Victorian Antiquities and Design

Antique-of-the-Week: A great Corner Chair!

2012-01-26T12:54:00.000-05:00

We rarely get these in anymore as they are simply hard to find. Especially those with the curved front.. This one features very nice upholstery and delightful fringe on the back. This is the perfect piece for that "Turkish corner" as it has an exotic appearance,

Offered for only 350.00. Shipping is not offered on this but we are happy to work with your shipper or we can arrange for you to pick this up in Indy or Cincinnati. Simply a great chair that is comfortable and at an affordable price. More details on our website

Antique-of-the-Week showcases great Victorian Furniture aimed at the old house owner who is designing on a budget.

The "art" of Tin in the Victorian era

2012-01-24T07:45:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows about tin ceilings and more informed people may even know about the use of tin in commercial storefronts in the Victorian era, but do you know about "tinstone'?

The owners of the Second Empire cottage across the street from ours have a rear walkout that was added after the original weekend cottage was built, probably in the late 1890's. They have been removing the old 20's siding added to almost every house in our neighborhood (must have been a really good salesman). Anyway as they removed the old 20's siding and exposed the original they came across an unusual, and intact, find. Under the old siding on the lower level was the original "Tin stone' siding.

The Victorians were very ingenious people and were always looking for ways to 'make do' if they couldn't afford something more expensive. Local tin smithers developed Tin in a variety of shapes and styles including brick, slate roofs and as we see here stone. As they say, timing is everything, and in this case the original tin must have been in good shape when it was covered because it actually is in good condition. Holes are being filled and it is being repainted with a good rust inhibiting primer and may eventually be 'faux painted so it more closely approximates the stone foundation.

W.F.Norman still makes a version of this 'tinstone"

In case you are thinking "what a great idea", this product is still available. the W.F.Norman company: http://wfnorman.com/about still manufactures it as well as a brick version and a roof version. You have to wonder if somewhere in some old warehouse in Cincinnati the original dies are sitting for this particular version?

Knox Hill Project Weekly Update

2012-01-23T07:01:00.000-05:00

Busy, as usual. Lots of different projects going on. Greg has been working on getting all the old paint off the hanging rail and I have been painting and installing it. At the same time as those trims go on we can then proceed with 'frieze" stencilling in those areas like the North wall of the room. I should soon be ready in install the doorway trim , Portier rod and the arched fretwork panel that goes above it.

In fact there will be an upcoming piece on that project outlining how the trim work is done and the fretwork panel is constructed. At the same time I've been working on the wood valance construction and pier mirrior for the east wall which will be assembled on site from the componets I've made. The overmantle mirror will come in at the same time.

We also got lucky and located a drop arm extention for the chandelier we bought. Its a nice rope brass and exactly what we wanted. Should be coming in the mail in a couple of days. I am now selecting the ceiling medallion for the room and that will be painted up and ready for install soon. So, things are coming together, we are going 15 directions at once but then that's how restoration works.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: Historic River Rd Building to be sold

2012-01-19T08:24:00.000-05:00

This building at 3926 River Road was built in 1872 and originally served as a Kroger's. Since 1985 it has been the meeting hall for the Hibernia Society. It will be sold absolute, as is, on February 25th at 10 AM..

The mixed use building features a 6 room 2 bath apartment on the upper floors that has some very nice details. This historic building would be a great live/work opportunity.

More details can be obtained from Maggie Beckmeyer, Huff Realty 513-471-6936 MLS #1297209.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains is a series dedicated to the promotion of historic greater Cincinnati real estate. If you know of a "preservation bargain" please contact us at victiques@gmail.com and we may feature it here. Since this series began dozens of historic buildings have been saved from slumlords or worse yet, city bulldozers. Restoring Cincinnati, one house at a time!

Antique-of-the-Week : A great 4 globe Chandelier

2012-01-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

Antique Lighting is getting harder to find and when you do its terribly expensive and the reproduction stuff is well out of reach of the average homeowner.

Occaisionally we come across decent lighting that needs on minor work. So if you want one of those nice 4 globe chandeliers without the 350-375 dollar price tag, here is your opportunity, but you better hurry these do not last long.

Today's antique of the week is a decent 1910-1920's era 4 light chandelier. This would be appropriate in a later victorian home,or aa arts and crafts era home. It needs rewiring and a little polish but its overall in good shape and the globes look new.

Offered at only 125.00, this will go fast so contact us at victiques@gmail.com or more details are here: Victorian Antiquities and Design

Knox Hill Project Weekly Update: Mid ceiling panel stencil

2012-01-16T18:20:00.002-05:00

Client projects and an unusally busy post Holday sales have kept me busy this last week. However we did manage to get some things done.

At the middle of the intersects for the panels of the ceiling there is a mid wall panel . It is thinner and longer than the corner blocks that I talked about last week.

This panel uses a combination of elements;. the center is the top of the frieze panel and the rest is composed of a small stencil that may look familiar since it is The same as the front parlor small border that was part of the frieze in the formal Parlor..

That and continuation of line work and detailing...more to come.

What Neighborhood's need from this new Council

2012-01-11T09:34:00.000-05:00

Our new city council priorities should be neighborhood stabilization and improvement not demolition

When you are fortunate to live in a neighborhood with houses dating as far back as 1845 and home to carious historic places and events you would expect that neighborhood would be something to cherish and improve.

The key to neighborhood revitalization and redevelopment lies in good infrastructure. Neighborhoods need support, not demolition.

Last week our neighbor came across a sign. Its a sign of history, but more importantly a sign that many neighborhoods like ours have been forgotten by an uncaring city government.

In case you have never seen a sidewalk sign, it is a rare thing. In fact in many cities original sidewalk signs are protected by ordinance and preserved when new sidewalks are put in because they represent a piece of history.

The sign reads “John Lipps, Artificial Stone Cinn.O”. The sidewalk it is stamped on was put in, in 1909! That’s right, the citizens of Knox Hill have paid property taxes for decades and some of our sidewalks are 103 Years Old. While the city has updated corners for ADA compliancy ( because they no doubt fear federal lawsuits), The sidewalks those ADA ramps connect are over 100 years old. IN FACT, we have areas with no sidewalks and parts of Knox Street are ONE LANE wide.

While our neighborhood moves forward, with millions in private historic preservation investment by people who want to move to our neighborhood, we must still engage in a battle with our “Rubber Stamp" Urban Conservator Larry Harris and the non-preservation trained, city inspection staff under the direction of Ed Cunningham, to prevent demolitions. We need a stop to VBML’s passed out like candy, and ‘nuisance declarations’ placed on buildings that are structurally sound that neighborhood want to preserve. We need a qualified Urban Conservator with the best interest of Preservation, not demolition contractors. Demolition should be reserved for buildings that really need it, such as non contributing Apartments Buildings, not single family homes that represent the future of our urban neighborhood as more people move back to the city.

The city building departments ‘addiction’ to Federal CDBG funds to pay for a bloated staff, needs to stop, and more importantly, we need to stop using the VBML and nuisance declarations to demonstrate “Need” for more Federal funds. It is this abuse of those policies that are resulting in the Redlining of neighborhoods and denial of housing opportunity that, if the council doesn’t address the out of control actions of city inspections, with the help of the Urban Conservators , whose job it is top protect historic assets, it will most certainly result in Federal Redlining complaint that will result in the city losing millions of dollars in Federal funding, for a very long time’ and punitive actions that could cost millions of dollars.

It was Knox Hills Federal HUD citizen complaint that resulted in the city now 're-evaluating' those properties on the nuisance list because the Urban Conservators office FAILED to seek public input as required by Federal law and that did result in hundreds of properties demoesd that may have been historic eligible. We have a new process as result but if it will be one of the Urban Conservator "rubber stamping' everything Ed Cunningham sends him, and ignoring public input. That, will result in more federal complaints, and this time, Federal lawsuits.

Neighborhoods intend to hold city officials accountable for abuse of federal law in 2012. The council can be proactive, or, as is the case of council's past, be reactive and in denial.

We need stabilization, not demolitions. The council needs to cut the purse strings on senseless demolition of viable homes in viable neighborhoods and use those moneys for stabilization and maybe some sidewalks that are not over 100 years old. Vacant lots do not improve our quality of life, investment in history however does.

CDBG stands for "Community Development Block Grants' NOT Comminity DEMOLITION Block Grants. and the council needs to direct city agencies to respect the wishes of the neighborhoods and residents it claims to serve.

Antique of the Week: A pair of Victorian chairs

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

Antique of the week highlights great affordable pieces in our inventory aimed at the old house owner who may be looking for affordable Victorian furniture to decorate their home.

This new arrival may be a great way to start decorating in the new year. Matching pairs of chairs are increasingly harder to find. Most dealers seem to like to sell them separately but we believe it's important to keep sets together.

So today we present this "Rare Pair" of nice Renaissance Revival (circa 1870-75) chairs. These chairs have a deep red upholstery and would be perfect in just about any room of the house. These have great style and would work with just about any settee if you are assembling a parlour set.

Offered at only 325.00, pairs like this usually go quickly. More photos and details are available on our website VictorianAntiquities we are not offering shipping, but as always we are happy to work with your shipper and pickup can be arranged in Indy or Cincinnati. Contact us at victiques@gmail.com if you would like to add these to your collection.

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update. "Corner Block" stencilling

2012-01-09T07:43:00.000-05:00

On the home front we have been working on the ‘corner blocks' on the ceiling of the dining room. A corner block is just what it sound like, a design in each corner of the room, usually square with an ornamental design on it. They help define the corners of the room and are a decorative accent.

In our case the corner block is one panel of the Neo Grec frieze design that is angled towards the center of the room.

Once the center was done the next step is to create the ebony line and that is done by masking tape. That line is 3/8 wide.

The last stage of this is to make the corners, which are the small border design ornament, and those are connected with another line (this one gold) that goes between the corner emblems. Work continues albeit slowly but we are getting there.

We also located a nice chandelier this week. It is a five light unit styled after a gasolier. For it to work for us we have to make some changes, as it needs an extension brass (instead of the chain) and a ceiling ‘bell’ where it attaches at the top. We have the bell; we just need the extension brass. We will cover this conversion back in and upcoming blog (one we find the piece we need.). No complaints here though as we found this chandelier for sixty bucks!

Bracket Restoration Project

2012-01-06T06:03:00.001-05:00

As regular readers know the Second Empire Cottage across the street is being restored now and it has some lovely repeating brackets across the front below the box gutter. The owners wanted to fix the existing brackets two of which had damage on the lower ends. Since the rest of the brackets were in good shape I decided to make a couple of repair pieces for them.

To do this we make a template with a piece of cardboard showing the basic shape of a good bracket.

This was then cut and put on the wood blank. The blank was formed by gluing up two 2x4's and a 1/2 board which gave us the required width. Two countersunk screws were used to hold the pieces together while they set up. The brackets were cut on a band saw for convenience, though you could cut all the pieces separately with jigsaw and then glue them up. But a band saw saves time.

Any irregularities are filled and base coat of primer put on. Four screws will attach this from the front and holes will be filled with bondo. There is still some sanding to do but you get the idea.. The owner will cut off the bad lower part and replace it with this repair assembly and irregularities will be filled with bondo then sanded. The repair should be good for another 100 years.

I'll follow up with a photo once they are installed.

In defense of Westwood

2012-01-04T09:43:00.001-05:00

Westwood is a great community that is trying to make itself better. Those who are critical of Westwood for its strong stand against continued apartment development, do not know the history of Westwood and are trying to impose a "one-size-fits-all" approach to the issue of low income housing

Westwood, like Fairmount, was once its own town, not part of Cincinnati. They were part of the great annexations that occurred from the late 1800-1930's when cities equated stature with size and population and without any real thought annexed land and communities because it was, 'the thing to do'. There was no regard to the sense of identity its residents felt about their town, it was the "bigger is better" mentality..

Harrison Ave, prior to the 1950's, was almost exclusively large mansions and estates

While a city can annex land, it cannot annex a peoples sense of place and community. many in Westwood are the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of the people who settled the Westwood area. Like most people proud of their community they do not appreciate government entities, or boards or non elected individuals , who do not live in their community, making decisions about it that directly effect their quality of life and property values. They want to see their tax dollars spent in a responsible manner too.

Westwood is a community in transition, it is a community of fine architecture, from grand mansions, to Tudor cottages built in the 1920's, the community has always had great style and that style includes several large apartment buildings built in the 1920's. Westwood has always been home to people of diverse income and culture.

In the 1950's, Westwood became home to many new apartment buildings quickly thrown up to accommodate young GI's and their growing families. Most of whom transitioned out of those apartments to single family homes in the neighborhood. They were ambitious , hard working and instilled a sense of values in their children who were respectful to their community.

Those apartment buildings were not built to last, not like the great buildings of the 1920's. They were poorly constructed of inferior materials. By the 1980's and 90's they were already well past their useful life. Little thought was given at the time to the auto traffic generated by these developments and the strain caused to narrow residential streets. The buildings, declined, rents went down, and became a magnet for drugs and illegal activity and those building drove down the quality of life for all Westwood residents.

They have a plan, remove blight. Remove the high density housing built in the 1950's and 1960's and eventually replace it with quality single or two family homes or in some cases appropriate retail development. If land is not yet ready for redevelopment, use that space for community gardens or thumbnail parks or even as expansion of yards for adjacent neighbors.

At the same time push city leaders to enforce the building codes and make sure that those buildings built as multifamily are maintained and make sure that those illegally converted single family homes are converted back. Encourage more home ownership which will build a stronger community for all its residents and ultimately improve the county tax base.

Westwood deserves better and its residents deserve respect for trying to make THEIR neighborhood a safe community that is on a path to improvement. Those who are critical of Westwood for its improvement efforts would better serve themselves by relying less on statistics and actually visit Westwood. If they did they 'might' understand that Westwood is an important part of the history of this city, rich in architectural heritage that should be preserved.

Knox Hill Project Weekly Update: Ceiling stencilling

2012-01-02T11:57:00.001-05:00

Another week and more progress. This week we started the line work and stencilling on the ceiling.

As you know we have four 'field' panels that suround the sky mural panel in the center. These are seperated by the tan color. To greater define the panels and add greater depth we added a light green line which is defined by ebony lines. This same detail is repeated on the wall as part of the frieze panel. This 'ties' the wall and ceiling visually via color.

The creation of the field stencilling is done with individual stencil impressions that are applied in random on the ceiling . You don't want to know how many individual impressions it will take to accomplish this and I dont want to really think about it but the overall effect looks like wallpaper. What is really interesting about this technique is the design 'appears' as you walk around the room when the gold picks up the reflection of the light.. This should be very visual at night and especially by candlelight during dinner. You want to 'load' the gold paint up when stencilling as it is the irregularity of the paint depth that creates the facets that reflect the light.

Greg has been working on variety of project but the primary one at the moment is stripping several layers of paint to get back down to the raw wood of the hanging rail so new paint and golf leaf can be applied. He has done a remarkale job of getting all the paint out of the complex curves of the hanging rail.

City sued by local preservation advocate, Mike Morgan for failure to follow its own procedures and guidelines!

2011-12-29T07:50:00.000-05:00

Photo: Hamilton county Auditor website

Well-known local Preservation advocate, and attorney, Mike Morgan has filed a lawsuit against the City of Cincinnati in an effort to compel the city to follow its own legal procedures and guidelines. The lawsuit is an effort to save a property he owns that continues to deteriorate because of the city of Cincinnati failure to issue permits and approvals that would allow him to save the historic Over the Rhine property on Walnut Street

The six-count complaint has been filed against the City of Cincinnati Historic Conservation Board; Charles C Graves, director of city planning; City of Cincinnati, and the office of the Urban Conservator, Larry Harris

The suit by Mr. Morgan involves his property at 1623-1625 Walnut Street. The six-count complaint alleges:

Count 1:
SEC. 1435-13(b) CMC REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ISSUANCE OF A CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS TO CONDUCT CONSTRUCTION WORK ON 1623-1625 WALNUT ST

Count 2:
SEC. 1435-15 CMC REQUIRES APPROVAL OF SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF THE APPLICATION FOR COA AND SEC. 1435-17 REQUIRES ISSUANCE OF A DECISION BY THE HCB

Count 3:
RESPONDENTS-DEFENDANTS HAVE KNOWINGLY AND INTENTIONALLY DENIED RELATOR-PLAINTIFF DUE PROCESS OF LAW

Count 4:
ACTIONS IN THE CASE AT BAR ARE MERELY ONE EXAMPLE OF A KNOWN AND ONGOING ABUSE OF POWER BY THE HCB, A PATTERN OF UNCONSTITUTIONALLY ARBITRARY AND CAPRICIOUS ACTS AND OMISSIONS, AND VIOLATIONS OF LAW COMMITTED BY THE OFFICE OF URBAN CONSERVATOR.

Count 5:
RESPONDENTS-DEFENDANTS REFUSE TO FULFILL AN OBLIGATION TO ENFORCE SEC. 1435-25 AND SEC. 1451-13 CMC

Count 6
THE OVER-THE-RHINE HISTORIC GUIDELINES ARE VOID FOR VAGUENESS

To overview the case, the suit essentially alleged that the city via the Historic Conservation Board and planning department have failed to follow its own city building codes, and its own set procedures regarding notifications, failed to provide proper recourse for property owners to remediate building problems and essentially resulted in further damage to their properties because they are prevented from effecting repairs that would prevent further deterioration.

The suit also alleges that there is ambiguity in the ordinances and procedures and that it is part of an on-going pattern of selective enforcement and that those named including Charles Graves and city solicitors are aware of this and have failed to enforce proper procedures and the ordinances of the city as written.

Mr. Morgan, who is an attorney, has taken this action because he is essentially prevented from fixing his property and it continues to deteriorate. In a recent email conversation he stated his overall goal.

“I hope to force the HCB to function within the boundaries of the law. They are supposed to be both restricted by and bound to honor the guidelines established for each historic district. My lawsuit makes a challenge to one aspect of the Over-the-Rhine guidelines, but this is only an example of a much broader problem. By making the law up as it goes along, the HCB both permits demolition of buildings that should be saved and makes appropriate redevelopment of properties unnecessarily difficult. No property owner in this city can possess a reasonable expectation of what will or will not be permitted in a rehab until the HCB arbitrarily concocts whatever law they decide to manufacture in your particular circumstance on that particular day. They refuse to be bound by the governing guidelines. They refuse to create or be bound by their own precedent and, in some instances, change positions in the same case from one hearing to the next. This does a disservice to everyone. It makes it ridiculously -- and I believe unconstitutionally -- cumbersome to do the right thing with historic buildings, and far to easy to destroy them.”

He also pointed out that this is a “taxpayer action” filed on behalf of the citizens of this City. Additional plaintiffs may be welcome.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: An Italianate Townhome: West End

2011-12-28T09:54:00.002-05:00

This Italianate Townhome started out life as a comfortable single family. It has suffered some indignities from a illegal duplex conversion , but what remuddling that did take place looks easily reversible. Just the removal of the later wraparound porch will go a long way from taking this 'ugly ducking" back to a swan.

This home has some very desirable architectural features including the arched windows that go all the way to the floor in the front parlor. There are a couple of nice fireplaces (one needs the fake stone removed from the wall around it ) and even a serviceable kitchen to get you started. As would be expected, the copper is gone but a plumber should be able to get everything hooked back up with PEX in short order..

Located at 915 Findlay in West End this home is offered by Sarah Dworak , TREO REALTORS, MLS #1294942 , priced at 29,900.00 and is a Freddie Mac First look home and their could be some rehab financing money available to an owner occupant. The home also sits on a 25x95 foot lot. This would be a great house for single, young couple or even an empty nester as its not a huge mansion but a more manageable single family home which is hard to find in West End.

Do you know of a Preservation Bargain? A home that just needs a preservation minded person to love it? If so please contact us at victiques@gmail.com and we may feature it here. Since we began this series, dozens of homes are now in Preservationists hand and not in the hands of slumlords or even worse, a city bulldozer. Saving Cincinnati, one house at a time.

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update

2011-12-27T11:02:00.000-05:00

With the events of the last week, we obviously did not have a lot of time to devote to the house, but we did get some work done this week and we started the ceiling mural sky project . This panel in the ceiling will be where the plaster medallion will be centered for the chandelier.

The key to getting 'depth' in a sky is the application of a good base color on which the clouds are painted. I used a pearl white color as my first base them apply a color called Aegean Blue in the Martha Stewart paint line and 'scuffed' this paint into the pearl white before that coat was totally dry, usinga 2 inch bristle brush. Then ,once that dried, I am now going in with acrylics to work the clouds more I will be adding some more depth and also 'aging' the work with thin a thin wash of ochre and gold which when this is all done will look more like something done 140 years ago.

Will keep everyone posted as things develop.

A Sad Passing

2011-12-23T17:23:00.000-05:00

Early this morning, Greg's Dad passed away after a bout with cancer. It was not totally unexpected, but it happened very quickly..

His father, Robert Drake was a WWII veteran who served US Army Air Corp. Father of three sons and grandfather of 5, He was the owner of Drake and Co Livestock Brokerage for 32 years and he was a member of the Warren Township Development Corporation.

Visitation will be Monday December 26th from noon to 2:00 PM at Shirley Brothers Washington Memorial Chapel, 9606 E Washington Street in Indianapolis

Memorial contributions may be made to http://www.honorflight.org/

Greg, and I, wants to pass along our personal thanks for all the support during this time.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: A great Victorian Home in Price Hill

2011-12-21T08:10:00.000-05:00

Brick, SIX bedrooms, great woodwork, a two car garage, in a up and coming area of Price Hill. You will be congratulating yourself this time next year as you host the family holidays with a home large enough to host everyone.

This late Victorian has really nice detailing, lots of room (over 2500 square feet) and is bargain priced at 23,760.00 ! Just hit the market,1014 Ross, MLS1294459, and offered by Paul Kimmer, TRI STATE HOMES., this home sits on a 40 x 119 foot lot.

Do you know of a preservation bargain? A home that just needs a preservation minded buyer to make it shine? If so contact us at victiques@gmail.com and we might feature it here. Since we started this series dozens of homes are now under restoration and not in the clutches of slumlords, or worse yet, a city bulldozer. Saving Cincinnati one house at a time.

Cincinnati: Tougher Scrap selling Ordinance could be good for Historic Preservation

2011-12-20T08:40:00.000-05:00

Members of the Cincinnati city council are looking at ways to toughen the city scrap metal laws after increasing instances of theft of copper and other metals from homes and businesses. Among things being looked at are suspension periods for buyers of metals who do not follow the rules.

The biggest and most substantial change is the way sellers of scrap metal are dealt with. Under the new regulations being looked at Scrap metal sellers would be a license from the city of Cincinnati to sell scrap metal. Further provisions being looked at would require no date of sale payment, but rather checks would be mailed.

This could be a huge benefit to historic preservation in Cincinnati. Often restorable building and homes (many times the result of foreclosure) are torn apart by metal thieves who cause thousands of dollars of damage to acquire a few dollars worth of scrap metal. Walls are torn down and just the fact a door has been kicked in or a window broken often escalates a property to VBML status and renders the property virtually unsaleable.

The toughening of scrap metal seller laws would eliminate ‘impulse crimes’, by drug addicts who would be unable to quickly sell metal for cash to feed their drug habits. Changes in these laws could have a huge impact on Preservation in the community as scrap thieves would damage fewer homes and homes are in better condition and can command higher prices which will help struggling neighborhoods hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.

Community and neighborhood leaders should lobby hard for these changes, as it will result in a safer community.

Knox Hill Project Weekly Update: Ceiling paint

2011-12-19T08:07:00.000-05:00

Taping and layout and lots of painting, pretty much describe the last week in dining room. The design layouts are done and now its just a question of getting the base paints on then faux finishes stencilling and the center panel painting.

We are now getting to the phase that requires a lot of small brush "cut in" work, especially on the circular portion that cant be taped off of course once all the base paint is put on we will begin the process of painting the gold leaf and color lines that define the panel, not to mention the Renaissance sky painting that will be in the center section where we still have to install a medallion. We also have the restore of the crown molding to install as well. Naturally, there will be hours spent glazing and patina work to the ceiling to give it that appropriately aged Neo Grec look...stay tuned.,

But, overall, considering the limited time I have right now with the holidays and consulting and decorative work for clients, its going pretty well,

Extreme Home Makeover Season 10 Cancelled: About Time!

2011-12-16T06:51:00.000-05:00

First, I have never had a problem with the concept to reward those who give back to their community. I think many are far to under recognized for the good things they do, I will not miss this show and I say its about time.

The show started in the frenzy of the housing boom, and its main thrust was to demo everything in sight and build some new tacky extravagance in its place that often was far beyond the means of the people receiving it to afford to maintain or pay the property taxes on. In fact many found themselves in worse financial hardship after the show than before it.

I will not miss watching often restorable houses imploded, exploded, or flatened in a variety of cute ways. The show was about 'excess' and its demise may be indicative of a shift back from those excesses. Interesting to note, Ty Pennington recently shopped a new show called Great America Auction that instead seeks out people in financial distress, who may own valuable historic things and helps them bring top dollar. This concept is nothing but a rip off of the Keno Brothers show, but at least there seems to be a focus shift away to people being more self reliant.

Maybe its a sign of a shift away from excess, about living smaller and smarter. Perhaps , given this countries financial crisis and socialist leaning attitudes of the last few years, maybe, just maybe, there is a shift back to the concept off living within your means, appreciating what you own and not feeling "entitled" to have something just because someone else , who has worked harder or smarter than you, has it.

I for one, will not miss Extreme Home makeover, just as I won't miss seeing another lime green and silver painted wall urbanist monstrosity interior in a shell of a single family new home.

Antique Shopping Daytrips: Springfield Ohio

2011-12-15T09:36:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since we did a antique shopping daytrip post. Recently I had to travel to Columbus Ohio to pick up some estate items we purchased and took the opportunity to stop in Springfield Ohio.

Springfield Ohio is an antique Mecca and is ideally located on I-70 between Dayton and Columbus and is home to three major Antique Malls all located just of I-70.

Heart of Ohio is perhaps the best known of the three and the largest. Shoppers will find a good selection of furniture but the mall is now heavy with small items. We saw tons of silver and silver plate there too, and prices were very reasonable. Of particular note to the old house restorer was at least three vendors who had good quantities of Gas light and parts. We picked up one gas light fixture needing some work for 20 bucks. Complete useable fixtures were in the 150-250.00 range

AAA antique mall has a very good selection of furniture and we saw several higher end pieces scattered among lesser items. Of surprise to us, we saw several stoves both old gas and wood burners priced very affordably. While this isn't the 'prettiest' of antique malls and its decor is a bit dated we found really good inventory and prices were good.

The last of the big three malls is Central Ohio Antique Center. It is the newest and most logically laid out. My only complaint was the placement of furniture on top of tall display cases making it impossible to see the price tags. Of the three malls this one has the best quality of Victorian furniture and we spotted several items that if we had the room in our vehicle we would have taken home. This mall also has an outstanding collection of old light fixtures.

To see everything will easily take a day and you might consider staying overnight at one of the many Bed and Breakfast Inns around the area

Antique of the week- A very special sale

2011-12-13T11:54:00.000-05:00

Antique of the week is aimed at showcasing affordable pieces for the home restorer who has probably already spent more on restoration than they ever expected to.

This week, for the Holidays, we are offering a very special sale to our blog readers. We just got these in and they are very hard to find, a PAIR of matching Empire Flame Mahogany Settees. Circa 1860 these are perfect for any Victorian home.

These are offered on our website Victorian-Antiquities for a very reasonable 1250.00 (dealer have charged as much as 1800-2400 for a matched set like this.) BUT, for our Blog readers you can buy this rare Pair of matching Parlor Settees, for ONLY 750.00! a Five Hundred dollar savings! just contact us and mention you saw this on Antique-of-the-week.

Need this in a different color? We offer very affordable upholstery services!

And for our loyal readers, you can take 20 percent off on ANY item in our inventory! Sale ends December 17th.

Knox Hill Project: Weekly update

2011-12-12T11:47:00.002-05:00

We are , of course, still stencilling but that is not the only thing we are working on and this week I thought I'd talk a bit about some of the other things we are working on.

In the Dining room we have the "Window Wall' on the east side of the house. The plan has always been to put a pier mirror between the two windows (common in homes of this era). However we want to maintain the 'matched set" regarding the formality of the rooms. As you may recall we custom built the ebonized overmantle in the front parlor and also built a matching drapery cornice. That same design will be carried into the dining room, except the pier mirror will be a cusom built in between the windows and the drape cornices will extend off of it. This accomplishes also the ability to hide the heat ducts. We will also "architecurally panel" the areas under the two windows. Now all of this will be ebonized but what will really set it apart is I have two large pieces of Birdseye Maple which I will use for Inlay panels and trim throughout the piece and the overmantle. It is one of the more 'ambitious' woodworking projects that I have done but I am looking forward to the challenge. the combination of the ebonized wood, gold leafing and birdseye maple should be stunning.

Now the pier mirror will have shelf on the lower base part below the pier mirror and I NEVER throw things away so I have this small slab to use to make the top of the shelf. I have to get the paint off the edge and clean it up. The dimension of this shelf will involve cutting this piece down to 22 inches wide. This will be done using a wet tile saw equipped with a special diamond blade.

Another bit of 'serendipity" is the acquisition of the tile fireplace surround for the front upstairs master bedroom. You may recall we have a nice tall wood mantle with top mirror (thanks to a generous neighbor) that is perfect for the bedroom. However there was no tile surround with it. I measured the opening of this and wrote it down on my "Wish card" which is a card with dimensions of things I need for restoration like this tile opening, summer cover sizes, that sort of thing. Whenever I travel or go antiquing I keep this card with me. I recently came across FOUR tile surrounds and all were the right size two in white and two in this pompeii red/brown color. Now I didnt need 4 tile surrounds but I had a client who actually needed two white surrounds to finish their twin parlor restoration. This one is for us and I have one left for sale like this, if anyone needs one (contact me for details) this are 43 1/2 wide and 42 tall and openings are 30x30.The good thing was these were properly removed. The plaster (that holds the tile together was carefully delaminated from the brick background) We will be covering how to reinstall one of these in an upcoming blogpost.

Ultimate Steampunk Holiday Gifts

2011-12-09T12:21:00.000-05:00

Ok if you are the typical Victorian collector type there is always a dilemma. You have to have 'stuff', you know those pesky modern conveniences that we really can't live without...though sometimes we would like too. To the rescue comes the Steampunk movement. If you don't know what "Steampunk" is its sort of a retro, gadget, Jules Vern's 20,000 leagues under the sea sort of look. Not Victorian, but Victorian inspired.

This is just impressive, a wood cased LCD Monitor with wireless keypad and mouse for your PC. Price is 1459.00 from Woodguy32 on Esty. FYI he has lots of other cool gadget items too Old Time Computer

Maybe you have an iphone, but who wants to just leave it lying around? Well maybe this Docking station is the answer. Price 359.00 from Freeland Studio, more info here freelandstudios

In fact with the plethora of skins and cases and accessories for Iphone and Ipad, prices vary from a low of 20.00 to 200.00. on Ebay and Esty

Antique of the week: A rare music book

2011-12-08T11:45:00.000-05:00

Published in 1886 'The improved Easy Method Parlor Organ" published by Estey & Camp of St Louis and Chicago provides its readers with instruction on the proper method to play the Pump Organ, which , as we all know was considerd to be an essential skill of the well mannered and refined individual of the day.

The book has an ownership notation ' Annie Rapps book December 12th 1892 on the inside cover. Over all book is in good condition though the binding fabric is worn.

This would be a great table book for your parlor of as a display piece if you own a pump organ. It actially is a great resouce if you want to learn how to actually play a pump organ as well.

This 100 Page book sold for the princely sum of 1.50 cents when new. Today it will cost you 25.00 and we can ship it media mail for slight extra charge. Contact me for particulars.

Antique-of-the-Week is a recurring series where we present antiques of the victorian era.

Polychomed light restoration.

2011-12-06T10:49:00.000-05:00

I recently completed a fun project which I thought might be of interest to my readers since I know not all of you are mired in Victorian decor. We picked this piece up several years ago on a buying trip through the south

Now it might surprise you that I would buy Art Deco but actually when I first started collecting (back in the 1980’s) I started with art deco. The good stuff, not the 1950-60’s stuff passed off as Deco today. We chose to buy this price because it was good piece, nice design and the polychoming made it more unique that the average light fixture.

Normally, you find these in a basic bronze finish, so the polychome paint job made all the difference. These older fixtures often have issues like cracks. Those can be filled by use of ‘liquid weld’ which is a high temperature filler that you can sand if need be but it bonds well to metal and I find works well with these old fixtures. This particular fixture was ok in that regard but the paint was cracked and faded. A common mistake people make is using the wrong paint. You can’t use latexes. It won’t bond to the original paint and remember this is a light fixture, which means it’s exposed to heat. And the bulb face down, which means the heat rises. I use enamels for this kind of work. You can find them at hobby store. Even model car paints will work if you can find the right colors, or know how to mix them.

Now if you want to polychome a fixture that has not been painted you can prime it with the appropriate primer for the paint you are using. Actually red auto primer is a good base color if you are going with a gold finish. For this one colors were dictated by the original colors which I matched but if you are starting from scratch I recommend researching polychomed fixtures to see the appropriate color combinations used.

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update

2011-12-05T11:39:00.000-05:00

Some of you have emailed me about what thu ceiling will look like so I thought I'd include this illustration today that shows the layout for the ceiling.

As you can imagine there is a lot of layout work to do on this project. So far I've gone through four rolls of painters tape in layout.but things are moving forward but no one should expect we will be having Christmas dinner this year in that dining room.

Greg continues with the chimney disassembly and we are amassing quite a large brick collection.

Resources: Victorian Style Christmas Cards & Gifts

2011-12-01T08:15:00.001-05:00

Ok it's DECEMBER. Can you believe it? If you havent thought about it yet , it is time to get those Christmas cards or postcards out. You know those pieces of paper you actually write on and mail?

You may, however , find the available cards at the local store lacking in that "Period Look" department so you may want to try the Victorian Trading Company , http://www.victoriantradingco.com/ . In addition to a great old style cards they have some great Victorian gifts, like Jewelry, Calling cards, Tea Party items and antique reproduction.

This great Victorian style locket is just one of many gifts they offer

"Signs of Life": Another Knox Hill Restoration in Progress

2011-11-29T09:32:00.000-05:00

Insulation and siding restoration are beginning on this long forgotten Second Empire Cottage in Knox Hill

Of course regular readers well know of our restoration of the Nagele-Merz House, but ours is not the only restoration ongoing in Knox Hill and I thought from time to time I would focus on telling you the story of some of those other homes in the neighborhood, in a new recurring series called "Signs of Life".

Three years ago on a typical weekend in Knox Hill one might be greeted by the sounds of barking pitbulls, boomboxes and occasional gunfire. Large parts of the neighborhood had gone into serious decline as homes that had been in families for years were sold off and replaced by uncaring, unfeeling, slumlords who didn't live here and frankly cared less about what went on here. An influx of Section 8 after the riots in OTR had filled this once quiet neighborhood with crime, meth addicts and prostitutes. There were very few old time neighbors left and at that time just existing in the neighborhood was the best one could hope for and their seemed little hope. It was against that background that we bought our home and started the Knox Hill Neighborhood Association.

Mark Elstun and his wife have lived in the neighborhood for over 15 years and he and his wife had carved out a slice of the neighborhood for themselves on McBrayer . A house overlooking the valley built by an artist in the 1940's that has some unusual stone work and fountains, and another house, a 1880's Cottage surrounded by a native plant garden. In early 2008 they bought another house a two story on Knox that was one of the major "problem property" in the neighborhood that had been "infested" by meth addicts,and was a structural disaster. Mark assembled some friends, called in some favors and, largely by hand, demoed the house. On the site that was left, his wife Diane, an expert in native plants, created an urban rain and a native plant garden. She would often take flowers over to one of the long time elderly residents who had lived on the block since the 1950's to "Brighten her day". When trying to decide where to buy, Mark and Diane were one of the reasons we decided to buy in the neighborhood as clearly they were an anchor in the community.

The house had clearly seen better days. Siding added in the 1920's and a porch added about 1900 obscured the historic character of the home. The 1950's awnings didn't help either!

Spurred on by our restoration efforts on the Nagele-Merz House, Mark decided to expand out of their 'comfort zone' and purchase the house across the street from our restoration. That house, another Second Empire cottage was built in the early 1880's and a twin to the one east of it which is now also under restoration as well. The house had been vacant since about 2003-2004 and was last used as a rental. The house suffered from neglect and in order to keep away the city bulldozers from an intact street scape of historic homes Mark bought it. In a relatively short time, the old front porch (circa 1910) is gone, and the house has been returned to its original facade. Mark intends to restore the street facade first and the decorative features between the roof gutter brackets which were gone due to remuddling. He has also located a period appropriate front door to replace the circa 1910 one. fortunately the house still retains most of its original 2 over 2 windows with original glass and now that the home has been made weather tight after roof and downspout repairs, Mark is stripping the paint from the original woodwork on the inside. The priority at the moment however is getting the blown in insulation on the front done and the damaged siding siding replaced. Mark spent his Holiday weekend doing that and priming new wood siding for installation.

You can see just see the house in the center of the background of this photo,taken from our front yard years ago

The home was originally painted a tannish/yellow with a lighter green trim and dark sashes and Mark will try to keep the house as original as possible and, weather permitting, will try to get the front facade painted soon. If the weather closes in he will work inside over the winter and complete the facade painting first thing in the spring. He hopes to retain as much original plaster in the house as possible but has already obtained a drywall permit for the inevitable repairs. Diane will likely plant a wildflower garden in the spring. Mark hopes to find some slate to restore the original mansard roof as well.

And so, there are "Signs of Life" in Knox Hill!

Knox Hill Project: Weekly update, Ceilings and chimneys

2011-11-28T08:15:00.000-05:00

Holiday weekends? Well more time to work! We did fit in Thanksgiving dinner however. Great weather was a big help this week and we were able to get some long overdue things crossed off on the To Do List.

Here you can see the banding and corner block being painted

One big project is of course the dining room and with most Victorian restorations stencilling and painting does not end at four walls as there is the 'fifth wall' , the ceiling. We were able to determine most of the ceiling design and the rest we were able to extrapolate based on what we knew about layouts. Colors were easy ( we could scrape areas of the plaster ceiling to get down to original colors) and we were able to determine the corner layouts cased on that and it gave us some banding info on the ceiling as well. We were able to determine the original ceiling medallion size too and have ordered a period appropriate design for the room.

Corner blocks are masked off: Expect to use a lot of masking tape as you do layouts and painting

Ceiling measurements are critical as you need to have the exact location of the room and then you often have to interpret how the original artisan dealt with the fact the fact that the room is slightly longer than wide. Once we had determined the original layout we laid out the design on a graph paper. Those measurements were then marked in 12 inch increments from the 'visual center" center of each wall. The visual center is determined by the use on common architectural landmarks. In our case the center between the two windows on the east wall and the center of the fireplace on the south wall. This visual center is the location of the chandelier and how the dining room table will be centered in the room. Visually as you look up at the ceiling everything should look properly spaced on the design. Thus far we have laid out the corner block areas the wall center location and the banding and were able to plot the center the center field and bands but those will must be drawn out. You can only spend so much time on a ladder looking up!

The chimney pot was saved and will be used on the front chimney after it is cleaned and sealed.

The other big project is the old kitchen chimney from the wood stove days. This chimney in addition to serving no purpose had issues with tuckpointing because unlike the main chimney at the front of the house which was tuckpointed and relined when a furnace had been put in, this one never was addressed. We couldn't just remove it because that would have left a hole in the ceiling so we had a fixed hatch made which just slipped in to the old opening and fit around the existing flashing which gave us a watertight and secure roof. We will be able to remove the bricks from the inside over the winter and by spring will be ready for the next phase of the new kitchen wing. We saved the Chimney pot which will go on the front chimney stack(after we retrofit a rain topper) and the brick will be used for landscape edging in the spring

So on what was probably the last warm weekend we were able to get this problem resolved. The neighborhood is clearly making progress as you could hear the sound of hammers and saws which have replaced the sounds of boomboxes and barking pitbulls...PROGRESS!!!

Holiday posting schedule: Per Hannaford the Housecat

2011-11-22T18:19:00.001-05:00

Hey Hannaford the Housecat here with the Holiday Posting schedule. Paul and Greg are busy getting stuff done so I guess I have to do this holiday posting thingy which is gonna be quick because this is keeping me from important stuff like sleeping.

There will be no blog posting until,next Monday because they have to do things like cook that big Turkey , which has my name on it so don't get any ideas! Oh and if you are sitting around doing nothing over the Holidays dont forget to shop Paul and Greg's E-store...its that link thingy over on the right with the scrolling Art and antique stuff.. I dont know what that stuff is, but the sale of it keeps me in catfood and toys so BUY IT!

Gotta go, I have important sleeping and eating planning to do, so Happy Thanksgiving.

Knox Hill Project: weekly update. The wall fill stencilling

2011-11-21T07:10:00.000-05:00

This week we started the “wall fill” phase of our Dining room stenciling restoration project. The wall fill is the area between the chair rail and the hanging rail in a typical Victorian home. It is not normally a big issue except in our case be have a border design running all the way around the fill so our “field’ is a finite area. In other works unlike a regular wall fill, its not like wallpaper that can continue around an inside corner and continue on the next wall.

The result is the use of dreaded Mathematics to calculate the distance from the continuous borders and the spacing you need for the individual stencil ornaments that make up the wall fill pattern. Earlier I took measurements of each wall fill area (there are 8 in the room when you consider doors and windows). What you must do is calculate the actual measurements inside the border dimension. This gives you the size of each fill area. You then calculate a common distance the field needs to start from the border and the distance between each stenciled ornament. In our case that is 6 1/8 inch between each stencil.

I like to create a mockup on plastic sheet to see how it will look I can then place stick this to the wall to see how the spacing will look. This is also useful to check your work against. In spite of all the calculations wall dimensions always vary slightly so you need to do minor corrections. This requires a great deal of patience, as there will be over 500 individual stencil ornaments around the entire room that make up the fill. Needless to say this process will take some time just because you need to double check measurements as you go.

The baseboard is also going down. As you know we will be doing a wood inlaid floor in here and we must also put down a ¼ inch Luan under-layment so the baseboard must be spaced higher than the existing floor to accommodate the flooring

Upstairs the chimney is now exposed that must come down in the kitchen area, more to come on that project.

Dining Room Baseboard Project Polychroming:

2011-11-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

Our original baseboard in our Dining Room was pretty much shot. Painted multiple times it had been cut for electric outlets and was really scuffed from furniture. Some of it was split. It was not salvageable , execpt for 20 feet or so that we are saving for use upstairs. We know from paint anaylsis it was always painted and we know it had a couple of "bands of paint" on it, presumably done by the artisan who did the room stencilling.

Also given the 'upscale nature" of the room we elected to replace the baseboard with new and polychrome it as it had been done when the room was first done.New baseboard provided several advantages, One we wouldn't have to spend days stripping it to get to a clean finish and two, you can not do line work and gilding while woodwork is at floor level.

The baseboard we found is an 7 inch tall molding (our original was 6 1/2). This is the right scale for a room with 10 ft 3 inch ceilings. If you had taller ceilings (12-14 Ft) you could take this molding and combine it with a 4 inch piece to get a larger scale or by painting with the same colors add a second "chair rail type" molding a couple of inches above it so it would "read' like one big molding. This molding is a recycled MDF product and retails for 1.50 a linear foot so its an attractive alternative.

The molding is base ebonized with a band of the light green/blue color and the clay color of the upper walls. There area couple of gilded lines as well to add some 'sparkle' to the room at night. Patiemce is a virtue with this project as it takes several hours to do one 8 ft section. Couple down, 6 more to go. Will keep you posted and with some better photos (all I had was the camera phone) when we do next weeks update after some of it is installed.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: An OTR Second Empire Cottage

2011-11-15T06:58:00.000-05:00

We all perhaps dream of owning that large grand mansion. However the cost of simply heating and cooling one can "Break the Bank". Cincinnati is home to one of the largest collection of Second Empire homes in the country. Perhaps because we have so many, they are often overlooked. In most cities if a house like this came up people would be fighting each other to get it. The French Mansard roof Second Empire style home is one of the most sought after of Victorian Architectural Styles.

This one is located at 1923 Vine is Brick, still retains its slate roof and has a double windowed second floor gable. Its larger than it looks and features a walk out basement and room for off street parking in rear. Of course it needs complete restoration, but its a brick home.

For those who might dismiss it as being too plain, remember what our house looks like and you see the possibilities to have a small, but grand, residence. This house is close to Findlay Market and minutes to downtown. Lots of possibilities, and ongoing restoration in the area, this home makes sense for someone wanting to do their first restoration and not get overwhelmed by the task. This home sits on a 26x80 foot lot. Single family homes are rare in OTR and this one is ready for restore.

Offered at 12,000.00 , MLS#1281173 by Cathy Frank at Comey Sheperd. You can contact her for showing at cfrank@comey.com or give her a call at 513-241-4100.

Do you know of a Preservation Bargain? A home that just needs a preservation minded owner to shine again? If so contact me, victiques@gmail.com and we might feature it here. Since we began this series dozens of homes have been bought by preservation minded people and rescued from the clutches of slumlords or in some cases the city bulldozers. Restoring Cincinnati, one house at a time

Knox Hill Project: Weekly update: Fine Line work

2011-11-14T15:23:00.000-05:00

Still stencilling, what else? Things are starting to really come together and we have now established the proper location of the picture hanging rail which was established based on the small stencilling for the wall panel bordering.

This left us with a space below the larger fieze stencil. Originally this was a line the same color as the main stencil. I elected to change it to the lighter blusih green color near the top as it unified the overal upper stencil area. This is a one inch line ( the original was 1 3/8) however I decided to outline this color band with two fine black lines which makes it pop and creates more depth,

There is other work going on right now and Greg worked on the second floor removing the plaster from the old kitchen stove chimney. He made pretty quick work of getting it cleaned off. We will be carefully deconstructing this chimney and salvaging the brick which will likely be used for flower bed edging. Nothing gets wasted around here!

The Artful Interior: Stencilling in the Victorian Era

2011-11-11T13:48:00.000-05:00

Trade magazines often featured stencil designs like these fora "proper upscale artistic ceiling",

Once upon a time every major city has several; "stencil artisans", usually members of the Painter and Stencillers Guild. The Victorian era also was the first time when their were "decorators" whom one turned the house over to to elaborately stylize...that is if you were wealthy or upper middle class. Stencilling, at least in the Victorian era, typically wasn't cheap. While a roll of wallpaper might cost 3-5 cents a gallon of paint could cost 75 cents.

Beyond mere painting, this ceiling rises to artform

Unlike today when we think nothing of going to the home improvement store for a gallon of paint and doing it ourselves, most Victorians would not do such work and painting was a hired task. And while some 'painters' were also did stencils, the art of stencilling was usually a specialized task, reserved for someone with experience.

Tens of thousands of homes were artfully stencilled during the Victorian era yet so few exist today. Or, as in the case of our home, hidden from view. Since Milkpaint was the prefferred choice of the stencil artisan, unless it had been shellaced or a lowered ceiling put in ( often with courthouses or government buildings) finding them is rare indeed though there are still some out there.

These elaborate stencils are almost gone now, as is the Endangered house they sit in in Missouri, The only records will be the photos I, and other preservationists took, almost a decade ago.

Makes you want to discretely scrape the paint off your old house ceiling or wall to see if such a treasure exists in your home, doesn't it?

Capturing that elusive "old house feel".

2011-11-09T12:11:00.000-05:00

Old houses have personality. They can exude warmth with that certain 'aloofness' that makes them 'quirky'. There are times when, in just that right light, you can forget the complexities of modern day life and feel transported back in time.

Our Indianapolis house, affectionately known as "The Willows" for the several Willow trees on the lot, started out life in 1896 as a shingled style Victorian cottage and had a major remodel in 1915 to the Craftsman style. By the time we got it all sense of style, and every piece of original woodwork, had been stripped from the interior in 2001 by misguided HGTV inspired remuddlers.

We elected to restore to the 1915 period due to the exterior work that had been done but created an ambiance where Victorian antiques were still at home. Warmth is imparted by the use of amber tinted lights which will give one the feel of gas lighting color without the danger. NO CFL's here!

Most of our antiques will transport seemlessly to the Nagele-Merz House and I already can see in my minds eye where every one will be placed. As we get closer to that, I can't wait!.

West Palm Beach must pay 121K for illegal demo of Historic home

2011-11-08T07:18:00.000-05:00

They say you "Can't fight city Hall", but the Roberts family did and were awarded 121,000.00 by a court because the city of West Palm Beach Illegally demolished their home.

The Roberts had inherited the house from a family member and rented it out and intended to hold it to pass down in their family. The house was built in the 1920's and was located in the Freshwater Lakes Histroic district.

After a minor fire in 2002 , the Roberts pulled the necessary permits, but needed one more from the Historic Commision which had issued a Do not Demo order, while the Roberts were obtaining that the city building Director said the house was unsafe and ordered it torn down. The city claimed they followed procedure and notified the Roberts but the Roberts went to Court and ultimately won 121,000 PLUS interest for the illegal demolition.

While preservationists mourn the loss of the house , the action of the court it sends a clear message to cities across the country that city officials can not skirt procedures when demolishing private property.

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update: Stencil details

2011-11-07T06:39:00.000-05:00

This week we have started some more of the small stencil detail work.and installation of the chair rail. The hanging rail is ready for install but its exact location will be dependent on the " Wall Fill Panel Border". This is the area above the chair rail and below the hanging rail which will be located below the large frieze border.. The exact height of the hanging rail will wind up where ever the stencil border "corners" at the top.

This is the same small stencil used at the top of the ceiling by the crown molding it is 'mirrored' in the corners. We also have to gold leaf a line on the chair rail as well. Soon we will start the dado area pattern stencilling. I had to work on lower areas due to some knee problems which made climbing the ladder a problem, hopefully things will be back to normal and I can get this finished.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: A West End Italianate Mansion

2011-11-04T08:13:00.004-04:00

For those of you who haven't been over to the West End lately, things are changing. More and more of the grand homes, previously turned into multi family dwellings are being converted back to single family homes by Preservationists and executives trying to eliminate to eliminate those long commutes. While most of the restoration has been confined to Dayton Street, that is starting to change and many historic homes on other, nearby streets, are now under restoration.

Large homes simply do not come up for sale often in the West End and this home, at 4500 square feet plus a carriage house on two lots, is a rare a opportunity indeed. Due to the urban density in the downtown any house with a side yard is highly desirable.

This home, as expected, needs restoration having been a tri plex rental for years. It is brick and the original side porch appears to be in good shape. This home is MLS# 1289991, 916 York Street, and is offered for 50K by Real Living Realty Services. That is less than you would pay for shell in OTR with no yard or carriage house.

Do you know of a Historic Preservation bargain? A home that just needs a preservation minded owner to make it shine again? If so contact me at victiques@gmail.com and we may feature it here. Since we started this series, dozens of homes are now in preservationists hands , saved from the clutches of slumlords or worse yet, a city bulldozer. Saving Cincinnati, one house at a time.

Public Artwork (murals) on Historic Buildings

2011-11-03T10:01:00.000-04:00

I will be the first to admit, I typically 'hate' public art on historic buildings. It usually looks more like graffiti or something painted by 8 year olds without supervision. It normally takes the eye away from the inherent architectural beauty of a neighborhood or commercial district. I hate it almost as much as billboards stuck on the sides, or top, of historic buildings.

But when I saw this mural, painted on a highly visible blank wall of a building in downtown Indianapolis at 44 Virginia Avenue, I smiled. It is well executed, it blends with buildings around it and it's clever. We need to see more of this and less of what passes for art stuck on the sides of many buildings by no talent, self proclaimed, 'artists'..

I am totally for restoration of old historic signs and we need a program to identify, catalog them and restore them. Especially in areas like Over the Rhine in Cincinnati

Victorian Interior Design: Stereoscope cards provide a look back

2011-11-02T08:05:00.000-04:00

Note the Belter style chair in the forground and the large chandelier in what was a large double parlor

The Steroscope was a popular form of "entertainment" in the Victorian era. Often erroniously called a stereopticon which actualy projected an image by use of a light sourse (like a candle), the stereoscope was used to view stereocards which were essentially two of the same image and when vied through the viewer gave a 3d appearance. They were wildly popular and often when Victorians entertained, ladies would retreat to the lady's parlor and view images of far away places.

Here we see a more middle class parlor. Note the hanging rail with vine garland draped on the wire. This was a popular trearment

There were hundreds of manufacturers of these cards and viewers, but like most things as technology progressed, we were entertained by other means and today original stereoscopes bring a nice price. There are reproductions made now.

A very high end 'mansion' interior view. Note the ceiling stencilling, higher end channdelier and drapery treatments.

That is a good thing since stereocards are relatively plentiful and often can be found at your local antique mall for few dollars each although rare images can fetch top dollar.These Stereocards provide a rare look at victorian period design however and we can see how they actually decorated. The next time you are at your favorite antique shop or mall you might want to peruse that stack of cards over in the corner as you might find a treasure or two that can help you get that "period look"

Knox Hill Project: weekly update. stenciling ceiling details

2011-10-31T07:41:00.000-04:00

There is just something about 10 foot ceilings that make stencilling difficult. Maybe its the fact that you are using a ladder and the constant up the ladder..down the ladder. I'd much rather be in a church or theatre wher I have scaffolding or a lift. But work continues.

As I said last week I always try to do a small 'mockup' area in a corner so I get a good idea just how things look and go together. That way, if I need to change anything, I can. As it turned out ,I did make a change with one of the stencils. The 'diamond' pattern that was below the crown molding had to go. It was too 'heavy' a design in that location. So we came up with a lighter new modified stencil pattern based on Neo Grec elements found in the other stencils in the house. This design works much better in its location and is transferable easily for the ceiling reverse.

The room is moving along and we installed more molding, though we still have hanging rails and crown to complete. Overall I am pleased with thr way the room is progressing. It just takes time. Of course with colder weather I now have some client projects to stencil too, so my time becomes more limited for my own project.

Victorian Architecture: Exotic Elements, The Onion Dome

2011-10-28T11:34:00.000-04:00

The Victorian had a love of the exotic and often applied those exotic elements from their travels to their homes.

The rarest of the rare are onion domes. While widely seen in Easter Europe and Russia and parts of the "Ottoman Empire". The Onion Dome essentially has the look of an onion bulb. There were many variants of this design but they all had one thing in common. They were hard to build. Often requiring the services of a boatbuilder who understood the complex curved framing to build one. They were often prone to leak as well after a period of time. many were simply 'lopped off' and today they are an even rarer site.

Perhaps the best known is the Morey Mansion located in Redlands California. It was built in 1890 for the then extravegant sum of 20,000.00. It is well known for its elaborate onion dome.

Another one of these rare birds can be seen in Minneapolis Minnesota. The Bardwell House didnt start out like this but was the result of a later remodel when the two onion dome structures were added along with other "moorish' detail., this redesign was done by Norwegian born architect Carl Struck . It was added to the national register in 1984.

Interestingly commercial buildings were treated to these exotic treatments as well. The fire house in Aurora, Illinois had this delightful onion dome on it. During WW2 it was lopped off as part of a metal drive.

This building was seriously deteriorated before local residents took up the cause and restored it back (Including the onion dome) and today it is a firehouse museum.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: A 3 story Mansion for 10 cents on the dollar!

2011-10-26T08:14:00.000-04:00

I am always in awe of the riches Cincinnati has to offer and since I travel the counrty doing Preservation Consulting work I see what houses like this bring in the real world. Drop this house just about anywhere else and its a 1/2 million bucks.

Here is a Three Story, 144 Year Old frame Italianate "villa" mansion with stone wall, original porch and trim sitting on a 29x94 foot lot for a jaw dropping price of 17,900. MLS number1289105 offerred by Sherrod Real Estate Group. 2509 Park in Walnut Hills, there is a lot of redevlopment and restoration in the area so this house makes sense for conversion back to the grand manor it once as. The auditors site ahows this house at over 4300 square feet and sold in 2010 for 181,K. That means the bank is liquidating this for less than 10 cents on the Dollar! Maybe the best "preservation bargain' we have ever featured!

Do you know of a Preservation bargain? A house that just needs a preservation minded person to bring it back to the grand house it once was? If so let us know at victiques@gmail.com and we may feature it here. Since we started this series we have saved numerous homes from the clutches of slumlords or the city bulldozer. Saving Cincinnati, One house at a time.

Victorian Bargain Hunting: We scored a great find

2011-10-25T18:41:00.000-04:00

I'm always on the lookout for bargains, and you never know just where you will find them. Oriental rugs are just plain expensive. if you own antique ones they are expensive and you really dont want to put them on your floor and enw ones are often expensive.

Today I had to go to the local home improvement store for some materials I ALWAYS take a quick look through the entire store because things get discontinued or marked down or sometimes are special orders that get returned.

Today was good day as I found this new Oriental for 25.00! This was the display carpet that hangs on the rack. It still had the "Display only" sign on it whih was stuck to it with a rubbery glue product, BUT, I brought it home took a little goo gone to it and It came off perfectly and you cant even tell where the sign was at. Retail on this rung was 479.00! It will be perfect for the formal dining room when its done. So remember "bargains" are sometimes in the most unlikely places!

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update: The Stenciling Begins

2011-10-24T11:14:00.000-04:00

If you have been following the dining room progress you know that we have spent weeks getting the walls prepped for paint and stencil. After all that , FINALLY, we are ready to begin stenciling.

Although the stencilling technique is the same we now have some fun tools like laser levels to "shoot" the room to see if the ceiling is level ( it never is) , work like this always boils down to Mathmatics ( I bet you never thought you needed math to paint a stencil), hand levels and a keen eye.. Stencil work is often 'looked down' on by muralists as being too mechanical, however, having done both , I can tell you that either are artforms in themselves.

I always like to do a 'mockup' to see if I will like the finished product.so I get a sample sized piece of moldings ( usually about 4 feet) and install them where I believe the best locations will be. These are painted up in the colors I believe I will be used, and the order of color I think I want. The reason? Well if you don't like it you haven't bought 300 or so feet of moldings and you haven't pre painted them in a color you "may" decide to choose. I have found this is critical when I work with clients as when they actually see it up on a wall they may want something changed and you want any changes made , before, you do an entire room.

The 'bluish green' color may look familiar to regular readers as it is the same color used as an accent in the front formal parlor. A basic design principal used in the Victorian era, is use of the same color in adjoining parlors so they visually flow together even if your "base' color are different. We have stayed true to those principals with the color used to tie the rooms together.

Our stencil of course is based on the original design found in the dining room and painted in 1871 when the house was built. The stencil is a two "ornament repeat" rather than a larger run. On larger scale stencils using a smaller repeat allows one to make the fine adjustments necessary on the layout to get good corner match. The colors approximate the originals and the "pouncing brush' used was selected to closely approximate the original (probably badger hair) brush used originally .

Now that we have a run of stencil and mouldings we will study the look to see if and adjustments need be made. Of course we still must install the hanging rail which Greg has been stripping and prepping to get it ready for me to gild. More to come.

Haloween and buying a "scary house"

2011-10-21T08:32:00.000-04:00

Yes Halloween. The Victorian loved Halloween and had all sorts of interesting traditions and cards and games they played. It was all good fun and innocence.Not like today with Police escorts and X rayed candy. The world is much scarier place.

Someone sent me a request for a "spooky house" photo for Halloween. At first that stumped me and I realized well there was nothing more scary than our house when we first bought it so I sent them some of ours.

Looking back, it was a pretty scary place and its easy to forget now just how awful it looked back then. A 'sane' person would have simple never got out of the car. After all we could have bought in Hyde Park or Indian Hills. I bet we would never have seen a city building inspector. But that would not have been any 'fun'! This is fun ..right?

That's really what its about, saving an old house. A house that would be in a landfill now and a neighborhood that would have stayed in decline! It is almost three years since we closed and we are far from done. My little hobby 'haunts' me. Restoration, at least at the level we are doing takes time. There is no 'magic wand' you wave and its not like you can find skilled people these days with historic restoration expertise. Well you can but millions is not in my budget. So we make progress, slowly but surely but when you look back at what one started with you really do appreciate the progress we have made.

Restoration Resources: Vintage style appliances

2011-10-20T13:02:00.000-04:00

While we all may love the look of a vintage stove, the high price of restored ones or the ongoing maintenance cost, often keep many from going the antique look in a kitchen. However for those who want the vintage look without the issues of tinkering with them , several manufacturers now make reproduction stoves and other appliances.

Elmira Stove works offers a complete line of Vintage style appliances for those desiring a "period look".
http://www.elmirastoveworks.com/ . They have everything from Victorian era styles to more retro 50's styles.

Roosevelt home to undergo 6.2 M Restoration

2011-10-18T13:01:00.000-04:00

Theodore Roosevelt's home "Sagamore Hill" will undergo a 6.2 Million Dollar restoration beginning in 2012. The restoration will include interior restoration of the main house as well as updates to the mechanical systems. The interior work will consist of a new roof and gutters, foundation work and restoration of historic windows doors, sidings and porches to historic preservation standards.

There is still time to see the house in its pre restoration condition as there will be tours conducted through December 4th of 2011. Other parts of the Sagamore Hill site will remain open during the restoration.

Knox Hill Project : Weekly Update: Let the painting begin

2011-10-17T10:18:00.000-04:00

After weeks of wall prep, coats of primer and sanding in between. We finally laid color to the walls. Working with the strength of Victorian era colors is always tough. In this case with a formal dining room which has a Neo Grec theme. The Neo Grec style calls upon the images of Ancient Greece and Roman Empire images. The colors tend to be strong with the use of colors like bright earthen clay, rich reds like Pompeii and crimson, blue green that evoke the mediterranian and the use of bronze and gold gilt..

One of the original designs uncovered in the dining room

If you have ever had the opportunity to travel in Europe and see ancient ruins, one knows the 'look' I am talking about. The Victorian , who considered them selves 'wordly' , even if they had never been to the continent, wanted to convey to their peers that they appreciated the great culture of earlier times and the Neo Grec style brought those elements to design with a Victorina exuberance. Even with extensive research we still do not know the artist who was commissioned to do the Neo Grec patterns found throughout the house, although the elements seem to be based on classic Greek and Roman designs found on pottery and urns of the era , yet they are unique in their stylistic interpretation.

The designs were carefully recreated for new stencils

When I look at my rather unassuming neighborhood that the city wrote off years ago and I look at the beauty of these finely detailed cottages and homes, I am struck by the effort the wealthy put into them. Bringing in an artist to paint every room in the house used as a weekend getaway was to say the least an exercises in extravegance. Imagine the dinner parties in this room as the servants brought in the food from the summer kitchen and the dinner guest spoke of travels basked in the glow from candle and oil lamps reflected by the shellac applied over the walls to impart depth.

That depth is also a challenge to achieve. We know the original colors had great depth. The colors are what we now call 'saturated' colors. Originally these colors were done in Milkpaint and the colors were mixed as 'strong' as possible. These were the base colors. Over the base colors several thinner paint 'washes' were applied over that were several coats of shellac were brushed in a haphazard manner so light would reflect. The goal was to recreate the splendor of the old Greek temples and of course it was interpretative as the only reference were ruins and surviving buildings which of course has faded after centuries.

As a restorer my goal is to recreate this as well as possible within the restraints of modern material available to me.The two 'base' colors we are using is a color called Red Brick (BEHR S-H-170) , below the chair rail and a color called "clay pot" (BEHR UL120-6) above the chair rail. Both these colors were mixed as flats. There will be two coats applied in this flat. Then there will need to be two more coats applied using a brush with the color 'tinted slightly with some cream and thinned to 'wash coats'. This will impart a certain depth. I will be adding some glaze medium with these coats. The stencil designs will be executed in a semi gloss. Once everything is done it all will be coated with a glass glaze. Sound complicated? It is, but the end result should be well worth the effort.

Exotic Influences In Victorian Interior Design

2011-10-14T08:31:00.001-04:00

Perhaps one of the greatest 'Exotic designed' rooms of the Victorian era. (photo courtesy Brooklyn Museum)

Interior Design came to the forefront in the 1870's-80's. The wealthy no longer relied on their own sense of style and taste but rather turned over those responsibilities to "designers" many of whom were an outgrowth of the furniture industry.

Furniture, drapes, and stencils all coordinated into a room design (photo courtesy Brooklyn Museum)

At the same time style inspiration often came from the exotic. The wealthy who could afford it often went to Europe and the far east in their travels and the style of exotic places was brought back in furnishings and art and those stryle elements were quickly put into production by the best firms. Much like today with designer furniture , lesser price 'knockoffs' were soon on the market for those of the middle class who could not afford a designers like Pottier and Stymus or Tiffany.

A restained exterior held such exhuberance inside (photo courtesy Brooklyn Museum)

This design movement was often referred as the Aesthetic Movement in interior design. Wealthy Victorians embraced this idea of turning over rooms to designers and the Moorish smoking room of the Worsham-Rockefeller home is one of the finest examples of 'designed' spaces. Rockefeller purchased this house, located at 4 west 54th street from Arabella Worsham. This home was built in 1865 and she later enlarged it. Rockefeller purchased the home in 1884. His son John D Rockefeller Jr donated the room to the Brooklyn Museum in 1937. The room was 17 1/2 x 15 1/2 foot and considered by many to be a work of art.

Sneak Peek: Latest Stencil Release: The Neo Grec III Border

2011-10-12T14:40:00.001-04:00

One of the nice things about being a loyal blog reader is you get sneak peeks at upcoming restoration products before anyone else. Our sister company, Cincinnati Stencil Company will release the latest offering in our Neo Grec Stencil Line: the Neo Grec III Border .

The border is a nice scale border at 6 inches tall can be expanded with additional line work and can also be used as a Frieze in lower ceiling rooms or as a ceiling panel design. The stencil will be released October 15th on the cincinnatistencilcompany website. Price will be 19.95 and orders placed between Oct 15-31st will get FREE SHIPPING regardless of quantity ordered!

The Cincinnati Stencil Company was formed to promote the historic Neo Grec stencils discovered in the Nagele Merz House where several previously unknown designs were discovered and the line is being expanded to include other historic based designs.These stencils afford the restorer access to period designs at an affordable price.. All proceeds from, stencil sales directly benefit the ongoing restoration of the home.

Important Read on Cincinnati MPH regarding the West End

2011-10-11T09:36:00.000-04:00

As you know we set up CincinnatiMPH to cover important Preservation stories and strategies. Today is a must read on the West End and its future. Please take time to read this article:

http://cincinnatimph.blogspot.com/2011/10/west-end-more-low-income-or-more.html

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update-the agony of paint selection

2011-10-10T14:15:00.000-04:00

The agony of paint selection. When you consider the countless hours of detail work required on our house and the stencilling the dining room has picking just the right colors, the color balance, the shade, the hue etc. are critical.

We know the original colors and we will be basing our selctions on that Pompeii Reds, clays and copper and gold colors of the original, We also have a light blue used on parts of the ceiling and some tans to deal with. Now it might be easier to take a strict approach and use the exact colors used originally in the exact location, but perhaps those were not the "best selection". We want to pay homage to the originals of course and they are still there under the drywall preserved with notes and photos in a 'timecapsule for future generations'.

Now of course color selction is one of the things I do for a living, People pay me to come in and come up with period correct color plans for their homes and its always easier when you are doing it for someone else. When its your own house? Its agony, because you want to get it 'just right' ...the first time. You are not going to re-stencil an elaborate dining room every few years, at least I'm not and given the complexity of this room I am taking my time to get it right......but boy its frustrating!

Restoration resources: Countertops: Choices other than Granite

2011-10-07T12:15:00.000-04:00

In the world of HGTV and many realtors, Granite is the ONLY acceptable material for countertops. Of course they also feel that only IKEA makes cabinets.

The fact is nothing is more disconcerting that a nicely restored house witha kitchen that looks like it came out of a spaceship. The facts are that while granite is a nice material for a countertop it is not certainly the ONLY material you can use in a kitchen.

Soapstone is an inert product which means unlike granite it wont be affected by acids. It is a stable sturdy material and you can even get it as sinks or built in cutting blocks.

Slate is another material good for counterops, Now it is acceptable to acids but has a low absorbtion rate. Very stable material that wears well.

Copper, yes copper, makes a great counter surface and its antimicrobial.

Zinc countertops, once standard fare, are now making a comeback as well. It ages to soft grey color and is a perfect solution for those wanting a old style countertop.

So yes Virginia, there is more to kitchens than Granite!

Antique of the week: A hand colored 1852 Litho

2011-10-05T11:01:00.000-04:00

It always amazes me when people own a historic house, spend thousands on restoration yet have posters on their walls. It doesn't have to be that way and we are proud to offer the old house restorer a wide selection of antique Lithographs, Engravings and photogravures from 1820-1900.

This week we offer a fine antique hand colored lithograph published by Day & Sons, lithographers to the Queen, published May 1852. The depiction is of 'The quadrant, Regent Street, by E Walker . This print is original and never framed. When was the last time you found a 159 year old print that had never been framed? No sunfading as this print has been properly stored. This would look magnificent framed in a wide hand lined and colored french mat with gilt frame and would be the focal point for your Parlor.

More details on this and other offerings can be found on our Website:
http://www.antiques.com/dealers/34818/Victorian-Antiquities

The lithograph is a view of the Quadrant, Regent Street in London looking West from Piccadilly Circus. The Street was named after the Prince Regent (later King George IV) and was one of the first planned developments in London. Its layout was based on the plans of the architect John Nash to connect Regents Park to Charing Cross and was constructed between 1814- 1825. The Quadrant was a section of buildings that formed a quarter circle between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It was purely devoted to commercial use including fashionable shops with a covered walkway and balconies over the colonnades.

This 1852 English, hand colored Lithograph is offered at 125.00 and shipping can be arranged for 15.00. If you have any questions , please contact us at victiques@gmail.com. We accept Paypal for your convenience.

Restoration Project: Clawfoot Tub Feet

2011-10-04T18:55:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in yesterdays post we now have a clawfoot tub to replace the one stolen when this house was in foreclosure before we bought it. Of course that means more 'projects' and one of those projects is to restore the feet for our clawfoot tub.

These has been painted multiple times but were also a little pitted from moisture so after a good stripping with a orange based non toxic stripper we then use a dremel tool to grind any paint off that was left and to remove any burrs or scratches in the Nickel. Yes that are nickle plate and while that would have been nice they just were not good enough finish wise to use and having them replated would be cost prohibitive. So we determined to keep with the classic motiff and paint/gild them.

Now we have the exterior of the tub to paint and stencil but that project is a ways off. I will keep you posted. Overall, when you compare the before and after, it is like night and day

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update

2011-10-03T06:33:00.001-04:00

Flexibility is key to restoration and your sanity when restoring an old house. I have been helping one of our neighbors with some advice and help with his restoration and he gave me a claw foot tub over the weekend. Now ours had been stolen years ago when the house was in foreclosure and was likely sold for scrap and I have been wanting a replacement and keeping my eye out for one. My thing is that I wanted a larger one and this tub is perfect at 5'10'. Made in Louisville KY it somehow made its way up river to Cincy years ago.

It has issues and needs to be reglazed on the inside (they all do) and repainted on the outside. Of course I won't just paint it but will stencil a design on it and gild the feet. Plain Jane will not due with our house. Look for some posts covering the restoration of this tub. Overall its in decent shape and before we brought in it we cleaned it up a bit on the outside and sanded it do it will be ready for paint. Some chipped areas on the outside and those were sanded and any filling will be done with some auto body filler/epoxy and it will be primed in the upcoming weeks and painted. I brought the feet so so they can be stripped prepped and painted. I will cover that project on an upcoming blog post.

And the saga continues in the dining room. This week we painted wall with the primer with lots of sanding in between. Now comes paint selections and base coats and the stencilling process begins again!

Will we EVER be done?

Cincinnati: A downtown tour and observations

2011-09-30T09:46:00.000-04:00

We had a meeting downtown yesterday and got in town early so we took the time to tour around downtown. Of course we see it through an "outsiders eye" and the things we notice are often lost on the long term residents. Architecturally its amazing and large areas of intact buildings dating from 1840-1930's. The thing that struck me was that at 11:30 on a nice bright sunny day, there was minimal foot traffic. I realized that was largely due to lack of retail shop mix that would bring people in.

A casket shop..I'm not kidding!

We went over to Court Street and there were a few people there (mostly local workers grabbing an early lunch). I was struck by the high number of empty shops both there and throughout downtown. Maybe coming from Indianapolis which has a very vibrant downtown and retail environment we were just struck by how empty it all was. Lots of 'for rent' signs. I contrast that with downtown Indy where the streets would be filled ( partially due to a steady convention business) but it didn't seem like an area people were "drawn to" and given size of the Metro area it doesn't seem like it has become a "destination" during the day. I'll admit at night it seems busy with restaurant traffic but that lack of activity during the day is puzzling. The only activity seemed to be the panhandlers which, having traveled a lot, I am adept at ignoring. The downtown does not have a 'vibe' like Indianapolis's, Chicago or Louisville. I can't put my finger on what is missing.

Incredible brick polychome with parapets. Note the "ghost' sign in the backgound building.

For architecture buffs it is worth a trip downtown during the week because it isn't busy. You can take a leisurely stroll and explore some great buildings and see a surprising number of elegant townhouses that for the most part seem to be either attorney offices or apartment conversions.Though a few exist as large single family homes.

Incredible stained glass

Who wouldn't want to own this ?

My takeaway is once again, that there is so much promise here for Cincinnati to be a Charleston, New Olreans or San Francisco. Its 'poised', but a strategy to get it there just hasn't materialized yet. I wish I had the answer. I saw a lot of great empty retail space that would be great for our design studio I just didn't see people.

The incised stone on this is amazing

The townhouses all have remarkable enty ways

If you have not been downtown in a while, I encourage you to visit, you would be amazed at what you see if you just take a look.

Victorian Design: The art of Scherenschnitte

2011-09-27T11:25:00.000-04:00

Chances are unless you of German or Jewish heritage you may have never heard of Scherenschnitte which is the German art of papercutting. This folk art is over 200 years old but German imigrants brought this art form with them when they immigrated.

In theory it's alot like stencil cutting but in reverse, it takes a great deal of design thought and planning. Imagine creating, say a lace pattern in paper form. Some became very acomplished at this as a decorative art but little of it survives today due to the fact that these paper designs, even when framed were still fragile. Originals comand premium prices in the Antiquarian market.

There are several books on the subject with patterns if you would like to give it a try and recreate and perpetuate a lost art popular in the Victorian era in Cincinnati and other cities with a large German and Jewish population.

Knox Hill Project:Weekly Update: More incredible "Finds"

2011-09-26T08:41:00.000-04:00

Surprise! Just when we think we have discovered everything!

Restoration: The art of taking what appears ordinary and returning it to its former granduer.

People who do not restore houses often ask me when we will be done with the Nagele-Merz House. My reply is "when its done, its done and of course there will always be maintenance so really an Historic house is never done". It is just a process: from dilapidation, to restoration, to preservation. To restore an old house means you have to be a patient artisan. Plans must be subject to change . You are an archeologist letting the house tell you what its is rather than you making it something. This is not "gut rehab" which is the city of Cincinnati's idea of what you do to an old house. This is not a 3cdc/HGTV makeover either, it is a restoration and it tells you whats next.

Greg works on the wall chipping away the newer layers

This week our house 'shared' with us another of its secrets in the discovery of the design of the wainscot/dado area in the formal dining room. While scraping off layers of paint to get back down to a clean original surface level, we discovered a color change. This was on the east wall and one of the few 'intact' area of the dining room as other areas had extensive plaster damage We needed to preserve and repaint it this wall in order to maintain the wall to window trim ratio as original. What we found was that there was a hand painted series of lines at the chair rail height in this room. 3 lines in fact two small ones at the top and bottom with a 2 inch line in between which made the division between the upper and lower wall colors.

Add caption

Clearly the dining room was the 'showplace' of the house and where the family enterianed. The multiple colors, banding ,linewok and stencilling is simple over the top for a small cottage and its owners valued their weekend surroundings as much as their in town house.

Proper ceiling prep is critical if stencilling and line work is to look correct.

Work continues on the ceiling prep. After extensive sanding and prep we were finally ready to apply a base primer to the ceiling. We used a special drywall primer. We have one coat on now after the second coat we will do and sanding and filling to get a smooth a surface as it possible then another coat of primer before the actual base painting is begun and then of course the line work, stencilling and medallion installation.

Knox Hill looking for Historical Photos and Remembrances

2011-09-22T08:40:00.001-04:00

Knox Hill Neighborhood Association is nearing closer to submission of its national registry nomination and is looking for any old photos or conversations with those who may have once lived in the area for oral historys. Anyone with old family connections to the Schuetzenverin and especially old photos showing the intersection at Harrison and Fairmount. Also those who may have attended the Greek revival gothic frame church on Fairmount in the past. Any old photos will be carefuly scanned and the neighborhood will provide a duplicate set as well. Any era is fine, even the 50's and 60's as we are trying to present a historical perspective of the neighborhoods evolution.

If you or someone you know used to live In Knox Hill on any othe the following streets: Fairmount, Knox, Saturn, Scully, Thompson, Luckey, McBrayer, Waverley, Blain or Bloom, please contact me at victiques@gmail.com

Cincinnati Preservation Bargain: An Italianate in Covington!

2011-09-20T11:59:00.000-04:00

Covington simply has some great architecturel gems and this one appears to be essentially original. Billed as"needing rehab" but it looks move in ready to me with some new appliances.

Very original appearing with formal and dining parlors both with great fireplaces.

This house also features a fine original staircase and sits on a 31x100 ft lot and has off street parking in back, and a nice side courtyard area

This Italianate at 1727 Maryland in Covington is offered at only 54,900 MLS number 400864 and is offered by Ken Perry Realty.

Do you know of Preservation Bargain? A house that just needs a preservation minded individual to make it shine? If so contact us at victiques@gmail.com and we might feature it here. Since we started this series dozens of homes have been save from slumlords or a city bulldozer.

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update: Fall Cleanup

2011-09-19T07:54:00.000-04:00

As everyone knows as, fall approaches, you tend to think more about indoor stuff but its always a good idea to get that outside work and cleanup done before the snow flies. As normal with any restoration project you have stuff laying around. In out case materials from the rotten side porch materials which we had staged on the old garage pad. Dumpsters are pretty expensive in Cincinnati when compared to other parts of the country. So the plan is to always stage enough for at least a 10 cubic yard dumpster, which often means you have to wait until you get tons of materials to be cost effective.

I have seen the ads for Waste Management's 'bagster" on This Old House and other shows, and thought it might be the ticket for us as we didn't have that much material and I really wanted to get the area cleared. The 'bagsters' are available from the local Lowes for 29.95. They hold 3300 lbs of material. All you do is fill them , call Waste Management on a 1-800 number or you can do it on line and they pick it up. The fee for pickup is 99.00 and 75.00 for any additional bag picked up at the same time in our zip code. Our take on this is that they are great, it does take a little planning. You want to create a 'base' for the bag with some wide boards or something flat to get the best use out of it. They are not as long as a regular dumpster of course, so you have to cut some longer boards down to fit them in but I am sold on these now.

Inside the dining room is just about ready for sanding and first coat of primer. I can't wait for paint to go on and then you all get to follow the more interesting stencilling and trimout stage of the work.

Restoration Resources: Push button lightswitches

2011-09-15T13:07:00.000-04:00

You may have one of these in your home. The Pushbutton switch. The pushbutton switch was the standard in early wiring. However they were designed in the days before grounded wiring and often are not able to carry the load of modern electrical lighting.

However it is possible to maintain that early period look and still have the safety of modern grounded switches. Classic Accents is one of several companies that now made pushbutton switches that meet national electrical code requirements. They also sell switches for 3 way switching application and dimmer switches:
http://www.classicaccents.net/category/PBS.html

They also sell period style cover plates and even picture hanging hardware, bin pulls, and hinges.

Mark Twain house gets major grant

2011-09-14T09:29:00.000-04:00

The historic Mark Twain House and Museum is the recipients of a 65,000.00 grant. The grant, given by the Hartford Financial services group will be used to help pay for a restoration consultant and to funds two "free visit" days at the House museum.

The Mark Twain House like many non profit museum houses, has suffered due to the recession and this grant comes as welcome news.

The high style Gothic House with Tiffany designed interiors was home to Mark Twain one of America's best known authors..

You can learn more about the Twain house at their website:
http://www.marktwainhouse.org/

Antique-of-the-Week: A great Wall Sconce with cut glass globe

2011-09-13T18:13:00.000-04:00

This week we are offering another great wall sconce! this one has a wonderful cut glass globe. Black cast iron with some great details this would look great anywhere in your victorian home. Priced at ONLY 95.00 this one will go fast! We can ship this for 17.50 anywhere in the lower US.

More photos and detail are available on our website or you can contact me at victiques@hotmail.com. We accept paypal as well.

http://www.antiques.com/dealers/34818/Victorian-Antiquities

Each week Antiques-of-the-Week features a great piece from our inventory. If you do not see what you are looking for just ask. Only a fraction of our inventory is on our website.

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update

2011-09-12T13:31:00.000-04:00

More work in the dining room this week and we are taping and floating the walls and working on the ceiling as well.

I have also been working on the ceiling stencil layout, plotting the measurement onto a cad cam program in order to get the ceiling layout pre planned. I will be following up perhaps later this week with some more information about that but I am working on several client projects at the moment so blog time is limited. Stay tuned for more.

I shot this from the roof across the street Saturday and you can see we have a lawn and erosion on out lot has been effectively stopped.

Also,as promised, I took a photo of the house on Fairmount that someone has started restore on. They have removed the 1890's era porch in anticipation of restore to the 1870-75 "as built" facade. You can see the original unpainted brick exposed. You may recall this house was featured on our Preservation Bargains series a while back. I haven't yet met the owners of that house but welcome to the neighborhood!

Endangered Riverside Property needs a Preservation Minded Buyer

2011-09-10T19:14:00.004-04:00

Unless a "preservation hero' steps forward to save it, this unique structure at 3914 Riverside Road may be just a memory.

This rare mixed use structure if very hard to find in a non urban setting. This building needs extensive restoration but could be a live/work and river road has a great traffic count. Potential uses could include artist studio/ Gallery/ gift shop or antique shop. Additional lot next door provides ample parking. Impressive area with impressive views. Brand new Roof with new decking and roof joists and new windows on 3rd floor!

Listing details are here.

http://cincy.rapmls.com/scripts/mgrqispi.dll?APPNAME=Cincynky&PRGNAME=MLSLogin&ARGUMENT=ox4HmwVWFmadUh+p7HAMOYdYTCmYyJepOHilTQ4lgKs=&KeyRID=1

This one of kind property is listed at ONLY 4000.00 and a local architect has offerred to assist a preservation minded property owner through the permit process. This building is on the Riverside Historic Building inventory.

Saturday: Appraisal Event at Covington Ladies House

2011-09-09T08:41:00.000-04:00

This Saturday, the Covington Ladies Home will hold an antiques and collectable appraisal event from 10-2. Appraisals will be conducted by Bob Hill of H and S Estate Sales. They will not be doing Jewelry appraisals.

Cost for the appraisal is 5.00 per item or three for 10.00. If you would like additional information the contact number is 859-431-6913. The address is 702 Garrand street in Covington

Victorian Design: The "art' of Victorian Lampshades

2011-09-07T08:21:00.000-04:00

This shade kit is from TLC Lampshdes. http://www.tcl-inc.com/kits.htm

The elaborate victorian lamp, so highly coveted today, didn't start out that way of course. Early lighting was simple and in fact thought of as 'utilitaian". Lights were brought out at night but during the day regulated to a shelf or in nore affluent homes the "lamp room" where lamps were stored during the day and brought out by the staff. Early lighting especially oil lamps required frequent cleaning and this task was best done out of sight.
As advances in lighting took place like gas lights and then electric lighting, lighting became more a fixture.

Early bulbs put out little light but were considered so advanced and forward thinking they were proudly displayed. As lighting became more advanced the glare from those bulbs became more apparent and in typically victorian fashion it was decided the lighting, like everything else in the home should be a thing of beauty and sophistication. Glass shades were created and eventually table lamps which were more 'globe' based were treated to finely detailed silk shades.

This shade is from Victorian lamp shade supply. http://www.victorianlampshadesupply.com/lamp_shade_kits.html

Of course few of those shades are still around as they were fragile. Today it is no problem to find old table lamp bases and floor lamps at very reasonable prices. but they dont look right with modern shades in older homes. Fortunately there are a number of manufacturer of new "old" shades but they are very pricey. However if you are handy there are a number of companies now making kits which will allow you to have that great shade for that old lamp base you have sitting around collecting dust. In fact most of the shade kit companies have complete instructions and even videos of how to make shades. Proficiency with a glue gun helps but they are well within the abilities of most people.

One word of caution, you should not use high watt bulbs with fabric shades as they give off excessive heat. In fact withe the advent of CFL's a fabric shade is a great way to disguise those ugly bulbs and add a little warmth to the light given off.

Knox Hill Project : Weekly Update

2011-09-06T09:38:00.001-04:00

It will not be long before the dining room is back to its 1871 glory

While a three day weekend might have meant rest and relaxation for some, as you all know when you are in restoration a long weekend just translates into more time to work and such was the case for us.. The time was put to good use with clearing parts of the flower garden (harvesting more seeds for next year) as well as some paint touchups on the exterior.

You can see some of the stencilling incarnations here in the dining room

However most of the work has been on the interior and specifically the dining room. This room perhaps saw the greatest changes over the years of any part of the house and semed to go through several decorating changes over the years from the original heavily stenciled Neo Grec walls of 1871 to a floral stencilling with tan base circa 1900, a solid Red , probably circa 1930, a lighter lavender (1950's) followed by two paintings of white. This has been a most challenging room in terms of research as at some point the ceiling was papered. This was often done to cover cracking. Sometimes you get lucky and the ceiling is just revealed. Such was not the case with us and I had to resort to black light to get proper ghosting images and between some careful cleaning was able to get a general mapping and pattern markings to determine the stencil ceiling design. It is an elaborate pattern of multple band of Neo Grec designs with corner blocks and a mid field repeat . There were also muliple color bands and the stencil a repeat at the center which acted as a center medallion field for what we presume must have been a hanging oil lamp of some sort as there is evidence upstairs that this area was reinforced in the floor. These lamps were on a pulley system to raise and lower them. Gas lighting did not get up the hill until the late 1880's so the oil lanp predated that.

The east wall is typical, lots of paint loss and repairs over the years

The big issue at this point was how to proceed. Only the west wall is intact with original plaster and it has issues. The ceilng is severly cracked and in talking to some collegues in the field we all agree the full restoration (actually recreation) would be cost prohibitive. So the plan was determined to stablize the plaster ceiling, Map the stencil points on it and cover it with drywall and I will recreate the designs on that. The estimated cost of dining room decorative restoration could easily approach 30-40K and we simply can't justify that expense. Restoration is often about choices and this will make sure that what is there is preserved intact and the recreation will illustrate what lies beneath.

The new ceiling will provide a flat surface for recreation of the stencils . The cracks in the original plaster have been stabilized with injection adhesives so they will remain properly keyed.

An archive documentation packet was placed under the drywall detailing what was found, explaination of the mapping of the stencil points done in the corner. This back documentation will be included in our National registry nomination for the house so there will be an established record of documentation of the house.. My 'big project' is to take the photos of the mapping, translate them into designs done to scale and to create the stencils that will be used to recreate the designs. Stay tuned as this next epic project unfolds.

If all of that wasn't enough I helped a neighbor with a window framing project and some aspects of their house restoration. We also have yet another restoration effort by more urban pioneers going like gangbusters over on Fairmount which I will try to shoot some photos. In spite of a city government that does nothing but throw redtape and roadblocks at preservation , Knox Hill is coming back!

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: Race Street OTR

2011-09-01T09:06:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since we featured an OTR property. Most properties on the market seem to be 'speculator priced' and have major issues , so its nice to come across a rare single family in a stellar location that is a good candidate for restoration.

1832 Race sits across from Findlay Market (The grey house in the photo). A 3 story Italianate home this hsoue has a nice street persence. Most importantly it has a two car garage . 8 rooms , 4 bedrooms, 3 baths. When most property in this range is just a shell this house is a bargain at only 12,000.00 MLS#1264169 , this home is offerred by Jim Haven at Sibcy Cline.

Do you know of a Preservation bargain? A historic home that just needs a preservation minded owner to bring it back to life? If so email me at victiques@gmail.com and we may feature it here. Since we began this series dozens of Cincinnati homes have been rescued from the clutches of slumlords and the city bulldozers

Antique of the week: A PAIR of Cottage Mantles

2011-08-30T07:46:00.000-04:00

Matching pairs of mantles are hard to find. If you have the typical Victorian home the formal parlor and the dining room mantles match. As we all know that is often not the case do to updates, renovations or outright removals.

Today we are offering a matching pair of mantles, perfect for a cottage. These are currently painted white and could be stripped , left as is, or even faux painted to look like slate or marble. These are consigned pieces that we are selling for friends who are restoring their house and need earlier pieces. Buying these will help them with their ongoing restoration. We date these to 1885-1890. Offered as pair for 500.00 or 300.00 individually. Photo is shown as it was originally installed before removal. If you need mantles here is your opportunity. These are located in Cincinnati and may be picked up. More details on our website: http://www.antiques.com/dealers/34818/Victorian-Antiquities

Antique of the week is a continuing series that offered affordable antiques.. If you are looking for something specific please let us know as we may have it in stock or can locate it for you..

Knox Hill Project :Weekly Update

2011-08-29T07:52:00.000-04:00

Flooring, lots of flooring! We picked up material to do the dining room floor...and a little extra. Regular readers recall we replicated a period inlaid border strip floor in our Formal Parlor and we intend to do the same in our formal dining room. Soon I'll begin the process of cutting some of this to make the new inlaid, patterned border .

In the meantime there is still work to do in the formal dining room. All the baseboard has been carefully removed ( being recycled for upstairs hallway. And we carefully took down the last of the Picture hanging rail. The railing must be lowered in order to accommodate the stencil restoration of the original Neo Grec stencils. The railing has been raised when the second round of stencilling had been done around 1900.

This railing is in pretty good shape. I removed all the easy to remove loose paint and I will be stripping this down to the original then doing the base finish and the gilding to match what it was originally. Interesting to note the dining room perhaps had the most changes of any room in the cottage as we have identified seven different colors of this rail when we did paint anaylisis. Our Realtor, and good friend, Cathy Frank stopped by this week to see the progress we have made on the house. I am sure she thinks we are crazy for doing this level of restoration buy hey maybe it will be House Museum some day?

We are thinking after the dining room is done of maybe having an in-progress open house, perhaps with the owner of the house across the street? We could call it the tale of two Cottages Tour? Might be a good way to celebrate the 140th birthday of the house.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: An Impressive Italianate

2011-08-25T11:18:00.000-04:00

What has 5 Bedrooms, impressive brick architecture and NO CITY orders? This great Italianate in Madisonville.

Five Bedrooms, 11 rooms total, 2 fuill baths and two car garage on a large lot, this is simply a great historic home and its priced at a very affordable 31,500.00

MLS #.1256391, 6420 Desond is offered by Leslie Landrum at Star One Real Estate

Do you know of Preservation bargain? A home that just needs a loving owner with a preservation mindset to bring it back to its former glory? If so let me know at victiques@gmail.com and we might feature it here. Since we started this series dozens of homes are now in Preservation hands and out of the clutches of slumlords, investors or city bulldozers. Restoring Cincinnati, one house at a time.

Carleton Island Villa: Will it ever be saved and can we learn anything from it?

2011-08-23T13:19:00.000-04:00

Carleton Island Villa is well known to those of us in preservation. It sits vacant for 60 plus years and is slowly but surely falls apart, a little more each year. I have been following this house for years. Oh its for sale, for 495K, It was 695 a few years ago and one wonder how low it will go though essentially it is priced at the value of the land it sits on.. The villa was a summer home, something I relate to since our own cottage started out life as a weekend/summer place. While the weekend cottages in Knox Hill wree built by the weathy, this villa was built by the super wealthy. Its size and granduer and original attention to detail that now prevent it from restoration.

There are tradesman capable but assembling so many would be cost prohibited.. It sits on Point of Carleton Island consisting of 6.9 acres in the state of New York. It is beyond 'restoration', as it sits now it would be more along the line of recreation or reproduction. One would have to rely on old photos to know what it looked like and the costs of 'rebuilding' in todays dollars would be astronomical.

To see more of its history you can look here: http://www.thecarletonislandvilla.com/history.htm

I am sure many of you are astounded at how this once grand home fell into disrepair. Its an illustration of how hindsight is always 20/20. We can look back at what we have already lost in Cincinnati. and we say what were we thinking? Half of OTR, Kenyan Barr, Most of Corryville, most of the west end. If we dont stop it the entire South Fairmount business/residential basin for a glorified drainage ditch. Little by little , pieces of our history are being demolished everyday. There are FIVE THOUSAND properties on our city VBML/Condemn list. Ask yourself how the loss of 5000 properties will effect the historic character of our community. Remember hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update

2011-08-22T14:43:00.000-04:00

Another week and more small projects. This week we finished emptying out the dining room and with all the stuff our of the way the room is very spacious. One of the projects this week has been the removal of the baseboards in the dining room. Unlike the formal parlor which had complete baseboards our dining room was missing some trim and some of it was in poor condition. However its far too valuable to be tossed out so we are carefully removing it so it can be recycled on the second floor hallway which is missing trim. The dining room will get new slightly more formal baseboard. These long lengths of old baseboard (15 feet) are difficult to remove with out splitting because they are installed with square cut nails. Once you get the quarter round off, the secret to removing the trim is to locate the wall studs and ONLY use your prybar at those points. I like to start at one side work slowly and do not try to pry all the way at once. What you want to do is ease the trim out of the wall stud a little bit at a time. The great thing about the square cuts is they do not "grip' like ridged finish nail so one you have it loose you can pull the trim down. We also cut the square nails off rather than pry them out.

We have also started harvesting wildflower seed for neighborhood gardening projects next year. I filled six bags with seed in less than an hour over the weekend.

Also work continues on the half bath and all the drywall is taped and bedded and now several top coats and some light sanding , it will be ready for paint and our new floor can go in.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: A Victorian Original

2011-08-18T08:45:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has restored a historic home will tell you that one of the most expensive parts of restoration can be returning the exterior of a home to its original configuration. Recreating porches of other exterior details can often run in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Finding a relatively untouched Victorian is harder and harder to find these days. This house appears to be on of those rare finds. A classic Brick Victorian , stylistically this looks a lot like one of the A.J. Bicknell and Co Designs. The porch is as built, the 'hood" over the front parlor windows is very nicely detailed and the circular window in the front facing gable is still there, not replaced with a vent like so many other similar houses.. There also appears to be a square bay on the left side. It just doesn't get better than this in terms of originality.

The house sits on a 50 x 100 foot lot and I could easily see how the addition of a small gazebo in the side yard and a formal English garden would make this a showplace. Priced at a very reasonable 50K, this home at 6241 Chandler looks to be great starting point for someone who wants a substancial Victorian home. A short sale MLS # 1269236 offered by Sonya Walker at K&D Asociates in Real Estate.

Do you know of a Preservation bargain? A home that just needs a preservation minded owner to return it to its former glory? If so email me at victiques@gmail.com and we might feature it here. Since we started this series, dozens of homes are now in Preservation minded hands, saved from the clutches of investors or slumlords. Saving Cincinnati, one house at a a time!

Masterpiece in Progress Tour: September 17th

2011-08-17T12:08:00.001-04:00

Cincinnati Preservation Association is sponsoring a "Work in Progress' tour of a Samuel Hannaford designed Romanesque Revival Mansion built in 1895. This home operated for years as nursing home and is now on its way back to a grand single family residence. Reservations are required and space is limited. Reservations can be made by calling 513-721-4506. Cost is 5.00 for members 10.00 for non member.

Restoration Resources: Period Victorian Bath Fixtures

2011-08-16T12:51:00.000-04:00

Finding a period clawfoot tub is realatively easy. You can find them online all the time as people 'modernize' their bathrooms and get rid of that old tub. Salvage shops always have them in stock but often without hardware or if it has any it need replating The problem has often been finding period fixtures to go with them.

Fortunately there are several manufacturers now reproducing historic fixtures. Sunrise specialty , http://www.sunrisespecialty.com/ , has been around for many years and offers a wide selection of old style hardware to finish your clawfoot project. Their catalog is availale on line and seems to have most everything you need to to complete your project.

Coming soon we will be showing you how to restore a clawfoot tub, AND, how to paint and stencil the exterior to make it a one of a kind showstopper.

Knox Hill Project : Weekly update

2011-08-15T09:03:00.000-04:00

This week we have been getting everything out of the formal dining room so wall repairs can be completed and we have been working in the 1/2 bath which is located under the stair landing.

As I noted last week we have changed the floorplan slightly by eliminating the doorway to the kitchen. Before you literally walked through the bathroom to get to the kitchen. The toilet was hidden behind a folding door. It was not a viable arrangment by any means. While I am not happy with the baths location, just off the dining room, it would be cost prohibitive to move it and would require additional permits. Of course with the new 'hidden' door off the dining room you really won't know it is there.

This week we were working on getting the drywall on the West wall which hwe previously insulated. So work proceeds slowly on this room, but we have the new flooring ready to be installed and I am making the wallpaper selections soon.

Antique of the Week: Victorian Rennaisance Revival Wall Sconce Light

2011-08-12T08:34:00.000-04:00

This week's offering is very special. A Rennaisance Revival Victorian Wall sconce light. We 'think' this started out life as a gas lamp and was converted. This is a huge sconce (over 20 inches tall) and was probably in a mansion or a commercial building like a hotel.

Simply wonderful etched designs on the globe which is 8 inches across. If you follow gaslight globes on Ebay you know how expensive just a globe is, so our price of 375.00 is really reasonable for this remarkable light.
More details, and photos, on our website:

http://www.antiques.com/dealers/34818/Victorian-Antiquities

Antique-of-the-week is a series bringing rare and unusal items of the victorian era to you. More information may be obtained by contacting us at victiques@gmail.com

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains: Another Queen Anne Mansion!

2011-08-11T11:40:00.001-04:00

Since we had a lot of interest and some lively discusions about the last bargain, a Queen Anne , both here and on Facebook, I thought we would feature another, this one perhaps in a better locale .

Today we have another Queen Anne with a fine turret. This one is located at 1379 Myrtle Ave on the east side. This larrge brick home sits on a 54x 240 foot lot. Currently a three family this looks like it would be an easy conversion back to single family.

This home is offered at only 60,000 MLS#1269880. This home is offered by Nancy Bunn at HHB Partners, Realtors.

Do you know of a Cincinnati Preservation Bargain? A home that just needs a preservation minded owner to make it shine? If so please let us know at victiques@gmail.com and we might feature it here. Since we started this series many neglected homes have found their way into good hands and away from investor/slumlord types and the city bulldozers. Saving Cincinnati, one house at a time.

Landscape Design: The side courtyard plan

2011-08-09T18:19:00.001-04:00

As you may recall in our last installment we discussed the front yard and establishing a rough landscape plan for that. As we get closer to finalizing the plans for the new carriage house/ wing addition, the double side gallery veranda and tower, we are think about how to deal with the grade elevations on our site. This will call for a series of terraced areas that will go down towards the street. Today we are looking at the side courtyard.

The courtyard will be created by the 'L' of the new two story Carriage House wing on the south, the double gallery verandas on the west. The east will have some stone raised planters topped with a concrete baulstrade fence. This will screen the view to the side street. The restored sunken garden will frame the north side.

We have a lot of earth to move as part of the plan including the escavation for the foundation for the wing and tower addition, but we need that on the north end of our lot to raise the elevation back caused by 140 yrs of erosion and to raise up the area that will be be Gazebo garden. Remember our goal is no grass to mow, use of native plants and groundwater retention. Watering will be done largely though drip irrigation that will be supplied by 3 500 gallon tanks behind the garage that store rainwater from the roof.

Next Installment: The gazebo garden.

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update

2011-08-08T07:29:00.001-04:00

Any old siding that was viable was reused

This is definitely a week of transitions, Siding is going on from the work the week before. We are using the old siding as much as possible and that we couldn't salvage is being replaced with new that we are priming and 'pre-painting'.

The old back doorway reoepned

Inside some big changes. The old doorway that years ago was a back door was opened up to allow a transition to the old kitchen. As I mentioned in earlier blogpost this rear addition (built circa 1895) will come off and be rebuilt as part of the new 2 story wing addition that will house a new breakfast room, conservatory, a screened in porch and the new two car garage. Even though this work is temporary, we went ahead and sealed and insulated it.. Can't wait for the final plans to get completed so we can get the permits pulled.

No more walking though a bathroom to get to the dining room!

The other big change is we closed off the door to the kitchen from the 1/2 bath area, so now there will be just one entrance (off the dining room). I still have to drywall the outside wall that we insulated as well as the ceiling which had the bad plaster.

I even had a little time to get some landscape plans done for the side courtyard. I will post that one day this week to give you all an idea of what is in store there.

Antique-of-the-week: A Murano Bowl

2011-08-05T07:28:00.000-04:00

Something a bit different from our usual antique offerings. Today we have this huge Murano Glass bowl.. This Bowl is 17 3/4 inches across and 5 inches deep. A lovely swirl; pink and while. This bowl still has its original tag on it.

Murano Italian Glass is quite collectable and larger art bowls like this are hard to find. Priced at 100.00 its a perfect center bowl for fruit or maybe you desire the ultimate artistic cereal bowl? Gorgeous example of the glassmaker art.. Priced at 100.00 you can see more details on this and our other offerings on our website:
http://www.antiques.com/dealers/34818/Victorian-Antiquities

Antique of the week features great antique aimed at old house owners who are on a budget. Our inventory is huge and many items are not on our website, so if you are looking for something in particular just ask us we may have it or know where to find it.

National Night Out provided opportunities for community building

2011-08-03T06:49:00.000-04:00

Last night was National Night Out and communities from across the country celebrated by closing off streets, having block parties and meeting with local policemen in an effort to make their community a better place. The 400 Block of Arsenal in the Holy Cross neighborhood of Indianapolis held its 5th event for National Night out.

Victorian Design: Tassels and Tiebacks

2011-08-02T10:20:00.000-04:00

Victorian drapes area most unique confection. Complex layers, originally designed to keep the heat in and the cold out during the Victorina Era. They created a cozy feel that many of us who design in the victorian style love. Its hard to imagine living in the typical suburban home with its white plastic windows open for all to see Fishbowl effect..

Creating that look can be expensive , however there are ways to get that grand look without breaking the bank. Timing is often everything and one of your best resources may be things you already have. Scrap fabric or even old silk scarves can be use to create tiebacks. Ribbon often sold around the holidays and especially after Chruistmas can be bought for pennies on the dollar. The same goes for tassels which are often found at the holidays. Cording can also be found cheaply as well. To add some drama consider using beads. Everyone has some Mardi Gras beads laying around.

Window treatments can be elaborate confections and Theatre on a grand scale by simply thinking out of the box. I always check the clearance areas of craft stores and Fabric shops. Even places like Big Lots and TJ Maxx often have close out tiebacks with fringe for just a few dollars that originally sold for 50-60 dollars. I keep a sealed tupperware storage box and whever I come across something I think might work in the future, I put it in there. TIP: Old vintage cameos pins can make a very effective tieback. I've also used vintage hatpins and even strands of pearls in tieback design. Reproduction tassels are now quite affordable, thanks to the import trade, but dont forget to keep an eye out for the occaisonal original. They are often highly collected but many dealers overlook them .

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update

2011-08-01T09:28:00.001-04:00

Most people assume that their old house looks pretty much the way it did a hundred years ago. Oh yeah maybe the windows have been changed or aluminum siding put on but it is not drasticaly different.. That is not the case with our house that started life 140 years ago as a weekend cottage and grew and grew over its first 50 years.

When our house was built it was not a 'year round' house but just a weekend place. It was in fact just 4 rooms and out back was a brick summer kitchen. Summer kitchens were, the Victorian believed a safe and healthy way to cook. They were usually brick and several feet away from the house (for safely). They also kept the heat of cooking out of the house and noxious odors, such as the making of soap for example. By around 1895 the house was getting small and a small one story addition was added with a porch. A few years after that they did and "up" which added another bedroom with a bathroom and eventually the kitchen was moved inside the house and a bathroom built on the second floor. In the 1940's the summer kitchen was demoed and in the 1950's a metal garage structure was built and at some point, a side porch was added to the house.

Many of these changes were simply made, and as a result they often do not translate well to todays living and in some cases just were not built right. Such is the case with this rear addition, it sits on a foundation that was never designed for two levels and after a lot of thought it will come down and a new structure that has a proper foundation and can actually support two stories will be reconstructed in its place. This also allows us to correct some issues ( like a soil line that is field tile). We will also be albe to construct a larger kitchen and make a better connection to the new wing that will house a breakfast room and a new two story carriage house.

However until that phase can happen we have to have away to get into the 1st floor of this part of the house. Currently you get to it by walking though the 1/2 bath on the fiirst floor. So in order to restolve that issue (so we can get the 1/2 bath operational again) we decided to open back up the old back door from when the house was built and via a small enclosure tie directly into the kitchen which means we will not have to go outside to access this room.

Essentially this is a 3'x4' enclosure that, although temporary, will be sided to match the house. At this point its up and ready for siding which will happen this week. Hopefully the final design plans will be ready and we can submit for the necessary permits for the demo and new addiitions.

Antique-of-the-Week : A framed 1880's Photogravure

2011-07-29T14:21:00.002-04:00

Getting that Victorian look is more than parlor sets and tables. Sucessful Victorian Formailty is dependent on the right accessories too. In addition to our fine antique furniture we always have on hand several hundred pieces of art. Everything from lithos and photogravures to original watercolors and oils from a period rouughly between 1840-1900.

Today's offering is a lovely 1880's era photogravure from the folio of prints we obtained. This piece is called "The Martyr's Daughter" by Albert Baur. This lovely matted print is framed with a very attractive gold frame and is priced at 75.00. Inquire as to shipping.

We are also pleased to announce that we have opened on Antiques.com:
http://www.antiques.com/dealers/34818/Victorian-Antiquities

Over the next few weeks we will be listing hundreds of items, many of which not listed on our current e-commerce sites on our New Antiques.com location. This will provide an avenue for many higher end pieces that are sitting in our warehouse. All of this will be part of our planned rollout for our new Cincinnati store which will combine Victorian interior design services, our antique showroom and "Gallery 1885" which is dedicated to Victorian Art. And of course our latest venture the Cincinnati Stencil Company

Needless to say we have a very busy next few weeks just to get the new site uploaded and running, Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Cincinnati Preservation Bargains : 3571 Alaska Avondale

2011-07-28T08:47:00.000-04:00

The big brick Queen Anne mansion is what most prople think of when they think of Victorian.

So of course when a 15 room 3 story Brick Queen Anne Mansion with Turret comes up for sale as good price you will see it likely featured on Cincinnati Preservation Bargains. Currently 4 apartments this once grand dame is ready to be returned to her former glory.

Big plusses are some original woodwork and stained glass, a generous 75x195 foot lot. The house is an Estate Sale so probably some bargaining room on the 75,000 asking price which of course would be 3-4 time that in any other city. Some other restoration is already going on in the area and city seems to be getting more agressive on teardowns of the older apartment complexes so long term may be good for this area.

MLS#1268565 and offered by JoAnne Jones and Associates.

Do you know of a preservation bargain? A house that needs a preservation minded buyer with some vision to bring it back to its former glory? If so let us know at victiques@gmail.com and we might feature it here.Since we started this series we have put over two dozen homes in the hand of preservation minded buyers and away from slumlords , investors or city bulldozers. Saving Cincinnati..one house at a time!

Many Historic Buildings may face tough times as Post offices close

2011-07-27T12:40:00.000-04:00

A post office located in a building once owned by Ben Franklin is just one of many historic buildings housing post offices that could face hard times with the announcemnt of potential closings by the cash strapped postal system.

The announcements may affect post offices in many poorer urban as well as many small towns.

Some post office buildings were built, or redone during the depression under the WPA program. Preservationists and business community leaders are already getting together to come up with creative ways to save or reuse these structures.

Creative solutions and the ability to think "out of the box". Urban Parking solutions

2011-07-26T07:56:00.000-04:00

San Francisco has some of the most stringent Historic Preservation standards in the country. That city has embraced preservation and that decision has resulted in one of the best "Heritage Tourism" businesses in the country and brings Millions of dollars to that city every year. Cincinnati would do well to adopt those standards while we still have some architecture left. we lose many buildings to a lack of creativity...are you listening 3CDC with Mercer Commons?

Facades are highly regulated and as you might expect parking is at a premium. However you cant just stick a garage on a building in San Francisco. This solution is one of the most creative I have found and I must say I admire. Essentially a lower level garage was created in what would have been the old servants quarters when this victorian was built. What is different is rather than put a garage door on the front. The historic facade was maintained using "gate technology" design and hanging the original facade on a frame. The two doors , one smaller on larger open in sequence and create the door opening while preserving the architectural integrity of the building, and parking for four cars!.

More info about this project can be found on their site:
http://www.beausoleil-architects.com/

Knox Hill Project: Weekly update

2011-07-25T14:49:00.000-04:00

In spite of the heat we are movng along in the Formal dining room. We completed the drywall on the arch of the dining room..

Of course now that the arch established the height of the room. The conventional sized 'short door" that leads to the powder room now looks dwarfed and would be a visual distraction were we to finish this out as most people would. As this project develops you will see how we resolve this issue with a 'hidden door". Essentially this will be a 'frameless' door that has a magnetic closer and us accessed by reaching under a small coved handle in the chair rail.

This is in principal what we are doing as shown here. In our case the wall will be stencilled rather than a wallpaper mural as shown here. Except we will not have a doorknob, like the one shown here, so it will even appear more 'hidden'. This should be a fun project, stay tuned.

Cincinnati preservation bargain: 671 Gholson Avondale

2011-07-22T10:45:00.000-04:00

If you want that “Hyde Park’ mansion without that Hyde Park inflated price, perhaps you should look at this three story Brick Mansion at 671 Gholson Ave in Avondale. This home sits on an estate sized 75 x296 foot lot, the original architect has placed this house perfectly on its highest point with a sweeping stone walled driveway. Properly landscaped this could be very impressive. I could see a wrought iron fence, some stone collumns and a driveway gate.

The interior is a “blank canvas’ awaiting your decoration and antiques. Gleaming patterned hardwood floors throughout, FOUR bathrooms, a full basement. This 103 year old home is ready to be a fine home again.The Price? 21,900 ! NOT a typo. MLS # 1272314 Offered by Kyra Graves RE/MAX Prefferred Group.

Do you know of Preservation bargain? A home that just requires some love and someone with an appreciation for our History? If so, please contact me at victiques@gmail.com with the details and a contact. Since we started this series we have placed dozens of homes in Preservation minded hands and rescued them from the clutches of Slumlords and investor types. restroring Cincinnati one home at a time..

"Lambrequins and the Chimney Gallery": Victorian design history

2011-07-20T08:51:00.002-04:00

“Lambrequins and the Gallery Chimney” is not the latest Harry Potter Blockbuster but rather refers to elements of period Victorian Design popular from about 1870-1885.

The fireplace was the focal point in the Victorian era. It was a place for entertaining, a place where the family congregated and as such was an important place in the Victorian home. Much as we might decorated a fireplace mantle for Christmas. The Victorian mantle was an ever changing, ever decorated, point in the home. Warmer weather brought a significant change in how the mantle looked. It was not needed to heat the home so it was decorated and decorated and decorated.

Some of you may be familiar with the term “Lambrequin’ as a drapery, typically attached to a cornice however Lambrequin also refers to a piece of elaborately decorated material drapes on a fireplace mantle shelf. It was hand sewn and often with tassels or fringe. The quality of the sewing was critical, as this was viewed by guests, as they perused the many items on it.

The Lambrequin also served to ‘dress up an older plainer slate or marble mantle which were viewed as out of date by the 1870’s when all manner of elaborately faux painted and stenciled slate and cast iron mantle became popular. Victorians, being frugal were not going to toss out an expensive mantle because it was out of date. Another updating technique was to place elaborate screen in front of these mantles. As mass woodworking techniques came into being, one could order their mantle at the local lumberyard. In fact as things became more ‘co-ordinated’ amount the wealthy, firms like Herter Bros, offered matching drapery cornices and over-mantles so one had a truly perfect look. You could order new wood over-mantles , sometimes ebonized to match an older cast iron mantle with multiple shelves often backed with multiple beveled mirrors.

These over-mantles with shelves went on to be called “gallery chimneys” in the Victorian era. Of course this look is easy to recreate with antiques and even for those who lack a fireplace, one can bring in a salvaged mantle attach it to a wall, put a summer cover in front of the opening and instant ‘decorative fireplace.”. With the advent of the shingle and craftsman styles these went by the wayside. Mantles were simplified and over-mantes were often taken off and put in an attic , basement or even tossed out. Period sewn Lambrequins are rare today and original examples of the sewn period Victorian textiles can bring thousands.

City Inspections wants Hannaford designed Historic Price Hill Masonic Lodge Demoed!

2011-07-19T11:43:00.000-04:00

The Historic Price Hill Masonic Lodge #524 on Price Avenue may soon be in a landfill unless the public is heard at the July 29th Nuisance board hearing. A nuisance declaration would clear the way for its demolition. This illustrates the lack of respect city inspections has for this city's history

The Hannaford designed building is one of a handfull of his works remaining. Hannaford was one of Cincinnatis most noted architectural firms.

Contact the Urban Conservator Larry "rubber stamp" Harris and DEMAND this property be saved!

Knox Hill Project: Weekly Update

2011-07-18T09:14:00.000-04:00

Busy time , just a lot of things going on including more good news.

First off, Parlor floor is ready for stain and the plan is to wait until we get the dining room done and to stain both floors at the same time as they will have be stained with the same colors and I want consistency. So we now shift gears to the dining room and that involves getting the Archway from the dining room to the stairhall done. This archway is a duplicate of the one from the dining room to parlor. This arch goes up almost to the ceiling and it is a visual trick to make the room look larger than it actually is. These rooms are about 15 x15 foot with 10 1/2 ft ceilings and the height allows you to see through to the ceilings of the adjacient room and visually 'borrow' space.

We also started drywall on the fireplace bump out. Once this is complete we can start on the hidden door framing to the 1/2 bath.

Flowers are still blooming but I worry about all the heat this week , we need some rain..

More great news in our neighborhood. The house 4 doors west of us, a yellow front gable Victorian sold to a young family who wil be moving in soon! Neighborhood is definitly turning the corner.

Our neighbor across the street scored an incredible find. They needed a period correct door for the front of their house which had a circa 1910 front door. While driving down the hill someone had dumped this incredible door! So they just saved 6-700 bucks and this door will look great in a five color paint job. I am sure the house it came from now sports some metal home improvement door. I just can not understand that mentality.

Prices appear to be headed up, two houses just came up on the next street over (Fairmount) both over 50K and both needing work. Looks like the days of cheap houses may be coming to an end in our neighborhood?