Street façade of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, with repainted green cladding, reed roof, new green fence and a wooden bench in front
Jurilovca · Danube Delta · 1893

Old house restoration: the house from 1893

The restoration of the adobe house on 1 Mai Street in Jurilovca, as an example of good practice: walls repaired with adobe, the old roof rafters sorted and reused wherever possible, and the green of the gable carried further.

See before and afterThe site diary
1893the year the house was built
Adobe with adobethe walls were repaired with the same earth bricks
1 of 8traditional homesteads restored in the Danube Delta
The story of the house

An adobe house that reached 130 years

The old house restoration in the yard of Ferma Lipovenesc began with a simple question: how do you care for a house more than 130 years old without changing its character? The house by the street was built in 1893 from adobe, with a hand-worked timber roof frame, and it has stood through every change the village has gone through. We, Daniela and Marian Sterea, bought it in 2018, wanting an old country house we could bring back to life.

The easiest option would have been to pull it down and build something new “in the old style”. We chose the longer road: keep everything that could be kept and repair it with the same materials it was made from. That way a house stays alive, breathes and gets along well with the Delta climate.

The family of Ivan and Ulita Cupcic in front of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca, photo from 1932
Ivan and Ulita Cupcic, the owners at the time, with their family in front of the old house. The photograph was taken in 1932, almost a century before the restoration.

The work was carried out within the project “The Route of Villages with Traditional Architecture in the Danube Delta”, by the craftsmen of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu.

Fact sheet

Built
1893
Bought
2018
Restored
2025–2026
Where
40 1 Mai Street, Jurilovca, Tulcea County
Walls
Adobe, repaired with adobe bricks
Roof
Reed thatch on the old rafters, sorted and reused, with new timber where needed
Colour
The green of the old gable, carried over to the fretwork, doors and windows
Project
“The Route of Villages with Traditional Architecture in the Danube Delta”, completed in June 2026
Craftsmen
The team of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu, led by Florin Rotar and coordinated by the museum’s director, Ciprian Ștefan
Project beneficiary
Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association
The craftsmen of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu in front of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca, at the start of the restoration
The craftsmen of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu with us in front of the old house, at the start of the work.
Good practice

Four principles of the old house restoration

We followed a few simple rules that we recommend to anyone who has an old house of earth and timber and wants to keep it.

Adobe brick wall of the 1893 old house, under the old roof timber that was kept and the new reed on the eaves
01

Adobe repaired with adobe

Where the wall was weak, we rebuilt it with adobe bricks too. Earth works together with earth: the wall stays one piece, does not trap moisture and lets the house breathe.

The new porch posts of the 1893 old house, temporarily propped up until fitting, during the roof restoration
02

The old timber, kept

The old beams and rafters were sorted piece by piece and kept as much as possible. We replaced only the pieces that could no longer carry the load and reused the rest. We replaced the porch posts, because the old ones had rotted.

Door almost 100 years old, received as a gift, fitted on the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc and painted in the gable green, with white lights above
03

The gable green, everywhere

We started from the old green of the gable and carried it to all the fretwork, the doors and the windows. The house kept its colour, only now it wears it all over.

The long porch of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, with green windows and posts and a floor of timber salvaged from the roof
04

The porch, from the roof timber

The porch was floored with boards from timber salvaged from the roof. That way it stands up better to visitors’ footsteps and to the Delta weather, and the old wood found a new purpose.

Before and after

The old house restoration, detail by detail

We photographed the same corners of the house before and after the work. Drag the line in the middle of each photo to see the difference.

‹ drag left or right ›

Street façade of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, with repainted green cladding, reed roof, new green fence and a wooden bench in front Street façade of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca before restoration, with faded green cladding, the old roof and a weather-worn wooden fence BeforeAfter
01

The street façade

This is how anyone passing along 1 Mai Street sees the house. The board façade and the fretwork above the window are the original ones: the wood was cleaned and repainted green. The ornament at the top of the gable, made in 1957, had rotted, so we replaced it with a new one. The sheet-metal roof gave way to a reed one, and the weather-worn fence was partly rebuilt in wood.

Gate and wooden fence of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, with the 1957 concrete posts painted to match the fence Gate and green wooden fence of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca during the work, with the 1957 concrete posts at the entrance BeforeAfter
02

The gate and the fence

The fence and gates were partly rebuilt in wood, on the old beams that still have many years left in them, and painted in the green of the house. The entrance posts are the concrete ones cast in 1957, painted to match the rest of the fence.

Side wall of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, whitewashed, with white ornaments and a reed roof Craftsmen removing the old sheet metal from the roof of the 1893 house in Jurilovca, with a stained adobe wall and firewood stacked in the yard BeforeAfter
03

From sheet metal to reed

The old sheet metal was removed piece by piece so as not to damage the timber underneath. The old rafters were then sorted, and the good ones were reused for the new reed roof. The adobe wall was repaired and whitewashed.

Wall of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, with a new reed roof, brick chimneys and alpacas resting in the shade Roof of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca stripped down to the timber, with craftsmen working on top and straw bales next to the adobe wall BeforeAfter
04

The roof on the yard side

Stripped back to the rafters, the roof showed what could be kept. The sound wood stayed, the rotten wood was replaced. Today the farm’s alpacas rest in the shade of the reed eaves.

Craftsman laying reed on the roof of the 1893 old house, next to the green fretwork gable, with the eaves closed with new boards The green fretwork gable of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca during restoration, with the reed half laid and the eaves still open Stage 1Stage 2
05

The gable and the eaves

The fretwork gable was replaced with a new one, painted in the green of the old one. The reed was laid bundle by bundle, and the open eaves were closed with new boards.

Porch of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, with the original old door painted green, carved wooden posts, white lights and a board floor Porch of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc before restoration, with a green door, plain wooden posts and a cement floor BeforeAfter
06

The front door

The old door stayed in place: it was restored and painted in the gable green. The plain posts were replaced with carved ones, and two white lights appeared next to the door, matching the whitewashed walls.

Door almost 100 years old, received as a gift, fitted on the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc and painted in the gable green, with white lights above Natural wood door almost 100 years old, received as a gift, fitted on the 1893 old house in Jurilovca before painting, with a diamond-shaped pane and a plastered adobe wall BeforeAfter
07

A door in the gable green

This door is almost 100 years old and was given to us by our friend Mihai Florescu, from their old house in Jurilovca. It belongs to the same set as the old windows we restored ourselves. We stripped the old paint down to the bare wood, as you can see in the first photo, and then it got the same green as the gable. Above it, the white lights come on in the evening.

The long porch of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, with green windows and posts and a floor of timber salvaged from the roof The long porch of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca before restoration, with grey windows with peeling paint and a cement floor BeforeAfter
08

The long porch, from salvaged timber

The grey windows with peeling paint got the gable green. The posts were rebuilt, and the porch was floored with boards from timber salvaged from the old roof, so it stands up better to foot traffic and the weather.

Window of the 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, with green frames, a white wall and a reed roof Window of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca before restoration, with flaking plaster, the old roof and farm tools on the porch BeforeAfter
09

The old window, before and after

The plaster that was coming off the adobe was redone, and the house was whitewashed again. The window frame got the same green as the door and the porch posts.

The biggest change is up top: the old roof was replaced with a reed one, the kind the houses of Jurilovca on the shore of Lake Razim used to have.

Site diary

How the old house restoration went, stage by stage

An adobe house is not repaired in a hurry. Every stage took patience, and every craftsman looked after his own part. Tap a photo to see it larger.

Stage 1

The roof, taken apart with care

The sheet metal was removed, and the old rafters were checked and sorted piece by piece. The new porch posts were propped up next to the house, where they waited to be fitted.

The old timber of a gable on the 1893 house in Jurilovca, carefully taken apart during restoration, with the village street behind
The old timber, taken apart carefully so it could be reused.
The new porch posts of the 1893 old house, temporarily propped up until fitting, during the roof restoration
The new porch posts, temporarily propped up, waiting to be fitted.
Stage 2

The walls: adobe, plaster, lime

The adobe walls were repaired with adobe, then plastered and whitewashed. The old windows stayed in place, and the porch posts were rebuilt in wood.

Adobe brick wall of the 1893 old house, under the old roof timber that was kept and the new reed on the eaves
Adobe and old timber, under the new reed eaves.
Wall of the 1893 old house with new plaster still wet, the old windows in place and a new wooden porch post
New plaster, old windows, a new wooden post.
The long wall of the 1893 old house freshly whitewashed, with a craftsman on a ladder restoring the ornaments under the reed eaves
The whitewashed wall and the restored ornaments.
Stage 3

Reed from the Delta

The reed arrived in sheaves and was laid row by row on the reused old rafters and the new timber. It is the hardest and the most beautiful work on the site.

Sheaves of Danube Delta reed ready next to the 1893 old house, with the reed roof half finished behind
Reed sheaves, ready next to the house.
Craftsman on the roof of the 1893 old house in Jurilovca laying reed, with wooden scaffolding and reed sheaves by the wall
The roof rises row by row.
Craftsman laying reed next to a gable with green fretwork and old wooden boards, in the yard of the 1893 house in Jurilovca
The reed reaches the fretwork gable.
Stage 4

The details that make the house

The details came last: the ornaments whitewashed by hand, the fence painted in the gable green, and the year of the house written in wood.

Ornaments on the wall of the 1893 old house whitewashed by hand, with brush and bucket, next to the green door
The ornaments, whitewashed by hand.
Craftsmen fitting the green-painted wooden fence at the 1893 old house in Jurilovca
The wooden fence, fitted and painted.
Wooden numbers 1893 fixed on a gable of old boards, with fretwork under the reed, at Ferma Lipovenesc in Jurilovca
1893, on a gable of old boards.
The 1893 old house at Ferma Lipovenesc after restoration, long and white, with a reed roof, seen from the green yard gate
The old house at the end of the work, seen from the yard gate.
A window saved

A window almost 90 years old

We applied the same rule to the small things. An old window, with layers of blue and red paint, was cleaned down to the wood, painted in the gable green and fitted on the north side of the old house. We did not throw it away, because its wood was still good. We restored it ourselves, Daniela and Marian, and it belongs to the same set as the door we were given by Mihai Florescu.

Frame of an old window almost 90 years old, with peeling layers of blue and red paint, before restoration
The old layers of paint.
Old wooden window being cleaned of paint with a wire brush and scraper during restoration
Cleaned down to the wood.
Old wooden window painted by brush in the gable green of the old house, on the workbench next to the stove
Painted in the gable green.
Old double window almost 90 years old, restored and painted green, leaning on the brick floor
Ready to fit.
The old window almost 90 years old, restored and painted green, fitted on the north side of the 1893 old house, under eaves of logs and reed
Fitted on the north side of the old house.
The people

The craftsmen behind the restoration

The old house restoration was carried out by the team of craftsmen of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu, led by Florin Rotar and coordinated by the museum’s director, Ciprian Ștefan. The ASTRA Museum holds one of the largest collections of traditional houses in the country, and its craftsmen know how to repair an adobe house without changing its character. They worked patiently, piece by piece.

The project beneficiary is the Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association, which has been working for years to preserve the villages of the Delta.

You can only change something if you give people your own example.

Ivan Patzaichin
The craftsmen of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu on the porch of a green house in the Lipovenesc yard, with a dog and a cat beside them
The craftsmen of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu, in the Lipovenesc yard.
The project

Eight traditional homesteads in the Danube Delta

Our house is one of the eight traditional homesteads restored in the project “The Route of Villages with Traditional Architecture in the Danube Delta”. The project aims to make the Delta villages more attractive to those who want to get to know them, through traditional houses that stay standing, are lived in and can be visited, and through new tourism jobs for local people. That also means involving local communities and promoting traditional crafts and food.

4homesteads in Chilia Veche
2homesteads in Periprava
2homesteads in Jurilovca
What we kept, what we rebuilt

An old house restoration, not a new house

For the old house restoration we started from what was already there. Everything that could be saved stayed, and what was too damaged was rebuilt with the same materials.

We kept

  • The adobe walls, repaired with adobe
  • The sound roof rafters, sorted and reused
  • The board façade and the fretwork above the window
  • The gable green, carried over to doors, windows and fretwork
  • The old beams of the fence and gates, which still have many years left in them
  • The concrete gate posts from 1957
  • The front door and the shape of the windows

We rebuilt

  • The roof, in reed instead of sheet metal
  • The fretwork gable and the ornament at the top, which had rotted
  • The porch, floored with timber salvaged from the roof
  • The plaster and whitewash of the walls
  • The rotten porch posts and the eaves
  • The street fence and gates, partly rebuilt in wood
2020 · 2026

The same place, six years later

In 2020, when we took the first drone photo, the yard was empty and the old house still had a sheet-metal roof. We stood in the middle of it and held hands. In 2026 we came back to the same spot for the same photo.

The empty yard in Jurilovca seen by drone in 2020, with the old house under a red sheet-metal roof and Marian and Daniela Sterea holding hands2020
The yard before any project.
The Ferma Lipovenesc yard in Jurilovca seen by drone in 2026, with the old house under a reed roof, animals in the yard and Marian and Daniela Sterea holding hands2026
The same place, after the old house restoration.
The old house today

The old house, at the entrance to the Lipovenesc yard

The old house stands by the street, in front of the nearly 7,000 square metre yard of Ferma Lipovenesc. Further inside the homestead is the new house, with green wood cladding, built with the adobe bricks made at the two community work days in 2020 and 2021. We chose its colour after the gable of the old house, too.

Today the old house is part of every visit to the farm: you can see it at weekends, along with the alpacas, the goats and Bamby the pony. You will find more about the homestead on the page The Lipovenesc yard, and what is coming up in the Hai la Fermă events calendar.

Bamby the miniature Shetland pony in the Ferma Lipovenesc yard in Jurilovca, next to straw bales and an old cart
Bamby, the farm’s pony, in the Lipovenesc yard.
Questions

About the old house restoration

What is the 1893 old house built from?

From adobe, meaning bricks of earth mixed with straw, with a timber roof frame. During the restoration, the walls were repaired with adobe bricks too.

Why did you repair adobe with adobe and not with fired brick?

Because different materials behave differently. Adobe lets the wall breathe and moves together with the rest of the house. A fired brick or cement placed next to it would trap moisture in the wall and make the house crack.

What happened to the old roof timber?

The old rafters were sorted: the good ones were reused for the new reed roof and the rotten ones were replaced. The sound wood taken from the roof was also used for the porch floor.

Who did the work?

The work was coordinated by Ciprian Ștefan, director of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu, and carried out by the museum’s team of craftsmen led by Florin Rotar, within the project “The Route of Villages with Traditional Architecture in the Danube Delta”. The project beneficiary is the Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association.

How many houses were restored in the project, and where?

Eight traditional homesteads in the Danube Delta: four in Chilia Veche, two in Periprava and two in Jurilovca.

Can I see the old house on a visit?

Yes. At weekends we are open from 11:00 to 19:00 in summer and from 11:00 to 16:00 in winter, and on weekdays we welcome you by appointment at +40 723 898 529. Entry to the yard costs 20 lei per person. The house is at 40 1 Mai Street, Jurilovca.

The craftsman

Do you have an old house of earth and timber?

Florin Rotar, head of the craftsmen team of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu, who restored the 1893 old house in Jurilovca
Head craftsman

Florin Rotar

Head of the team of craftsmen of the ASTRA Museum in Sibiu

Florin led the team that restored our 1893 house: adobe repaired with adobe, old rafters sorted and reused, a new reed roof. If you want to save your old house, you can write to him directly.

Message Florin on WhatsApp
We look forward to seeing you

Come and see the old house in person

The photos only show part of it. The adobe walls, the porch timber and the reed on the roof are best felt in person.

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