Pondering Kitties
Gray is thinking: Can I turn this into a water slide? Fine is thinking: Can I wrap up the new cat and ship her to…
Continue ReadingA Guilty Gray
Gray. You can just hear her thinking: What? What? I haven’t been anywhere I wasn’t supposed to be. Really! And why don’t I quite believe her?
Continue ReadingA Resurrected Lightolier
My online vintage lighting store. Resurrecting things-that-are-ruined is endlessly satisfying to me. And, so, I beam with delight looking at the above images. For, something wrong…has been righted. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingDestroying America
This is a political post. If you hate politics, do not scroll down. If you do scroll down….caveat emptor. After four decades of hard work, our lakes and rivers are vastly cleaner. Today though, the GOP is…
Continue ReadingA Petite Beauty by Gill Glass
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingA Luscious Porcelier Set
My online vintage lighting store. Porcelier manufactured this set from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. The set is ideal for a bathroom. The fixtures are made of porcelain, and feature extraordinary floral decals —a Porcelier hallmark. It was fun coming across a matched set! My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingPutting Bits Back
The trim and wainscoting and window trim are all CAKED with paint. The original finish appears, I think, to be a painted finish, and in a nutmeg-kinda color. I will have this analyzed to confirm the original finish and will recreate the results. I am eager to remove all the caked-on white…
Continue ReadingRugging Out! PART II.
As is obvious from my favorites I am NOT looking for a rug which might have been in the room in 1894. From the very beginning, my goal has been to give the parlor a youthful, hip kinda vibe. I want to show that…
Continue ReadingRugging Out!
I am ruggin’ out. Ruggin’ out, man! Today I laid down the THIRD rug in the parlor of the Cross House. Yes, the THIRD. And…I like it better than Rug #1 and Rug #2. But………….I don’t love love love it. Sigh. In the last image, you will note, too: The redone…
Continue ReadingWhy I Can’t Get Anything Done!
EVERY time I leave my desk chair, when I return I am confronted with… (scroll down)
Continue ReadingSealing Up
All the first-floor windows are now sealed. Only the sewing room windows on the second floor remain unsealed. About half of the third-floor windows are sealed. So, progress!
Continue ReadingFavorite Books
I love books and own a lot of them. Indeed, one of the reasons I purchased the Cross House was because it had a library. For my whole life, the idea of an entire room dedicated just for books seemed an impossible dream. Two of my favorite books are, unsurprisingly, about restoration. These two books…
Continue ReadingThe Value of Details
It was so sad realizing how beautiful the house had once been, but would likely never be again. Sigh. But…but…a company which buys old houses, fixes them, and resells them purchased the house. This is normally bad news for an old house as these so-called flippers usually destroy any soul an old…
Continue ReadingTrippin’ Down Memory Lane
…and she said: “Flowers?” I did not understand, and said: “Sorry?” She looked up/down the huge facade of the house, and repeated: “Flowers?” I still did not understand, and simply looked at her, clearly not understanding. She repeated, again: “Flowers?” It seemed that she was, somehow, upset about the two pots of flowers…
Continue ReadingRoad Trip!
Recently, a reader, Aaron, wrote in about his excitement in getting his radiator system up and running. A short while later he sent a few images of his house. My eyes bugged out. Yours will, too. Wanna see? Scroll down… …
Continue ReadingA Gray Adventure
On September 2, 2017, I discovered a kitten under my front porch. I could see the kitten through the deck boards, and I gently called out. “Kitty! Kitty! Here kitty!” Slowly, cautiously, the kitten came out from under the porch and jumped onto the deck. “Hello!” The kitten was very small. Maybe three months old?…
Continue ReadingA Small Clue To The Past
I never noticed this tiny bit of history until today. The 1929 kitchens were swept away in 1950 when they were replaced by a motel room and adjacent bathroom. Today, there is not a trace of the 1929 changes… …save the cut sill.
Continue ReadingSealing Up!
A huge huge huge issue with the Cross House is how, ah, porous it is. Wind freely blows through the windows/doors and exterior cracks and exterior missing bits. Then, inside, any heat is lost because the second floor plaster ceilings are so damaged that heat just vanishes up…and out. Since buying the house four years…
Continue ReadingA Safe Landing
Since November, I have been on a process of, it’s hard to explain, making the Cross House not so pulled apart. Not so damaged. Not quite so ravaged. To this end I have repaired termite-damaged flooring in the pantry. Doors that never quite closed or latched now close and latch…
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