Earl Meek, a long time Thousand Oaks resident whom spearheaded the project, got going on the preliminary tasks including collecting up materials. First task to complete was the grading of the site which Earl managed to get a local contractor to donate their services. Next he worked out donations of lumber and rebar from local vendors. Since the Adobe building was to be built like a 200 year old structure, Earl found a company in Fresno that made adobe bricks that were the size and look of what was needed. He then arranged for them to be made and delivered to the site.

The project was off to a good start; land graded and cleared, adobe bricks stacked, steel pipe columns delivered and all waiting for the job. However the most difficult task was getting a contractor interested in building the Pioneer and Adobe Houses in a manner that was reminiscent of construction done over a hundred years ago. Time was bleeding away and no contractors stepped up to take the project. Meanwhile Meek had again wrangled a deal to get the concrete footings poured for both the Adobe and Pioneer Houses and they were done by mid-summer.

Then, due to paths being crossed in a whole series of unrelated events, Earl Meek met and talked to a Conejo Valley resident and business man Ed Shuttleworth. During the meeting, Earl was talking about the difficulty he was having trying to get this special construction project going. He was looking for someone to handle the unusual construction techniques and start in a hurry. Ed, having worked in construction and with many real estate renovation projects, saw a challenge that might be fun. 

Ed called his brother-in-law Bill Eves, who owned a General Contracting business in San Diego called Quasar Construction, and suggested a partnership to take on the project. That led to a series of meetings with a multitude of people including Bob Obrien of the Thousand Oaks Department of Building and Safety.  Bob gave Ed preliminary construction drawings of the two small buildings to look at and evaluate. Next Bob told Ed & Bill that before any contracts were awarded that they would have to visit other adobe buildings and old west buildings in the area and report back to him for discussion of construction techniques.

Ed and Bill went on some road trips and traveled all over three counties, visiting and looking at all sorts of period buildings and reported back their findings and observations of design and building methods used. The Adobe and Pioneer buildings had to be built to look 200 and 100 years old respectively, but had to be safe for the visiting community. After lengthy discussions and knowing that there were no set standards for this type of construction, the contract was signed with a suggestion of hurry up please. The real challenges of actually implementing the plan were yet to begin.

The construction drawings for the two buildings were not extensive and left many details to interpretation. Before the challenge started Ed redrew the drawings for more clarity on the construction site and they were ready to go to the site and start. Upon their arrival on the first day they saw that one of the Chumash huts down the hill had already been built and there were people working on the second one. The adobe blocks had been stacked up on site for many months and were entangled with brush, weeds, dirt and black widow spiders. The blocks were roughly 12 inches by 16 inches by 4 inches and were very dense weighing over 40 pounds each. They stood in a large rectangular grouping waiting to be carried one or two at a time from their simple stacked pile to a brand new old Adobe home. The project was ready for Quasar crew to start their endeavor with the Adobe House to be built first.

The little Adobe Home is only 14 feet by 21 feet and it has seven (7) steel pipe columns 5 inches diameter in its footprint. The adobe blocks are put in place with mortar that looks like mud, but it is actually a mix with mortar, soil, special color additives and asphalt emulsion. After every other course of the adobe blocks there were 2 pieces of rebar stretched between and wrapped around each of the 7 steel pipe columns and then embedded in the mortar. It was a very tedious process and all done by hand.

An interesting side note: as the first few courses of adobe block were installed one of the Committee members stopped by and said “Why are you building with a level?” The people who built these adobe homes did not worry about level courses; they just built it, so please do it without a level. 

It was not far into the Adobe construction when Hans, the Building & Safety inspector, arrived to inspect progress. He was very diligent and had many concerns and suggested methods of constructing things. This visit he wanted more rebar and some bolts embedded into the door and window bucks. Then Hans commented:” the courses are not level.” The level part was discussed and cleared with a reference to the Committee suggestions, but Hans was to be a frequent visitor, as the drawings for construction were not very detailed and he wanted things done right. 

There were many stumbling blocks along the way in the construction of this little adobe. Building materials called out as willow twigs, rushes, rawhide strips with hair, and other strange descriptions meant there was some special ordering needed. The strange materials did arrive, thanks again to the dedication of Earl Meek, and then it was up to Bill and Ed’s combined ingenuity to figure out how to apply them.

The many unusual construction situations lead to many trips to see John and Phyllis Pitello at T.O. Lumber and to see “Old Man” Carlson and his son Dennis at Carlson Building Materials. Both of these long time Thousand Oaks vendors provided a lot of extra help with materials, hardware and expertise. T.O lumber was to deliver a 16 inch by 16 inch ridge beam to be the center roof support in the Adobe, but the guys from Quasar said a 16 inch beam in a 14 foot by 21 foot structure is way out of proportion. Well time for another discussion with the Committee as well as Bob with the Building and Safety Department. 

Finally a decision was hammered out to use a 12 inch by 12 inch beam, but now how do we make it look like a tree? The answer was Boy Scouts. After Bill & Ed cut off the 4 corners of the beam it was now an 8 sided beam and closer to the roundness of a tree. Now, it was time for 12 Boy Scouts with hatchets to hack the ridge beam to look like a hand hewn tree. There were also 7 rafters to be hand hewn to rest on the top of the ridge beam, so they also got the Boy Scout treatment. That was a good weekend project and it worked very nicely, another strange task completed.

The next challenge was at hand. It was time for the vertical support poles for the front porch on the Adobe. The drawings called for 18 inch wide square holes for the footings for the poles and they were 36 inches deep. That is a tough job with a shovel to get 3 feet down in an 18 inch square hole. Time for another meeting—after some discussion a round hole was approved and that could be dug using a power auger. Yet another design challenge had been overcome, but all these challenges come with a cost---TIME!

The final challenge was the roof and porch covering. The roofing comprised of putting together sandwiches of plywood with tar paper, felt underlayment, tar, dirt and reed thatching which was not a standard building procedure. This task took some ingenuity, and many mistakes along the way, to be accomplished successfully. The project was now finished with exception for the cleanup which became a whole separate challenge. The adobe was completed and standing strong with the extensive and dedicated efforts of many devoted citizens of Thousand Oaks.

Next it was time to think about the Newbury Family, the pioneers of Thousand Oaks, and the building that would represent their home. That challenge would come later.

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