This site is intended to be a resource for those who wish to “partner” with me in the transformation of Euclid House.

Michael Pettit, an artist artisan who remodels and restores,has been approaching his work at Euclid House as a craft house

I am of a mind that the restoration transformation of historic homes should begin with some feature of the house that is most dear to the owner or owners. From that “form” much substance will follow.

I am going to ask Paul Jakubovich, Milwaukee City’s brilliant Preservation Specialist, to give me the words to describe two features from the original porch that have survived 100 plus years of big city life.

Cherished Original Feature Number One

Cherished Feature Number Two

Violation of Most Cherished Features

Here is a picture of that which assaults my soul if I don’t protect myself. There is something very out of balance about the front porch of Euclid House. It is the posts and the railings! They were thrown together with no concern for the power of form. There is something about our minds and spirits which need certain patterns in the forms we view. I think patterns that somehow evoke the beauty and the symmetry of nature.

Human made forms that flow from the forms of nature. I hope someone, especially a student in high school or college, might come up with the right form for the porch railings, banisters, and posts. Then I would like to commission a woodworking class from MATC and the new Trade School in Walkers Point, to create the forms.

Projects

Front Porch Restoration

Michael Pettit Detail Painting

Revisiting Ugly Porch

Renewed ‘Pettit’ Craft Porch

Redemption of Euclid Home’s Porch

Could Leaking Basement Be Due to Concrete Slabs?

I was freaking out when thinking about selling my sweet Bay View Worker House, when the basement leaked during some rains and snow thaws. I decided to focus on the issue of getting water away from my foundation.

I noticed that my concrete sidewalk slabs tilted toward the basement, and poured water onto a ft. wide mound of gravel filled bad dirt.

So I committed to removing the concrete slabs from the 8 ft. wide area between mine and my neighbors house.

Some of my neighbors were able to break up the concrete and make some use and beauty out of it at their Bay View House.

Liberation From Concrete Slabs

And I am consulting with various landscape, gardening, and urban farm experts to figure out what to put in place of the concrete.

I am going to make a web site of this drama.

If anyone would be interested in an on-line conversation and perhaps more
Around the issue of “rain gardens, shade gardens and leaking basement walls”
Let me know.

The Issue of Siding and Color

I must confess to profound cognitive dissonance in approaching the issue of siding and color. One the one hand, I hate the massive stretches of white and the dull grey or trim on Euclid House. I also do not at all like aluminim siding’s look on 100 year old worker houses. One the other hand, removing the siding and doing a “painted worker house” at Euclid House will be a huge project. This will depend upon the advise and support I find from my Euclid Project partners.