One of our best stories yet! Christopher and Francisco send this wonderful email and photos:Pam,I have enjoyed your blog for so long. It is an endless source of inspiration in the restoration of our Philadelphia row home. Soon after we moved in, we met our neighbor Nora, an 89 year old widow with a passion for clothes, make-up, and MCM. Her home is immaculate. The kitchen, probably remodeled in the 60′s, has beautiful pink formica counters, wood cabinets, a Caloric wall oven, and a secret wall compartment for the paper towels.
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Nora’s favorite color is pink and her husband’s was blue. He remodeled a former bedroom into a large master bath using both colors. Nora is one of thirteen children. She grew up in the three bedroom house across the street. “The bathroom was the size of a phone booth,” Nora always says. Her husband Pete made sure she had the bathroom of her dreams..
We have many more pictures of Nora’s home and our own remodel. I look forward to sharing these with you. We love our pink bathroom and our retro kitchen. We are currently refinishing a set of metal Geneva wall cabinets and putting a new shine on our light blue 1950′s VCT floor tile. It is a pleasure to share this with you. Thank you so much.- Christopher and Francisco
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Thank YOU, Christopher & Francisco. I can’t even express how happy this story makes me. One of the things I love the best THE best THE BEST about our mid century homes is the fact that their original owners are still around to tell us their stories … and to share with us their immense gratitude at having these homes — even the smallest among them. Tell Nora, thank you so much for sharing her story with us! And my GOSH, she looks fantastic. See how that pink bounces off your skin and makes you all glowy? Or — in this case — I think the glow is coming from the inside. 
Wow! Nora is a treasure! What a sweetheart her husband was to her! I loooove the house! It’s immaculate; looks like a show place, only she actually lives there! Great pics, wonderful detail. Gotta have one of those hide away paper towel holders!! Awesome!!
I just love Romance!
Oh my! That Caloric wall oven is dreamy!
Cute! Reminds me a lot of my house. She has the same kitchen cabs that I do, but mine have been painted.
Love her oven!!!! And that cool flip-down paper towel holder is awesome!
Absolutely, charming. And I love that hideaway paper towel holder!
I absolutely love it!
I love it!!!!
Love her home and that paper towel holder/hider is so cool. If only new homes had cool things like that!
She looks great doesn’t she? Great cheek bones!
I want her as my grandma and go eat cookies at her wonderful home
What a wonderful story. She looks so happy, I am going to be smiling all day thinking about her and her lovely home. It is wonderful for her to have people who appreciate her style as neighbors.
I want that paper towel holder!
I love her! And her home! Both lovely in every way.
How delightful! What a wonderful neighbor Nora must be.
That oven is making me swoon…okay so her entire house is….but–that oven!
What a cute little lady!
I love the canisters too
Wow! 89 and still glamorous and beautiful! Love the house, too.
We had a pick kitchen growing up, with pink appliances, including cabinet fridge/freezer set ups.
I adore the metal canisters! We had the cups and tumblers in pastel metal but oh, my, sigh oh sigh: LOVE them.
And, pink is a nice color with brown, as is turquoise….so brown appliances are not a disaster as so many think…..
Nora is so lovely. Vintage Lady/Vintage House: Nora, I want to be YOU!!!!
PINK PINK PINK kitch….I need new specs and I might get some from here:
http://www.warbyparker.com/womens-eyewear-fillmore-eyeglass-frame-dark-tortoise?sc=7
Very cool retro frames and at 99 complete. AND, if you buy a pair, they donate a pair to needy poorly-sighted people.
God Bless Nora and her beautiful home! I look forward to more pix of her home and of Christopher and Francisco’s remodeled home. I looove the pink and blue bathroom and the pink kitchen. I’m planning to use a lot of pink to decorate my new apartment to go with my pink 60′s sofa! Just a matter of picking the accent color! LOL!
I think the pink/blue formica with gold flecks is probably my favorite thing about this house. Well, and the telephone in the bathroom, too! Thanks for sharing Nora and her home with us.
This story made me smile. Although I am actually not this woman’s age, my project has made me feel such a connect to this generation, that to know a woman from that time has kept her home in that style just feels so good. Thank you for this, it has made my day. To feel the aesthetics from this generation are finally receiving credit for their wonderful combination of form following function, is great
What a darling woman and I adore those cabinets in wood. And that her gold flecked counter tops are also in pink, just lovely. And I am rather envious of her spare room convert to a bathroom. I love pale blue and pink and wondered what the combo in a bath would look like. To see someone of that era did so and with such a great result makes me want to give it a try myself. I wonder what the original shower curtain fabric was like, I wonder if she has any photos of it?
Thank you again.
What a wonderful, wonderful home! How nice of you Norma to share it with us, you give us all motivation, inspiration & appreciation for this wonderfulk period that these homes were built in. You have exquisite taste & what ever you are eating or how you have lived, keep it up!!!!
Thanks again!
She looks fantastic and her house is amazing. I live in Philly, too, and am so excited to see people appreciating these beautiful vintage styles and colors. It’s such a shame when it all gets torn out and replaced with boring sheetrock and home depot junk. Go Christopher & Francisco, and go Nora!
So many wonderful details in Nora’s home. My favorite might be the lighted medicine cabinet. Thanks to all involved in sharing the details on this delightful owner and her delightful house.
Beautiful home…and owner! Thanks for sharing.
I love pink, too. Although, I don’t have a pink tile bathroom (envious) I have to have the color somewhere in my home – luckily, hubby doesn’t object to pink walls in master bdrm. Very neat of Christopher and Francisco and Nora to share the MCM love…and, Nora looks fab, too!
Ya know, several years ago I had a really cool dream…one of those dreams that just come out of nowhere and so vivid…I was in Sally Rogers apartment — the character from the 60s Dick Van Dyke show — but, this apartment was so much better than the t.v. one. All pink, pastel, soft and fluffy and bachelor girl decor and totally the 50s early 60s era…and the bathroom was the best part. Man, I wish I could get that dream back again. lol. I wonder if that is what triggered my collecting items that would fit perfectly?
Oh, Nora! Please adopt me. I promise to be good!!
Those copper or rose gold canisters (hard to tell the actual color with so much pink reflecting off of them:) are @$%&ing amazing. And yeah, that oven is totally cool. The little hexagon shapes are so period perfect. Anybody else notice a similar design in the hotel room Don and his kids stayed in in the last Mad Men of the season? I’d kill for that room.
I must preface this by first saying I cherish my family…
But if she needs any more children/grandchildren, I’d be happy to step up. Too much fun in one kitchen!
That is truly a vintage kitchen! Although I have to say, I’m not crazy about pink. My kitchen would be turquoise & yellow. The canister set is too cool. I remember those. Everybody had one, just like the crouching black panther. Now the salmon & turquoise bathroom is absolutely HOT!
That Caloric Range is the same one that was in the Petrie Kitchen on the Dick van Dyke Show…..by I love that kitchen and bath just gorgeous…..if they look that good what does the rest of the house look like?
I want to look exactly like Nora when I grow up. She’s radiant! Probably because she has such awesome taste…
I remember those copper canisters very well.
My parents got a set of those as a wedding present in 1955. They were Ecko if memory serves.
I can almost hear Rosemary Clooney singing “Come On A My House” on a pink Eames style table radio when I see those pics.
Marvellous!
The canisters are West Bend anodized aluminum. I have the complete set, including the VHTF grease strainer/keeper. Even my flour feels sassy in pink aluminum.
My grandma had a kitchen just like this!!! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
What a fun house. Love the bathroom and the kitchen. Wish we could find a red countertop material like your pink one. Thanks for sharing.
Aunt Nora is my great-aunt on my father’s side. She and all my paternal aunts and uncles were born in the house across the street (yes, all 13 born in the house, -my great grand-mother was never in a hospital!). Aunt Nora and Uncle Pete never had children. As such, they were second parents to my brother Derek and I. I spent many days growing up on their street bouncing back and forth between their’s and my grandmother’s house. I have crystal clear memories of being potty trained on the toilet in the large marvelous bathroom! -Did I mention I’m almost 40 and a doctor? Memories of this house are humbling reminders of the seeds of my personality. My best traits grew out of this magical home and the unconditional love of my dear Uncle Pete and Aunt Nora. I think of my life as a child in that home and I suddenly feel the simple heart warming beauty of the colors, sunlight, smells, and soft comfort swarming within those walls. Thank you Christopher & Francisco.
My parents had a house built in 1963 and it had the exact same wall over, and probably the same cooktop too. Great to see it here!
We had the same exact chocolate brown Caloric Observador in wall oven in our South Philadelphia row home. It was well worn when we bought our house, and it bit the dust a few years ago. I was forced to replace it with a much less spectacular model.
If you NEED the canisters, I have some in my shop.
It looks like Nora would be a really neat neighbor! I love how she lived in a 3-bedroom with 13 siblings. Now everyone thinks each kid needs his own room. Ridiculous.
What a adorable nice lady!
Now those are kitchen counters of my dreams! Can someone please get Formica to start selling them again? I bet they would be surprised at the number of sales, especially if they advertised a new MCM line! Thanks for posting : )
What a sweet lady – she looks great for her age, too! LOVE her house. I have those canisters and the matching salt & pepper set and a matching spice rack, but I have to admit they look so much cuter in her pink kitchen.
Nora is fabulous as is her finely appointed home, what a great story! Like other readers I’m really digging that hidden paper towel holder, the entire picture spread is fantastic!
Hi, I love Nora’s pink Kitchen and bathroom! I am trying to bring some retro looks into my house. If I wait a few more years it will be retro! I would love to see more of Nora’s house!! She is looks so good!! I want some pink in my house now. Thanks for this wonderful website!!
I soooo love this story, and pictures. I live in a suburb outside of Philly and wish I knew this lovely gem of a woman. I would love to go inside and share nice cup of Lady Grey Tea with her, and of course go on a house tour. I would love to meet Francisco and Christopher and see what they have done , and are remodeling. Take good care of this lovely woman. I really enjoyed these pics. Jsteen
OMG!!! My mother had the very same kitchen canisters! She would constantly complain about bugs getting into her flour! Wow, what a trip! LOVE this stuff!!