I have been restoring vintage lights since I was a teenager in the mid-1970s. An Interstate highway was being rammed through the city where I lived, and I ran (steps ahead of the bulldozers, and with my shag haircut flying) from one incredible building to another, and from one incredible house to another, and salvaged everything I could.
My poor, bewildered parents. Their garage was soon chock-a-block with what I thought were treasures beyond compare. But which they thought was just useless flotsam. I did though once overhear my mom say: “Well, at least he’s not out doing drugs.”
However, when all their boring lights were systematically replaced with the most stunning lights they had ever seen – and all for free, rewired, and restored – they soon had second thoughts about the flotsam. (I paid for new parts by mowing lawns!)
Fast forward many decades.
One day I realized I had a pile of old lights rusting away in my basement. I hauled a few out, restored them (bringing back many old memories), and listed them on eBay.
At the time I had no idea, not a clue, that I had just radically changed my life.
Within months my life was unrecognizable, and I was working full time restoring vintage lighting and selling the fixtures across America.
My new e-commerce website is now online. Whoee! Please feel free to shop and purchase here:
My blog post are below.
YOWSER!
A little over two years ago I came across a huge pair of chandeliers made by the well-known Rejuvenation Company. The chandeliers were styled after Victorian-era gas fixtures. And they were HUGE! A whopping 39-inches wide. The architectural salvage company selling them were people after my own heart. The chandeliers had been treated quite badly…
Continue ReadingLovin’ Diamonds
The sashes are now bare wood inside. I do not know what the original finish was, but the adjacent trim will be sent off for a color analysis, and this will guide me in finishing the sashes. Were they painted? Varnished? It will be fun learning what! Restoring the windows…
Continue ReadingThoughts on Decorating
To me, decorating is like playing 3-dimensional chess. Every decision impacts on every other decision. And I long ago learned that the last 10% can pull together the previous 90%. What can look horrible when almost done…can suddenly transform into fuckin’ brilliant when totally done. I have seen this time and time again. In the…
Continue ReadingColor Arrives at the Cross House
Above the painted area will be a burnished gold picture rail. Above that will be a stenciled frieze. The ceiling will have different stenciled patterns. Even with just this one corner painted it is obvious how much better the woodwork looks, and stained-glass. I am excited!
Continue ReadingBefore. After.
My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingMore Railing! And A Tantalizing Alert!
After the railings are all installed, I need to repair the porch flooring (not hard or $$$), and then get the damn lattice made (really hard and really $$$). Doug, who made the straight lattice for the north porch, has been VERY mean in his unwillingness to make curved lattice for free. I…
Continue ReadingReversing Time
In a week or so the lower sashes will be restored, then all four sashes will be reinstalled in the big gable, and time will have…reversed. I AM LIVING FOR THE DAY!
Continue ReadingFormalizing Tours
I get a lot of requests for tours of the Cross House. And I have given a lot of tours. The briefest tour was to a woman who just stopped by. Within five minutes I could see she was not actually interested. I suspected that she had assumed a beautifully restored/furnished Victorian-era mansion….
Continue ReadingA Blue Beauty!
Later however I realized that the house originally had gas/electric combination fixtures, so the blue beauty (all electric and about two decades later than the 1894 Cross House) was put in storage. And there it has sat, lonely and forgotten, until I hauled it out and restored it. It is now very happy!…
Continue ReadingA Star-Cut Beauty!
My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingAn Unexpected Visitor
Last night I stepped into my bathroom to take a pee. As I finished this vital task, I stepped away. Then a bit of movement caught my eye. The room was dark, only lighted from the adjacent room. I stared at the wall. What was that? High up on the wall is the toilet tissue…
Continue ReadingA Palm Springs SHOCK!
Are you sitting down? Do you have sunglasses on? Are you drunk? All three are required to view the following. Scroll down… Kelly just posted on her blog, Old House Dreams, the MOST over-the-top, meticulously preserved, eye-popping,…
Continue ReadingMore Railing!
I have implemented a new regime: Every day I have to do at least 15 minutes worth of work getting the damn railings for the front porch installed. A while back I got one section installed. Then… Then… Then… Nothing more. This is inexplicable as I am dying to get the railings installed. And I…
Continue ReadingTo plaster? Or not to? THAT is the question.
When I purchased the Cross House in 2014, every room looked like a bomb had gone off in it. There were holes in all the plaster walls and ceilings. Some plaster walls and ceilings were missing entirely, like the library, which was 95% bare studs. I sheetrocked the library, and sheetrocked over the heavily damaged…
Continue ReadingFire Escape…Gone Missing
The fire escape was a beautiful piece of industrial art. Solid, and nicely detailed in an industrial way. It also allowed good emergency egress from the top floor. It was both thrilling and terrifying climbing it. It just kept going up and up and up. And SO narrow. One clutched onto…
Continue ReadingDiscovery #8!!!!!!!!
Last summer, when restoring the window frame of the triple-arched windows on the Great North Wall, I found a odd piece of trim, vertical, poorly tacked onto the window frame. The piece was only half intact. I had no idea why it was there, and assumed it was stuck on well after the house was…
Continue ReadingAn Amber Beauty
The fixture is scaled for a foyer or hall. It could be used as a porch light as well. It is from the 1920s, and would have been produced through to the 1930s. The fixture would look well in an Arts & Crafts-style home, bungalow, or Spanish-Revival. …
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