Dreaming in the Dust Restoring an Old House

by Katherine Chrisman

Chronicles two years in the lives of the Chrisman family as they fall in love with a slightly tilted and much-abused Victorian house and proceed to restore it with equal measures of care and frustration

Paperback

First published March 1, 1986

Reviews

[Stephanie A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book I've always wanted without precisely realizing it: an embellished journal-style account of the projects involved with fixing up/restoring a historic mansion that is also one's primary residence. With a mid-80s publication date, I thought it might feel too dated, but the content is timeless. And as a bonus (at least for me), it's of local interest!

Since the author and her husband had 2 school-age kids at the time, there's a much more personal feeling to it than some accounts of such a process would be. And oh, but the text is full of lavish architectural descriptions and deep respect for the house's history (I loved her accounts of writing to previous owners and their descendants, receiving photos and stories in return).

She describes with equal love how she always wanted a house like this, like the one her grandparents had when she was growing up. Everything is described in exactly the level of detail I crave when admiring old houses. Not even the most hair-raising stories (two words: carpenter ants -- raining from the ceiling when something breaks) can dissuade me from thinking what a dream-come-true this account is, nor can I think of a more beautiful thing to document and contribute to the property's provenance.

EXTRA FUN FACT: when I looked up 2405 E. Lake Of The Isles Parkway to see how it's fared in the 30 years hence, I found that this is one and the same as that Minneapolis mansion Josh Hartnett owned for a decade or so. Which, happy day, means one can find an infinite number of pictures of the inside as it looked when up for sale as recently as 2015.

I also played internet-search-tag to figure out what happened between 1986 and 2002, whereupon I learned that the author passed away from breast cancer in 1987, only 7 or so years after purchasing the house. There is further detail in a Twin Cities magazine article from 2000, when it was the ASID Showcase Home. I hope the house sees many more years of life and love to come.

[Josephine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dreaming in the Dust begins with the author falling in love with a decades old Victorian home on what was the rural shore of a lake but has now been incorporated into the city of Minneapolis and convincing her husband that they can restore it to a modern version of its previous glories. Not surprisingly to anyone who's gone through a similar process, each task completed seems to create two new problems. As an example, cleaning the paint off the windowframes so the windows can be opened in summer's heat leads to
     1) discovering, during winter #2, why winter #1 was so much warmer: the now freed windows are letting in drafts sufficient to render the furnace incapable of keeping up with a Minnesota winter
     2) the gaps in the windowframes, so drafty in winter, create a dust storm INside the house when several layers of paint are sandblasted off the foundation stones (this is compounded by discovering after the job has begun, that there are MORE layers of paint more firmly ensconced in the foundation than the sandblasters had originally thought...)

Nice to read about, but I wouldn't have wanted to live through it.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very individualistic journal of the renovation of a Victorian house on Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis. The photographs add much to the book which is one I reread at least once a year.

I was saddened to learn that the author died about 1 year after the book was published and so didn't get to enjoy the home for very long.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful memoir about the highs and lows - financial and emotional - of buying and renovating an old house. Quick read.