Welcome to 1407 Chase, also know as the Square House, which was purchased in February 2014. I restored, renovated, revitalized and, ultimately, put it back on the market. What started as a simply re-do ended up being so much more…  Having recently completed the Circle House, I couldn’t help but to inject my recently reawakened interest of marrying my art with my professional building career. Along the way, it only felt natural to reach out to some of the best contemporary artists in Cincinnati to make/include art working around the theme of the square. Most of the artwork stayed with the house when the new owners, Aaron Shield and Reginald Harris, bought the house in July 2015.

Me: a big hair morning!

I barely heated the place

The characters involved? I, Mark deJong, am the builder that ran the show. Now living in the nearby neighborhood of Camp Washington, but having lived in Northside before, I was happy to be back! Danny Hitchcock, a raised-in Northside native, assisted me in the first month, helping with the demo and re-roping the existing windows. Aaron Berding joined in periodically and thanks to him, got the blog up and running!  As work progressed, the stellar sub-contractor crew got introduced throughout my posts. The work wrapped up in August 2014, followed by a lovely celebration party… the house was packed!