The Cross House

  I also did all the prep work on the bottom 1/4, including replacing some shingles. Tomorrow, i will paint the final 1/4!!!!!!!! All the siding on the first floor is new, installed last year, so it will be easy and fast finishing the first floor. Then the scaffolding will be move to the inside…

Last week, there was a delicious respite in the weather: 72 degrees for several days. Bliss. This week though, the Gods are obviously quite angry for it hit 100 degrees this afternoon. And what did Ross do today? Why, he snuggle into the hot-as-Hell Tyvek suit to disk-sand the NE corner! And why did Ross…

    While I was unable to un-dent the trim, I was able to create a sheet metal cover for it and glue it on. Better! These micro-repairs thrill me. Even though most (or all) are not readily observable, they nonetheless create a more crispy look for the house which I think IS observable. In…

Recently, I did a blog post about the restoration of the stained-glass transom windows in the sewing room. While the stained-glass panels were restored, their wood sashes also needed to be restored. This meant removing the many layers of old shellac on the inside, and sanding the outside down to bare wood. Then, the stained-glass panels…

  In the early 1970s, Phyllis and Louis lived in the Cross House, first in the Octagon Bedroom, and then later the entire third floor. Their landlord was Frank and Esther Toms. During the last few days, Phyllis has been sending me images of their time as cool young things in the Cross House, and I…

  This past Thursday, Jim and Cindy, and Phyllis and Louis, came by for an extended tour of the Cross House. Phyllis and Louis were last in the house in the 1970s, when they first rented the Octagon Bedroom, and then the entire top floor. For $60 a month! Furnished! Phyllis and Louis were in…

When I was a child in the 1960s, my parent’s had a fiberglass sailboat and I spent countless hours and years aboard her. But I never loved her. She was plastic and smelled funny. And, she was…small. Very occasionally we would happen upon a big old wooden yacht. These fascinated me. In the pages of…

The second-floor sewing room at the Cross House has, like almost all the rooms, stained-glass transom windows. There are 42 such windows in the house, which is remarkable. Astonishing, really. When I first purchased the house I thought all the windows were in situ but then realized that there had originally been 43 stained-glass windows. One…

      All the parlor clear-glass windows will be done soon! And the sewing room clear-windows are in the shop for restoration! At this point, about 80% of the 43 stained-glass windows are restored, and about 60% of the clear-glass windows are restored. At the end of 2018, or soon into 2019, all the…

WARNING: This is a long, intense post. Wine might be required.   A GOOD PLAN? In March, I did a post about having to give up on Mr. Darcy, meaning that I had come to the conclusion that my romantic ideals for the Cross House were not realistic. In short, Jane Austin was not coming…

Over a two-year period I made a concentrated effort to dismantle the Aladdin’s Cave in the basement, a room full of bits & pieces removed from the house over many decades. This effort proved successful and all over the house (interior and exterior) long “lost” bits were re-installed. But two inside window stops — just…