The Great Column Adventure! Part 5.
Today’s post is not much of an adventure. But it is an update! You see the four limestone plinths? If the left is ONE, and the right is FOUR: ONE The paired columns were installed this week. The columns were badly rotted and required significant restoration. The capitals are new, and made from…
Continue ReadingResurrecting Glamour & Glitter
Would you like to see the After? Please scroll away down. I never get over the thrill of taking something which does not look like much, and by simply restoring…
Continue ReadingThe Great Column Adventure! Part 4.
Ok. Yes. I know. And agree. I am a bit obsessed (small voice in my head: a bit?) with restoring all the missing pieces (columns, balustrades, and lattice) to the 1894 Cross House main porch. As stated previously, it is quite rare to have an 1894 porch last into 2015. Even with all the damage…
Continue ReadingThe Great Column Adventure! Part 3.
In the next few days, two more columns are being re-installed after also being AWOL. These columns are over to the right (out of the images). When this work is completed, ALL the west-facing columns will be back in place for the first time in a very very very long time….
Continue ReadingThe Great Column Adventure! Part 2.
And now — drum roll, please — may I present all four center columns being returned to the front porch after many decades absence (scroll way down):
Continue ReadingThe Great Column Adventure! Part 1.
Porches have a short shelf life For two reasons: 1) Wood does not respond well to being left out in the elements. Its rots. So, a porch built in the 1890s was normally in poor condition by, say, 1920. 2) As with clothes, cars, and hairstyles, houses are either fashionable…or not. A house built in the…
Continue ReadingThe Waiter Has Been Butchered! EEK!
It was a mystery. I felt compelled to solve it. CLUE ONE There were some old boards hidden inside a wall adjacent to the kitchen. Why were these boards there? Why were they inside a wall? Why had they obviously been cut? Why had they been stained? I mean, this indicated that they were…
Continue ReadingMy Babies Find a New Home!
It thrills me when one of my buyers sends images of my babies in their new home. David and Angel purchased four matching Colonial-Revival sconces from me, and recently sent images. They wrote: “Purchased these from you in the spring. They are perfect. Everyone thinks they are original to the house. Mission accomplished. Thank you!” …
Continue ReadingA Splendid House in a Limbo State
In the late 1980s and 1990s I lived in Newport, Rhode Island. Providence is the state capital, and a wonderful city. Of course, its urban fabric was damaged after WWII, like when two highways were rammed through the city. Sigh. Providence is an old city, and during the Colonial-era one of its elite neighborhoods was…
Continue ReadingRefinishing The Wood Trim. PART 6. ANNOUNCEMENT!
Welcome to Part 6 of the Great Refinishing Saga! In Part 2, I posited an idea. What if, if, I had actually uncovered the 1894 finish on my trim? And what if, if, the finish was not varnish or shellac on stained wood, but rather…a faux wood finish? In Part 2, I wrote…
Continue ReadingWinter? What Winter?
In Kansas, they say if you do like the the current weather, wait an hour. This has some truth to it. One December, we has a blizzard in mid-December. Then the day after Christmas, until January 3rd, a 70-degree forecast was predicted. Whoee! So, the day after that Christmas, I (being a sensible person) demolished…
Continue ReadingFavorite Houses: 526 Exchange
A block directly to the east from the Cross House sits 526 Exchange. The house is, without question, the work of Charles W. Squires, who designed the Cross House, and who lived just down the street at 613 Exchange. While I have no confirmation as to this attribution, the house abounds with signature Squires design…
Continue ReadingRefinishing The Wood Trim. PART 5.
Soooooooooooo…all along I thought I was dealing with a 120-year-old finish on my woodwork. And I was fretting, big time, that maybe my refinishing was not, you know, right. Yet in plain sight all along was proof that I was dead wrong about my finish assumptions. ABOVE: What you are looking at was behind…
Continue ReadingA Matching Set!
Matching sets are so cool. I collect matching sets, and finding enough fixtures to do a whole house can take years. The largest set I ever collected ended up with 27 companion fixtures! Today I listed a set with just three fixtures, a chandelier and two matching sconces. Such a set would have often been…
Continue ReadingA Sweet Pair Of Virden Fixtures.
I enjoy learning about my vintage light fixtures. What company made them? During what period? Is the company extant? If not, when did it close? Where was the company located? A very popular lighting company for decades was the John C. Virden Company. Virden was Canadian-based, at 19 Curity Avenue, Toronto. They also had a…
Continue ReadingA Lovely Spanish-Revival Pair
Because I sell vintage lighting for a living, obviously I buy a lot of vintage lighting. One criteria is that the lighting have something distinctive about it. Such as with this lovely pair of Spanish-Revival sconces from the late 1920s. The fixtures are brass, but this has a highly distinctive silvery original…
Continue ReadingRecreating the Cross House in…Ireland?
THE BACKGROUND I love learning new stuff. I really love learning new stuff. It should be noted though that I am a picky learner. So, if somebody says: YOU SHOULD LEARN THIS, I will, most likely, be an unenthusiastic learner (and who does not react as such?). However, if something captures my special attention,…
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