hi everyone my name is ken welcome to this house today we are touring a second empire
house owned by kaleb with the second empire strikes back on youtube kaleb why don't you
tell us a little bit about your house uh yeah absolutely so it's a second empire
obviously uh second empire house it was built in 1889 1889-90 not sure the exact date it
was finished it was built by a guy named charles s brown he was a machinist and a
he built machines at a company called the holland brown woodworking machine company here in st louis
all right everybody let's head inside make sure to like and subscribe if you like this video
so
right so it looks like you've been very busy in this room can you tell us what all you've
been doing here well not as much here so much this area of the house came so well preserved
that there's very little i've had to do which is nice of course there are a few missing elements
such as my mantels but i got really fortunate in the fact that my youtube channel audience
found my tiles and i was able to get them back from my fireplace at least so at least some
pieces here but yeah it's it's such a beautiful room and this room itself is probably what drew
me to the house the most um with so many of the original features intact i can just see this being
a perfectly period correct home and uh yeah it's a really exciting thing i see you've got like
different wallpaper put up on the yeah thanks andy he gave me those oh wow okay these are
actually from the campbell house i was going to say that they looked very familiar yeah
they only told me they have uh well over half a million dollars in wallpaper in the house
the cabinet here is actually original okay um it has the push button switch the lights
also fire and work of course i've turned it off because the electric scares the hell out of me
um original floor inlays the mantle here is incredible it's got so much of the original
detail left the tiles are still there everything's still in place it needs to be reset but it's
pretty much perfect it's really cool that people have been so kind to me as to give me pieces of
furniture like this which is really a testament there is actually a good side to the internet
yeah it's it's got a little bit damage obviously up here
we've had some water issues but uh nothing that can't be corrected um
yeah i think that's that's about it it's it's going to be a really lovely room and i can't
wait to have dinner parties in here uh i'll have to buy a fancy suit for it or something
all right so now we're in the kitchen and kaleb i hear you have some just amazing plans to restore
this to its former glory yeah absolutely i know a lot of these houses usually get
the kitchen update even if they're going back period correct they always get a kitchen update
and i'm doing that somewhat my planning here is to use 1920s appliances and an 1890s setting so we're
not going to have any kind of counter space we're going to use the harvest table in the center with
a single chair i'm hoping to get a copper sink made um just like the one at the campbell house
i'm using a quick meal stove which is from the 1920s which is the precursor to magic chef which
will be going here and i'll run it back into the chimney i don't think i have to use that feature
but i'm going to do it anyways for aesthetic reasons i have a ge monitor top also from the
20s which is a refrigerator um the refrigerator still works so i'm going to put it back into you
send a service and the last thing is i'm going to be making also a piece of the campbell house which
is their built-in cabinetry and i'm going to hide a dishwasher in that so aesthetically it will be
an old kitchen with some slight hidden details to make it uh more functional
uh you can actually see the woodwork here
old original faked you know like they've tried to make this work but it's not the same
um they've obviously missed these little uh for lack of a better term rosettes
they're not here uh this type this wood is actually different than this because i've
stripped other pieces over there it's a slightly different wood a different newer wood i'm assuming
this was done in the 20s to match and also the top rail of these is different here this is just
the same piece of trim here whereas the top on that is actually two pieces it's the crown cap
and it's this but this is flattened out on top so that cap sticks to it nicely
so this is the second floor landing in the stairwell this is actually the original electric
panel box which these are pretty rare they're kind of collector's items mine seems to be used pretty
recently the wires in here are actually supposed to be pretty thin gauge wires and essentially
that would be your fuse when the wire would burn it would break this is on a slight backing and
you would lose the connection uh but somebody has jumped all of these with a higher gauge wire and
now there's little bits of burn on here now of course this isn't connected or else i wouldn't
be touching it um but uh this was a it's a miracle my house didn't burn down essentially
so this would have been the master bedroom and then like a his and hers kind of thing and uh
the reason i assumed this was the hers is because there's a smoking balcony in the other bedroom
and uh this bedroom has this beautiful hutch that uh you guys are all in right now um and i assume
that's where the makeup table you know where should we get ready i'm assuming this would
have been blocked by a screen or something like that or at least that's what i see in my head um
at least that's how i've somewhat been explained it i assumed the bed could have gone there as
well but i think it makes more sense in that respect where's the bed go past that i'm not
sure maybe just the windows um but yeah it's it's a really beautiful room again i have the original
mantle in here uh it'll be really hard to see on camera but it's really intricately carved
um and the tiles are all still here as well and they of course have flowers and stuff like that
on them and that to me feels more feminine so again that's why i would lead to believe that
this would be the female master plus you know let your wife have the bigger room you know absolutely
so you'll be putting the clawfoot tub in here as well as the pedestal sink that's out there uh no
i'm gonna get a marble sink uh i do have one right now but it's a bit too big i'm trying to find a
corner sink uh that specifically goes in that corner by the um closet in there um and that's
just for size reasons but um the sink that's in there is probably from the 20s so it's not quite
the correct period um so i'm again trying to bring things back as close as possible i do believe the
toilet or the tub in there was the original tub but it's really been beat up it's been repainted
it's a lot of things have happened to it um so i wanted to get something a little bit nicer and
the wood rammed guy that i have is from 1897 so it's close enough an era that i feel comfortable
putting it back in there and it being fairly original so that's at least the plan for that
room uh you know it would have been really high tech for its time so i want to put all those old
high-tech items back in so the high tank toilet all that fun stuff but i'm gonna do beadboard
all the way through as well because you can see under the window where it was great and are you
going to leave that in like a natural wood scene or will it yeah it'll look a lot like this okay
except this has shellac on it and i probably won't use shellac in a room that has that much water
but i'm okay with some bumps and bruises even this i mean it's a walnut post but it's got a nice
ding right there who knows maybe the maid was moving something and dinged it or whatever
so we've seen a bunch of radiators laying around this house do you have plans to reinstall these
um there's most of them are actually installed there's only a few of them that actually aren't
they're in their locations this one right here actually goes right to this window
the reason yes i do plan on using my boiler system uh the radiator system it's a really wonderful
heat we actually had it going this winter and uh it does take two days to keep the whole house up
but after we turned it off it stayed warm for an additional five days the plaster works really well
with the radiated heat system it sucks up all that heat and releases it slowly and so it's a really
brilliant system it's just awesome and the heat is even it's dry which is good for the woodwork
things like that i might have to get a humidifier at some point but uh overall yeah i love the
system they're absolutely gorgeous and so talk about incorporating you know the beautiful you
know way to heat the home as well so i'm really really happy about that this one has been removed
um for two reasons a i do need to add a new floor in here because the floor is a little wavy and not
quite great in this room so i'm gonna be putting a floor on top of this and the second thing is
the floor it was sitting on because this part of the wall was so damaged from the water uh the wall
itself was actually threatened to collapse um i had to redo a bunch of this so we had masons here
uh we took the wall apart on the outside put it all back together straighten it back up best we
could and uh the floor here had sustained enough damage that the radiator was starting to fall
through the floor so there's actually a new patch of flooring right here around the pipes
uh and i braced the beams and everything i've added a lot of extra stuff down there just to keep
the floor strong and once i add the cross members of the new flooring on i might have to extend the
pipes off but we'll add the radiator back you had mentioned the woodwork in this room as well
so what is so special about these beautiful swirls in the wood here so the woodwork in this
room actually would work in this house they've used and really a lot of what's called curly pine
uh some people call it burled something but what i've seen it always describe as crawly pine uh
it happens in one and about four one or four thousand trees um so it's it's fairly rare to
have and the amount of it in this house is pretty stunning um one of the guys i have doing my man's
roof who is really really into woodwork um him and his daughter came through and they're like oh my
god look oh my god look there's more curly pine there's more curly pine you don't see this much
curly pine so it must be something really special i think it's absolutely gorgeous when you do get
some shellac or something on it the holographic effect that it gives off is really incredible so
you know it's not just pine it's something more than that and it's really cool stuff
but up here on the third floor um this is another part of the house that is
pretty heavily damaged again we had this wall you can see the window is not straight at all this
wall was threatening to fall um we had roof leaking these windows still occasionally if
the water blows just right we'll leak a little um but we've started to work on that
um one thing i've noticed with these beams is that they are not straight at all
there's an obvious reason that there's why there was a drop ceiling in here
which is mostly gone those beams are so far off from being straight and i'm not sure why um
i'm assuming i'm just gonna have to sister them i mean only be for the drywall portion
the ones that are actually holding up the roof itself seem fine
um there's obviously bits of tracks or evidence of animals being in here too like
one no i'm one of those beings over there which is great fun i'm assuming that was chippy
first time i came and saw the house he uh or
there was a cat hanging out on the very edge of the mansard where the built-in gutter is
just sitting there looking over like what do you guys do and i'm like um cat don't fall please
but yeah the views outside are amazing um i mean maybe not to everybody but to me i think
it's cool that you can see the arch that you can see you know the city so kaleb you've been in
this neighborhood and in this house for a while now what can you tell us about your experiences
it's such a lovely neighborhood you know like you can see all the architecture but me being
up here so much i i see like the ladies across the street and the kids play with their dad up front
you know grandma's bringing out lemonade and they all seem to know the ups driver by his first name
it's you know i don't see many neighborhoods in st louis like that i think this is somewhat
of a unique case most people try to keep to themselves these people are quite open and amazing
and they look out for me and they're so they're always asking me what's going on over there oh
you know i'm trying to fix it up that's a lot of house to fix up i'm like yeah you're right
you know um but yeah it's it's awesome i've been nothing but welcomed here and um yeah
it's cool everything about this project i i just glow over really because it's it's
just that perfect i don't know everything works
you know every every time i turn a new page in this adventure something else happens it's super
serendipitous like all the machinery that i go to or when i go to a place and they're building my
windows they're building this for me oh there's holland brown equipment it's like it follows me
you know we're finding the tiles that's such a random encounter that doesn't happen are people
offering me up their things because they want somebody who cares about these things to preserve
their family's history in a small amount too they know it's going to end up at a place that'll
be loved and it will be open to the public in some regard it's amazing that not only is the
community around here still thriving um even against all the negative stereotypes but that
the broader community on your page and from your fan base is so supportive and loving and endearing
of your projects that they are literally sending you items in the mail to incorporate into your
preservation work and to decorate with um well i think it's just one of those things that they hold
it so dear and i like all i feared the sentiment a lot my kids will never understand my kids don't
like these things my kids will just sell them off to somebody and ends up in a dusty or wherever
like i know you will take care of it i know you will preserve it i know it will last a lot longer
if it's with you yeah and i'm just really hoping to inspire more people to do the same
these buildings can be saved you don't even necessarily have to drop a huge fortune on them
i mean considering what houses cost on the coast or what it costs to even live in lafayette square
compton heights you know this is probably about a 300 000 project all in maybe you
know without the whole paper and that's you're right wallpaper is just expensive but that's um
three hundred thousand dollars gets you the house and all the repairs you need to make it work
that is all in all that yeah that's all in on but that's of course with a lot of my own sweat equity
which i believe in doing anyways um you know i want to have my my hand in the house my dna and
now so to say i want to have felt every single corner and piece of the woodwork i want to make
sure every crack in the plaster is done by my hand because i have pride in that and i look forward
to the day where my grandkids could get to tell somebody when i'm long gone my grandpa put this
house back together with his hands and then he did this you know so that's that's the pride i'm
seeking you know that's that's my fulfillment out of this adventure and the fact that it will live
on further than that um that i'll fix this house it'll be you know beautiful again and long after
i'm gone someone will be able to live here again that did a little it'll carry on hopefully they'll
keep the aesthetic of the 1890s either that or i have to turn into a museum like the campbell
house which i don't think is a bad thing either so um i just want to keep it as pristine as possible
um and hopefully future generations will see the value in that as well as much as i see them so
we'll see before we step outside to explore the neighborhood i want to give a huge shout out
to caleb for allowing us to film here make sure to like and subscribe to his channel
the second empire strikes back now let's go explore the st louis place neighborhood
with local historian nathan jackson we'll see you next time on this house