it had been built in 1889 by carla 's grandfather , tobias downes , and it had ascended to family heirloom status almost immediately , shifting down through the years , carefully packed and insured for moves from one part of the country to another ( it had originally come into being in the buffalo , new york , workshop of tobias , a place which had undoubtedly been every bit as smoky and nasty as peter 's workshop , although such a comment would have struck carla as completely irrelevant ) , sometimes shifting from one section of the family to another when cancer , heart attack , or accident pinched off some branch of the family tree .