so we have the hopsbud, on all the posts going up the grand staircase. again this is a wonderful -- wonderful space that is open and bright and, and crowned by -- by stained glass skylight. and so this is all carved quarter-sawn oak. and this is such an extraordinary point to remind people. all this was put together in the course of two years. it is extraordinary to think of all of the craftsmen that worked on this house to accomplish all of that in such a short period of time. i always think looking at this magnificent stair hall that how could they have possibly built this house in just two years. in fact, captain pabst was frustrated it was taking so long. so it is hard to even think of the fact that it could have taken even less time to build this house than just two years. this little spot right here, is called the trumpet the trumpet while it's more or less an architecture device to break up the stair hall, this spot was used by the pabst family to keep a large chinese vase. in 1895 one of the grandsons was playing on the staircase right above us a