Christmas blessings

We had our first ever white Christmas in the Greensfelder. 6 inches of snow fell Christmas Eve and really turned the entire town of Logansport into a little patch of absolute heaven. There's nothing more beautiful than walking outside on a snow covered, sunny Christmas morning to feed your chickadees and cardinals to the tune of church bells tolling through the quiet winter air. It was very much like the opening scenes to a Disney epic.

But it brings me now to the knowledge that 2018 will be even better, that we have so much to do, so much to look forward to. We all know that even the best laid plans get messed up, but we can only hope and we have to be in it to win it.

Regardless... Here are the house plans for 2018;

• Knocking out the back porch when the thaw comes. Rebuilding it as a stone seating area complete with outdoor fireplace, running a deck off it along the back elevation of the house. Koi pond going in where the Iris beds currently are. Irises will be moved to the front. Anyone wants a turn with a sledgehammer? We'll have beer and BBQ. You bring muscle. Aiming to have everything finished and ready for a 4th of July party.
• Rebuilding front porch, lifting/leveling entire front yard through creation of stone retaining wall topped in period correct wrought iron fencing. Lovely gate. Proper planting to ensure gorgeous and dramatic front yard. Right now there's an IMPRESSIVE array of bulbs and lilies planted along the front as well as a small rose bush that we found. It appears to be a climbing variety... We'll need to preserve and protect her while not letting her continue vine damage that has already been inflicted to the current porch.
• Redo entire exterior. Buh bye asphalt shingles, hello proper clapboard with gorgeous paint.
• Garage is being torn down and rebuilt to become a stone 3 season studio, but a winter "habitat" for the Vindicator (our beastly land yacht; Ford F350). Current garage has serious structural issues and is too short/narrow to house the Vindicator. Studio will include a kiln and materials necessary for me to cast the effects I need to restore the exterior ginger breading.
• Tree removal (my heart breaks) of very very sick old Maple that must go. She's easily as old as the house, but she's rotting away :/
• Possible gravel driveway going through from Market st to alley (conversation with the city happening shortly) on East side of the house.
• More landscaping.
• Bathroom will be COMPLETELY remodeled. I already got a STEAL on a hand cut crystal chandelier that will be hung. Tub is being resealed, wood work stripped of paint and restained/sealed. Work has begun. Paint chosen. Expect photos soon.
• Kitchen... Flag stone floors, cabinetry to to match the original wood staining through the house. Painted wood to be stripped, stained, sealed. Center aisle to be resized, new top to go in (torn between sealed/poured concrete or butcher block... Leaning towards concrete). Center aisle will boast 6 burner gas range. Paint scheme has been chosen.
• All floors to be sealed/restored/finished
• Did I say more landscaping?

And more... So... So much more.

I'm blessed that most of this can be done us. It pays to have some serious know how. Bigger projects are being farmed out to local contractors - so far no one seems  to be taking a bite on it... Thanks to the previous owner who ran up plenty of contractor liens and debts. It'll get done no matter what... If local sources don't want the pay day, we'll find someone out of Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, or Chicago that specializes in restorations. Your recommendations are ALWAYS appreciated!

"I did not celebrate the repeal last night..."

The other day it was snowing. The first accumulating snow in Logansport for the 2017 - 2018 Winter Season and we, predictably, spent the day inside by the fire. My mother and sister have moved into town with my nephew, taking up residence at a historic late period Victorian across the alley way and that snowy day was perfect for roasting a couple chickens and inviting everyone over into one place to just try and relax and play catch up. Of course... Things are never that simple when it comes to the Greensfelder. She has a mind of her own that I often attribute to one of her more prolific owners of the past. She whispers things to you, both grand and bizarre, and you'd be wise to listen. So far she's been slowly revealing her secrets like the sea reveals shells and bits of coral and things... But these secrets are hardly simple flotsam. They're treasures. Old coins, depression glass play tea sets, a vintage Paul Revere candle holder by Avon, a book on hallucinogenic plants hard bound, second addition, vintage... Oddly expensive (found under a radiator, no less), and now... This.

For some reason, the untouched ballroom, left in shambles as a storage area, called to us... And we listened. It was oddly warm up there even with the high only reaching the mid-twenties and it blowing snow outside. Very very warm, actually... Just testament to how wonderful the architecture of old really was. Anyway... We found things. We've only just barely scratched the surface, but we found things. Wondrous things. An old rocking chair, a matching baby cradle, tons of old Victorian Christmas decorations, clothes from the 1950s, photographs from the 50s, feminist movement paraphernalia (DOWN WITH NECKLINES!), match books from when that prolific old owner ran for office, a laundry list from the "Habana Hilton" pre-embargo Cuba, a wedding invitation meant to be mailed to Mr Rock Hudson (yep... THAT Rock Hudson), postage already on it, vintage dolls, lanterns, clocks, milk glass produced by Indiana Glass, more depression glass... Lord the list goes on and on...

But this... This stands out most of all; a telegram from Chicago dated 12/06/1933, the day after the repeal of prohibition (and talking about how the prohibition didn't affect anyone anyhow ;) ), sent back to grandma Greensfelder herself at the height of the great depression... Proving that even they weren't impervious to its wretched grasp.

It's my honor and pleasure to share it with you, this incredible glimpse into history;

In the words of Indiana Jones; this belongs in a museum. I plan on bringing it down to put on loan at the Cass County Historical Society in the New Year after I get a chance to show the other ladies on the board of the Logansport Historical Preservation Commission when we meet in early January. This is one of those once in a lifetime things and we all deserve a brief reminder of why we save these homes and buildings from becoming parking lots and apartments.

I wonder what new treasures will be uncovered as the snowy Hoosier winter continues and the house remains warm and happy enough to whisper sweet nothings in our ears as we continue to love her.

PS: The ornaments we have recovered are now on our family tree, and I swear I felt the house sigh in happiness. There was such an overwhelming sense of completion and contentment. I'm happy you're happy, old girl.

Strap Wrenches and Other Tools

If there's one thing that can be said about today's society, it's that everyone has an opinion. Luckily, this great nation leaves everyone free to express that opinion, and others - and everyone else is equally as fortunate to be able to express their discontent with those opinions. However, Newton's third law applies to a lot more than just physic - it applies to social situations as well. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction, and I find it strange that people will expect others to simply take it when they go out on a limb to be negative and downright hateful. It's simply not in our nature as a species to do so, and I'm certainly no exception to that rule. I'm no angel, never claimed to be and, as such, I didn't turn the other cheek when someone made a snide remark about the Mansion. And yes... I capitalize the word mansion, why? Because the house has her own personality and has earned the right to be considered her own entity.

A "gentleman" found it pertinent to inform me that, in his opinion (which he considered to be fact), the Mansion is the town's biggest eyesore, problem, looks abandoned and needs to be torn down. That's great. I'm of the opinion that he should be torn down. Now... Before you go off saying that I'm inciting violence, simmer down. I'm saying that people like him, with his opinions, should be shut down and kept at arm's length from projects of grandeur like the one pioneered to restore the Greensfelder. These are the caliber of people who have no vision and no respect for the history of this nation... Or this world. Chances are they'd see a French chateau in disrepair and abandonment and say that it needs to be torn down as well... That it's an eyesore. Doesn't matter that it may have been King Louis XIV's private hunting escape or the fact that, like the Greensfelder, it's structurally stable and simply rough from the outside. Unlike the majority of those abandoned chateaus, the Greensfelder is sound inside as well.

I'll digress, however, she's rough from the outside. She has horrendous asphalt shingling as siding, peeling paint, and some areas of rotting wood from where the downspouts came off. We've already addressed that the back porch is a gross addition that was obviously never finished... Or if it was, someone was restoring it and they failed... Miserably. Read the update below and you'll see that we've already taken measures to begin work on the entire rear elevation of the home. We're also well aware that the front porch DOES need to be replaced and updated. We're already taking rails down to eyeball their construction, strip them, and bringing them to wood workers to see if missing and badly damaged ones can be replaced and their less damaged sisters duplicated to fill that void. Why? Because history, nostalgia, and accuracy. That's why. It's a tireless and thankless job that takes people with vision and a deep love of history to perform. It's not for everyone, and certainly not for those who would rather bulldoze 116 years worth of history simply because the current exterior is an "eyesore". If we did that, than 90% of all old homes would be gone, including properties of far greater historical significance than the Greensfelder.

That said, this wonderful fellow must not drive past when there's dozens of packages on the porch, or the mail lady is stuffing our mailbox full of letters of support and catalogs and contracts from various architectural suppliers. Of course, unless he's hiding the secret that he graduated from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and happens to have x-ray vision, he's not seeing the hours spent toiling away on stripping, painting, cleaning, relaying floors and tirelessly working to fix that which was neglected and broken. He doesn't see my husband and I standing in the foyer and figuring out correct lighting and how to best preserve and repair the wedding cake details on the ceilings. He's not there to pick the crown moldings that will be going up or paint schemes or which runner will adorn the stairs.... Or will there be a runner?

My point to all this rambling? Unless you're going to be useful and offer useful critique and suggestion, please sit down. We need all the tools we can acquire, but a strap wrench (the most useless tool in the entire box) isn't one of them. Don't be the strap wrench.

As always, I'm going to plug our GoFundMe account so that people far and wide can reach out and assist the preservation of history. You can find it by clicking right here.

the "Eyesore"

All The Things!

If there's one thing I hate it's cheesy wallpaper. You know the kind. The super ratty floral print that's designed to look old but immediately gives you a migraine and flashback to sitting in your grandmother's kitchen on Thanksgiving and she's trying to force feed you Brussels sprouts... Only the stuff that I'm whining about is even worse. Yes. It CAN get worse. It can be tar stained from years of gratuitous smoking, poorly installed, and lifting. Yep... Wallpaper Hell is a place on Earth and that place is this old mansion's scullery and the stairwell of my servant's staircase. I kid you not. Not only did someone place horrific white latex paint over the wood work in that location, but they decided to paper it in the most heinous and hideous "antique feel" wallpaper they could possibly find. Only it's totally country home and not Victorian... And even then I'd rather see the factory that produced it burnt to the ground than allowed to produce another roll and have it plague a country farm home. I wouldn't even wish this stuff on my husband's ex-wife's home... That's saying a lot (you're welcome). Needless to say, the area is a hot mess and is now in a state of flux as we begin to restore it... No matter how hard we clean, it still looks gritty - and we can all thank smokers and neglect for that screw job.

Don't believe me? Challenge accepted.

Feast your eyes on this degree of "restoration" failure!

Properly horrified? Good. You should be.

The idea now is to take out that handy dandy heat gun and strip it off 100%, fix the missing portion of wood, replace the hand rail with something more appropriate than the cheap mess that's currently there, and likely put a wood wainscot in before painting. The risers to the stairs will be covered in tin tile that will either be painted white or stained dark to match the tread once we refinish and stain it... I'm starting to lean towards the white stain in order to help brighten things up and give tired night eyes a fighting chance at not falling up the stairs - it's possible, I've done it... Many times.

As you can see in the above photo, someone got lazy and painted the stairs white and hid their laziness with a runner rug - the evidence of which, aside from the slip shod paint job, was an ill-placed and raised nail head that wound up in my foot shortly after we moved in. It wasn't cute or appreciated... There was cussing, a lot of it - and then I annihilated the nail and went looking for the rest of its family in a manner that would have made Al Capone a very proud man. The bottom portion of the stairs happens to be a darker area of the home, that's for certain. The scullery window is currently taken up by a rather ugly AC unit... It's being kissed good bye in favor of lead or stained glass, and I have no doubt that will help brighten things up.

Speaking of stained glass, the window at the first landing of those stairs will be replaced with it. Why? Because magnificent and colorful, that's why. But for the rest of the stairwell, I'm honestly not yet sure what color to paint it... Or if I'll be going in and stenciling with period correct design - but I know it'll be 1000% better than what's there now.

Wanna make a paint motif suggestion? Please do!

ALSO! Due to request and recommendation, The Battle of Chiroptera is being turned into a self published novella and will be available soon! I'll be posting it on the blog - but for those of you who would like a signed and limited edition printed copy, I'll have a few available that can be obtained through a small donation to the Mansion's restoration fund! More info on that will be posted soon.

The Battle of Chiroptera

Hello friends,

Yeah, I know,  I suck at updating this thing,  but in my defense things are pretty hectic here with the new baby and everything else that is going on with the Mansion. I’ll start things off with an apology as always;  sorry for not keeping you guys informed up to the minute! Next, I’ll entertain you with one of my more recent and amusing things to have transpired.

Over the winter we found a bat in the house (NOT uncommon for old homes and this area since we’re a total bat haven with a TON of old homes and the fact we’re crammed between two rivers with less than a mile between them. In fact they actually merge right here in town) that had been pretty banged up, presumably by one of the three resident Couch Panthers that prowl our halls. A quick scope around the old ballroom showed no sign of a roost up on the third floor so we presumed it had fallen down the unused chimney in the parlor and called it square.

Fast forward to a couple of nights ago when, out of nowhere, a late night of research and work was interrupted and brought to a quick halt when I was clipped in the back of the head and suddenly all three cats came tearing past from the same direction. In the middle of a startled string of expletives, I looked up to see a bat fluttering in rapid circles around my living room. The result? The husband and I chased it through the entire house because the little flying ace would make it through 1” gaps between the pocket doors. I, of course, wore an Easter basket on my head. Why? Because (valid) reasons and the fact that the only other variety of headgear I possess is a riding helmet that was in the library and he didn’t make it into the library. That’s why.

However, the final show down as a scene straight out of WWII. Hubby and I were strategically placed in the dining room, armed with towels, and taking shots at trying to knock this thing out of the sky like two Navy destroyers trying to thwart a kamikaze Japanese Zero. It was oddly fitting considering hubby’s Veteran status.

…We won.

Oddly enough, there are STILL no signs of bats in the ball room even though I was CONVINCED that they were up there! All searching to find the roost has been widely unsuccessful. That said… There is more activity than just that of the enemy Chiroptera.

Renderings are being done by a very talented intern architect from Ohio State University, who I’ve come to know and love over the last year and change. As such, and knowing how ridiculously attention to detail (and downright good at her job) she is, I gave her the task of designing the new rear elevation of the house. The porch, like I had mentioned months ago, is going to come down and be reconstructed as a stone grotto complete with stained glass and an outdoor fireplace. It will also open out onto a deck that will replace the crumbling cement patio that currently exists. Over all, the idea is to;

A.) Replace the ugly porch addition that’s not so sound (the roof is a hot mess and there’s lead paint),
B.) Get rd of the extra door so we’re not left fumbling with keys and kids during bad weather events like snow and, you know, tornadoes…

and,

C.) Create a stunning off kitchen sitting area to enjoy fireside all year long.

The deck will eventually overlook  a koi pond that we’ll be putting in where the current iris bed is and the irises will be moved up front where everyone can appreciate them. OH and the cement walk will be 86ed in favor of cobble stone.

Once renderings are done, we’ll be pulling permits and beginning probably around July 4^th with a grand sledge hammer event. The only thing being saved are the old glass panes. Once that project is done we’ll have a late summer deck party!

That said… Please pardon our dust.

In the meantime, enjoy a photo I took after serious request for a picture of me in my bat battling headgear.

The article is out in today's Pharos Tribune! Figured I'd go ahead and drop the link here for your reading enjoyment. I know we'll be saving a copy for future delight and to look back on the early days of this project.

Doing It Justice

We truly love the photos that have been included, especially the family portrait on the stairs, and hope you will as well!

It's been awhile... And I apologize.

First things first: We haven't given up. Not by a long shot, and we certainly have no reason to.

Over the holidays we enjoyed the charm and beauty afforded to us by the Mansion in all of it's Christmas splendor. My husband and I went out and cut down our own tree at Cosgray Tree Farm in nearby Idaville, Indiana. It was AWESOME! The 12' monster that we chose tried to eat Eric several times, but in the end he won the war and the tree sat elegantly in our living room. Good thing we have 16' ceilings to support such a magnificent evergreen!

It's been small projects since then. Still pulling up tiles, still cleaning. Still getting acquainted with everything this relic has to offer. We've enjoyed the snow, that's for sure, and hope there's a wee bit more in the forecast before winter is finally said and done... We also welcomed a new addition into the home - no not the baby... Not yet anyway (baby comes in late March!) - a German Shepherd. Horatio has been a long time coming since my husband lost his old buddy Charlie on Thanksgiving almost 3 years ago. It's a learning curve, some people have called us crazy, but it feels right having him around - silly puppy that he is.

Anyway...

Things are starting to happen as winter slowly ebbs into spring here in Logansport. On the heels of our town losing another mansion to expansion, and greed - as it literally came by way of the local YMCA blindsiding the community by ripping down a gorgeous brick mansion that had been built in the late 1800s in order to put in a new parking lot - we've seen renewed interest in preserving Logansport's magnificent landmarks. That being said, it was our absolute pleasure to host Pharos Tribune reporter Mitchell Kirk and his photographer, Kyle Keener, at the Greensfelder Mansion this afternoon. He'd been directed our way by the great Paul Willham shortly after the announcement that the YMCA was ripping down the old brick mansion that literally stood only a block from us. Mitchell has a true love for this town and its preservation so we had absolutely no qualms about opening our doors and giving him the grand tour. To be honest... Seeing the eyes of others light up in wonder at witnessing the majesty of this "castle" for the first time really renews our spirits.

While we love this home, sometimes the grand scheme of things is extremely overwhelming. It becomes very very hard to see the forest for all the trees. But... To know that this home is an architectural and historical marvel in the eyes of others, and to know that it's part of a history that leaps the boundaries of the town it sits in... Yeah... It's invigorating. Words like "incredible", "remarkable", "out of this world", "unreal", magnificent", and "majestic" being loosely and freely tossed around as wandered from room to room just really made our hearts soar. We know that this crazy endeavor is worth it. We do. Just nice to be reminded sometimes.

That all being said, there's A LOT planned for the Greensfelder in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. In the meantime, though. I really encourage everyone to keep an eye peeled for the article about the Mansion when it hits this Wednesday's paper. Tomorrow, however, we celebrate Ethan's third birthday and our first Valentine's Day in the Mansion!

And just a friendly reminder that our GoFundMe campaign is still going strong! Please consider donating to history today.