Some of Deirdre Cozzens’ fondest memories are events she and her family attended at the Ralston Clubhouse.

“When we moved to Ralston, the Ralston (Community) Club had Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Santa Claus came, so it’s a really wonderful step back in time that our kids loved, and I loved. It’s just a fond feeling of that space,” she said.

With those memories in mind, it was painful for Deirdre to watch the now long-vacant Ralston Clubhouse — the former Ralston schoolhouse — fall into disrepair over time. So it was a relief to her when the disbanded Ralston Women’s Club donated the clubhouse to the Northwest College Foundation, and the foundation put it up for bid to raise money for scholarships.

“I hoped somebody in our community would buy it,” she said. “I didn’t want it torn down.”

That hope was so fervent that she and her husband Dirk ultimately decided to bid on it themselves.

“I saw the vision of it, and we put a bid on it. Then I just thought, ‘Oh, no!’ I thought we had too much to do, and I prayed that we wouldn’t get it,” she said.

At the time, Deirdre was working to renovate a home in Powell, and she had her hands full.

“Somebody else got the bid on it, and I was relieved it was not us,” she said. “The summer went by ... and I thought, ‘That’s good; they’re not going to tear it down.’”

But, as months passed and nothing had been done to improve the clubhouse, she began to be concerned.

“I told Dirk on a Sunday night, ‘They haven’t done anything. I wish we would have bought it.’ He said, ‘Remember, when it fell through, you were very thankful.’”

While that was true, she still felt some discontent. “I want to see it beautified,” she replied.

A twist of fate

The next day, Deirdre got a call from NWC Foundation Executive Director Shelby Wetzel, who informed her that the deal with the previous bid winner had fallen through. As the next-highest bidders, the couple now had an option to buy the Ralston Clubhouse.

At that point, Cozzens was finishing a project, so it was a good time to take on another challenge.

“It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and down,” she said. “It was meant to be, I think.”

They bought the clubhouse building in October, and the renovation began soon afterward.

The renovation and remodel proved to be a big job. The clubhouse had almost no insulation, and the small amount of electric wiring in the house was very outdated.   

“We have totally taken all of the wall, the plaster board off and insulated

everything and put plumbing in it,” Deirdre said. “It has all new heating and wiring, and everything functionally is brand new.”

At the time the clubhouse was built in 1914, “they were never thinking of putting a bathroom in it,” she said. When nature called, students in the schoolhouse, and later members of the Ralston Community Club, had used an outhouse behind the building.

A concrete slab had been poured several years ago on one side of the building as the foundation for a new bathroom addition. “They were working toward a bathroom and some indoor plumbing, but it never was finished,” Deirdre said.

The slab had flanges for two toilets, probably for separate men’s and women’s sections, and it wasn’t going to work for her purposes.

“It didn’t make sense for what we needed,” she said. “We took the slab out and put floor joists in that space and put plumbing and electrical there,” she said.

Dirk, who owns Plumbing Plus, serves not only in a supportive role as a spouse. He’s an adviser and sounding board as well the provider of plumbing services.

“Dirk is so great,” Deirdre said. “Sometimes if I say, ‘I’d like this,’ he’ll say, ‘That doesn’t work.’ So I have to rethink it, or he tells me how ... He’s a wonderful partner in more ways than one.”

Dirk bills her for his plumbing services just as he would anyone else, Deirdre said.

Also helping were some of the couple’s children and several other talented people.

“One of my favorite parts of this business is working with so many different people,” Deirdre said. “I like helping people who need work. ... You’ve got this person who knows how to do a little of this, and this person knows how to do this (other thing) well. ... One person couldn’t do it all.”

As with most renovation projects, there were some surprises along the way. One of the biggest was finding an old beehive inside the walls of the big room of the house. The beehive extended from floor to ceiling between two wall studs, and from the bottom of a window to the floor in two adjoining wall sections.

“It was like a work of art,” Cozzens said. “I wish I could have kept it.”

The beehive was abandoned years ago. However, the huge wasp nest attached to the ceiling and wall in the attic had been active last summer. It was a good thing that the renovation project started in cold weather when the wasps were dormant, she said.

When the couple measured the the attic, they realized there was enough space to add a bedroom and a bathroom upstairs. That proved challenging.

“The angles were such a challenge,” Deirdre said. “It was never supposed to be a living area.”

Historical significance

The Ralston Clubhouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. Deirdre said she and Dirk have tried to keep the historic feel of the building while remodeling it into living space.

The listing poses no limitations to what a buyer can do with historic property, Deirdre said. “You can do whatever you wish ... They could say there are so many changes that it’s not true enough to the building, but I don’t foresee that; we have been mindful.”

Now that the project is nearly completed, Deirdre is planning a public open house sometime in May to give community members and other interested people a chance to see the newly renovated and rejuvenated building.

Normally, Deirdre would be making plans to sell the building about now. But this time is different. She’s thinking of keeping it herself and using it as a rental for vacations and events.

“I don’t want to sell it very bad,” she said. “You’re not supposed to fall in love with these places — it’s kind of an unspoken rule — but it has a lovely vibe. You can just picture the women gathering and the kids playing. It was their social time.”