HE BUILT IT FOR HER.

their love story strikes me as the real-life version of the movie UP.

the 100+ year old victorian house was little more than a shell when she first saw it and
told him she was in love and had to have it.

so he saved it from the wrecking ball.
for $1500.
...loaded it onto a trailer & moved it to a little hilltop perch that he built special for it,
nestled in some trees in a quiet little grove of 100 acres in southern illinois.

they started resurrecting it together, with painstaking detail.
the gingerbread, period fireplace mantel tiles, refinishing each wooden spindle by hand one at a time.
it was a labor of love.

until one day, quite suddenly- she died.
leaving the house and her life with her unfinished.

and in the most beautiful and amazing way, he has paid tribute her every single day,
nearly 19 years later, by continuing to restore the home as they had planned.
from the dozen + custom-made stained glass windows to the tile mosaic in the bay window, to the lane he named after her favorite thing.

he has breathed new life into some very old bones.

its a breathtaking vision, my blackberry phone snaps couldn't possibly do it justice.



'He' was my first college professor at the school of art and design. I hadn't seen him in nearly 20 years. when I paid him a visit last weekend, I got the joy of seeing this amazing project and tribute. a novel could be written on this what he's done with the place. the most creative + resourceful guy i know.

(ARCH: YOU'VE DONE ONE HELL OF A JOB. SHE WOULD LOVE IT)