Arrive at Cross House. Temperature: High.   UP Ascend to top floor, crawl though small window and out to scary-high scaffolding. Struggle into disposable Tyvek suit and sand wood trim and shingles to smooth perfection. Task complete. Peel suit off from dripping wet body. Struggle to not collapse and fall off scary-high scaffolding. Struggle back…

Yesterday, I came down from high up on the scaffolding and sat in a chair, in front of a fan on high, to cool off. Then I heard a knock on the front door. I was not expecting anybody, and instantly thought of the great line by Dorothy Parker wherever somebody knocked on her door,…

So, I got an email from Kenny: “I have a gift that you might like for the parlor.” Oh! I met Kenny last year when he came by from Kansas City for a tour of the Cross House. We have been in touch a bit since and I looked forward to seeing Kenny again, gifts notwithstanding….

Base shoe molding is that little strip of molding at the bottom of your base. It is intended to fill the gap between floor and base. Most of the shoe base in my parlor was missing, and what remained broke apart when removed. It tends to do that. So, I knew I would have to…

Last week I did a post about replacing the cheap AC floor grilles in the parlor. I wanted to avoid confusing the all-important historical narrative so grilles which were distinctly modern (and high quality) was my aim. I fell in love with grilles made by Kul (pronounced cool) but not a single reader liked them!…

      Black-painted sashes were the norm for a long time. Then, somewhere along the way, certainly after WWII, white became the new norm, and this color choice is now entrenched. But if you have an old house I hope you will consider going black. I love my sashes in black.  

    Last year, I had the AC condensers removed, and stored off-site, in anticipation of their being relocated. My anti-blight measure. At the time however I had no idea that over a year would pass, and the house would have no AC during the summer of 2016 and, it seemed, the summer of 2017….

Often, I write about being protective of the historical narrative of the 1894 Cross House. By this I mean that people should not walk through the house wondering what is original and what is not. I want this to be instantly obvious. To this end I also want a distinction between what is period-correct to…

If you look through an 1890s furniture catalog you will find that it abounds with ads for…vanishing beds. These are beds which, during the day, looked like an ordinary piece of furniture. Like a low armoire. But they would wondrously unfold to reveal a bed. In an age when people had a lot of children,…

  In 2015, I wrote the following. It is, I think, the post I am most proud of:   History fascinates me. It always has. In studying the history of America, one dynamic is obvious: America has been struggling since its creation to manifest the intentions of its founding fathers. In the Constitution, it is…

I can restore a house from top to bottom. And even a wreck of a big ol’ house don’t scare me. But some things, normally small things, can stop me in my tracks. Years ago I learned that when a paint roller cover needed washing I would become paralyzed. I mean, I would paint a…