I am trying to figure out what the “winter project” should be. This is when I hibernate inside the house during the cold months and finish a room. In 2016 this was the library. In 2017 this was the parlor. Now, I am divided between two spaces. Should I finish the stairhall/niche/foyer? Or the…

    When Bob and Debbi Rodak purchased the house in 1999, the house retained all its motel-era bathrooms. In the parlor, the pair of sliding doors which had originally opened into the library now opened into a blue and pink 1950 bathroom. Actually, only one sliding door opened. The other was nailed shut. Wanna…

        The niche is framed by a pair of oak columns with highly distinctive hand-carved capitals. The arch, which appears to be wood, is actually plaster painted to look like wood, and detailed with strips of Lincrusta. There is a triple window with highly expressive trim above. There is a east entrance…

    Bob, the previous owner, thinks he might have a box-of pulls. But he might not. And, for two years now, I have been after Bob to retrieve the missing 1894 screen doors. So, I am disinclined about spending too much time in this direction. My options thus are to try and find Austerlitz pulls…

  Originally, the second-floor bathroom was the only bathroom on the second floor. It was later turned into a kitchen, and then was gutted by the owner before me, Bob. The only original feature remaining was the tile floor. In 1894, the room had very high wood wainscoting, which I will absolutely recreate. Bob had…

    I would never install these in the 1894 Cross House as they are not period-correct. But I am glad to have saved them, and hope to find a good home for them. For, out there somewhere, somebody would kill for these. I know the feeling    

  It seemed like a miracle. Like fairies had blessed the house with an unexpected gift. You see, I was missing ONE original corner block, but I needed FOUR more to properly finish some alterations I made. So, to come across five corner blocks just astounded me. But my amazement was to be — sigh — dashed….

Today, while cleaning up the main floor bathroom, and then reinstalling all the trim which was removed over a decade ago, I made a startling, and wondrous, discovery. Scroll down…                                       And guess how many corner blocks…

  But this is not how the bathroom looked when I purchased the house in 2014. The previous owner, Bob, gutted it. And then, to repair termite damage, I gutted it some more. All the white quartz was removed and is now stored under the main stair. Bob had removed all the trim and stripped…

Yesterday, I did a post about collecting all the un-attached hardware in the Cross House. This afternoon, I went all through the house trying to ascertain where all the un-attached bits went. I had a lot of fun. There were a lot of SQUEE moments! There were some perplexing moments, too. And there was a…

              Tomorrow I will run all through the house tracing the original locations of all these errant bits. I anticipate having a highly enjoyable time.