I Am Breathless With Excitement!
The Cross House. Brand new, 1894. (Image courtesy Walter Anderson Collection ESU Archives.)
The Cross house front porch. Note the railings. (All the images enlarge if you click on them.)
The Cross House, 2016. Note the total absence of railings. And lattice. THIS MAKES ME CRAZY.
A titanic-sized goal of mine has been to get the damn railings back on the porch. And lattice.
I found most of the railings moldering away on the ground in the back yard. Horrified, I brought them all into the house to dry out, and see what could be salvaged. In they end, they were only good as templates. Which is actually vital.
Most of the spindles were in a box in the basement. Sadly, it did not seem that they could be reused, either. So, I ordered new spindles…
…which arrived in June…
…and sat boxed in the kitchen until…
…today!!!!!!!! This afternoon, I couldn’t paint any more as I was waiting for some caulking to dry, so I thought: What to do? What to do? Oh! I know!!!!!!!!
The bottom rails nicely fit (after some effort) right into the slots cut 122-years ago.
Do you have any idea of how hard it is to have wood kiss irregular limestone? Can I get a round of applause?
EEEEEEEEK!
EEEEEEEEK!
OMG! I am sooooooooooooooooooo EXCITED!
So, one down, a few more to go. And I am DYING DYING DYING to recreate the Lost Dramatic Sweep railing!
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WOW. They look AWESOME. I knew it would look good, but this looks great!!!
Why didn’t you paint them first? Surely it would be easier than installing, then painting?
The railing is only installed temporarily.
I will take it down, so some final adjustments, paint, and then install!
So EXCITED for you!!!!
That is a beautiful thing to see.Can not wait for your next post on this project.
that is amazing! So excited to see the completed project. Another job well done.
I share your excitement! Congrats.
Gorgeous. Wonderful. Graceful. Extraordinary!
I have been looking forward to seeing the railings go up, and this section looks even better than I expected! I’m looking forward now to seeing how you recreate the top and bottom rails of the sweep. We have two sets of steps on our wrap-around front porch, and both of them flare out as you descend. Fortunately, the “sweep” is only about 13″, so we took 2X14’s and cut the curved top and bottom rails from them…
Not just rounds of applause but Rounds of ZOUNDS!!! That’s awesome!
Wow, that’s looking great!
I’m also very interested to see how you work out the dramatic radius curved portion.
My hearts jumping!!!! It gets all a flutter with posts like this. Great job.
Beautiful Ross!
I spent the entire day yesterday and half of today going through your blog since I discovered it. I have been waiting for this moment! However, I cannot image how you feel waiting years and working so diligently on every single detail. I am so excited for you!!! Congratulations on the railings!!! It looks so amazing!