The Zabriskie House

The final symmetrical bed in the west lawn is in place. We explored four designs inspired by Victorian gardens and chose one with a slight nod to C.E. Ponting‘s “skittles and balls,” anchored by four dwarf arborvitae. Now that the shape is set, we need to fill it!
What neat, tidy plants would you love to see filling it out in symmetry? Share your ideas below.

Quick update on the west lawn: arbors have been built for two sets of climbing (Strawberry Hill and St Swithun), and the plumb trees seem to have happily accepted their reinvention as bushes. we did a massive trimming last June and a further trimming in February before they started to bud out. Much more to come on the west lawn… Stay tuned.

Victorians loved technology. Telephones, sewing machines, bicycles, flushing toilets… and the topic of this post, home intercom systems.
We are lucky that the servant call system, also called house bells, is still in operation. In 11 rooms and the front porch, a network of wires connects to the servant call box and bell in the kitchen, and the bell in the hall for the front door, signaling the need for service.
Complementing this is a “talk hole” which connects the kitchen to the second floor. It channels your voice through a pipe in the wall, so the staff (in this case, us as parents to our daughter 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏽‍♀️) don’t need to run up the stairs to ask what she wants. Lately, we’ve been asking her to text us… it’s a big house. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏽‍♀️

As nice as a naked, solitary light bulb in the center of the ceiling looked, this 1890s-1910s fixture is a bit more appropriate for the second floor parlor. We picked her up on our latest trip to Conner’s Architectural Antiques in Lincoln… More from that adventure coming soon.

Let’s clean some spindles! Refinishing the floors kicked up a lot of dust and Eastlake woodwork isn’t short on crevices to hold it. It’s also begging for some oil… another post!

My brain’s idea of a good time is apparently manual labor. A dream a few nights ago about scraping and painting the floor of the east porch must have been Edgar Zabriskie’s push for us to get to work. Summer will be here before we know it, and that porch was surely where he and his wife Esther spent their evenings. It’s now been scraped of its old paint, repaired, and has a shiny fresh coat.

So many areas of the house take your breath away, especially when you see them for the first time. When we first saw the main staircase - the architecture, craftsmanship, and the abundance of Eastlake detail - we were blown away. But this clever painted lady was playing a little three-card monte with us, diverting our attention away from the treads, risers, stringers, and landing, which were all quite worn, with lots of scratches and discoloration.
Again, Bekish Floors worked their magic, bringing them back to their original brilliance.

Today’s minimalist furniture is fine, but does your buffet have faces carved into it to ward off evil spirits?

Victorian furniture was on another level. This piece, like many in the late 1800’s, blends many styles for a pretty wild blend of art, extreme craftsmanship, superstition, and a flair of the dramatic.

When your friend hands you a box of skeleton keys and says, “One of these might work,” you know you’re in for an adventure!

Instead of doing the logical thing - taking the lock apart, figuring out the exact key it needed and filing one down to fit - we decided to embrace the chaos.

The locks themselves were a whole other challenge. They probably hadn’t been turned in decades, so it took a good amount of oil and wiggling to get them moving again. Finding the right key and eventually getting the lock to click was incredibly satisfying.

Now let’s talk key tassels. They weren’t just for decoration back in the day. Sure, they added a little flare and showed off your status, but they were also practical, helping you keep track of your keys! Maybe if the original keys had tassels they wouldn’t have been lost…🤔

Here’s to the charm of old locks, the thrill of finding the right key, and the little details that make history so fun to tinker with.

Not every project on a grand old home is a big ‘ol deal. In a few hours on a weekend before we moved in we did a quick sanding of the front screen doors with rough #3 steal wool and applied a coat of linseed oil to bring back the richness and add some protection against the elements. It was a quick win and a nice result.
The beautiful double front doors are on the list and coming soon.
Thanks to Matt Baker of Hunter Home Inspections for his advice on this one.