heartland birmingham michiganGeorgian/Traditional Style

This conversation happened before the ambulance crew removed my dad from the stretcher and onto his new bed.

Me: Hey dad, did you see all those moldings under the portico and in the lobby?

Dad: What moldings?

Me: How could you not see that beautiful door surround, the eared architraves and the coffered ceiling? You were lying flat on your back and looking up the whole time!

And this from the man I inherited my love of architectural detail from. Sheesh!

When I first arrived under the glorious portico, I thought this was a former public structure of some sort, a historic sanitarium, perhaps.

Not so. It was built only about 42 years ago as a retirement home and aptly named the Georgian Bloomfield.

door trim

A proper Georgian style door surround.

Now this beautiful Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, building is the Heartland Health Care Center, an in-patient physical therapy center that now has the unenviable task of helping dad regain his strength after a long stay in the hospital.

Again

michigan custom moldings

So now you know why I haven’t published anything here on The Joy of Moldings for over a month.

window trim

The pediment, entablature and corbels are painted green. The window casing is painted white.

window trim architectural moldings

An eared architrave. You know how I love eared architraves!

It also explains why — if you’ve emailed me in the last month or so — I haven’t replied to you yet. I haven’t even looked at my email in-box since the ambulance came to cart dad away to the emergency room over a month ago.

And there is still more to do.

molding & millwork

Ionic columns supporting the portico architrave.

For instance, I’m currently building a wheelchair ramp off the back of the house. I’ve never built a deck before, let alone a wheelchair ramp, so progress is slow.

But dad’s coming home Saturday, and with his return my schedule will be freed up to start posting again since it won’t include those daily trips to the hospital to give my dad a hard time during his recovery.

Until then.

Cheers, Ken

Georgian Bloomfield