Y’all know I have recently returned the door opening to its original location on the north wall. And while the frame seems to be the original frame the door itself was originally the basement door. The original library door? Vanished. One of the last library projects is to refinish the door as it is…

In 2014, I purchased a single roll of the utterly fabulous and now globally famous 1970s peacock wallpaper by Van Luit. In 2015, I purchased three more rolls, but in a different color way. Thus, I had four rolls, enough (I guessed) to do the whole bathroom. Did I care about the different color ways? Nope….

Previously, I did a post about my eight hearths and how I hoped to repair them. The biggest work would involve the library hearth tiles (seriously damaged overall) and the dining hearth tiles (98% badly replaced at some point). Otherwise, the other six hearths could use some minor replacement tiles or were in acceptable vintage…

    When restoring a house it is common to never finish the last 10%. I appreciate the struggle. The last 10%, for reasons I cannot explain, always seems harder than the previous 90%. So, while I am aching to resume work on the cat fence I made myself a promise: finish the damn library…

The 1894 Cross House has eight mantels. You can meet them here. Each has a metal grate insert over the fire opening, with ‘surround’ tiles by the America Encaustic Tiling Company. And each has a tiled hearth, by same. Mostly, the surround tiles are in pretty good shape. Mostly. The hearth tiles range from kinda…

                Upon removing the current hearth (a mix of original and later tiles), all the tiles would get stored behind the metal fireplace grate.