The Nightmare
	When we found out The Cross House  was for sale, we knew we would buy it.  It was just a matter of how much would we have to pay and what was its condition?   We looked beyond the boarded up windows, the termite eaten floors, the rotted siding and the plumbing that leaked in 100  places .  We saw the house's potential for Emporia and took on the project because of our heart and ignored our heads.
	First and foremost, we want to do no harm.  We plan on restoring the house, as  close as reasonably possible, to the original blueprints.  Nothing in the house should be destroyed or changed in a way that it can not be reversed.  All work is to be performed without compromise and must be as perfect as possible.  Second, we want to modernize the mechanical systems in the house so that it will be safe and economical to maintain.  We dream of taking 21st century technology and hiding it in a 19th century home. It's very hard to talk about what we plan on doing without discussing the work that has already been done.  When we  purchased the house, it was kind of erie.  It was like somebody just walked away and boarded up the windows.  There were dishes in the sink, clothes in the closets and bills on the dining room table. We started the project by uncovering all the windows that weren't broken.  This gave the house a whole new feeling.  We called the water company and asked them to turn on the water.  As we had feared, the pipes had frozen and burst and water came through the ceilings everywhere!  (The good thing about this was the hundreds of roaches we found were all dead!)  Topping this off, most of the toilets in the 16 full baths had  froze and the porcelain had cracked.  Even the main sewer line was plugged and the 4" cast iron drain pipes had cracked, pouring all the sewage water onto the basement floor!  Despite all of this, we cleaned up all the rooms and held a free open house on May 1 & 2, 1999.  We felt it important to let Emporia view this grand home before restoration because it belongs to everyone's heritage and had been held privately for so long and closed to the public.  One line in the Gazette on March 31st, 1999, announcing the open house, brought 900 people to view the house a month later.  The night between the open house dates was the first night we slept in the house.  We moved all our belongings in a few days later. Living in the house was akin to camping.  After capping off most of the water lines, replacing about 40 feet of the main sewer line and replacing the ancient hot water heater, we managed to get one out of sixteen bathrooms working.  We initially hauled water for cooking, cooked our meals on a BBQ grill and washed the dishes in the bathtub.  The lighting and electric in the house was sparse because we initially had circuits that would not work or would sizzle when you turned them on.  The phone line was sporadic.  When it would rain, the line was so staticy that you could not place a call.   If someone would call during these times, the phone would ring once and no one would be there.  One time, in the middle of the night, we were woken up by the police in the house because the staticy phone lines called 911 and they couldn't call us back to confirm it wasn't an actual emergency!  A lot of people would never have put up with this.  Things like this break up marriages.  Through all of this hardship, Debbi never complained.  The house was a mutual dream.  We both had conviction to the house that has never wavered since.  These shared experiences have brought us closer together. During the first year we replaced the four inch drain line, replaced the hot water heater, repaired the sizzling electrical circuits and replaced the ancient boiler with four high efficiency pulse boilers.  This was our first experience with an unethical contractor  We purchased our own boilers.  We had an estimate from a company for $13,000.00 that we felt that we couldn't afford.  American Boiler, of Salina, said that the estimate was outrageous and they that they thought they could do it for much less than their $12,000.00 quote if we would allow them to work on time and materials.  We agreed.  They came back with a bill after the work was completed for over $18,000.00!   Our opinion is that they saw the size of the house and felt that we had deep pockets and tried to take advantage of us.  The big problem was that they ate up almost all of our equity line and we had little money left to further our project.  This left us doing projects paycheck to paycheck.  We concentrated on doing demolition work of removing some of the add-on bathrooms from when the house was the Mouse Palace Motel and stripping the paint on the outside that was badly peeling and nearly 1/4" thick in some places. On June 14, 2000, the contractor, Phillips Painting, was stripping paint on the outside of the house with a heat gun and ignited some birds nests behind the tin scrollwork in the eves of the third floor.  Fortunately they realized their mistake immediately and called the fire department.  Unfortunately, Phillips Painting had no liability insurance and immediately moved out of town after the fire.  Our insurance company paid but because of the condition of the house, we have never been able to adequately insure the property.  Because of this, we were able to make the basic repairs to close the house's envelope but we still have many rooms gutted from the water damage. When the firemen were at the house and we watched them fight the fire, we noticed that the west side of the Southwest chimney was caved in.  At first, we thought the  firemen may have broke it in looking for additional hot spots but found out that it was just coincidence that we found it while they were there.  This unstable 15-20 foot tall chimney  towering over the house REALLY worried us.  We feared that one day soon it would topple over into the bedroom that we were sleeping in.  We had several masonry contractors come to look at the problem.  We had trouble obtaining one either because the chimney was too high or they had other projects they were working on.  We felt pressured to get the problem fixed before it completely caved in.  We hired Chuck Chenowith, of Reading, to do the repair.  The quality of the workmanship was not up to the standards that we expected on the house but at least the chimney was stabilized.  Chuck told us that one of our other chimneys was in poor shape and was in danger of collapsing too.  Because we were already worried and were unable to find any other masons in the near foreseeable future, we agreed to let him do that chimney too.  Chuck said he needed money for materials before he could start.  We paid him nearly all the money to complete the second chimney but he never came back.  We hired an attorney and received a judgment but were never able to collect a single cent from this thief. The last part of the nightmare was discovered by accident.  We were doing foster care for a young girl.  The state of Kansas requires that all children with a medical card receive a blood lead level test at their first birthday.  We found out that Ashley's lead levels were elevated beyond safe levels.  We had the other children checked and our other daughter, who is younger, also had elevated lead levels.  Our son, 11 years old at the time, tested normal as did Debbi and I.  The disturbing thing is that lead poisoning awareness is targeted at the lower income persons and middle class America is falling through the cracks.  If not for foster care.  We would still be poisoning our children!  We had the house thoroughly examined by Kansas Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention and determined that the problem was caused by stripping the exterior paint.  We had heard of lead poisoning from lead water pipes but we had never heard of dust causing lead poisoning.  We started collecting any paint residue via a vacuum connected to power tools, cleaned the lead paint chips up from outside the house, put barrier glass over all the windows, installed a central vac unit to avoid recirculating the lead dust, never wore our outside shoes into the house and had a housekeeper come in twice a week to mop the floors and dust all the furniture.  Despite all our efforts,  we were unable to make our children's lead levels come down to normal levels.  In 2002, we had no choice, for the sake of our children, but to move out of the house.  We initially moved into 527 Exchange and have now moved into the "Companion House" to the Cross House at 524 Union.  We anticipate living there for about five more years until we can remove all the lead paint and move back into the "Big House".  On a positive note, our family and the Cross House were featured in large article in the January 2004 issue of Parents Magazine on lead poisoning prevention.  We were very happy about this article because it brings the message to the middle class. Throughout the years of our ownership, additional things have been accomplished.  When signed a purchase contract on the house, we shored up the roof on the front porch before we even closed because we felt that it was in danger of collapsing any day.  We also had to have the termites treated.  They were so bad that they had eaten clear up to though the oak flooring on the first floor which we eventually had to replace.  The exterminator said that the termites had to have had free feed on the house for over 20 years.  We do not understand how the previous owners, who boarded up the house, could have obtained a bank loan without treating the termite problem.  On the outside we have repointed the stone foundation, replaced the hazardous electrical service panel with a new breaker box, have nearly stripped all the paint off the building and have repaired and repainted some of the areas, including all the third floor dormers.  On the front porch, we have removed the rotting posts and put in temporary timbers.  We raised the sagging roof over the front steps about six inches and have removed of a five inch thick layer of shingles from the front porch roof, redecked it, reshingled it and replaced the rusted out built-in gutters with new metal..  Most of the front porch has been repaired,  painted and completely rewired.  We have replaced a missing stone pillar on the front porch and built a stone gas grill onto the front porch.  On the North porch, we have rebuilt the crumbling stone steps  On the main roof, we have repointed the East chimney (with a different contractor), replaced missing shingles and have lined about 1/3 of the remaining built-in guttering system. Inside, we have removed 8 of the initial 16 full bathrooms (the house was built with 3).  We have replumbed two of the bathrooms and the third floor kitchen, including drains and supply lines.  A dishwasher has been installed in the main kitchen (in a temporary fashion) and new gas lines have been run for the stove.  New electric, water and drain lines have been run to create a laundry room.  Because two rooms on the third floor, three rooms on the second floor, two rooms on the first floor and the servant staircase are still gutted because of water damage from the fire, we have filled some of the outside walls with rigid foam insulation to try to eliminate the financially crippling gas bills that have run as high as $1500.00 for one month.  The whole third floor, 80% of the second floor and about 20% of the first floor has been rewired.   The old phone lines have been cut and new lines run to various rooms.  All wiring is hidden inside walls and not strung on the outside of the house or along the baseboards as was previous.  Various rooms have been wired with coax and Cat 5 for computer terminals.  A whole house automation panel has been installed which automatically controls lighting and electrical outlets via computer control.  Central air conditioning has been installed with electrical dampers to try to create affordable cooling, although the dampers are not yet wired to a control unit.  We have installed a video camera security system to keep the house safe while we are not living in it.  I'm sure there is more that slips my mind right now but I will update this page as I recall additional accomplishments. All of the above would probably be enough to make most people walk away from this project.  Throughout it all, we have never wavered and are as determined, as we ever were, to make this house the grand old dame that she once was!  We've received some support from a few generous people but need a lot more help to turn our personal nightmare into the dream that we know it can be for all of Emporia! Read on to "The Dream" to see what our plans are and to see where you may be able to help.