CDLV TOUR: The Front Facade and History

November is a great month! It's filled with lots of earthly changes, lots of friends, lots of food, and lots of love. I figure since so much has changed around CDLV, and all you've been able to see are sneak peeks - It might be nice to see full rooms, and the vignettes and items in their entirety. Because I so love the way that Joan from fortheloveofahouse blog has done the reveals of her rooms, I'm going to borrow her creative format and post pictures of the rooms one day, and answer questions from the comment sections on the blog a few days later, with detailed lists of sources and stories.

I figure the best way to start any tour is with a story of the house. Not a lot of pictures going forward, but a pretty decent (sorta spooky) story ... read on if you dare!

The Beginning

Our house was built in 1923 by the Levee family, a couple who never had children who both worked for the Niagara Parks department. On a street like ours, filled with houses built by doctors, attorneys, factory supervisors, and the independently wealthy, the Levee's worked hard to be able to build this modest house on the best street in town.

They spent their money on the ground floor. The first floor has narrow plank hardwood floors, more rare and therefore more expensive gumwood woodwork with crown moldings, and a total of 6 french doors. Moving upstairs, the Levee's not only changed the original floor plan of the house, they started choosing cheaper products. The floors went from narrow plank hardwood to conventional plank soft pine, with no crown moldings and woodwork from yellow pine stained to mimic the gumwood of the first floor.

The Levee's changed the original 3 bedroom format to include two large bedrooms, one with large his/her closets and a bathroom that although awkward in its layout, was much larger than other bathrooms of the day. A smaller, L-shaped room which is now my home office served as Mr. Levee's office, and a 4x4 room that Scott commandeered as his shoe and coat closet when we moved into the house, was Mrs. Levee's sewing room.

The Downward Spiral

The Levee's lived in this house for 32 years, and then the house changed hands ... many times resulting in unfortunate changes, and disastrous outcomes even a dual murder in 1998 when a deranged drug addict murdered his wife and her drug dealer, then lead police to the brink of Niagara Falls where he threatened to jump over the edge before eventually surrendering and spending his final days in prison. Read about it here:

I told you to go on if you dare! Now the first thing people ask me is, "Is your house haunted?" Truth is, if it is, I certainly haven't seen or felt anything - but with a house this old you can bet that someone has left some part of their spirit here - if you believe in that sort of thing.

Saving Grace

Scott bought the house in 2006, 8 years after the murders, and after some pretty terrible alterations by someone with no real decorating ability and the mistaken idea that he was a handyman. Needless to say - the house has been a real labor of love these past few years, but the hardwork has been worth it. With any luck, this old house will see its 100th birthday while we have it, and will go on to have many many more.

Now - where shall we go next?