The Cross House

All long-term restoration projects involve…creeping funk. This is when somehow, when you are not looking, every room gets filled with clutter. In one room miscellaneous trim fills a corner, a stack of wood shingles sits in front of the mantel, small boxes rest adjacent, several doors (from where?) rest against another wall. And so on….

So, y’all know I have been making a mess of the library. I am going to take down the 2014 white shelves I installed on the west wall, to the right of the mantel. This will necessitate rounding up trim for the wide pocket doors into the parlor. The trim was removed (I think) circa-1950…

In 2020, I did two posts on what I believe is the vanished stair hall built-in bench. Post I Post II Before reading this new post (and when you have the time), I suggest you get some wine out, and re-read the first two posts. They are rich with information. And, remember, Restoring Ross always…

In 1929, the Cross House was converted into apartments on the second floor, and the new owner (Scott Mouse, Sr.) created a private apartment for his family on the first floor. This suite…I think…consisted of a living room (the former dining room), kitchen, and bedroom (the former library). However, to access the bedroom, a new…

      After the stripping is done, I will sand down the door. Then amber shellac it, as it was originally. Ross excited.    

                          While restoring the south hall was not remotely on my to do list for 2022 it unexpectedly became a project. All renovation projects are like this. The hall became a project due to: Moving the library door back to its near-original location…

The Cross House is blessed with a lot of sunlight. I adore sunlight. But under the main stair was a dark and creepy space. There was just no sunlight. This though is not what the architect intended. This was the result of later changes. And today? Scroll down…              …

  The stair, as drawn, had steps spilling to the north, and with curved corner wall (right). So, the whole lower stair was intended to be an L-shape. However, as built, the whole lower stair was a U-shape with the steps spilling down to the east. And the plastered corner, while framed out as a…

  The 1950s Metz set is now fully in the room. Metz did high-quality furniture and was unusual in hiring a lot of women and paying them equal to men! This was pretty much unheard of at the time. It is still not the standard. FFS. The curtains are hung! I really love them. They…

                                      We debated why the chair is so much taller than its mate. Barb suggested that this was because it is a ‘ladies chair’ and the lack of arms accounted the large dresses of the era. But…

  When I purchased the property in 2014, the dining room was an L-shape, the result of a bathroom being created in one corner. Oh…the horror. I ached to see the room back to its large rectangular shape, and so demolished the bathroom, STAT. But, the room then sat abandoned until 2021 when work resumed…

In April, I did a post about having the HVAC for the third floor of the Cross House totally redone. Bad was transformed into good. And this work…ta-da!…completes all the heating/cooling on the big house. It has been a long and terrifyingly $$$$ odyssey. Then, last year, I documented the huge amount of work to…

With all the massive effort in getting the carriage house habitable in 2021…it is now vacant again. Sigh. Having the house mostly vacant for eight years has weighed heavily on me. This is my #1 BMD since buying the property in 2014 (BMD: bad management decision). If I knew then what I know now I…

I have posted many times about my patented Baby Step Method™ of getting things done. In short: Every day, get a little done. Even if you work for just 15 minutes. What happens though is that, with a tiny bit of work daily, shit gets done. It is quite miraculous.          …

                  I have mentioned numerous times that, before I can move in, I need to relocate my vast lighting inventory to the Cross House basement. But, before I can that, I need to complete ALL work in the basement. This means ALL the electrical, ALL the plumbing,…