The Cross House

So, y’all know I have been making a mess of the library. I am going to take down the 2014 white shelves I installed on the west wall, to the right of the mantel. This will necessitate rounding up trim for the wide pocket doors into the parlor. The trim was removed (I think) circa-1950…

All long-term restoration projects involve…creeping funk. This is when somehow, when you are not looking, every room gets filled with clutter. In one room miscellaneous trim fills a corner, a stack of wood shingles sits in front of the mantel, small boxes rest adjacent, several doors (from where?) rest against another wall. And so on….

So, y’all know I have been redoing the library. You know, the room I did in 2014. Sigh. The redesign process started when I began to experience a subtle…but nagging…suggestion in my brain: Hey, Ross, wouldn’t it be cool to return the small door to its original location? This would mean removing mounds of books,…

I think 592 days have gone by since my last post about the Cross House. Well, maybe not quite that long, but certainly the longest since beginning the blog in 2014. Justin has been working elsewhere for the past few weeks so that, of course, has slowed everything WAY down. And because I am just…

                      The man who sold the set said it was his grandmother’s. After her death though no family member had a place for the set. So, it has now moved from Wichita to Emporia to begin a new life.    

    The interruption of the Lincrusta, and its reeded top trim, is curious. It was there in 1894. It was gone when the circa-1950 wallpaper was installed. What happened? I do not know. Replacing the Lincrusta will be easy. The top reeded trim can also be replaced although not quite as easy. My thought…

  I plan to install a hose bibb on the porch so the whole can be easily scrubbed. I should have done this years ago.    

      The island looks better in the image than it does in person. In person, it looks cheap. It IS cheap! I had intended to top it with marble matching the marble-topped Saarinen Tulip table in the adjacent parlor. But, the quotes I received stopped this idea from proceeding. With the library now….at…

When I purchased the Cross House in 2014 I had no idea it originally had a dumbwaiter going from the kitchen to the basement. Bit by bit though, clues revealed its former existence. I speculate that it was removed circa-1929 during the conversion of the house into apartments on the second-floor, and an owner’s suite…

Way back in 2017 I wrote a mind-bending post, here. If you are sober you might enjoy reading this ancient post. If you are a bit drunk your mind may not recover. Caveat emptor!               Once all this is mudded and painted, I can then re-attach the 1894 gold…

I have previously posted about getting a blood clot in March, 2020. And I have posted about the huge reduction in my energy since. It is now normal for me to take 3 naps a day. I feel exhausted all the time. This ain’t right.   On August 13, 2022…for the first time in my…

        I am quite grateful to have these very small projects to attend to. The idea of, say, reshingling much of the south facade…as I did not long ago…fills me with wonderment. Did I really once have such energy? The very idea also fills me with terror. For, at the moment, having…

This past Friday was…intense, man. Intense. And scary. When I got out of bed in the morning I looked down to my legs. Eek!!!!!!!! My right calve, ankle, and foot were hugely bloated. I kept glancing between the right leg and left leg. It did not seem possible that these two legs belonged to the…

I have tried two colors now on the main porch ceiling of the Cross House. The first color was just not right. And nor…as I have known for several years now…was the second color. Indeed, I have long thought: WTF was I thinking? While I am currently mostly off-line, our wonderful Kenny wants to spend…