The Move-In Check List
So, I am gonna ask y’all for your help.
Close your eyes, cross your fingers, and say:
Ross is gonna move into the Cross House in 2021!
Ross is gonna move into the Cross House in 2021!
Ross is gonna move into the Cross House in 2021!
For, I need all the powers of the universe to assure this!
I have not spent a night in the house in almost seven years now of ownership. I would have never thought this possible in 2014 after buying the house!
Also, these years have been buttressed by financial help. Year #1 was fueled by a construction loan, and the following years have been fueled by two Heritage Trust grants. 2021 will be the first year that I will be on my own financially.
So, umm…EEK!
When Covid became a reality for most of us in March my sales dropped in half. Same for April. I was T E R R I F I E D. I felt certain that, come fall, I would lose everything. I really thought this. But, the gods decided to have some fun: my sales jumped in May. I mean, really jumped. And the gods were not done having some fun. June July August September and October were the same. Sales boomed and I assumed this was all Covid related: people were staying at home and, it seems, deciding to make their home better. This would also explain places like Home Depot being packed with buyers.
Well, this unexpected period of flushness gave me financial hope for 2021. This had seemed an impossibility in April.
Then came November. Sales tanked. December was better, but still less than the previous December. Luckily, enough came in to pay all the bills but the Cross House just consumes money.
What happened? Why, after six months of incredible sales numbers did it all just hit a brick wall?
I do not know. And this scares me.
So, I eagerly await the next few months. Nervously.
2021 will also be the first year that I can do what I want, unencumbered by construction loan deadline requirements and grant line items. I am eager for this freedom. I am an Aquarian. Aquarians love freedom. So, you can imagine the immensity of my forbearing these past almost seven years! Is there some international award for forbearing? If so, please nominate me!
Of course, what I want is a very different thing than what I need. And the latter, sigh, will have to take precedence this year.
Sigh.
There are like a dozen projects I am dying to do (like restoring the dining room, recreating the lost dumbwaiter, restoring the main stair, and so on) but none of these project will help Get Ross Into The House.
To this end:
- Finish the cat fence.
- Build a winter cat house in the basement.
- Restore the Round Bedroom (this will be my office).
- Install a shower in what will be my bathroom.
With these projects done (the Round Bedroom being the only big project), I can move in, at last, at last.
Hopefully I will be able to pay for all this work.
In addition, I plan to complete the Octagon Suite so it can be rented out to earn money. And it seems like the completion of this project will correspond with things getting back to normal.
Hopefully. If not, the Octagon Suite may become a 2022 project. I hope not though.
I really really really want to finish the painting of the south facade but do not see how this will be possible, time-wise. I do however plan to paint the south side of the main porch, the porch ceiling, and the exterior south wall of the parlor. This should not be too much work and will make a big impact in how the house looks while driving by. Importantly, no shingling will be required!
In addition, Dr. Doug and I are planning to install the lattice under the main porch. I cannot wait! The porch railings will also get fully installed! I cannot wait!
The completion of the main porch will be a titanic-sized milestone, akin to restoring all the stained-glass windows. A post-Covid party will certainly be in order.
And y’all are invited.
2026 NOTE: Ross is still not in the house. Yes, poo.
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Hey Ross!
Happy New Year!!!
I was just reading thru your email and I had to comment…I manage a retail store in NW Iowa and our sales were great, up to November 1st. Then it was like something slammed on the brakes, and we have been struggling every since…At first I kinda wrote it of to the uncertainty of the Election… but that obviously wasn’t the case, since it continued beyond a week or two. …Its really interesting that you have seen the same effect…here’s to great sales in 2021 for all…I’m pulling for you to be able to make the move this year and have everything fall into place! 🎉
Ross, you WILL move in to the Cross House in 2021!
I feel the biggest job will be restoring the round bedroom.
Plaster needs work? Floors and trim refinished? Anything else? So I would make that my January project first. You have the product for the plaster repair already correct?
Then I would get the shower built ( can you do most of that labor yourself?)
Then get the basement cat house built.
By spring build the cat fence.
Move in.
Party, party, party with all of us!!! Whoopie!
Then finish the porch area….and party some more!!
Yes, Linda, the Round Bedroom will be a lot of work.
The wiring is done!
There’s a lot a plaster work required. The ceiling is a mess. I could cover it quickly and cheaply with sheetrock but…no.
Then painting. Install picture rail. Restore missing bits of trim.
Then I need the floor repaired and finished.
I will not, initially, do anything with the adjacent 1929 bathroom, save installing a bunch of shelves so it can be used for storage.
Yes Linda, definitely agree with you, Ross will make it in the Cross House in 2021. Ross has already come so far and after all he is multitalented with many skills to add in his quest.
Will pray for the move-in this year, Ross and will continue to donate to your GoFundMe account. The universe will provide.
Ross Ross Ross. Just move in. You have water. You have electricity. That’s all you need. And a chicken wire cat enclosure.
I just lived the past year and a half in a 43 ft reefer van, no water, solar unreliable electricity. Outhouse. Now I just bought and moved in…to a house with…..no water, but it has electricity. The whole place needs renovating. But who cares. A twin mattress in the living room by the wood stove, my dogs, bottled jugs of water filled once a month in town….that is 2 hours away…..
You can move in. Today.
Ahhhh, but Krystal, what you are willing to put up with, and what I am willing to put up, are very different things!
I need my comfort! No shower once a day???????????
And the cats will scoff at a chicken-wire “fence”. And will soon be killed on the adjacent highway.
There is also no way that I will restore the Round Bedroom while using it as my office! I can live with a wreck of a bedroom. And kitchen. And bathroom. But my office? IT NEEDS TO BE DONE!
I smiled so hard when I saw the title of this post in my email.
YOU CAN DO IT!!!!
All the best, stay safe. Happy 2021.
Congratulations! This is fantastic! You got this! 😉
Remember Ross, baby steps. It will all get done . Have complete faith in what you can accomplish. And just keep thinking about all the time you’ll save not running back and forth and the money you’ll save not running two houses. That should be a huge incentive to get you in Cross House sooner than later. Anyway best of luck we’re all behind you.
Yes! A wonderful plan.
Wishing you a glorious New Year Ross. And…I just bought your book! The last one on Amazon. Time to restock!
Your book is a birthday gift to myself. I am a fellow Aquarian, and I have wanted the book for a long time.
Hopefully when I visit Kansas and Cross House, (or if you come to New York) you will autograph it for me.
I agree with Bonnie above, baby steps always seem to succeed.
Wishing you every happiness in the New Year. I look forward to following the big move-in!
2021 Heralds the New Age of Aquarius…
Peace, love and hugs!
I’m looking forward to seeing how you use the patented Baby Steps (TM) method to knock these items off your list. Because I’m confident you WILL be in the house in 2021.
And if there’s any low painting that needs to be done that doesn’t require ladders or scaffolding, I’m happy to help. Or dusting. Or vacuuming. I’m good at all that stuff.
Apart from the new shower, do you now have a working bathroom elsewhere in the house? Maybe I’ve missed something, but I thought those were all still in progress.
Brian, in the basement is the only remaining Palace Motel bathroom. Its sink and toilet work.
On the second floor, there is a working toilet.
That’s it!
I am all for doing things “right” the first time around too, but maybe you should drywall over the ceiling in the round bedroom after all. Every house I have ever lived in, including my childhood home, had only plaster walls, and I love plaster, but no home I have I ever renovated has had as much plaster to be repaired as the Cross house. So….???
Maybe to speed your move-in date up a bit???
I also remember my plasterer telling me to wait like a month or so before priming and painting following work he had done for me…to let the plaster “cure”. Does that sound right?
Just getting antsy for you to move on in.
Dear Linda,
One of the things I discovered is that the plaster in the house acts as a heat sink, meaning that it absorbs heat, and then radiates it out. It works in tandem with the radiators.
This is amazing, and a little-known feature of plaster.
Sheetrock does not absorb heat.
Because heat rises, having plaster ceilings is far more important than having plaster walls.
In short, the extra work involved in plastering the Round Bedroom ceiling will be offset by many decades of reduced heating costs.
Also, I’m not planning to plaster the ceiling myself. I’m hoping to hire somebody, who will go MUCH faster than I could!
Oh, and I am antsy, too!
Fingers and toes crossed, you certainly will be moving into the Cross House in 2021. How exciting, I know you can get those four projects done and make your dream a reality, one baby step at a time. Good Luck!
Oh super!! I am SO glad you are hiring out the plaster work!! Good to hear and one less thing on your plate!
No clicking the heels of our ruby slippers together three times saying, “There’s no place like the Cross House”?
Yes, please, do that, too!
Click….click…click… I added “for Ross to be able to move into soon!”
As a self-employed person and Saggitarian I feel you pain on income swings and share your love of freedom! I think it’s a very doable list and your patented baby-steps method will get you into the house this year. One question: you have a million clawfoots, why not a shower ring for now until your fancy new shower is built? You’ll need one for the Air BnB eventually anyhow, may as well install it and use it and be in the house sooner.
Ross, you can do it!!! I so enjoy your posts, they always make me smile. I know you want everything to be the way you want before you move in, I get it, but sometimes it might take a bit of “uncomfortableness” in order to get progress made more quickly. Think if you lived there how much easier it would be not having to drive back and forth. And you would have your fur babies right there with you to help (ha! – as a cat and dog owner I laugh at that suggestion) Will you sell the house you live in now? Perhaps the $$ from the sale of that will help with projects on the Cross house??? Just spit balling here. Whatever you do, I know it will be right for you and it will happen. Good luck to you and much love from Santa Rosa, CA!
Judy