The Cross House

I have a rule. The rule is absolute. THE RULE: If you buy an old house, EXPECT to discover at least six structural issues. And be calm. But, if you find a seventh issue, GIVE THE HOUSE BACK TO THE PREVIOUS OWNER. The point of The Rule is that all old houses have structural issues….

This week we started to demolish the Cross House. Well, not the whole house. Just a part of the house. Just a small part. Just a non-original part. Just a badly built non-original small part.                  

Eek! I took the big scary step. EEK!

Last week a reader, Carla, wrote in, curious why I did not have a Go Fund Me link on this blog. Since starting the blog in the summer of 2014 I have received about a dozen such comments. Without quite understanding why, I have resisted the idea. Yes, I know people donate massive amounts of money…

              I have a long background in architecture and design. And restoring the architecture of the Cross House is MUCH easier than trying to figure out how to decorate the place! For, I have never decorated a house built in 1894. To me, the challenge is trying to create…

I have a problem. And was hoping that you could help me. You see, I have taken on this HUGE and very OLD house needing a TON of work. And, so far, when I have needed help with something, like renewing the radiator system, relining built-in gutters, or restoring stained-glass windows, I have found the…

                I know what I am going to do. When the stair-hall is restored, I will create a small glass “window” at the corner. The window will reveal the curved framing, artfully lighted with an LED bulb, and an explanation typed up and framed inside the wall.  

When the Cross House was built in 1894 there was no television. And computers and the internet were unimaginable. Fast forward to today, and I tremendously enjoy that my big old house co-exists with a very modern world. Today, a YouTube video was posted by Elizabeth, who created Circa, a delicious blog about old houses…

PART ONE           By summer, if all goes well, the roofing on the towers will be new. And the missing finial really absolutely most certainly and without-a-doubt needs to be resurrected. Right? It would be criminal to have pretty new roofing but with a denuded…top. The obvious choice to make a…

If I were a millionaire, the Cross House would have suffered. With millions at my disposal, I could have (and would have) embarked upon a restoration with a full crew, and would likely have finished the house by now. And the house would have suffered. You see, there are dividends to moving slowly. By moving…

My last post was about the built-in gutters on the Cross House, and how they originally fed into a cistern. I was surprised by how many people asked questions about the cistern. So, may I please introduce…the Cistern of the Cross House?           From Biographical Sketches: JOSEPH C. JONES, foundry, was…

After much ado, the Heritage Grant work on the Cross House commences! This week Groh & Sons began work on relining the built-in gutters. Groh was founded in 1918, and is almost as old as the Cross House. The house has no visible gutters. The gutters are built into the prominent “cornices” of the house,…

Finding early 1890s gas/electric chandeliers and sconces for the Cross House will be a monumental, daunting task, requiring many years (decades?), and also requiring a vast fortune. Yes, I play the lottery weekly. Another monumental task will be finding period-correct glass shades for all the lights. I grow weak at the very thought. Last year…

Almost a year ago I did a post about the lighting which I had purchased for the Cross House. Although I sell vintage lighting for a living, I specialize in post-1920 lighting, so Victorian-era lighting is a mystery to me. However, slowly, bit-by-bit, I have been gaining a suggestion of knowledge about the era. As…

My previous four posts have all been about vintage lighting. And I sell vintage lighting for a living. So, one would think my own house would be full of vintage lighting treasures, right? Well, like the proverbial shoemaker with no…I am shoeless. The problem is that I cannot justify hanging up fabulous vintage fixtures in…

In my three previous posts I wrote about the great adventure of finding and revealing the lost gas/electric sconce locations in the Cross House. I wrote: In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb, and in 1882 Edison created, in New York City, the first practical system for generating electricity for homes and businesses….

In my two previous posts I detailed the discovery of the lost gas nipples to fourteen sconces adjacent to seven fireplace mantels. At first I assumed that the sconces were gas sconces, but more sluething revealed that they were gas/electric sconces. Cool. While researching the two blog posts, I realized that the Cross House may…