The Cross House was built in 1894. It is located at 526 Union Street, in Emporia, Kansas. I purchased the house in March 2014.

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My blog posts about the restoration are below.

 

The Cross House, Emporia, designed by architect Charles M. Squires.

The Cross House, Emporia, designed by architect Charles W. Squires.

Currently displaying blog entries in Chronological Order. Switch to Most Recent.

Currently displaying blog entries in Most Recent Order. Switch to Chronological Order.

DON’T READ THIS POST!

WARNING: Do not read this post I implore you. Why? Because, if you read this post, you will not like me anymore. Why? Because…I am going to do a bad thing. Sigh, please scroll down…IF YOU MUST!                             NOTE: 1 ) Most…

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Icebergs in Kansas

Like many parts of America, bitter cold weather is gripping Kansas. Tonight will be -13 degrees. Eek. For a week now I have been preoccupied with assuring that my yard kitties will be safe. They have a heated winter cat house, and a heated water bowl outside. And, numerous stray cats have managed to find…

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Fuck! Thrump! Squee!

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a hard day. I had gone to bed around 2AM, when the outside temperature was a terrifying -13 degrees. Would my power go off? Would my pipes then freeze? Would the kitties be OK in their heated winter cat house with no heat? I fell right asleep. It was 72-degrees inside. At…

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The Other Justin…Commences

  Originally, the first-and second-floors were covered with wall-to-wall carpeting. On the second floor, it appears that oak was laid down in 1929, when apartments were created on the second floor, and numerous bathrooms and kitchen were installed. During the ensuing decades there was a lot of damage and all this needs to be repaired….

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A Heating Update

When buying the Cross House in 2014, a huge huge huge concern was how to heat it. The house is scary massive: four floors totaling almost 9,000 square feet. Terrifying! In 2014, wind blew freely through the house, and snowdrifts inside were common. Even though the previous owner, Bob, installed $$$$ new boilers for the…

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A Discovery!

    See the closet, lower right? Adjacent, was a small dressing room. A door is shown to the dressing room but this was never installed. Rather, a portiere was. There was a door between the dressing room and closet though. In 1929, the closet and dressing room were combined into a bathroom. Read here…

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Let There Be Light!

             

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Discovery #1

During the last few days I have made significant and fascinating discoveries in the former servant’s room in the SE corner of the second floor of the Cross House. This post details one discovery.   The room was originally a servant’s room accessible via a door off the servant’s hall. To the immediate west was…

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A Flooring Mystery Update

Yesterday I did a post about the non-original flooring of the Cross House. When new, the house had plain pine flooring on its first and second levels, as wall-to-wall carpet was installed. At some point, very simple oak flooring was laid down, and this remains today. Was the oak installed ruing the 1929 apartment conversion,…

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Discovery #2

On my MOVE IN TO DO LIST, is installing a shower in the servant’s room on the second floor, SE corner. I already have a huge 5-foot x 5-foot shower pan. I quiver at the thought of so large a shower. The shower will cover over much of the west wall in the room, so…

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Discovery #3. ZOUNDS!

                    The ceiling of the blanket closet also has the striated finish. The closet and room ceilings do not. The new shower will take up 83-inches of the west wall (5-foot wide shower, 18-inch-wide seat, and 5-inch wall to the north), starting in the corner. So,…

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Discovery #4. A Greatly Vexatious Puzzlement.

                                  And this caused soooooooo much vexation over the years. How could it not fit? How could it not fit? How could it not fit?       So, I will cut down the 1929 angled rail to fit…

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Before. After.

     

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Inching Along Finishly

        Currently, The Other Justin is repairing all the oak flooring on the second level. But, before it can be varnished, all the trim on the second floor needs to be refinished. The process uses denatured alcohol and, no matter how careful I am with taping, I just know some of it…

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Flooring!

                  All the non-original gas pipes were added, I suspect, so gas heaters could supplement the radiator system. This would have been necessary as, over time, radiators cracked, radiator pipes burst, and so on. Rather than address each such issue, new gas lines were added and, presumably,…

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Annunciator Update

In 2018, I did two posts (here and here) about Blair discovering that the Cross House had an annunciator system originally. There was no question that I would reinstate this. No question! So, for the last two years I have been searching for an annunciator box. And…drum roll, please…I may have found one.      …

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The Importance Of Unseen Clean

    New sub-flooring will soon go in. Then new oak finished flooring will go in. Then the original 3-steps will be reinstalled. And nobody will, quite likely, ever again look into the joist cavity to ascertain tidiness. But…I will know. And you will, too.   I think this kind of effort, somehow, makes a…

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A Door. On A Diet.

  You can see in the image how the door had been made wider. This was true for the other side as well. Vertical extensions had been nailed on. But why? As the post reveals, I learned that the door was originally the door between the dressing room and closet. When these two small rooms…

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Discoveries 5 – 7!

        I will be recreating the annunciator system in the house, and reinstating its attendant call buttons in their original locations. I find this all…a lot of fun.    

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Preparing The Kitchen For New Flooring

    Of note is that, rather than tear up the 1894 maple flooring and taking it to the dump, I decided to leave it in place. The new flooring will be laid atop it. This means that, perhaps 80-years from now, somebody might discover the 1894 flooring and have the wherewithal to somehow restore…

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