When TechStar built the condo complex on the site of the Rimbauer estate, they used some architectural elements salvaged from Rose Red itself. Steve was totally unaware of this fact.

He knew that items had been salvaged from the house (whatever wasn’t damaged by Annie’s falling stones) and either sold at auction or donated to museums/libraries. That’s how the famous portrait of Ellen from the grand hall ended up at the Winslow Library. But he didn’t oversee the process personally; he had a team of estate specialists who tagged, bagged, and distributed every last piece of property that they could extract from the mansion.

Luckily, none of the workers on the salvage or deconstruction crew were harmed or disappeared in the process…

What Steve didn’t know was that as they were in the process of breaking down the exterior, they salvaged some of the architectural elements and raw wood from the interior. This is mostly a lovely cherry wood used throughout the house. When TechStar planned their condos, they knew there’d be immediate appeal for Rose Red enthusiasts to live on the site…especially after Joyce’s Memorial Day expedition. So they took the best of the wood from places that were relatively unharmed by the rocks, like the Perspective Hallway, polished and made it pretty, and fitted it into four Rose Suites. (Named “Rose Suite” because they contain salvaged elements from Rose Red.)

I have photos from a local design magazine article to share in another gallery, that show the salvaged elements in storage and various stages of restoration.

Steve was quite upset when I told him, though I don’t know if he was more upset about TechStar using parts of the house in their condo or me moving into one of the condos with said parts. Either way he had no leg to stand on. He sold the property to TechStar; Rose Red technically became their property, too. He only had rights to the personal belongings in the house, not the architecture of the house itself.

But since Steve hasn’t been to my condo, and seems to have no plans to do so (especially knowing the house lives on, in small part, in my abode), it doesn’t really affect him. It was important to me to have something of the old place to cling to, something that might give me a vibe or sensation of Rose Red, and by association, of Nick and the others that were lost in the house.

Plus…it’s really quite pretty! I’ve taken some photos from around my condo to share with you. I apologize that some of them aren’t great quality. They were taken at different times of day in rooms with varied lighting. But I think you’ll get the idea.

Above: the entrance to my suite. Note the cherry wainscoting - this is salvaged wood from the Perspective Hallway that has been cleaned up and fitted into the panel shown here. You can see in the mirror a reflection of my alarm system. Coming in from a narrow hall where the main door is, you are in a den, which is where I was standing when I took this photo. The open doorway leads to the kitchen, countertop you can just see here. The room that leads off the kitchen is closet space they intended to be used as a pantry. However, I’ve never really been the pantry type. Nick and I shop for what we need as we need it and don’t keep much in storage. Or I should say we used to when he was here. I’ve just carried on the habit. So I’ve converted that pantry area into a storage closet for neatly-organized shelves filled with Nick’s magazines, books, boxes of photographs, etc.

Above: the den, again. This is a side view of the den, showing more of the cherry wainscoting from the Perspective Hallway wood salvage. Obviously this is significant to me in that Nick disappeared in the Perspective Hallway. I spend a lot of time in the den… That, plus they’ve put ever so nice carpet in that room, whereas the kitchen and bathrooms are tiled, and the bedrooms have hardwood flooring.

The Rose Suite consists of the hallway, den, kitchen, adjacent dining room, 2 and a half baths, several closets, a master bedroom, an office, and a guest bedroom.

Above: my office. The entire thing is paneled in cherry wood. Not all this wood came from the Perspective Hallway. I spoke at length with the designer of the Rose Suites and was able to determine that the cherry wood in the den is from the Perspective Hallway. The paneling in the office is pieced together from wood panels salvaged from a Gentleman’s Parlour and the Billiards Room. While I know nothing much about John’s private rooms (such as the gentleman’s parlour), I know there is tremendous history to the Billiards Room, especially in the Memorial Day expedition. I have populated this office now with a comfortable reading space, desk, filing cabinets, all-in-one and a computer, etc. It’s my home office, truly.

Above: the fireplace in my bedroom (the master bedroom). It is on the wall opposite my bed. This shows the sort of soft olive color of the bedroom wall better than the lighting of the bedroom photo I’m about to show you. But the fireplace is, of course, the point of this photo. It’s a gas fireplace, so no worries of burning anything down, in theory. (It doesn’t burn wood, in other words; it just looks like it does.) The mantel around it was salvaged from a bedroom in Rose Red, then meticulously restored. Looking at that piece alone makes me realize how totally worth it the condo’s price tag was. The stuff on top is my decor (I’m not crazy about it, but friends and family have been adding elements they think look good). But the fireplace itself is 100% authentic Rose Red fixture (fitted for a gas fire when installed in the condo). I like to imagine it came from the bedroom where Nick spent Friday night, but I have no way of knowing. We were unable to track it down.

Above: the master bedroom. Softer light, so you lose some of the pretty wall color (which I chose because I knew it was something Nick would like, too). But as you can see, they’ve carried on with the white baseboard motif, and expanded the white moulding concept to create a fantastic stylized ceiling. I’m not that into architecture so I’m not sure…would you call that lofted? At any rate, it’s tall and lovely, makes the room seem very open and bright.

The light hardwood and the warm walls contrasted with the salvaged cherry fireplace and my cherry wood furniture and bedposts just scream “this is home” to me. I felt comfortable the moment I saw it, even before I’d put in furniture and accents. But now, looking at my bed this way (made up more nicely than it is on a day to day basis, trust me)…with my photo of Nick on the bedside table and my black and white detail of a larger photo of Rose Red (in its early years, during winter) framed over my bed…I know it is the perfect place for me to be. And gazing outside the windows one gets a beautiful view of the roses and garden.

Above: a salvaged doorknob from somewhere in the house. Steve would probably be better able to identify just where, but he won’t come to visit my condo, and probably doesn’t want to look through my photos either (in fact, he reads this site, and I’d bet money he skipped over this page entirely). My guess is that this was a doorknob to a bathroom or one of the servant’s bedrooms. It’s quite simple, yet the keyhole (which is not in use in my door) tells us it was once used in a room requiring privacy. My theory is that the important rooms would have had more ornate door knobs. So this had to come from a commonplace room that required locking. A closet is another possibility, since some of Ellen’s closets containing her more valuable clothing and accessories did have a lock. The knob is on one of my closet doors…no lock necessary.

Above: a bit of spooky for you! You knew it was only a matter of time before the strange photos began appearing on this site. This is the guest bedroom, which is quite small but comfy. You’ll note the wall color and white baseboard moulding with light hardwood floor from the master bedroom is echoed here. What else will you notice? Hmm, could it be that ghostly figure of a woman?

I’ve highlighted it, and I have no idea what it is. When it appeared in the photo it looked like a dress to me, and it’s not my shadow…not any shadow I could recreate. I have no idea who it is. Someone suggested April, since she was seen usually wearing dark dresses. But Nick always told me not to let perspective (size and spatial relations) trip me up when looking at ghost photos. Sometimes gigantic people look tiny because that’s how they manifest, that’s all they can manage. Just because the bed can be used as a frame of reference for our height doesn’t mean it necessarily applies to the figure in this photo. Is it too tall to be April? Who knows. There are a lot of women who went missing in Rose Red who would have worn period dress matching the silhouette shown here.

Assuming, of course, this is a spectral image and not just a play of light and shadow. Anything’s possible. But odd things on the Rose Red property are hardly unheard of……

So having seen that, who’s keen to come stay the night in my guest room?

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