Kitchen · [NEIGHBORHOOD]
Projects · Featured project
The house with the wavy glass
- Location
- Crafton, PA
- Built
- 1900
- Scope
- Full interior, down to the studs
- Timeline
- About a year and a half
Photo · Exterior, original wavy-glass windows catching the light
I.
The windows
Every day when I left my house, I saw the house next door. It still had all of its original wavy-glass windows, which almost never happens anymore. And every day I thought: someday somebody's going to buy this house, gut it, and pull out all these windows.
The couple who lived there eventually moved to assisted living. Their family had owned the house since 1960. I told them I didn't really want a second home, but I'd hate to see it gutted. If they sold, I wanted to buy it. Long story short, we did.
II.
What was inside
What I didn't know: the inside had already been gutted in the 1960s. The whole house was painted Pepto-Bismol pink. Other than those windows, there was almost no historic charm left.
III.
Building it back
I spent about a year and a half taking the house to the studs, with one goal: build it back as if it were of the period.
For months I sourced historic mantelpieces, historic tile, and a colonnade with fluted columns to divide the rooms. Every piece was sanded down and refinished. Then we added stained glass back in. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into that house.
People ask, "What did you have to do? Just paint?" If you didn't see it before, you'd never know. That's a double-edged sword. But it proves the work did the right thing.
Same room, same window
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