The rat house

When Reyman Bros. Construction, a Sparks outfit specializing in restoration of historical landmarks, purchased the 141-year-old Antonovich House in Virginia City, the property looked like something straight out of a Steven King short story.

"The Realtor called it the 'Rat House,'" Reyman Bros. co-owner Jace Callender says.

"It was full of rats."

Despite the "Graveyard Shift" qualities of the property, company co-founder Mike Reyman says the house was an appealing purchase because it had seen little, if any, renovation over the decades.

"That's one of the real nice things about it," he says. "There are some of the original finishes left inside, quite a lot, doors and stuff that have never been painted."

Adds Callender: "It had never been modernized like so many (old) houses have been.

It was all pre-1890. Even the electricity was what would have been added right after the turn of the century."

Historical renovation work is done to specific standards that require reusing old materials, milling lumber to match existing trim and siding, and re-finishing interior spaces to match existing finishes.

Reyman Bros. entered the niche in 1984 with a contract for restoration work on the historic Fourth Ward School in Virginia City.

"We had so much fun doing it that we said, 'Man, every time we see one of these we should bid this stuff,'" Reyman says. "It is more difficult to bid and to do than modern work, but we feel pretty comfortable bidding the stuff."

The main wing of the Antonovich house was built in 1867, with an addition added between then and 1872 which may have been the last time the property saw hammer and nail. It sat vacant since the previous owner died in the early 1970s.

"The house was pretty derelict," Callender says. "It wasn't too much longer it was going to start falling in."

The house originally sat on a dirt pad, and installing a concrete foundation to shore the building proved to be a challenge that took more than two months. One worker crawled on his belly underneath the house with a shovel and filled a child's wagon with dirt, and another guy on the outside pulled the wagon out and dumped it.

"We just had to start a hole on the outside and start digging under it where we wanted a foundation," Callender says. "It was tunneling."

Adds Reyman: "The foundation has been inspected, approved and it's done. We are pretty proud that we actually got that accomplished."

Exterior renovations mainly consist of replacing rotted siding, trim and broken windows. The company custom milled woodwork to match existing trim and siding detail, and installed glass with a historical look to match the single-pane windows. Most of the interior work remains unfinished. The company usually sends men up the hill to work on the project in slack times.

Reyman Bros. did not purchase the house with plans to renovate and sell; rather it's more of a hobby project, albeit an expensive one Reyman estimates they've dumped more than three times the purchase price into the house.

"We really do like old stuff," he says.

One of Reyman Bros. most notable projects to date is restoration of the Leland Stanford Mansion in Sacramento. Built between 1856 and '57, the historic building formerly housed California's governors.

Other high-profile projects include Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, the exterior of Bower's Mansion in Washoe Valley, the Eureka County Courthouse and an interior renovation of the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada, Reno.