The Devil Queen

How my wife and I sold our souls to the Queen Anne Victorian we tried to save.

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Location: Crow Mountain, Arkansas, United States

Synopsis: This is a cautionary tale. A seriously disturbed couple find the charming, old ruin of a Queen Anne Victorian in Russellville, Arkansas, and buy it for $1.00. They tore the roof off, cut it in half, and had it moved to some land they owned sixteen miles away because they didn't know any better. Since then, they have hired and fired contractors, had all of their tools stolen, re-wired, re-plumbed, insulated, and essentially rebuilt the entire house. Their only problem is that after four years it still isn't finished. Now they are tired, broke, and wonder what in the hell it is they've done to themselves. And, it's haunted.
(Last updated on April 3, 2008)

Press: Russellville Courier Article - December 2003, HGTV website article, AP story - October 2006, and Victorian Homes Magazine - February 2008 (link coming soon).
Art: From time to time, I receive requests for my art. If you would like to look at more of my art, go to The Failed Artist. If you would like to buy my art, email me. I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Thanks!

Friday, April 14, 2006

Solid Brass

To be honest, we have no idea if this is solid brass, but that is what the general consensus is so far. According to the patent numbers on this, it was made in or around 1924. A friend of my mother-in-law gave us this. It is from her 1920’s house up around Fayetteville, AR. I have no idea why she got rid of it, but her loss is my gain.

When I first saw it, I wasn’t too impressed. I hate to admit that I had trouble seeing past the filth and the second rate rewiring job someone had done on it.

Then, a couple of weeks ago my wife walked down to the creek and wiped it down with a wet rag. Here is what it looks like now.



It needs a little work, but nothing too major. We’re going to rewire it (something less eye catching than white), and the sockets may need to be replaced. And it needs glass shades, but that should be easy enough to find (I hope the stuff at Lowe’s will fit).

This will be hung in the master bathroom. I can hardly wait.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sundial Wire makes vintage style cloth-covered wire that would be a good match for the original lamp wiring. They even make replacement wire for knob and tube house wiring. Knowing this I'm a little ashamed of my shiny new Romex wiring now, but at least my rewired chandaliers look cool.

www.sundialwire.com

2:32 PM  
Blogger John said...

David,

Cool site. Thanks for the link. I don't know why, but it never occured to me that they'd make reproductions of this stuff.

1:18 PM  
Blogger Lenise said...

Wow! That DID clean up nicely!! Congrats =] Nice stuff is good, but free nice stuff is hard to beat!

5:16 PM  

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