The Cross House

Justin, Scott, and their assistant, Brock, were in the carriage house. An ear-piercing noise was heard and, as Justin later told me: “I was suddenly weightless! It was terrifying.” What happened? A Lally column in the basement had buckled and all the jacking up this past week, in an instant, fell back down to ‘normal’….

              At some point the carriage house was converted into three apartments: Studio in basement. First floor. Second floor. I am gonna guess that this alteration was done at such a point.     In addition, being able to close off the second floor will make a significant difference…

                Tomorrow, Cody arrives for a two week stay. He plans to jam the room full with some of his stuff.    

        Last week, it was uncertain if the floor sag could be eradicated or even improved. Today though…drum roll, please…it now seems obvious that the sag can be fully eradicated. We were able to reduce the sag by about an inch today! After the house settles a bit, we will jack up…

For the first time in over a year (due to Covid), the Cross House received visitors! Bill discovered the Cross House blog about four years ago, and read every post during a three-week marathon. He then put the house on his bucket list, and planned to visit in 2020. Well, y’all know how 2020 went!…

After buying the Cross House in 2014, I quickly identified three related issues which were a problem. However, I have ignored these issues ever since due to the assumed terrifying costs associated with resolving said issues. But…time now presses upon me. Sigh.   ISSUE ONE The carriage house has, quite sensibly, a 2-zone HVAC system….

    John wrote in with the correct answer: “I have seen ‘peaked’ joists under historic poured concrete and ceramic tiled floors–the upper surfaces of the joists were not just beveled, they came to ridges. I’ve read this treatment was to minimize cracking. I’ve also seen T&G boards nailed between those joists to create a…

NOTE: The carriage house is a tale of two houses. It was built in 1894. The main structure was a carriage house with, likely, a hayloft above. The north wing was the barn. Circa-1921, the whole was converted into a house, and the north wing was relocated to the east and became a kitchen. All…

In my previous post, Brian asked two questions: “Did the second floor stair hall have a picture rail? If so, how was the arch in the middle of that hallway treated?” To answer the first question: Yes. The two-story stair hall had papered walls, a paper border (above the picture rail), and papered ceilings. Fragments of…

In pondering the bathroom, I have been curious. Did the room originally have a picture rail? Most of the rooms in the house did, about 20-inches below the ceiling. This was common for the era. All the rails were removed, it seems, in 1950. But, their ghost outlines remain. The kitchen did not have picture…

So, y’all have been watching the creation of my master bath in the SE corner room, second floor, of the 1894 Cross House. The room was originally a blanket closet and, it seems, a servant’s room. The blanket closet was later removed, and for many decades the newly expanded room was a kitchen. When I…

  The room was originally, I think, a servant’s bedroom. Is this the original paper to the room? Tantalizing!    

Wanna get excited? Scroll way down…                                             The room now feels like two rooms: west and east. Of course, the room was divided in two originally,  when the western portion was largely taken up…

  Originally, I had planned to have the arch rest on a “nib” wall, against the south window. The nib wall would have been where the vertical window trim was. Hence, the reason for the nib wall was to cover over where the trim was removed. All this was so the new dividing wall did…

I am planning to recreate the lost plaster in most of the rooms in the Cross House. But…in my bathroom, I made an executive decision, based on a lack of time and current low energy levels, to move forward on the room with…oh, dear…sheetrock. The plaster ceiling in the room was a mess. For years…

In my seven years of restoring the Cross House, and writing about the process, I have never directly articulated the following. When the house was built in 1894, it was a quality house. The 43 stained-glass windows, the fabulous Yale & Towne hardware, the stunning custom-designed column capitals, the beautifully carved main stair, all the…

  None of the shower images convey scale. The shower is really big! I cannot wait to use it! I might even have a shower party! Y’all are invited!    

In my previous post, I detailed three things which have reduced my energy. For my whole life I have abounded with energy. So, it is weird feeling…reduced. It is like I was a 200W bulb, now dimmed to 20W. Still, one can accomplish things with but 20W.   The other day, I met with Travis…

Some of you will have noticed that my posting about the Cross House has significantly diminished of late. That is because not much has been happening of late. Save the big push to get a working shower installed, and The Other Justin installing a new maple kitchen floor, it has all been…quiet. The is the…

On the ever-shorter TO DO LIST of things required to get me living at the Cross House, a shower has been installed! I had planned to install the shower in the SW corner of the servant’s room (in the SE corner of the second floor). The shower pan though is huge: 5-feet x 5-feet. Slowly,…