On Thursday morning, Clarence Ing was putting the finishing touches on a volunteer project that was supposed to take a few months but stretched out to almost nine years.

"The house used to be a really popular attraction, but then the attention died down because, well, there was nothing to see," Ing said. "But I think it’s going to be popular again."

The small, simple structure has rich ties to Hawaiian royalty and literary celebrity. It was originally a guest house on the property of Princess Kaiulani’s Ainahau estate in Waikiki, and it was where author Robert Louis Stevenson stayed — and wrote — during his 1889 visit to Hawaii. Kaiulani’s father, Archibald Cleghorn, was a close friend of Stevenson, the author of classic novels "Treasure Island" and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

When Ainahau was sold in 1926, the one-room, 360-square-foot "grass shack" was put up for auction. The Salvation Army bought the house and moved it to the grounds of its Wai‘oli Tea Room property in Manoa.

Over the years, the house has been rebuilt several times. The Salvation Army doesn’t call it the original but instead a "memorial" to Stevenson. Still, each rebuild has been as faithful as possible to the historical photographs of the hut where Stevenson visited.

In August 2003, a windstorm flattened the structure. Ing, 75, who has volunteered on many projects with the Salvation Army, was determined to make it stronger.

"I’m tired of rebuilding already," Ing said. "Enough is enough."

Matthew Houar, owner of Tropical Wholesale Co., put in a bid for the job, but after time it became clear that raising money for the project would be difficult. Houar then brainstormed with a local community group to take on repairs as a pro bono project. When those plans fell apart, Houar took on the project by himself.

"Salvation Army provides a great service to our community. I really believe in what they do," Houar said. "And when I say I’m going to do something, I keep my word."

Houar and Ing worked together on ideas to make the house more durable.

"I don’t even know how much it cost Matt," Ing said. "He prepared the land, he poured the slab, he welded the pipes for the frame. He put in quite a lot of man-hours and materials."

Houar estimates it was a $73,000 donation, not counting all the extra time his guys put in just because they believed in the project. His company specializes in renovating older Hawaii homes, but Stevenson’s grass shack was definitely the oldest thing it’s ever worked on.

"I was hoping to get it done in three to four months, but with the rain there in Manoa and having to pull guys off other jobs, wait for the concrete to cure and all that, it took almost a year and a half once we started. And there were many a day my guys were up there sloshing around in the mud."

The hardest thing, Ing said, was finding pili grass for the grass shack. He finally heard about Joe DeFrank of the University of Hawaii’s Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, who runs a special project growing pili grass by the side of the H-1 exit ramp by the university. DeFrank joined in the effort.

The last step to fortify the structure against the Manoa rain was to waterproof the hut. For that, Brian Tory of Tory’s Roofing donated his services.

Last week, Ing worked on putting up a sign that tells the history of the house. He readied the old-fashioned table and chairs that will be placed inside — furniture he found in Salvation Army thrift stores. This week, at long last, the grass hut will be rededicated in a ceremony with invited guests, some sandwiches and a Salvation Army band.

Houar said, "There are steel sleeves in the concrete. We welded the frame. It’s like a mini-convention center. It will never blow over again."

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Reach Lee Cataluna at lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.