Another time his foot went through the rotted floorboards on the fire escape. Five layers of rolled roofing were removed, replaced with architectural dimensional shingles. The house has new plumbing, wiring, air-conditioning and heating systems, fire sprinklers, a sophisticated phone system, whirlpool tubs in four of the five rooms, and soundproofing. If it didn't happen at Home Depot, I didn't know it. It is a pleasure, he reports, to have those years behind him and to have a real life again that does not involve constant drywall and dust.
Every item has a story.
The heart-pine staircase came from the old Chicago Hotel on the city's south side, built in 1905. The ottoman was a castoff children's table from the Sunday school at First Presbyterian Church just down the street. Caldwell cut down the legs and had it upholstered. A twig chair in the Cracker suite was another alley find. So was what he first thought was a 1940s reproduction of a French regency armchair.