My Second Antique!
This is my sixth year of owning the Cross House. In all that time I have come across one period-correct, and budget-correct antique for the Cross House: It’s easy finding fabulous antiques. It’s not easy finding antiques which are really right for the house, visually. People who own old houses often fill them…
Continue ReadingA Long Awaited Pleasure
My online vintage lighting store. For many years, in storage, I had an almost complete 1940s chandelier by Lightolier. Almost being the operative word. For, all the parts were there…save the glass shade. I knew what the shade looked like, luckily, so years and years passed by as I searched and searched for the errant shade….
Continue ReadingA Silver Blue DUPLEXALITE
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingUndoing the Madness in the Butler’s Pantry
At first, I never gave the cabinet any thought. Then, I wondered: WHY are there ugly plywood doors at the top? Thanks to Dr. Doug, the two missing drawers are back! The missing serving counter is back! (It looks bent in the image. It’s not.) The glass is back…
Continue ReadingInching Along. Ecstatically!
I am hoping that the staining will match. I am hoping I can find the right drawer pulls.
Continue ReadingInching Along. Slowly.
And that little area took much of the afternoon. That it happened at all was because the weather suddenly jumped to fifty. Whoee!!!!!!!! That little area took so much time because it involved a lot of odd angled shingles, and each had to be measured and fitted into place. Often, they didn’t fit…
Continue ReadingInching Along. Unhappily.
Remember the butler’s pantry? I am un-remuddling my own remuddling from a few years ago, and have been working on infilling the wall I knocked a door into. So, why the argh? In all my decades of working on old house this has never happened before. At first, I removed the…
Continue ReadingInching Along. Happily.
Normally I don’t remove trim but this trim is so caked with later layers of paint it really needs to come off to do the job right. In addition, each window has sagged down, in a staggered pattern to the left. This means that instead of all the top trim being level, each…
Continue ReadingIs There a Doctor In The House?
Doug replied: “That is the original plaster ceiling medallion from the dining room. It was really damaged so I removed it 35-years-ago. It’s been up here ever since.” Wow. Is there anybody out there that can repair it? It’s broken in half, and has several small broken off bits. One small area is missing….
Continue ReadingAnd It’s RED!
My online vintage lighting store. If you have a home built in the 1940s, or early 1950s, this would be an ideal fixture for your foyer, hall, or small bedroom. The fixture is post-Deco and post-Moderne, but pre-Sputnik, and pre “Atomic Age”. The fixture, thus, is from a period Which-Has-No-Name. When people buy a…
Continue ReadingA Luscious Lilac from Linda
My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
Continue ReadingInching Along
It fascinates me to think of the person who applied the glue 69-years ago, having no idea that all their work would be chipped off in 2019, an age of computers, smart phones, blogs, marriage equality, and a reality TV star in the Oval Office.
Continue ReadingA Petite Discovery
Last May, I did two posts (here and here) about the discovery that the Cross House originally had a call system, involving “doorbells” in every room, and an attendant annunciator in the kitchen. It was all rather breathless, and all thanks to Blair! So, the dining room had TWO call bells!…
Continue ReadingInching Along in a Faux Bois Kinda Way
I don’t have time right now to restore the entire upper stair hall, but wouldn’t it be ever so delightful to, at least, have this one wall looking’ good? As part of the process? The wood trim around windows. The problem? Unlike almost all the trim in the house, the trim around the triple-windows…
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