had to repair those sections and go back over with lime plaster, which allows the building to absorb moisture and then dry out; that’s critical when we get monsoons. A person who restored part of Gustavo’s work studio showed me what to do.

“The whole process was less like designing what the house was going to be and more taking off as many layers as possible to let it be what it was.”
— Gustavo Silva, designer and resident

New Touches

Gustavo: We exposed the original ceilings and the concrete floors. For the new kitchen and bathroom, we didn’t want them to pretend to be historic. So for the kitchen cabinets, we used four Ikea boxes that happen to fit almost perfectly in the space. The only thing we did custom was cut the stainless-steel countertop.

Logan: And then we bought full-height cabinets and made pine plywood fronts for them.

Gustavo: The bathroom has very simple four-by-four-inch tile. We wanted every choice to almost feel like not a choice. Logan was hauling materials with his cargo bike, so they had to be things that were accessible here. If something breaks or we want to change something, we don’t want to have to custom order it from who knows where. We can just go get another one.

Like It Always Was

Logan: We wanted to make it so you could scoop out what we added and have the adobe house back again. We didn’t want it to feel like our decisions were permanent.

Gustavo: It was important to us to respect the house for what it was. Like, the house was a priority, and everything we wanted was second. The day we were finishing the plaster, a leader in the neighborhood actually took a photo and shared it in a newsletter through her nonprofit, Favor Celestial [which leads initiatives to support community members and preserve the neighborhood’s heritage], congratulating us. So I think there’s an understanding of what we were trying to do.

Logan: Other neighbors, including a grandson of the original owners, have come by and said it looks really lovely. One person says that it looks so good, maybe one day it’ll end up in a magazine.

Project Credits:

Designer: Silva + Havens

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Construction Diary: How a DIY Tucson Couple Restored a 1930s Adobe