Comments on: Jake & Barclay’s 1943 kitchen gets a retro update

By: VacationBarbie

VacationBarbie — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:25:51 +0000

This kitchen has inspired me! I now know exactly what I am going to ‘do’ with mine. I had my heart set on some Bradbury post-war wallpaper, but now I’m going to go in a completely different direction. I just found an Armstrong vinyl lino yesterday that will work perfectly with my ‘new’ idea. My problem was the pale yellow and aqua tile on my countertops. I love it, but finding something that ‘goes’ with it vs. ‘matching’ was the problem, but seeing this kitchen solved the problem for me.

By: Barclay

Barclay — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:45:19 +0000

Hey Pam!

Thanks so much for featuring our kitchen re-do and our humble war-time house. Getting on the Retro Renovation blog is truly the 21st century equivalent of getting one’s home featured in Sunset Magazine.

It’s so true that war-time housing was basic; in our Richmond neighborhood it’s unusual for most of the mid-forties houses to have any hall closets (coat or linen closets) and it’s even more unusual to have any basement storage (we lucked out in that we have both). The result is that these small houses have very little storage room. They are thoroughly modern, however, in that they have integrated “armoured” wiring and garages (1-car of course)!

The next project that we’ll blog about soon is way more ambitious than the kitchen re-do, so visit us again soon. And thanks for you and all your readers’ blogs on all things mid-century. When we first moved in to this house, there were virtually no online resources on mid-century or any home design styles, but since the renaissance of retro renovation and other blogs, we’re constantly inspired (and thus re-doing rooms we thought were finished!)

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:45:39 +0000

I had a 1941 home for ten years in Richmond from 1993 through 2003. It was built during the period July 1941 through January 1942 for $3,500, as I recall, as a 864 sq. ft. 2 bedroom 1 bath home on a 50′ by 100’ lot. The City of Oakland, California coined the term “Wartime Tract” home and published a book on California architecture in which these homes were discussed. My people, as did I, believe that Richmond was largely “built out” to meet the population explosion brought about by the wartime economy in the immediate period prior to and after America becoming involved in WWII. However, many homes in my former Richmond neighborhood were actually built after the war in the 1946 though 1949 time frame with the lots originally surveyed for Victorians in 1911. These lots were to be sold then in 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 lot sizes. That is to say you could buy 1 lot @ 25’ x 100’, 1.5 lots @ 37.5’x 100’ or 2.0 lots @ 50’ x 100’. To my knowledge most of these lots remained vacant from 1911 until during and after World War Two. It is possible to find many street blocks in Richmond where there maybe one or two, but no more than a handful of homes built in the 1920s and / or very early 1930s and the remaining ten to twenty homes where built during or after World War II.

By: Juju

Juju — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:42:22 +0000

That is one lovely kitchen!

By: MrsErinD

MrsErinD — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:38:02 +0000

Oh what an adorable doggie! :O)

Cute kitchen! I love the pistachio color with the black and white so much!