Our House
Finding a place to begin isn’t easy for me, because now it's my home and everything inside is mine. There’s so much more to experience than I can put down in words. There’s more to discover about yourself inside of it than you might have imagined.
As a child, it was something mythical, legendary in a way. Almost as if it was from a story I was told long ago. A dream I might have had once. I place I had to go visit. I feel like Im just now starting to remember what happened in it.
Living in a place like this has caused me to question a lot of things
About Life,
Love,
Happiness,
My Meaning,
It’s Death,
I know the true value of these things and what they teach us. Because they first had to teach me. I can walk around my own home, all by myself and cry when looking at these things. For the longest time I didnt understand way. I was angry in a lot of ways because of it.
The Space
The home was originally built in 1903. Dell purchased the property in 1964 as its 3rd owner for $11,000 -I know right?! He then built the attached home studio beginning with the Vault in 1974 finishing 1977. You can see the original houses siding and roof within the studio.
Inside this special space, he constructed a waterfall leading into a koi pond. Trees as supports to the floors above. Stained glass in near every window. Hidden rooms with forgotten compartments. A lone tower on the top with a vault down below.
Time began to accumulate throughout the home. From cobwebs 40 years old to 50 years of dust on paintings. You’d find treasure in a box inside another box, on a corner on a shelf under a heap of trash, that was beneath materials from an abandoned project he started nearly 30 years ago.
There sheer magnitude of the project can be felt in its overwhelming need for others to have the opportunity to look and see. Its preservation is paramount for the next generations ability to have that opportunity.
Providence
I began documenting the process years ago before Dell’s death in December 2024. I have attempted to be as thorough and attentive as possible, when possible.
I’ve walked the halls of this home, learning the stories and lore most all my life. Beyond my own memories and abilities, I have all the materials left behind by Dell.
To the point that I have nearly every letter he received, all the journal entries and notes he’d written, and majority of the photographs taken. There’s even a yellow folder titled “studio build” in which he kept the receipt to every nut, bolt, and screw used in its creation, along with the city permits and drawings/renderings.
I have his dad’s bishop records from the LDS church, along with every newspaper article he had written on him.. I have everything I need to prove any claim I ever make.
At the time of his death, I approached the project like an archeological dig. In the beginning, extensive photos were taken showing how everything lay in the home before it was touched.
Inside the providence, I show where the piece was located within the home and the associated evidence. All conjoining, connected, or included collections are cataloged with conforming information for each individual piece found therein, showing the connections it has to the body as a whole. This is to include all photographs, drawings, renderings, images, tools, associated materials, and known timeframes needed to produce the evidence required. I’m now in the process of completing the providence and have begun to legitimize the body of work.
One Man
You have to understand by now, right? What happened here, inside this home, it isn’t normal. It’s strange what Dell did.
So what, then, should I to do?
Right now, I don’t have the money to fund any part of this project.
According to Utah gallery owners, they’d never put it on the walls, and appraisers said this is all worthless because he never sold anything.
So, what then? Should I throw it away like the “trash” its creator thought it to be?
How do I preserve it?
Im not willing to just “donate” my things to some institution or intrust the task to someone else.
I’m only one man.
Do you think I’m wasting my time?
Is this all really worthless?
