The Cross House

      I finished repairs to the rotted lower left corner, and reinstalled the original siding. Sounds easy, right? Alas, no. Each piece of removed siding sat in a stack, so I could put each piece back in the right order, bottom to top. But first I had to (I had to!) disk sand…

    My plan for today was to prime and paint this last bit of the Great North Wall! My plan however was thwarted. For, see the siding under the window? Well, on the left side, I noticed that the bottom two feet of siding was loose where it met the vertical corner trim. No…

  Today though, I moved the sideboard away from the east wall, in preparation of repairing some of the bomb damage!!!!!!!! Stay tuned for breathless updates!  

When I began painting the exterior of the Cross House in the spring of 2014, I  “overlooked” certain aspects which needed more work than I could focus on at the time. I’ll do it later. One aspect was small pieces of trim above the column capitals. ALL of these needed attention. Some were missing. None…

    See the curved dining room window? See the water table trim just above the foundation? I wholly rebuilt that, and finished painting it today. Previously, I added a black pinstripe just above the water table. Today, I taped its upper edge and repainted, creating a more precise edge. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, precise edges. I also…

  [Ross: I present this first guest post. By Doug.] I HATE ROSS And If You Are Painting A House You Secretly Do, Too. “I hate Ross.” There, I said it. You see, for third-four years I’ve lived in a 1902 George Barber-designed home listed on the National Register of Historic places. This summer I…

Shortly after buying the Cross House, I lucked out on acquiring a very large George III-style dining table by Baker. The rooms in the house are huge, and normal-scaled furniture looks silly. After picking up the table, I placed it in the dining room; it was perfect. Shortly thereafter, I found a pair of George…

  Yesterday I: Painted the background of one tower swag in color #5. Ditto for the scroll backgrounds on the brooch (the triple upper windows). Painted black the arched trim above the triple widows. This helps to break up all the green. Painted a black pinstripe just below the scrollwork under the dining room windows….

    Yesterday, the newly painted scroll panels under the windows looked a bit adrift. Today though, the green trim at the bottom, and the subtle black pinstripe, added visual gravitas. And I do love gravitas.    

  So…Ross wanted to paint the background of the five rectangles surrounding the swags on the tower. Ross wanted to paint the background in color #5, as suggest by Zac. Ross liked what Zac had photo-shopped. Ross then asked Justin and Scott to help him erect a mini-scaffolding. Ross thought, too, that a ladder atop…

  I had been thrilled with the coloring on the house. Then, after finishing most of the north front, too, the “canvas” was suddenly large enough to step back and really see the overall effect. And my heart sank a bit. The color scheme was lacking…vivacity. I poured over the 1895 black/white image and realized…

Since buying the Cross House 3-1/2-years ago, I have been eager to complete a particular project. Eager. Breathless with anticipation. Impatient! And today…today…victory! Wanna see? Scroll way down…                                                      …

    The column capitals on the Cross House were custom-designed by architect Charles Squires, and hand-carved. Each is unique. The capitals are wonderfully eccentric, and oh how I would have loved to have been in the drafting room of Squires as he, certainly, smiled in satisfaction at the finished design. The Cross House capitals…