Where has Karmi been all these many months? Well, I know. I hear from her via email now and then…she’s been lurking, she tells me. And — she’s a-workin’ on her kitchen. Then, there’s that thing called “life” and “work” going on, too. She wrote me the other day. Says the kitchen is almost done. The main countertop had to go back for rework (oh, we know these things happen…) but this piece fit.  Enjoy this little slice of her aqua and pink kitchen. The whole kit and kaboodle to come soon.

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Reader Averyl is a new owner of a mid-century home. She recently wrote to share how she had researched — then met – the home’s original owners. I asked her to tell us more… Read on for Averyl’s wonderful story.

She writes:

I’ve always dreamed of living in a mid-century ranch house like my grandmother’s where I spent many happy days as a young child, eating lunch at her chrome dinette set, admiring her figurines in her curio cabinet, watching “I Love Lucy” on her large TV with rabbit ears or looking out of her large multi-pane window onto the tree lined suburban street of Fort Lee, New Jersey in the late 1960’s.

Two months ago I bought my dream ranch house in Maine after years of looking. As soon as I walked inside the house I knew right away it would be my home. There had only been a few cosmetic updates and they were compatible with mid-century décor; no one tried to make the house look 2009. I looked outside the large multi-pane living room window and wondered about who had lived there before the seller from whom I would purchase the house. I knew she had been there fifteen years, but what about the original owners? There was an indescribably good energy to whole house. Almost like an episode of “The Twilight Zone” I felt transported back in time and I could almost see and hear “Leave it to Beaver” showing on a black and white television set as a mother cooked in the kitchen wearing an apron and her kids played in the front yard. I decided I wanted to look up the people who had lived there to see if I could tap into some of the history of the house and thank them for taking such good care of it.

After we moved in I called the town office where public records of ownership are maintained, and it turned out that the original owners lived in the house for over forty years! I really wanted to meet them, but I hesitated; what would they think? Would I sound like a nut? To some people a house is just that but to me it’s a home filled with history and stories. I figured, what did I have to lose other than a pretty daydream?

I looked them up and saw they were still living in my town. I introduced myself via email and invited them over to see their house (I didn’t call it “my” house). They were very receptive and offered to bring old photos- bonus!

When they arrived the following Saturday morning we walked around the grounds and they told us about the old neighborhood and people in it. Inside we walked from room to room, and I asked them what was original and what had been replaced. I heard many stories and they said my television is in the same spot where they had theirs and that they indeed watched the first runs of “Leave it to Beaver” and “I Love Lucy.”

The best part of the visit was when we all sat down at my chrome dinette set in the kitchen with the large stack of photo albums they had brought over. I saw pictures of my house being built, family pictures taken inside the house throughout the years, bridge games played in my living room and my favorite, Christmastime.

Although only 1,200 square feet they raised two children in the house, and judging from the excellent condition inside, they were very well behaved. We talked about the changes in ways people are able to finance homes now as compared to then and how a bigger house has somehow come to equate “better.” A smaller house is now usually perceived only as a starting point.

I explained: “I plan to live in this house a very long time, yet people often refer to it as a ‘starter home.’”

“This was our starter home for forty-two years,” the former Lady of the House replied.

I learned about some of the local business history and even saw a picture of the businessman whose name is on the thermometer outside my door. It seemed that back then everything was locally owned and you could shake hands (or even go bowling) with the person whose name was on the shop.

After a lovely two hour visit they needed to get going and they were kind enough to let me scan some of the photos. I plan to have them over for my Christmas party so they can see the house with my 1950’s Christmas decorations.

“We approve,” they said as they left. I do, too.

Copyright Averyl Hill, All Rights Reserved. www.averyl.com

Thank you, Averyl! Averyl also has a blog: The Way Life Used to Be. And more photos of her home in her photosets on Flickr. Check them out.

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A READER BLITZ continues – I only have about 50 more to go. Today, one of the wildest vintage kitchens that I have ever seen. Yes: All of those 8″x8″ plastic tiles are original. Kurt explains: .

I have a 1952 kitchen that I’ve restored.  The walls and ceiling are covered with 8″x8″ silver pearlescent Tilemaster tiles.  It’s a mind blower. I inspect houses for a living (10,000 and counting…), and I’ve never seen anything like it. When I bought the place, I had originally planned to gut the kitchen, but once in, I became entranced with the stuff.  It’s magical………I bought the house from the home’s (built in 1922), second owner, who remodeled the kitchen in 1952.  The tile is held in place by the old crappy tile setting adhesive they used then; periodically, tiles will come loose, and I resecure them with modern adhesives. I put the cabinets in, and moved some of the tile around to fill in holes left from removing some stuff so I could fit in a real refrigerator.  I worked pretty hard to keep the flavor of the original remodel in ‘52.  I want to put in boomerang formica when I change out the countertops next year. There’s a little eating nook/banquette built into the corner (out of the photo) that’s equipped with some Thonet chairs from the early 50’s.  It’s a pretty tight little composition.  If I had a better camera (wide angle lens), you could get the feel of it better. Note the original Nutone fan over the door @ the left.  The sink is an original Elkay Lustertone with draining sideboard.  I think you get the idea.  It’s pretty wild in real life with the correct lighting.

Kurt, while I have not seen a kitchen quite like this one, I have seen a few with larger, Marlite- (laminate-style) walls and ceilings. I think this was an uncommon midcentury renovation for older homes and farmhouses. Case in point: See this vintage kitchen with Marlite covering the walls and ceiling, just like yours. If, for example, you had troublesome plaster walls — you could just cover them over with these miraculous manmade plastics. Thanks so much for saving this little architectural gem – and for sharing it with us. And yes, Kurt, we also need to see your 1959 American Standard bathroom, in seafoam green when you get a chance!

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WELCOME TO GinaUSA’s 1960s bathroom. I am really quite in love with this style of mosaic tile — 3/4″ or 1″ squares — and in this case, with little porcelain splatters. I generically call this “Romany Spartan” tile because that’s the company that seems to be in all my vintage magazines. I know of at least one source for tile pretty close to this, still (continue after the jump.) Ooooh, peek at GinaUSA’s door handle, too — crystal. Yes, you can add this bit of sweetness to your house, if you prefer it rather than mod metal.

Here is a close-up of Gina’s bathroom tile. Those splatters also provide a bit of slip-resistance, I bet.

Gina has nice built-in, too.

Want to replicate the look? I found this wide selection, real 60s-70s-80s colors, at S.J. Masters:

And of course, there’s pink!

Thank you, GinaUSA, for sharing your bathroom! I am so happy you love it and are not changing it. It looks to be in great shape. What a treasure.

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The post about Madison Sarah and her hunt for a 50s or 60s home drew lots of comments, including a lovely note from Sumac Sue, aka Judi, of Lexington, Kentucky. Her comments were really moving, so I asked her if I could make a post out of them – and asked if she could send pictures to go with. She kindly did, and even added some more info at my request. A long post – but well worth the time to read and think about. Sumac Sue is a former newspaper reporter – so the girl can turn a phrase! Maybe other readers have similar stories about their neighborhoods that they would like to share? Send in your stories and your “walking tour” photos and I’d be happy to make this a regular feature. Thank you, Judi (Sumac Sue), for getting this started!

With so much emphasis on gizmos and gadgets and other facets or retro interior decorating, I really hadn’t thought much about how simple the facades are on most mid-century homes. I find our house, and the houses in our neighborhood of modest, mostly one-story brick ranches, to be sort of sturdy and cute, like freckle-faced boys. It’s a look I find appealing.

But, if someone like Madison Sarah wants a bit more oomph, then maybe she could try an approach such as looking for a house with a really pronounced modern style, such as Anne and Gary’s house, which has been mentioned on this site. Sure, it has some flatness to it, but, it has angles and overhangs and lots of glass, which makes it cool.

If Madison Sarah can’t find a house like that, then, my only other suggestion is to try to think of the mid-century houses not as a look, but, as a way of life. Sounds cliched, I know, but, we have found that living in our ‘59 ranch, in our ‘59 era neighborhood, to be really pleasant.

We weren’t really looking for a mid-century house when we found this one. We were looking for a house that was well built, of good materials, one that would be pretty easy to maintain, and one that was in a neighborhood that would be a pleasant place to walk with our dog in the evenings. And, we had a tight budget, but we wanted at least 1.5 bathrooms. So, we found our house in a nice neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,500 square-foot houses, most with carports or garages. Some have basements, but ours has a roomy, dry crawlspace — either way, they are all easy to get under to work on plumbing, the furnace, etc. (A previous house had virtually no crawlspace, and we had to scoot on our stomachs in the damp dirt. No more of that!) Houses this size are pretty easy to care for, and the utilities aren’t outrageous.

Like many such mid-century neighborhoods, ours includes a shopping area with a grocery store, bank, post office, and some other stores. We have enjoyed being able to walk to this shopping area, and now that gas prices have risen so much, we like it even more.

I can’t speak for other such neighborhoods, but ours is really stable. People buy these houses and hold onto them. We still have four people on our little street who are the original owners of their houses! They are all in their 80s. We bought our house last summer from the original owner, who was 86. We joke that these houses are good for your health, because people live so long in them.

But, maybe it is no joke — they really are nice places to live. We are in our 50s, and there are other middle-aged people on the street, and there are a few young couples with kids. The ones we have met have said the same thing as us — they moved here because they were looking for a well-built house. They also say they didn’t want to buy a cheaply built new house way out on the edge of town.

Our neighborhood is called Gardenside — doesn’t that just sound like a nice place to live? Madison Sarah, I hope you find a nice place to live, too.

I know I’ve gushed on about our neighborhood like a real estate agent with too many houses to unload. The thing I want to stress is, like you, we really weren’t looking for a mid-century house, but it has worked out really well for us, much better than expected.

We once lived in a quaint 1910 era frame house, but it was hard to maintain, and closer to downtown and the university, so traffic was terrible. We then bought some land in the country with a mobile home on it. We wanted to build a farmhouse or cabin. But traffic was terrible there too! All of those other city people moving to the country just like us, causing so much traffic on the winding rural roads. We just couldn’t commit to building a house there and putting up with the traffic forever. It seemed pretty nutty — so wasteful of time and resources. When Wayne changed jobs and his commute got even longer, that’s when we decided to move back into town.

I had once lived in a 1970s era suburb, and it was OK. I admit, we were a bit like Madison Sarah when we started looking at houses in the suburbs. We thought of them as being sort of boring. But the main thing we wanted was a well-built house — after living in an elderly cottage, and then a mobile home, we wanted a house that didn’t have something breaking every other day! A mid-century house fit the bill. And you know, we have not found one other house in the whole neighborhood just like ours. So, it’s really not boring, it’s unique!

I just wanted to let Madison Sarah know that living in a mid-century house was more than just about the facade of one particular house — at least that is what I am finding out. We love living here not just because of our particular house, but because the whole neighborhood is a nice place to be. Our house, and the entire neighborhood, is built on a scale that seems so liveable.

When we walk our dog, in a few blocks we get onto some streets of bigger houses, from about 1,800 to 3,000 square feet. (I was a bit incorrect when I said our neighborhood was 1,000 to 1,500 sf houses — that’s the size of most of the houses on the streets right around our house. But there are many larger houses within the Gardenside neighborhood.) These larger houses, ranches, split levels, Cape Cods, and two-story Colonials, were built in the late 50s to late 60s. We have crushes on several of these beauties. They still are built on a scale that seems right.

THEN we can walk into a neighborhood of brand new homes — some over 6,000 square feet, with half-million to million-dollar price tags. We feel like the Monty Python knights approaching a castle when we venture into that neighborhood! We always are happy to walk back to our street.

Hope this extra information is helpful, and doesn’t bog you down. I know you are busy…. knowing you also have family, career, and your house to tend to. So, I am happy to pitch in with some material for you. Maybe you could start a semi-regular neighborhoods feature, and others can send in photos of their communities. I think it would be a hit. But you know, we love it all, whatever you do!

I hope I got the right descriptions with the right photos — I’m having to hurry because I need to go get some pine mulch from a neighbor who offered it to me. Another reason it is nice to live here. I think because the place is on a nice scale, people actually see each other and visit and share things.

Judi

This post originally ran on April 28, 2008

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We’ve had some spirited discussions about painting our wooden kitchen cabinets – and we’ve also shown some vintage two-tone illustrations before — and when I saw this photo, I thought it would appeal to readers, for sure. It’s Edie’s kitchen, from her blog, LifeInGrace. Isn’t it beautiful?

She and a helper repainted the cabinets that came with the house themselves. She chose a cheery aquamarine for the base cabinets, white for the wall cabinets and notice that the island is painted a dark gray-green.  Her post contains all the product details – plus check out her cheap and cheerful lighting solution for the wall cabinets – brilliant! Thanks, Edie, for letting me feature the photo — your kitchen is a triumph!

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Diana’s 1963 home in suburban Pittsburgh includes something that I haven’t seen in the flesh yet — mid century oak cabinets in a “planked” style, complete with colonial wrought-iron hardware. Planked cabinets are one of my favorite all-time looks. Of course, Diana noticed right away that her “Koenig Cabinets by Elish & Co.”  are a great match for the cabinets featured in the vintage Caloric kitchen featured on the homepage of the site in the new multimedia box. I know of at least one company that offers planked door style today – Omega/Dynasty. Read on for more from Diana – including the brochure (saved from the dumpster, of course) created to market her Ryan home. 

Diana writes:

…The photo of the “vintage Caloric kitchen”… looks eerily like  our kitchen in our 1963 house in the overall design, the oak cabinets, the hardware, and the built in appliciances. I love that photo. We live in Mt. Lebanon, a South Hills suburb of Pittsburgh. Our house was built in 1963 and it was the spec house for this model. We still have the original pamphlet that was shown to folks who viewed the house. It has the floor plans and other info about the original house.  My husband found the pamphlet in a pile of recycling papers that the previous owners of this house left for us to leave out with the trash. My husband thankfully decided to look through the recycling papers before setting them out and we were so elated to find it and so disappointed that the previous owners would think to even trash it. The photos of the exterior show what our house looks like, there are two others in our development that we’ve seen. But, the others have been updated unlike ours, which is still pretty original in floor plan and other features.

[I asked her about the few updates they'd made to the kitchen - and LOVE that dinette set, swoon!] The counters are corian, we really struggled with putting that in. I wanted something retro like Formica but my husband really wanted something without cracks and nooks. So, we compromised and got corian, which we both figured was the least intrusive of the newer materials. Yes, the floor is marmoleum, we had a lot of fun putting it in…

 

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A wonderful vintage Moen faucet. Linen laminate to die for. A Westinghouse appliance center. But maybe still not “flamboyant” enough for Tim, a longtime reader who now works at Rejuvenation – parent company of Satellite, our contest sponsor. He’s house hunting…and has sent some pictures. Tim, I will not push you. Hold out for the house that makes you jump up and down in the foyer. And first and foremost: Location location location – it’s true.

Tim writes:

Hi Pam-

Hope I’m not being a pest by sending too much stuff.  Here a few sightings from this past weekend’s home search.  The items found in a 1960 house in Portland.  The appliance timer is something I have never seen before.  It has two regular outlets and two retractable cords with special plugs- presumably for 1960 Westinghouse appliances.  The Moen faucet is unusual in that I think lever style for lav would have been fairly uncommon in 1960… and they are virtually like new.  The twin cooktops with front controls are uncommon as far as I know.  Matching oven is fairly flashy. The house itself is okay but not especially flamboyant… possibly a contender.

Tim / Rejuvenation

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St. Louis Shelly has a gorgeous gray bathroom in her 1956 house. The drain of her sink has rusted out, and she needs an all-new sink. Good news: The sink appears to be a Kohler Tahoe with hudee ring, and this model is still available today in a light gray. Bad news: It will take 42 days to get the sink via special order. I referred Shelly to this post — and asked to see more photos so that we could all ogle the gray bathroom – a color I haven’t featured yet. Oh my goodness, this is so beautiful – the vanity…THE FLOOR…the shower door…THE GRAY! The only thing you could need: Some wallpaper (of course!) or some print for your walls to bring in color.  Once either of those are in place, you can spec your towels.

Shelly writes:

Pam,

This bathroom is probably my favorite part of my house right now. It originally had stick on vinyl tile which I removed to reveal the beautiful gray mosaic in near perfect condition. Problem is I bought a new faucet for the sink and when the old one was removed we found that the drain had corroded to the point of no return. I quickly ordered the Kohler Tahoe in grey to fit the current cutout and sink. Now they say it will take 42 days to get the order. My pink bathroom has no vanity, toilet or usable shower. So… we are reduced to brushing teeth and washing hands in the kitchen sink. I could try and hurry up the pink bath but it’s at least 2 weeks away from use. Do you think we should wait for the grey sink? [Pam: yes, but call deabath and see if they might have a vintage one in stock, you never know.] Do you know of another grey sink that would fit. [Pam: Crane makes a square sink with hudee ring, you can also check there, but I think they have even fewer colors than Kohler.] New vanity not an option, I love this one….The befores: Vinyl stick-on tile. Jackpot! But a nasty job getting that adhesive off. And oh my, the odors… there are open seams in this stuff and liquids seep onto the adhesive, quite disgusting. After with paint splatters and such still to be removed…

St. Louis Shelly

 

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Pink bathrooms? Of course! But they are just symbolic of our enduring love for the pastel rainbow of midcentury bathrooms featuring tile and/or fixtures in coral, peach, green, blue — and yellow.  Reader Susan’s sparkling yellow bathroom is a real time capsule. It’s simple – but beautiful – with some great tips to either enhance your own midcentury bathroom – or recreate a new one. Read on for: Sinks, Tile, Knobs, Wallpaper – and more photos from Susan’s bathroom.

1. Colored fixtures can feel “risky” but they can pay off big. This bathroom proves it. You can do it! Kohler and American Standard, the two really big names, make bathroom suites – sinks, toilets, tubs – in a variety of colorways besides white. Kohler’s Sunlight Yellow is shown on a Tahoe sink here. Put these fixtures together with a complementary wall tile or wallpaper, and your bathroom will be very special. Soft pastel fixtures are not grating on your eyes – they are very soothing – perfect for a bathroom.

2. Salt ‘n pepper tile – It’s back “in” again. Okay, so,  so far, it’s only me declaring this. But look — American Olean now features salt ‘n pepper tiles in 1″ x 2″ mosaics in this designer marketing image! woohoo!

3. Remember your geometry. Susan – who we also know as KittyMommy on this site — received the new bath towels as a gift from her mother-in-law. The three brite yellow stripes not only work well with the fixtures but they also repeat the visual effect of the horizontal liner tiles. Where are there circles, squares and lines in your spaces? Work with them…repeat them (preferably in three’s)…for pleasing effects.

4. The little, cheap & cheerful touches are great – but control your clutter. Towels, shower curtains, hardware and a carefully controlled number of tchotchke’s are the easiest way to introduce accent colors. Look at those vintage cabinets pulls on the vanity – this tiny detail will bring delight into your life each and every time you touch it. SatelliteModern.com just reintroduced these pulls, by the way: A cheap thrill at $7 for both the knob and the backplate.

5. Love the bathroom you’ve got. This is the most important lesson. In this economy, most of us are workin’ with what we got. But our little 40s 50s 60s and 70s houses – well, they have a lot of great stuff already, if you assess it in the right frame of mind – one of thoughtfulness about the love that went into its creation in the  first place. And – go retro in tune with the original lines of your house – and your updates will never be…dated.

Thank you, Susan! Your bathroom looks terrific. The only thing I recommend considering – and you know I will say this – is: Wallpaper, dear. How about these circa-1945 daisies from housevernacular.com … or something else that floats your boat. Yellow can combine with so many other colors quite well.

More photos from Susan’s yellow bathrooms:

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