Here’s a fun one for a Friday: As an owner of an old house… did you take the tried and true advice to “listen to what your house says it wants” before making updates or remodels?
- If so: What did your house tell you — and how did that affect your plans?
- Flip side: Did you not take the time to listen to your house… and make a rash decision you later regretted?
It’s pretty clear what the fabulous evaxebra’s old apartment was telling her: Don’t you dare mess with the pink bathroom!
Shirley O'Brien says
Many years ago, my husband and I were rehabbing an 1890 Victorian. My husband wanted to take out two closets and a china cabinet that had been added to the house at a later period. I resisted. There are not many closets in a Victorian! I finally agreed to his plan.
I was positive that the house breathed a sigh of relief! I learned to listen after that.
Renee says
We just had our 1921 bungalow resided. It had its original cedar shake shingles that were crumbling off like potato chips from the UV exposure. The shingles also seasonally gave entry to carpenter bees, bats, woodpeckers, a full nest of wrens, carpenter ants, and a nest of snakes below the kitchen window. We accepted our house’s pets, got to see the baby birds leave the nests, captured and released the bats that flew through the bedrooms, but the final straw was my daughter seeing snakes crawling out of the house, about 6 feet above the ground. We knew we had to do a total tear off and rewrap and reshingle. I really wanted the house to keep its look, I really thought i heard it telling me to keep its aesthetic, “Shingle is who i am” I thought it was telling me. But then i decided to look IN the house, at the bones, beyond the facelift. Looking at my massive oak beams in the basement and maple and oak floors so aged and solid they seem to be petrified, I heard a different voice. My house simply said, “Protect me.” We reshingled with Hardie board cement lap siding and I swear my house stands taller.
Amy says
I love your philosophy and I would love your home. You can’t make a colonial out of a MCM and vice-versa. Let the home be what it is and someone will love it – and be glad they did ‘t have to spend serious $ un-doing trendy inappropriate renovation.
Alesia Rapkin says
We purchased my husband’s grandmother’s 1962 home in FL this past year. While we have been there over the years nothing had been updated since 1970! We were fortunate to get many pieces of the furniture with the purchase. Kidney tables, tangerine day bed, mustard yellow vinyl swivel chairs, some walnut pieces, Formica dining set and lots of wallpaper. I am working on it now (my husband hasn’t seen it and won’t until I am done in about a month-very brave man!). Had terrazzo refinished, had furniture recovered in exactly the same colors, managed to save one wallpaper, replacing one with stencil, found a York retro paper for kitchen so we listened and our little Hippie Haven is going to be super cool!
Elaine says
I love this, that is just about what happened with our 1963 Florida ranch. We still have the original furniture holding up just beautifully as well. That 60s stuff wears like iron!
Amanda says
I’m glad I took time to “listen” to my 1968 MCM split level before I made any changes. When I first moved into my home over 5 years ago, I had dreams of removing the walnut paneling and white linoleum tile in the downstairs family room. But now I’m glad I never got around to that. I now love the paneling and the white tile helps brighten up the room
I also had dreams of tearing down at least 70% of the 40+ trees on our property. But now I love them, because they are a great natural habitat for native insects, birds, and animals.
To be fair though, any home projects have been things that were less cosmetics such as new sewer pipes, landscaping after said sewer pipe disaster, roof repairs, new doors after a break-in. It has allowed me to appreciate MCM design better though vs. the initial desire to Dwell-ify my home.
Ree says
I moved into my current house in 2003. It was built in 1955 in the style of a California contemporary (sort or), and had been badly remodeled several by previous different owners, so there was very little mid-50’s character left. The first thing I wanted to do was remodel and update the kitchen, but unforeseen hidden defects appeared, and the kitchen remodel took a backseat to fixing more important things like a roof, HVAC, water heater, etc. Along the way I managed to accomplish some cosmetic fixes as I could afford them. Then I found this website and I became interested in trying to return some of the mid-50’s contemporary character that had been removed years ago. I’m so glad I did not undertake the kitchen remodel when I first moved in because it was nothing like what I want now. In fact, I’ve changed my mind 3 times in 13 years as to what it should be. Now that I know exactly what will be in keeping with the style of the house and what will make me happy, I can’t wait to get started on the project this fall. I have all of the materials, colors and finishes on a design board and it’s so right for this house.
Barb says
We bought our 1961 brick basement rambler just over 4 years ago from the widow of the builder. She’d lived there since it was built. Unfortunately, maintenance wasn’t a priority, so our focus has been fixing, mostly The house needed a new door, so a new 3 window front door from Frank Lumber was installed. Expensive, but wonderful The kitchen needed a butcher block island cart, so my brother-in-law is building one using the birch plywood, matching stains, and end grain top (to reflect the brown mosaic floor) That same brother-in-law will be turning the old fridge space into a microwave/cabinet space for us when the island is done. We’ll be putting in caramel boomerang (my walls are aqua) counter tops sooner or later – the original sparkle laminates are usable, but in poor shape. We did put in brown glass random mosaic back splash. Why? It seemed like something that belonged there … the colors and sparkle worked with the mosaic brown tile floor, the copper hardware & fixtures. You know how it is when you find something right when you see it and you feel an easing of a tension you didn’t know you had? So houses don’t always want pure vintage, I guess.
Tina says
Our home is an old tuck boat from 1939 who had been in service until we got her 1½ years ago.
We are going really slow and listening to her all the way. Preserving the old and paying respect to what she is.
And have given up on a thing or two because she said no…
Mary Elizabeth says
Yay! Pam, is this the first mid-century tug boat/house boat you’ve had on the site?
Tina, is this boat on land or at a dock? Can’t wait to see what you do, especially to the galley.
Mary Elizabeth says
“I can now get a breeze from [the window] at the sink & flutters the curtains, which I love.”
These are the kinds of things people expected from their homes in the midcentury–a breeze through the kitchen window. The airflow though a house was carefully designed. Greenhouse windows are nice enough, but not when they cut off the air flow in your house.
Melanie says
When we moved into our 1962 townhouse I really wanted to gut the original master bath. I found Retrorenovation within months of moving in and I was leaning towards a pink bathroom. I did a lot of online shopping for tile and laminate patterns and the new bathroom I settled on was the bathroom that I currently had. I realized what the bathroom really needed was a linen laminate vanity with coordinating mosaic tile on the floor. I bought a new shower curtain and coordinating towels and called it a day. I need to have the tub refinished and it needs to be re-caulked, but that’s it.
Living with the bathroom for a few years saved us thousands of dollars in unnecessary renovations.