Oh, how we love thee: The original features — big and small — in our homes. They managed to avoid the curse of the previous owner update. Or, maybe you found a time capsule whose first owner who knew they had something good, and didn’t change a thing. Yes, we neeeeeeeded to see the original “they don’t make ’em like that anymore” architectural details and features in readers’ old houses — and you gave us 483 photos, to be exact! There is some FANTASTIC stuff in here! Uploader is now closed — thanks, everyone, for playing. Time to gawk! Above: Close-up of the room divider in Andy A’s 1962 house. Oh my! See? We bet you’re gawkin’ already. 🙂
To see the slide show, click on the thumbnail, it will enlarge, then use the arrows just below to move forward or back. You can start or stop the show from any slide.
John says
Jorge, have you used the indoor bbq? that seemed to be a popular feature, ive seen it in a lot of magazines from the era, and of course on the brady bunch.
Jorge says
John,
The indoor BBQ shows no sign that it has ever been used since the house was built in 1959. I keep planning to use it, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Kat says
Andy A., you lucky devil! How excited were you when you peeled away the wallpaper on your divider to find those gorgeous panels? Your home is just dreamy.
Andy A. says
Hi Kat, thank you, I’m glad you like the polka dots. At first, we weren’t sure about them since they were such a change from the gold flocked paper we were used to, but we love them now. We realized there was something behind the paper when the change of seasons occurred last fall. Bright sunlight through the living and dining room windows revealed dots behind the paper, but not clear enough to see any details at all, just the turquoise spots showed up and we couldn’t see the color, just the shape.
The seller’s daughter came by (we’ve become friends with the family), and we mentioned it to her, and she told us there were turquoise polka dots behind the wallpaper, and that her Mother papered over them in 1965, because she wanted a more formal look.
MGentile says
Andy, what is the material of the polka dot room divider? Is it glass, plastic, lucite??
The same pattern (and probably material) were used in various places in the Riverside (CA) Main LIbrary that was built in 1965. The stairwell had panels of this material, which were later covered up with beige carpet (ugh!).
Thanks and congratulations.
Wendy M. says
I never expected to see my home featured on the blog- Pam and Kate, this made my day! 🙂
Kate says
🙂
pam kueber says
🙂
Guy H. says
Dawn in Ohio. I love your ‘Breakfast bar’ I may have to steal that for my house!
Dawn says
Thanks Guy
Every person who comes to our house sits here! Those chairs were left by previous owner and I am desparately searching for replacements since they get alot of, umm, butt traffic. LOL.
For a breakfast bar it sits very low, just table height, but most of the homes in this nieghborhood have them. The builder put them in every home he designed.
Dawn says
Wendy M. I LOOOOOVE your tea cart and hide away. Brilliant!
Wendy M. says
Dawn- thanks! The cart is from ’55 and the original owners (we bought from them) had this storage area specified on the house plans. She taught home design at the university here and I still marvel at how she designed the house- everything is so well thought out.
Mindy says
Jennifer in PA I looooooove your kitchen and all the woodwork! It is stunning! I would love to see more pics of your house.
Mindy
Alisha says
Thanks for sharing all these homes. They all make me want to kick myself. The first house my husband and I bought was a 1963 log home. TINY but awesome. Well being our first house, we had to make it our own, we were early 20’s. So out with the cool old Norge with the swing out shelves, out with the original GE range, paint over the original knotty pine cupboards with cool amber glass inserts, and out with the sparkly formica countertops. Needless to say, someday maybe we’ll bring it back to it’s wonderful old self. Thank you retro renovations for giving us all inspiration to us all!
Rinke says
Such fun, all those pictures!
In the Netherlands the 50s were far from the romantic(-ized) American Dream. There was not much after the war, so every material was used to make things look pretty yet modest.
When we bought our current house, it was packed in texture paint and laminate, but when we took those out, there were soft colored walls (blue, pink, mint and yellow), concrete enamel ‘wainscoting’ and terrazzo floors in the hallway and kitchen.
Except for the rounded casings around doors and windows, most original features were either gone or severely damaged. So was wiring and plumbing, so we carefully took out only what was broken/unsafe (800sqft took us 9 months) We’re now trying to give the house back it’s glory, but with mostly new materials.
I can always find inspiration here, thanks Pam!
pam kueber says
How wonderful to hear from the Netherlands, Rinke!
Kathy Merchant says
Love the milk door! How about an upload some day of the secret finds we have discovered! I opened the cupboards in the bathroom to discover the original wallpaper where minor remodeling to add the cupboards had gone right over the top of the paper. Then in the foyer you can see where they nailed paneling right over the top of another kind of wall paper! In the attic crawl space you can see the original paint color of the house where an addition was made where the car port used to be! What surprises have other readers found?
Mindy says
Great idea Kathy! I remember my husband and I getting all excited when we found a slit in th back of the medicine cabinet for shaving blades!! We too have found fun wallpaper covered up. I think our best find was the peeing boy statue hidden under decades of brush!
Kelly Wittenauer says
Hidden treasures are fun. We found a note from a teacher about a child’s poor performance in school, hidden along the top of a concrete block wall in the basement of a house we owned. When we mentioned it to the long time residents next door, they said that was the name of one of the adopted sons of the original owners. The boys would play in the unfinished basement when it was cold or wet outside.
Mindy says
Kelly speaking of your place-it is beautiful!!! i would love to see more pics. It looks so warm and cozy-what a great house!
Mindy
Kelly Wittenauer says
Thanks, Mindy. Not sure if you meant the 70s house we now have for sale, or the late 50s house we had to move away from in 1998. Probably the later, so I’ll post a few more picks I have of it. Hope those who’ve owned it since us have kept the beauty intact.
Mindy says
Hi Kelly! When I wrote this comment I was looking at a pic of your 70s house-not realizing you had pics of 50s home as well. Wow you are so lucky to have owned two beautiful homes!! Both of them look really neat with a lot of character!
Alisha says
We found a sealed can of stain in one the walls of our house.
Marty says
I found a 36″ wide base cabinet that must have come from the kitchen in the back of the garage. Moved it back in, but my ultimate plan is to put wheels on it and make it a floating island for food prep.
nina462 says
Pam has done this once or twice – listing found items. We should do this again. I found the original blueprints tucked away.
Rick says
I love the detective work and lucky finds of an older home. Mine is “only” c 1978 and has slowly evolved into a very welcoming home. We have found that doors and casing were added very soon after the house was built, maybe when first wall paper went up to have a logical place for each room to end. We found pieces of prior wallpaper under switchplates and vent covers and behind the lower part of the fridge.
I love the time capsule homes but have to admit that sometimes the years of updates that get the personality of the home and respect it makes for a lovely home.
Melissa says
Love the kitchen in slide 129 & 130! Beautiful. What kind of wood cabinets and what material is your countertop?