This is a shot of the dining room from the center room. For some reason the dining room is incredibly difficult to photograph, even though it is a beautifully shaped room. I think part of the problem is that it is always so dark. (See our fine chandelier? I mean "single light bulb hanging from its own 90 year old wiring?")

Photo by Batman, 12 Nov 2002

This is the front foyer, shot from the front room. The lamp is not original to the house; we bought it at an antique store in Cleveland. (Actually we bought a pair of lamps; its mate is still in the attic until my rewiring efforts reach the front of the house.) The old foyer lamp (a blue glass lamp that had been converted from kerosene to electricity) went to the antique dealer as a trade-in. It cast a kind of deathly pallor over the room. This is much, much better.

The quality of these lamps is unbelievable; cast bronze housings, solid brass otherwise, slag glass which curves on one or both axes. They must be commercial fixtures, and I'd guess from the 1910-1920 period. When you see me ask for the story behind them.

Photo by Batman, 12 Nov 2002

These are the "found" pocket doors between the front and center rooms.

Our house has three sets of pocket doors. When all of the woodwork in the house was painted (late 1940's or early 1950's), the then owners hid the pocket doors in the walls and nailed covers over them. This saved them the trouble of painting the doors. (If only they'd been equally lazy in the rest of the house!) Later owners released two pairs of pockets doors, but these remained sealed until Octoberlin 2000, when Pearl, Schmooz, Big Bird, and Batman exposed and refurbished these doors so that they work again.

Photo by Batman, 12 Nov 2002

Same location but brighter so you can actually see the doors.

Photo by Batman, 12 Nov 2002

The center room fireplace (one of three) with the 16th century Dutch tiles that the Murphys brought back from a trip to Europe sometime after World War II.

Photo by Batman, 12 Nov 2002

This is the butler's pantry. Much to everyone's amusement, it has its own under-the-stairs closet, the Kirby closet. Our friends call this the closet with the closet.

Photo by Batman, 12 Nov 2002