Tag: Historic Home
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Reawakening Rosslyn
“Rather than trying to coerce the house to do something new, we tried to reawaken it.” (New England Home) In “Taking the Long View” Paula M. Bodah refers to the renovation of a Victorian house near Boston, Massachusetts in unusually anthropomorphic terms. Reawaken? Since when do houses sleep? Despite the unfamiliar reference, Bodah’s terminology is…
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Hickory Hill and Homeport
Rosslyn artifacts continue to emerge, and sometimes they’re not even even Rosslyn artifacts at all but Ross family artifacts. For example, I just discovered this antique postcard of the Ross Mansion (aka Hickory Hill) which was built in the early 1820s by the brother of W.D. Ross, the original owner of Rosslyn. Here’s the description provided…
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Totally Incompatible
My fixer-upper forays with Bruce Ware and other local realtors evolved when Susan joined the search. She shared my dream of an old farmhouse surrounded by open meadows with views and sunlight. She liked barns and was even receptive to my occasional flights of fancy about converting an old barn into a home. But our notions…
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Totally, unabashedly, irreversibly seduced
Today’s question from Al Katkowsky‘s Question of the Day book was the perfect invitation to reflect on Rosslyn Redux, the “big picture”! What should you definitely not have done that turned out okay anyway? In the summer of 2006 I definitely should not have purchased a dilapidated, almost two hundred year old house in Essex,…
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Hyde Gate For Sale or Rent
Rosslyn artifacts pop up all over the place! And they’re not always Rosslyn artifacts; sometimes they’re Hyde Gate artifacts or Sherwood Inn artifacts… Honestly one of the most enjoyable aspects of owning and renovating our home is stumbling across interesting relics of its almost 200 year history. I originally came across the advertisement above on…
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Mystery: Brick Wall Hole
During an extended rehabilitation, renovation or even restoration, one is liable to lose track of important details. Too many small details whizzing past too fast and for too long. The brain falters. Memory fails. Photos and lists and other archives, no matter how methodically updated, fail to contain everything. And when the dust settles questions ferment into…
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We could live at Rosslyn
“We could live at Rosslyn,” I said. “What?” Susan sounded startled. “You mean buy Rosslyn and live there?” “Why not? If we lived there, if it were going to be our home instead of just an investment, maybe we could justify buying it.” We had joked about how much time and money it would take…
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Almost Logical
Within minutes we were tripping over each other, drunk with excitement, imagining one whimsical “What if…” scenario after another. No filter, no caution. Our reveries flitted from one idyllic snapshot to another. “What if I finally sat down and finished my novel?” After dawdling self indulgently for a dozen years – writing, rewriting, discarding, rewriting,…
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Hickory Hill and Rosslyn
I recently happened on this antique postcard of the Ross Mansion (aka Hickory Hill) which was built by the brother of W.D. Ross, Rosslyn’s original in the early 1820s. Hickory Hill still presides handsomely at the intersection of Elm Street and Church Street. I’m still sorting out the Ross family tree, intricately woven into the history…
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Rosslyn for Sale
Susan and I were driving back to Rock Harbor after visiting Rosslyn, an early 19th century home in Essex, New York, which our realtor had just shown us for the second time in several months. It was spring. At least a dozen sailboats speckled Whallons Bay as we wound south along the edge of Lake…