The Cross House

    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…

  The newly painted column capitals have been bothering me. While I like them better in color #5, the light color does not offer enough shadow, so the wonderful details are lost. Also, and quite unnervingly, the capitals now appear to made of plastic. Oh, the horror. The column capitals are one of my favorite…

    So, the battered wood bits had to go, and I needed something that would effortlessly round the corners. My solution? A black garden hose! I know! Friggin’ brilliant! Zac had suggested also painting black the bit of trim above the pinstripe but I may leave it alone. It’s upper edge is irregular and…

    I will be finished with the above this week!!!!!!!!    

  Well, today I painted one downspout…green (the one in the middle of the above picture). How does it look? Like why-did-I-spend-so-much-time-even-pondering-this-issue perfect. (NOTE: The downspout in question is short because it is a weird diameter and I have been unable to find the bit more required to bring it down to the ground.) When…

The summer sun beats the Cross House. It scares me how hot some rooms get. So, I have been pondering an old-fashioned option, but one wholly correct for my 1894 house: canvas window awnings. Such awnings were ubiquitous before WWII but are rarely seen today.           I have been doing a…

    …the stained-glass windows. They were MUCH more vivid. Huh? It took me a minute. Oh! The new coral porch ceiling! The light bouncing off it has hugely enhanced the colors in the stained-glass. An unintended but delightful surprise.    

Is the Cross House the biggest Victorian-Era house ever built on such a small piece of land? I have often pondered the question. I mean, the size of the yard is absurdly small. The front yard is TINY. To the south? The driveway takes up all this. East? This is small, and currently parking. North?…

    Tomorrow, I plan to — hallelujah — remove the last of the scaffolding!!!!!!!! Then I need to paint the window sills, and finish the scrollwork!    

    TO DATE: Wide gable over porch steps recolored. Thanks, Eric! Porch ceiling painted coral. Thanks, Patricia! Column capitals painted the newly introduced color #5. Thanks, Zac! Most of the column bases painted color #5. Thanks, Zac! Pair column shafts above steps painted in high-gloss clear polyurethane. Thanks, well, me! Garland swags on upper…

  Yesterday, I arrived at the Cross House. My mind was full of thoughts and I was thinking of the pressing things I needed to finish before the day ended I was not thinking about the porch ceiling. After getting out of my car, and walking towards the house, I looked up. And stopped in…

  I learned about this two years ago and was fascinated. Pink? Pink???????? But I never really thought about pink porch ceilings for the Cross House. I mean…pink? A few days ago however, my friend Patricia called and said she had a sudden insight. “I think you should do your porch ceiling in a kind…

    This idea was a stroke of friggin’ genius! I love love love the results! I was uneasy with the green columns. So I painted two gold. Oops. That was so not the solution. But without the gold effort I would never have thought of the gloss idea. The change is subtle, and more…

Are you sitting down? Is your seatbelt fastened? OK! I asked Zac to photo-shop several color ideas for me. This all seemed perfectly reasonable. Perfectly reasonable. Until I got the results. Are you sitting down? Is your seatbelt fastened? OK! Now, scroll way down…                      …

Years ago I watched a documentary on Dr. Seuss. One part, in particular, fascinated me. Seuss labored over every word he wrote. He could spend a week on a single sentence. He could agonize over a comma. He would put in a word, ponder it for hours, and then remove it. He would stare and…

Originally, the porch ceilings of the Cross House were a very pale olive. Very pale. Because I accidentally did not recreate the original colors of the house, my noble intentions notwithstanding, I feel a certain freedom concerning color choices for the four porch ceilings. Although I cannot explain why, I yearn for something…unexpected. Even kinda…