The Cross House

  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,…

Yesterday, I woke to an email from a name I did not recognize. The subject line: “My new design for your bathroom.” Huh? I thought: Has a reader offered a design for one of my bathrooms? I clicked on the image. WTF? Scroll down…                      …

Wow. Y’all like shopping! It has been great fun looking at your pink tile discoveries! Thank you! Some of the discoveries have the right tile, but the tiles are in, say, California and the shipping would be…disturbing. Some discoveries are too pale a pink. Some discoveries do not have enough tile. Sigh. Sigh. So, at…

      Will the stains just reappear in a few weeks or a few months? I do not know. But…the results are tantalizing. So, maybe, maybe I could restore the Mouse Palace Motel bathroom. Maybe. Another vital consideration would be buying pink 4×4 ceramic tiles. No problem, right? Wrong. Oh so very wrong. 4…

Previously, I posted about being 50/50 whether to restore the early 1950s Mouse Palace Motel bathroom in the basement, or to tear it out and create a modern and stylish powder room. Y’all had a lot of opinions! I enjoyed reading them! A deciding factor is the tub.       I poured the jelly…

Deep in the basement of the 1894 Cross House is something remarkable: the only remaining 1950s Mouse Palace Motel bathroom in the entire universe. After the upper floors were converted to a motel in 1950s, Scott Mouse, Jr. converted the basement into six more motel rooms, each with a bathroom. Pink, of course. After Bob…

  This worked out better than I had expected. I had planned to tile the wall above the sink and the idea of a mirror just popped into my head at the last moment. I love when pops work out.    

  The base is porcelain. The knob is wood. The switch is by Bryant. When you push/pull on the knob there is a satisfying, loud CLICK. So, in a small town in Kansas, something is better.    

When the Cross House was built in 1894 it was quite high-tech in having gas/electric combination lighting. Every night, to light a room, one would reach up to the turn-key switches on the overhead fixtures or sconces, and click on a bulb. Each gas jet had to be individually lighted. Today, this would seem tedious…

In 2014, one of the first things I did at the Cross House was to create a work room in the basement, under the dining room. Shelves were built along the west wall, a fiberglass slop sink was installed along the south wall, and a 4×16-long work table was built down the middle of the…

    Also now complete are four in the middle room (under the stairhall), and more in the workroom. The basement is now incredibly bright. I figure I can can get several dozens tanning beds installed and make a fortune.    

    Kenny did not bring his dog, Jet, with him. This quite vexed me. Kenny plans to return next month. I am crossing my fingers Jet comes to help, too.