Post card of my house (on the right) and rental property (house
in middle) circa 1902-1907.
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Hi, my name is Scott Ekleberry from Upper Sandusky, Ohio! If you are wondering where Upper Sandusky is, we are at the cross-roads of US 30 and US 23 in North West Ohio. I was born here in Upper Sandusky on November 15, 1965 and graduated from Upper Sandusky High School. I attend church here in Upper Sandusky at Trinity Evangelical, and I'm a member of the local Elks and Wyandot Classics and Cruiser's Car Club. I hope you enjoy this page, if you do please let me know!
Scott
My Stats:
I am about 5' 8" tall and about 157 pounds. I have green eyes and very short brown hair. I don't smoke, and only drink socially.
Schooling:
I graduated from Upper Sandusky High School in 1984, and went to DeVry Technical Institute for a year after graduation studying electronics. I am going back to school in the spring of 2007 to first get an Associates Degree in Business Management/Human Resources, and then continue on to get a four-year degree in Business Management or Business Administration.
My Work:
I work for the Timken company in Bucyrus, Ohio (since 1988) and run my own part-time business as a watchmaker from my house.
My Hobbies:
Car shows/cruise-in's, photography, postcard collecting, antique shows, flea markets, auctions, sporting events, working on my house, restoring my 1969 Mach 1 Mustang ( Click here to see my Mach 1 page ).
I am very active in our local car club and try to go to at least one car show or cruise-in a weekend during the spring, summer, and fall months. While getting trophies is nice, I mainly attend car shows that raise money for charity or a good cause. From 2001-2006 our local car club has raised nearly $100,000 for charity.
Memberships:
Wyandot Classics & Cruisers, Goodguys Rod & Custom Association, Mustang Club Of Ohio, Elks BPOE # 83, Trinity Evangelical Church.
Wyandot Classics and CruisersSports I Enjoy Watching:
NASCAR, INDY cars, Formula One, football (I'm a Dolphins fan :), baseball, soccer, hockey, pretty much any sport that has some action in it.
Sports I Participate in:
Weight lifting, bicycling, martial arts from time to time.
Travel:
I haven't had the opportunity to travel much, but if I were ever to get married I would like to. It's not much fun when you are just by yourself with no one to share it with.
Music and Art:
Music I'll listen to: Just about anything except "rap" (if I have to I will listen to it, just don't care for it too much).
Favorite modern artists: Creed, Live, Lifehouse, Cheryl Crow, Linkin Park, Lone Star, Faith Hill, Green Day, Lone Star
Favorite song of all time: "Imagine" by John Lennon
Favorite folk artists: Jim Croce, Simon and Garfunkle
Favorite love song of all time: "Time In a Bottle" By Jim Croce
I like "coffee house" music, and would like to go to those kind of concerts, more intimate I think. I think I would also like to go to comedy clubs. I like art, and would really like to visit nice art galleries if I had the chance.
Literature:
Favorite book of all time: Pride and Prejudice
Favorite poem of all time:
"When you are old"
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
--W. B. Yeats
Favorite quotes of all time:
"Many times I have been driven upon my knees by the firm conviction that had nowhere else to turn."
Abraham Lincoln
"Some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream things that never were and ask why not?"
Robert F. Kennedy
Politics and view on social and family issues:
I lean toward the conservative side in family values, I do not believe in cheating, lying, or divorce except under extreme circumstances. When I get married, I plan to only do it once. I really do not believe in "spoiling" kids, but then we probably all start out that way, lol. I do think children need discipline to grow up to be good productive adults (I had my butt beat more than once and I didn't turn out to be a serial killer, etc.). I do believe a marriage is not going to work unless it is based on faith and love; it takes more than just attraction to keep two people together. I would never ask my partner to do something for me that I would not do for them. I also realize that when you do something for someone you should not expect something in return, do it because you love and care for them. I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic at heart, but I think there is someone for everyone, even if it takes a while to find "them". I hope in the end I meet a woman who will value me for myself and the husband and father I know I can be.
I guess I am pretty "middle of the road" on political issues. I do believe people should work for what they get and not just get handouts. I also feel sad that we seem to now live in a "disposable" society, which unfortunately seems to include relationships; people just do not seem willing to work out their differences anymore. I believe in many things, but foremost is that our planet must eventually come together if it is to survive. There are too many petty wars and hate crimes in the world today, think of how much more we could accomplish if we all worked together!
“Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, chose this day whom you will serve …”(Joshua 24:15)
Here are some pictures of my family and my house I have been working on since 1996:
Post card of my house (on the right) and rental property (house
in middle) circa 1902-1907.
My dad, up in the attic when we were working on the attic facade.
That's me, holding on for dear life through the attic window, nearly 40 feet off
the ground!!!
My mom, painting on the porch.
My dog
Duke. Think he'll scare the burglars away?
My
cat Chessie on her favorite toy, a step ladder believe it or not!
A couple of pictures of the outside of my house before work began. Pigeons and
other animals were living in both the attics!!!
Relaying of the chimneys. Work was handled by Randy George of George Masonry.
Chimneys cost nearly 1/5 the purchase price of the house to rebuild!!!
Work on the roof and the finished product. Roof construction took over two
weeks with five guys working most days. Everything from the sheeting up had to
be replaced, including many of the rafter ends. Roof pattern was laid out on my
computer shingle by shingle to create the design. R. J. Construction did the
roofing job.
Installing the new
heating system in the bottom of the house. I still need to put a furnace in the
attic, one furnace can't heat the whole house! Mullen Environmental handled the
heating/air conditioning job. Everything, including all the ductwork had to be
replaced.
Rebuilding of the
porch roof and it's built-in gutters. Work on the porch has spanned seven years
and cost more than I paid for the house in the beginning!!! R. J. Construction
also handled the porch reconstruction. The columns, railings, and floors
were redone by my dad and I. Basically the entire South-West side of the porch
had to be replaced.
Attic facade before and after restoration. After working two
months, nearly 40 feet off the ground, it cured me of my fear of heights!!!
View
of the front foyer ceiling. The ceiling is a wainscot type and all the posts
from the upper floor extend down to make pendant drops at this side of the
ceiling. There were once beveled leaded glass windows all around the front door,
they were stolen when the house sat empty some time in the 1980's. Cost to
replace the windows is going to approach $10,000, which of course explains why I
haven't replaced them yet. Sorry this is not a better pic, but I had to scale
the pic so it wouldn't be too large for downloading.
This
is the front foyer looking in from the front door. The same style wainscot that
is on the foyer ceiling covers the back of the open staircase.
This
is a side view of the front staircase, the paneled theme continues on the side.
My dad refinished the staircase.
This
is the newel post at the bottom of the front stairs. Though it looks had carved
these posts were widely made in the late 19th and early 20th century on machines
made for just such work. Believe it or not these machines are still available
today.
This
is a view of the front parlor main doorway. The doorway and columns are 9 feet
tall. The columns are Corinthian and made of quarter-sawn oak as is all the
woodwork on the first floor of the house. All of the wood work, and much of the
house, was reworked when the 1902 remodel took place, there once was a fireplace
in the foyer where the staircase is now. The house and its decor is somewhat of
a "hodgepodge" of different styles, namely Mission Style (the
woodwork), Edwardian, Greek Revival, with some Queen Anne thrown in. Other
elements of the house (such as the original leaded glass windows) echo the Art
Nouveau style which was popular from 1890-1915. Early "Colonial
Revival" houses were nothing like what we know this style as today, they
borrowed on every style from 1800-1900, large verandahs and even turrets were
common, and it was also fashionable to incorporate bits from styles popular at
the time.
Mixing of styles was common for Victorian houses both in decor and furniture as the Victorians were "eclectic". This house was built in 1875 but remodeled in 1902, the year after Queen Victoria's death. At the time the house was remodeled styles in America and England were rapidly changing, and the decor of the house reflects that fact which makes it a time capsule of transitional architecture in early 20th century America.
This is a view of the front parlor bay window. The window is about 8 1/2 feet
tall. There is an identical window in the sitting room. These windows are not
original to the house but were added when it was remodeled in 1902. Like the
front door windows the beveled glass window that once was in the top center of
this bay was stolen when the house sat vacant some time in the 1980's.
This is a view of one corner of the front parlor floor. Each corner has a design
like this, and the "stripes" you see running off to the side extend
all the way around the room making the corner designs. The floor is quarter-sawn
oak and the design is mahogany inset in the oak providing a nice contrast.
Strangely enough, all the original hardwood floors on the first floor have
unfinished centers. This was often done to save money, the floor centers being
covered with oriental or Persian carpets anyway.
A couple of pictures of the newel post light I installed on
the staircase. Interestingly, they installed the light on the landing of the
stairs instead of the post at the bottom of the stairs as was customary. This is
not the original light, but a period correct replacement. The original light was
stolen along with the original light fixtures and windows.
This light is all electric just as the original light was.
A picture of the front foyer light I installed. This is not the
original light, but a period correct replacement. The original light was stolen
along with the original light fixtures and windows.
This light is all electric just as the original light was. The globe is a
period piece from around 1900, the fixture is a reproduction from Rejuvenation
Lighting.
This
is the fixture I bought and restored to hang in the sitting room. It is an all
brass "combination" electric-gas fixture and hangs a little higher at
six foot five inches than it would have originally (originally it would have
been about six feet off the floor so the socket switches could be easily
reached). I decided to install it a little higher than authentic because these
days people are taller than they were in 1900. These type of combination
fixtures were installed in the house in 1902 when it was wired for electricity.
When I bought the house there were only two (yes 2) wall light switches in the
whole house! This seems odd until you take in to account two facts; first is that in early
1900 most fixtures were turned on at the socket (a turn-key switch for each
bulb), and number two is that this house is nearly all solid brick. There is now
at least one wall switch in every room. This is no small feat considering 95% of
the walls are solid brick (if you want to know how you wire a solid brick house
e-mail me :). We were turned down by 2 electricians who refused to wire the
house because it is solid brick, so we finally just did it ourselves.
Electric-gas fixtures were an oddity that were only produced for about 20 years from 1895-1915 as early electrical service was quite unreliable, and gas was often needed as a back-up light source. The 2 arms that are lit in this photo are electric, the 2 that are not are gas. On this fixture the gas arms point down instead of up because it used "inverted gas burners" with mantles similar to what one would find in a Coleman lantern which put off more light than a gas burner alone. Believe it or not, the gas arms on this fixture were probably as bright, or brighter, than the electric arms when these fixtures were first produced. This is due to the fact that the bulbs back then were carbon filament, and a 60 watt carbon filament bulb is only as bright as a 20 watt modern tungsten bulb. Tungsten bulbs were not produced until 1911. This fixture is not original to the house, all the original fixtures were unfortunately stolen at the same time the windows were. I will post more pics of other fixtures as I finish and install them.
This
is a photo of ceiling in the "privy" area of the bathroom. It is a
stencil design from an 1890's stencil book. I scaled the design to fit the
little room. The center flower is real gold, and the outer two "dots"
are real silver. The gold and silver were applied by "gilding", a very
old process of transfer of gold and silver leaf to objects and surfaces.
This is the front door of the house from the outside. This
would have been the formal entrance reserved for guests only originally (there
is another front door off to the left at the back of the porch for everyday
use). The front door was in bad shape. We sanded and replaced some boards for
several weeks. We finished it in a "mahogany" type stain and everything got
three coats of marine varnish. The door way is all quarter-sawn oak. It was
originally built by a cabinet maker, his name and the date were written under
one of the boards.
My house, pretty much as it appears today.
Oh yes, to those that wonder, the house IS haunted by at least one or more "spirits". They seem to make their presence known most when a large project is under way or a lot of people are working on the house at one time. Personal experiences include non-existent people running up the front stairs, lights that turn off on their own, doors that open on their own, and seeing someone "watching" you out of the corner of your eye (they are gone when you turn around).
Treat me kindly, my beloved master, for no heart in all the world is more grateful for kindness than the loving heart of me.
Do not break my spirit with a stick, for though I should lick your hand between the blows, your patience and understanding will more quickly teach me the things you would have me do.
Speak to me often, for your voice is the world's sweetest music, as you must know by the fierce wagging of my tail when your footsteps falls upon my waiting ear.
When it is cold and wet, please take me inside, for I am now a domesticated animal, no longer used to bitter elements. And I ask no greater glory than the privilege of sitting at your feet beside the hearth. Though had you no home, I would rather follow you through ice and snow than rest upon the softest pillow in the warmest home in all the land, for you are my god and I am your devoted worshiper.
Keep my pan filled with fresh water, for although I should not reproach you were it dry, I cannot tell you when I suffer thirst. Feed me clean food, that I may stay well, to romp and play and do your bidding, to walk by your side, and stand ready, willing and able to protect you with my life should your life be in danger.
And, beloved master, should the great Master see fit to deprive me of my health, do not turn me away from you. Rather hold me gently in your arms as skilled hands grant me the merciful boon of eternal rest--and I will leave you knowing with the last breath I drew, my fate was ever safest in your hands.
I hope you have enjoyed this page, please let me know what you think! J
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