Baby Steppin’ The Library
In February I did a post about removing the white shelving I installed in 2015 on the west wall of the library.
And, via my famous Baby Steps Method™, so it is now done. OMG! The room feels so much better, and the incredible mantel (my favorite) has breathing space.
With trim added. The door trim was, it seems, partially removed in 1950 when the house was transformed into a motel, and two pink bathrooms were added to the north end of the library. One served the parlor (motel room #1), and the other served the library (motel room #2). The corner block is not original to the house but was gifted (I think) by Megan. It is a close match to the original corner blocks.
After Bob Rodak purchase the house in 1999, he removed the ‘parlor’ bathroom. You can see the partially extant trim on the sliding door. At some point a closet was installed adjacent to the bathroom (to the right of the mantel), and the remaining trim was removed. To the right is the other 1950 bathroom, and what may be reused 1894 trim. Bob soon removed this bathroom as well. Bob later gutted the room to the studs and all the above trim was removed. Some was stored in the basement. Frustratingly, I do not have any of the corner blocks nor plinth blocks.
In the basement were these two narrow trim lengths.
It turns out that the two lengths were originally one, and had been cut down the middle. I will glue them back together and use the trim on the small library door. These were also in the basement but I have no information on their history.
The NE corner. The door I installed in 2014 is now blocked up and ready for paint. To its left is the ‘new’ door in the…almost…1894 location. I have now redone the white shelving to the left. The blocked-up door will soon have shelving in front of it.
I write…almost…because the newly relocated small library door is about a foot west of its 1894 location. You can clearly see the 1894 plaster (left). Adjacent, is lighter plaster from the presumed 1950 conversion when the door was removed. I needed the extra space for the shelving on the east wall.
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Maybe Bob will find some of those plinths and blocks and they’ll suddenly appear just when you need them. You seem to lead a charmed life that way.
Are you sure you don’t want to return the door to it’s original location and just shorten that library shelving a foot or two to accommodate the door in the original location? I ask because it seems there’s been some do and redo regarding that sort of thing with the library. It would give the door a bit of breathing room under the stairway.
You know, you don’t have to keep all of the books in the library, or all of your books on the shelf. I’m getting ready to “weed” my collection of books no longer needed, wanted, or just to pass them on to a loving home. Cookbooks first. Then the fiction. How many cookbooks do I need? And keep an entire book just for a few recipes? I’ve got hardback fiction I’ll never re-read.
Sometimes less is more and I love that you’ve kept a little reading area in the bay near the fireplace. That room is well on its way to being a cozy retreat and perfect for it’s location next to the parlor.
I do LOVE that the mantel can now breathe. And I think the planned wall treatment to compliment the parlor is exactly the way to go.
The cosmos will align and get those parts missing corner blocks? Gifted. Narrow trim lengths? Found out to be fused as one.
We send positive energy to you, the Cross House and your supporters.
Baby stepping onward.
Ross: Moving the door to accommodate the shelving makes me wonder, do you know how the library (or any such home library of the time period) would have originally been furnished/used/decorated? Would there have been lots of shelving, or would it have been more like a second parlor?