Latest news with #Italianate
Chicago Tribune
14 hours ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
When siding comes off, ‘true Italianate beauty' of historic Elgin house exposed
On a recent weekend earlier this month, 20 volunteers helped strip the aluminum siding that covered a 137-year-old home at 27 Rugby Place in Elgin's Gifford Park neighborhood. 'What we uncovered left us speechless — beautiful original details and brackets that had been hidden for over 50 years,' said owner Christen Sundquist, who's also the city of Elgin's historic preservation planner. 'It's a true Italianate beauty, and we're ready to bring it back to life with care and accuracy.' Sundquist is undertaking the monumental task with her husband, architect Matt Martin. The couple moved into the home in December 2021 and live there with their two young children. To help pay for the exterior renovations, the couple received a $5,000 matching grant from a Gifford Park Association program that assists Elgin Historic District property owners in covering the cost of aluminum siding removal so the original facade and missing architectural features can be restored. Association board member Paul Bednar said the money the nonprofit provides for such projects comes from funds it raises with its annual Historic Elgin House Tour, which this year will be held Sept. 6 and 7. According to association President Dan Miller, the nonprofit has awarded grant money for such work to 22 homeowners. Another 20 have done it without their financial help. Prior to the Rugby Place project, the last 'great unveiling' — as the they call such projects — took place more than three years ago on North Porter Street, he said. 'In the spirit of an old-fashioned barn raising, we typically get all the siding off before noon and then have lunch together,' Miller said. The association also recently used $5,000 in money from its house tour to pay a contractor to plant 11 magnolia trees at seven different locations on city-owned park land in the district. Magnolia trees are the variety residents commonly planted when the old neighborhoods were being built in the mid- to late-1800s, Bednar said. 'That's the start of a program to try to entice homeowners to add them into their yards as well,' Bednar said. Sundquist noted there's still a lot of work to be done to the exterior of the house, which was built in 1888 for William Kerber, cofounder of Kerber's Meat Packing Co. in Elgin. 'The aluminum removal was the easy part,' she said. 'The hard but most rewarding part will be removing the paint down to bare wood, sanding, priming and painting. We also have 30 brackets to make and crown molding and trim details to do. But the wood clapboard siding is in impeccable condition.' The cost of the exterior project, from siding removal to prepping, painting and recreation of missing features, could be between $20,000 and $40,000, depending on how much work is done by contractors, Sundquist said. Bednar said Sundquist's and Martin's home might also qualify for another $3,000 in association program funding to help pay for recreation of the original porch balcony balustrade. 'That's the next project, as we have a door that leads out to the porch, which would be another wonderful spot to entertain guests and drink a cup of coffee in the morning,' Sundquist said. Elgin has a Historic Rehabilitation Grant program that provides up to $20,000 in matching grant money for qualifying work on historic district and landmark properties but because Sundquist oversees the program, she is not eligible to apply for what it offers, she said. The Rugby Place house has been a project for the couple, who have installed central air conditioning, buried the electrical line into the property, added an upstairs laundry room, removed carpeting, sanded the wood floors, restored plaster, refinished the dining room, added first-floor casement windows and restored the front and side doors, Sundquist said. 'And way down the line, likely when our kids are in college, we hope to rebuild the belvedere on top of the roof as we found a recent historic photograph that showed that we had one,' she said.
Spectator
2 days ago
- General
- Spectator
Let's slash the school summer holiday
There are three little words that strike horror into the heart of every parent of school-age children. They are the words that cause you to break out in a cold sweat or let out a moan in your sleep in the dead of night – even in the middle of winter. They are 'school summer holidays'. Hear those three words and you may very well envisage jubilant children spewing from the school gates and then remember the dim, distant sun-kissed summers of your own youth. But mention them within earshot of a parent of appropriately aged offspring and you'll see the light go out in their eyes. Oh yes, the kids are happy – just like the waving teachers who weep with joy to see their charges depart. But now it's time for the parents to weep. Were you fortunate enough to be able to take the whole of the month of August off to 'summer' somewhere – perhaps a holiday home near Padstow in Cornwall or an Italianate villa in some dreamy olive-grove in Tuscany – then it would be a different story. Similarly, if you're one of the privileged few who enjoy a '1950s settlement' – where one spouse does not work (for money) – then I'm sure everything would be rosy or rather, rosé. But if, like most of us, you are a 'hard-working family' as Gordon Brown liked to put it, then the six-week school summer holidays are a living hell, one which makes August feel like a Godot-esque month without end. Six weeks. I would rather run the London marathon backwards dressed in a chicken suit in a heatwave than do it all again. And yet here it is. For working parents this is the ultimate test in work-life-imbalance. It's six weeks of ferrying your children between endless camps, time-absorbing playdates, sailing lessons, swimming lessons and multifarious 'multi-sports' activities – none of which seem to start before nine or ten in the morning and all of which then finish in the middle of the afternoon – all while trying to fit in actual work and things like meetings and conference calls, while also remembering which child has which packed lunch or what snack, and repeatedly re-coating them in sunblock because despite the usually crapness of the British summer, the sun's lethal rays will still zap the little dears' flesh to pieces even when it's overcast. So as well as doing enough mileage to qualify for a free Yorkie and forking out a fortune on childcare activities – £75 a day for two would seem the going rate – you'll end up working your evenings to catch up, which is incredibly sustainable as anyone knows, particularly resident (or should that be hesitant?) doctors. Six weeks. I would rather run the London marathon backwards dressed in a chicken suit in a heatwave than do it all again. And yet here it is Now, this would all be fine if it was just for a few weeks. But it's not, is it? It's for six weeks. It's 40 days and 40 nights of planning, remembering, logistics, lunches, clothing, kit, bags, shoes, trainers, flippers, the wheres, the whens, the with-whoms, all the while maintaining the verisimilitude of professional life. Sooner or later, no matter how good you are at juggling, you end up delivering one 12-year-old dressed in a wetsuit to the toddler's party at a village hall and the toddler who can't swim 15 miles away to a reservoir for capsize training. That's if you can still actually drive at all because your hands are so permanently slimy from all the sun cream. Unsurprisingly come the first week of September (south of the border, anyway – the Scots go back earlier) you can usually spot the parents of school-age children. They have ghostly, withdrawn faces and move around the around the Lidl car park with a stooped Morlockian gait. Do not cross these men and women. They are teetering on the edge of breaking point. Is the six-week school summer holiday a species of psychological torture? Quite possibly. What I can say is that once upon a time the smell of sun cream made me think of happy times – now the odour is enough to give me a mild panic attack. And it shouldn't be this way. Because let's face it, we only have long summer holidays because that's the way it's always been. It's not through design. It emerged this way, it is believed, so that kids could be off school to help with the harvest. Now, if the children were still in the fields helping to gather up wheat and barley, then it wouldn't be such a waste of time. I'd approve of that – better than Fortnite on Nintendo or the brain rot on YouTube – particularly if someone else was watching them so I could get on with some work. But the fact is they're not – and they haven't been for about a hundred years, not since Laurie Lee had his last sip of cider with Rosie. So, I say, let's move with the times. Let's still have a whopping end of year break, but how about we make it feasible? How about we shave a fortnight off the six weeks and make it a neat month, and distribute that lost time between the holidays at Christmas and Easter or the half terms to spread out the pain? More than half of parents would support this, according to research by charity Parentkind. I'm not surprised. It would reduce parental breakdowns. It would spread out the exorbitant expense of the summer childcare bill – not unimportant when it can easily run to hundreds of pounds per child. And rather more importantly it would be better for the children because shorter holidays would give their little brains less time to forget absolutely everything that they learned the academic year before. Studies have shown that pupils regress during the long break as they get out of practice with reading and writing. Shorter holidays would mean a less rude awakening for them when they are required to go back to the daily rigours of school life, with fewer tantrums and tears at drop off. Academic standards would rise accordingly, as each year benefited from the reduced wastage of each summer before. But we know that the teaching unions would never tolerate it. And can you blame them? If you were in a highly unionised industry and were lucky enough to be in a job where you had six full weeks off in a row each and every summer, would your union agree? Not a chance. So we're stuck with it. But it would kinder and better all round for the vast majority if it were reformed. Meanwhile, ask yourself this: is it any wonder that Britons are choosing to have smaller families than ever – with about 1.7 kids per family, down from 2.4 40 years ago? No, I thought not.
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Daily Record
Scotland's 'best seaside gardens' named as nine coastal beauty spots singled out
July is the perfect time to head to a colourful garden. Scotland's "best seaside gardens" have been crowned. Beauty spots in Dumfries and Galloway, South Ayrshire, and the Scottish Highlands are among those that were singled out. Visiting a garden is a classic summertime activity, with Scotland having no shortage of pretty estates. With summer halfway over, there is no time like the present to get out and walk around a vibrant garden. On Tuesday, July 15, Discover Scottish Gardens published a list of the top coastal gardens around the country. A total of nine seaside gardens are featured on the roundup. One of the gardens named among the best coastal spots in the country by Discover Scottish Gardens is Arbigland House and Gardens in Dumfries and Galloway. The 18th century mansion is situated within 24 acres of woodland gardens, which extend down to a beach along the Solway Firth. The formal gardens at Arbigland House are separated into different areas such as a Sunken Garden, a Japanese Garden, and a Sundial Garden. The former features roses and a Pavilion constructed by Italian Prisoners of War, while the Sundial Garden includes a sundial from 1815 that commemorates the battle of Waterloo. Discover Scottish Gardens stated: "From the 18th century mansion house, a long walk, lined by beech trees, stretches from Arbigland House to the beaches of the Solway Firth. The 24 acres of gardens here, which include an Italianate sunken garden, steep terraces and streamside gardens shaded by Giant gunnera, are undergoing restoration but there's no denying the salty credentials of this historic spot on the Dumfries & Galloway coastline. "The Vikings washed up here and the estate itself was the birthplace of John Paul Jones, father of the American navy." Elsewhere, the experts also selected Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire as one of Scotland's best seaside gardens. The castle sits in a 260-hectare estate featuring beaches, woods, trails, and more. Highlights of the estate include its colourful formal gardens and glasshouses. Culzean Castle itself sits atop a dramatic cliff, below which there is a picturesque sandy coastline home to various caves. The experts wrote: "From the battlements of Culzean there are spectacular views across the Firth of Clyde towards the jagged peaks of Arran. Beneath the castle lie rock pools and caves just begging to be explored, while the Fountain Court on the leeward side is filled with tender plants that relish the coastal conditions. "There are hundreds of acres of woodland paths to be enjoyed, along with a double walled garden full of decorative and edible plants." Another seaside garden featured on Discover Scottish Gardens' list is Ardencraig Gardens on the Isle of Bute. The garden, which is located near the island's principal town of Rothesay and is managed by Argyll and Bute Council, is home to a variety of exotic plants in its glasshouses. Other gardens singled out by the experts include Ardmaddy Estate in Argyll and Inverewe Garden in Scottish Highlands. Ardmaddy Estate is situated near the popular coastal resort of of Oban and features a restored and improved 18th century walled garden, while Inverewe Garden is located in Wester Ross and is known for its rare plants that can only grow thanks to the warming effects of the Gulf Stream. Meanwhile, Discover Scottish Gardens also praised Castle of Mey and Dunrobin Castle in the Scottish Highlands. Rounding out the list are House of Dun in Angus and Cambo Gardens in Fife. The full list of the best seaside gardens around Scotland can be found below. For more information about each one, visit the Discover Scottish Gardens website. The best seaside gardens around Scotland
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Harry Redknapp sees 50ft racing boat CRASH into garden of new £12m Sandbanks mansion
Harry Redknapp was shocked after a boat crashed into the garden of his new multi-million pound mansion. Redknapp and his wife Sanda have spent a fortune creating their dream home on the exclusive Sandbanks peninsula in Bournemouth. They paid £7million for a house in the Millionaire's Row area where they have previously owned two houses, only to demolish it and build a grand villa, which experts estimate cost £12m. One of the reasons they went to such lengths to move from the Branksome Park area of Bournemouth back to Sandbanks was their love of the sea. But their view of Poole Harbour was ruined on Monday when a 50ft trimaran came crashing into their private jetty. The three-hulled £25,000 boat, called Three Cheers, was blown off-course and ended up getting stuck underneath the Redknapps' jetty. The Sun reports that Redknapp was 'left stunned' by the sailing accident. A spokesperson for Poole Lifeboat said: "A 50ft trimaran was passing through Poole Harbour on passage. "With no engine at the time, it got into difficulty and ended up aground and wedged under a jetty near North Haven Point. The lifeboat volunteers were swiftly on scene and found that the casualties were all ashore, safe and well and did not require assistance." The Redknapps' Italianate villa has been built on the narrow plot of land and features Palladian-style columns plus four separate balconies with wrought iron railings. It is situated on the north west corner of Millionaire's Row and looks out towards Poole Harbour. While it is a dream home for the ex-football manager and his wife, it caused a stir among locals. The house is inside the Sandbanks conservation area and the Sandbanks Neighbourhood Forum had objected to the villa. The group claimed it would have a 'detrimental effect' on the area. Next-door neighbour Alison Wheeler believed the new villa would be too "overpowering" and "oppressive". She also feared it would have a "major impact on our privacy". The objections forced the architect to go back to the drawing board and make the designs narrower, so as not to impact on the properties either side, while glazed privacy glass was insisted upon by planning officers. The new villa has a grand entrance hall, an open-plan living/kitchen/dining room, two reception rooms, a study, boot room and five en-suite bedrooms. It also features a double garage with room for a gym, while there is a boat house at the bottom of the garden by the jetty, which has access to Poole Harbour. Redknapp, 78, has not managed a club since Birmingham City in 2017 and won I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here in 2018.
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Scotsman
Edinburgh's Dalry Swim Centre celebrates 130 years at the heart of the community
One of Edinburgh Leisure's five cherished Victorian pools marked a milestone year this week, with staff and regulars celebrating 130 years of the Dalry Swim Centre. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... To mark the occasion, regulars and former swimmers stopped by to share memories of the centre, with staff even donning Victorian swimwear for the event. Attendees also learned about the introduction and legacy of public baths in Edinburgh, with Historic Environment Scotland delivering a talk to guests. First opened in 1895, the historic public baths were part of a scheme to promote cleanliness and hygiene for households that did not have routine access to such facilities. And today the pool on Caledonian Crescent remains a vital asset for the community and serves as the main training area for Grove Amateur Swimming Club who have trained at Dalry since 1901. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Edinburgh's Dalry Swim Centre celebrated a milestone year this week | NW Dalry Swim Centre manager, Wendy Avinou, said: 'Dalry has been at the heart of the community for decades and we're so lucky to have this gem of a building still in use today. Generations have learnt to swim here - grandparents, parents, and now their children. It's a living legacy.' Speaking to the Evening News, Wendy said: 'I feel really blessed. That sounds really cheesy, but I am blessed with the job that I do - managing Victorian pools is just phenomenal. They're like no other buildings, especially when you've got the old Victorian style with a twist of modern is just brilliant. I've been here through the refurbishments and to see the happy smiling faces on people at the end definitely makes it worthwhile.' Dalry Swim Centre was saved from closure in 2010 following a local campaign that was backed by 3,500 people and gained support from MSP Sarah Boyack, and councillor Donald Wilson. The building, which boasts a seven-bay Italianate façade and sunlit 25-yard pool, underwent a major refurbishment between 2018 and 2019. Dalry Swim Centre first opened on Caledonian Crescent in 1895 | NW Jackie Sangster, from Historic Environment Scotland, said the Dalry Swin Centre 'still serves communities around the city' 130-years after it first opened. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Sangster said: 'Following the Baths and Wash House Act of the 1840s, the authorities made steps to improve public health because conditions in the city were so squalid and most people didn't have running water in their homes. And by maintaining these buildings, Edinburgh Leisure are looking out for their community, much as it was at the beginning when they were new, and this plays a big part towards health and wellbeing.' John Duke, who has been a regular since the 1990s and taught his grandkids how to swim at Dalry, said: 'Even after moving house twice, I've kept coming back. Dalry has always had a personal feel. The staff know me and they know my medical needs. I have diabetes and they've always looked out for me. 'Some of my favourite memories are the Christmas parties for the over-60s. They'd bring out a giant inflatable dog that took up half the pool, and we'd have a laugh before heading upstairs for sandwiches and a wee drink. Billy Reid, the supervisor, even dressed up as Santa. So it's not just the pool - it's the staff and other customers that make Dalry special.' Dalry is one of five Victorian pools operated by Edinburgh Leisure which includes Warrender, Leith Victoria, Glenogle, and Portobello. | Edinburgh Leisure Christine Baker, who joined the club in the 1960s and is still involved today said: 'Dalry was a huge part of my childhood - from baths in the upper gallery to learning to swim with my dad. So many happy memories.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Jack Walker, head coach at Grove Amateur Swimming Club, added: 'I started swimming at Dalry when I was very young - I actually used to cry at the side of the pool with the swim teachers. But later I started coming with my school and then I joined Grove when I was about eight-years-old. 'Grove is for school-age swimmers and it's a really friendly and relaxed atmosphere for swimmers who maybe don't want to go on to compete. But we have our own club championships every year and we have trophies for the kids that go back to 1901 when the club first started.'
