Rethinking the Library
Remember the Cross House?
I resume working on it this week!
Is that a collective SQUEE!!!!!!!! I hear?
You have never seen this view of the library before. You are looking west into the parlor. Cody thought the library would look better if the white shelves above the door opening were removed, and the upper half of the shelves to the left. In pondering this I thought Cody was onto something but that ALL the shelving to the left should be removed. This would ‘free’ the 1894 mantle. Luckily, I have most of the door trim in storage.
The east wall in 2014. The previous owner gutted the room. CONJECTURE: Circa-1929, when the house was converted into apartments, an owner’s suite was created on the main floor. The original door to the library on the north wall was blocked over, and a new door installed in the center of the east wall. Here, I have blocked THAT up, and recreated the diagonal bracing. Few things bring me more satisfaction than recreating diagonal bracing. I then created a new door, left.
I chose the location because this made a direct path from the parlor through a new entry in the pantry and into the kitchen. However, a later un-did the pantry entry. however, since then, one walks out of the east library door and into a wall.
And you have never see this image. The NE corner and the 2014 door. Now, see the red lines just to the left of the 2014 door? That is the original location of the door. It opened into the stairhall.
Its location was about where the screen door is. I soon plan to reinstate this door.
So, the 1894 door was relocated circa-1929 to the southern edge of the east wall. I then relocated it in 2014 to the northern edge of the east wall. In 2022 I will return the door to its original location.
With the work complete, I can walk from the parlor into the library, turn left to the door and out into the stairhall, turn right into the dining room, right again into the butler’s pantry, and then left into the kitchen. I will, of course, only be able to do all this while sober.
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Yeah!!!!! Work on the Cross house! Awesome! Love the move to the original location
*SWOON*
I want a library!
Also the place where you’re going to reinstate the door with the little cubby/curved under-the-stair area makes me envious! I can see that with a table and some fresh flowers and maybe a tiny slipper chair.
I have a library and I love it.
Technically it is a bedroom as it has a closet but practically it has never been a bedroom as it is accessed from the living room. You would have to exit into the living room, then go through the dining room to the hallway to get to the bathroom. Who is going to do that in the middle of the night? The original owner used it as his office and it has mahogany wainscoting and was the only room with wallpaper. (Removed and replaced and no, I didn’t save any of the hideous stuff.)
I have a three tiered butlers table in there (inherited from an aunt) and I have glass paperweights on display. I do have a desk and two wingback chairs with side tables. Also several book cases filled with books. Actually I have two desks. One from my childhood my parents repaired and refinished and the other from my Aunt that has a hidden compartment.
I used to set up my Christmas tree (and trains) in that room because I could shut the door to keep the dogs out, but haven’t done so since I retired as the room is full of boxes of books I brought home from school. I really should start going through them and finding homes for those I don’t keep so that I can have a Christmas tree again. Truth be told, every room in the house needs some aggressive purging.
I think this is a most excellent idea! It will free up the mantle in the Library and make the house flow much better!
I think this is a most excellent idea! It will free up the mantle in the Library and make the house flow much better! Edit: Assuming of course, you will still have room for all of your books.
If he moves that door to the north, the entire east wall can be nothing but bookshelves from the bottom to the top. He could even have one of those ladders on wheels to reach the highest shelves. That should accommodate not only the books next to the mantle and above the parlor door but maybe even relocate all of the books on the north wall as well. Consolidate them all to one wall.
What do do with the now empty north wall between the new door and the parlor? How about framed sketches of the floor plans of the Cross House and the Carriage House? And any old photos that might exist? Framed pieces of wall paper and pieces of trim. Where else would you display the history of the house but in the library?
Great idea, mlaiuppa, I agree, it would be so appropriate to display the entire history of the Cross House in the library!
The north wall remain full shelved, save the new door.
Only the west wall will become shelf free.
How exciting!
I love the library & it will be fun to make these returns to the 1894 floor plan! Also it will be exciting to have the mantle unencumbered.
So cool – can’t wait!
I think removing the book shelves above and to the left of the entry to the parlor is a great idea. With the original woodwork reattached to the opening, it will be a classier entrance into the parlor. Also gives the mantle space to be seen and admired. Squeee another original door reinstated, it will look fantastic leading into the stair hall.
It’s so fun to hear about your design philosophy and constant evolution of understanding and plans for the Cross House over time. I think it’s just getting better with age. Keep rocking ross, we’re all here to cheer you along for the progress!
As a retired school librarian I am never in favor of removing shelves that could hold books. HOWEVER.
I think returning all of the doors to their original locations is a very good idea. I find that often the original way a house was built is the way it should be. It isn’t easy to improve on an original design unless there was no real design to begin with, as in the case of the Carriage House.
Removing those shelves above the door and beside the mantle and restoring the trim is probably something you will find pleases you more than the added space. Moving the door will probably please you with the flow once you have actually moved into the Cross House.
Will this be the year? Is the cat corral far enough along you can consider relocating to the Cross House and putting your MCM house on the market while property values are still high?
YES, Work on the Cross house. Sorry Cody. Hopefully you will have room in the library once said shelving is removed.
I hope this is the year you move in!
The house!!!!!
Our baby!!!!
Well, er….YOUR baby….that we lurv!!!!😄
So so good to see it.
Yes.
I agree about the book shelves being removed on the west wall. And love the idea of reinstating the door under the stairs from the library. Can’t wait.
And I am so glad to see “the old girl again”!
I agree; with the shelves as-is, the fireplace is reduced to an afterthought, and the doorway seems more like a tunnel. You will still have a lot of shelves, especially with the island shelf unit, and whatever books can’t find a home in the library itself can be spread around the rest of the house. We have a large shelf unit in our upstairs hall that comes in very handy on a sleepless night, it saves a lot of trips downstairs in search of a good book at 2:00AM. A small variety of books in the octagon bedroom would be appreciated by overnight guests too… “A room without books is like a body without a soul…” – Marcus Tullius Cicero.
My friend in England had some remodeling done to their Victorian house when they moved into it. (Retirement home.) She had the attic made into a library. The entire thing and with a central bookcase just like the Cross House. She has a bookcase on the stair landing so they don’t have to climb up to get a quick book to read. She also has a shallow paperback one along the entire hall that not only houses the paperback but also the CDs.
I’ve started reading just before bed again and have recently considered putting a bookcase in my bedroom, just to keep books handy. I saw one on eBay that I absolutely love and I want it so badly. However the seller doesn’t ship. He quoted me $900 to ship it on top of the $250 asking price. I just couldn’t do it. It’s in Connecticut and I am in California. I asked him about maybe Greyhound but I don’t think he ever looked in to that. It’s not a very big bookcase, no bigger than my sideboard which came via Greyhound. I have no idea what a shipping or freight company would charge to pick it up and bring it across the country but $900 is just too steep. But I so love it. Of all of the bookcases I’ve looked at that is the only one that pleases me and I would want in my bedroom. (It has a curtain rod and rings for a curtain to hide the books. I could sew one to match the drapes or quilt.) I’m at a loss on how to figure out how to get it from there to here without spending a fortune. A fortune I do not have.
$900 sounds VERY steep, even across the country; it sounds to me as though the seller may have quoted an unreasonable price to reinforce that he prefers local pickup only. I could be wrong, it has been a long time since I have had anything shipped; the last time was an antique gramophone, it came from N or S Carolina and I think I paid around $100 via FedEx ground.
Ooh, photos of the Cross House! So exciting to see photos of the interior again. And so much fun to see your lovely collection of books.
Dumb question: Will there be an actual door from the Stair Hall into the Library? Or an opening?