These odd bits are only on some windows. The diamond-paned pantry windows, for example, each has one such bit, at the bottom, right side window casing. So, one bit per window. What are they for?    

  That is the original location of the lost rail. But it looks really odd. I mean, it is HIGHER than the horizontal door trim. Bo commented on this during his recent visit, and I had previously wondered about the same thing. But I never had a piece of picture rail on the wall to…

The Cross House has an amazing 42 stained-glass windows. They are the glory of the house. And they were all falling apart. The Kansas Heritage Grant awarded to the house in 2015 allowed the restoration of 3/4 of the windows, and this work is now completed. A second Heritage Grant, awarded this year, will complete…

  Why does the oval window angle in???????? Have you ever seen that before? VERY weird! And of course I love this eccentric detail! When I purchased the house in 2014 the bath had been totally gutted. Today, the white quartz slabs are sitting in the dining room. The previous owner had all the trim…

  Recently, I did a post about how pretty much everything I knew about the 1894 carriage was wrong. In the above image pretty much the only thing original to the structure is the turret. ALL the others windows and dormers and door are, almost certainly, later additions. But why a turret rather than tower?…

Every winter I hibernate and, so, plan X number of inside projects. At the end of November I even did a post about my Winter Plans. But winter, as least in Kansas this year, did not really happen and I spent more time outside than in. Of my Winter Plans, only 1.5 items got done….

A while back I did a post about the Red Door. The exterior door was in the dining room, facing east. The door was not original to the room. Its opening had originally been a window. In my previous Red Door post I wrote about the head-scratching adventure Justin and I had in trying to ascertain…

I have always loved architecture. As a kid my favorite toy was Lego Blocks. Endlessly, I would build house after house after house with the small multi-colored plastic blocks. Looking at floor plans was (and is) a mesmerizing task. Mesmerizing! I started drawing my own plans based on TV houses like, for example, Bewitched. I…

OK! Let the games begin! This is the seventh in a series of Discovery posts!   A great mystery of the original Cross House kitchen is: WHERE was the sink? The room is large but has almost no wall space for a sink. There is one large window, one massive double window, six doors/openings, and a brick…

NOTE: This post was updated in 2023.   Bo asked, innocently: “Why are these sashes so…odd?” And then all Hell broke loose. In my previous post, I detailed how all I knew about the carriage house was likely wrong. Way wrong. And all because Bo asked an innocent question about some sashes.      …

OK! Let the games begin! This is the sixth in a series of Discovery posts, and all based on the Bo Adventure!   In my previous post, Discovery #5, I wrote about an oddity which Bo noticed about about the window sashes in the second-floor “tower” room in the Cross House. The discovery was of a…