My husband Paul & I bought the house just a few months after we were married. Paul is a jack-of-all trades/ handyman/ renaissance man and I’m pretty artsy so we make a good design team.
We know a lot of history about the house. We know that it was built in 1899 and is considered to be a modest American FourSquare home with Craftsman details. We have original blueprints from one of the major remodels in the 30s.
My husband and I purchased the house in 2001 from a sweet elderly lady that had lived there since 1947. Before she lived there, only one other family had lived there before her, so we know that we are only the 3rd owners of this big beautiful 2,500 square foot house!
Another interesting detail was that each previous family had only had one child each and the little old lady we purchased from had lived there by herself since 1961 when her husband passed away. All the woodwork & trim was perfect and well preserved over the years!!!
The home was originally one residence, then a doctor’s office in the 1930s, then converted into three apartments in the 50s (although they were only rented out for a few short years while her husband was still alive). The last major remodel must have been during the late 1940s or 1950s.
When we looked at the home for the first time with a realtor it looked as though many of the rooms had been closed off for decades… newspapers in the windows, electricity shut off, no running water to parts of the house. The realtor kept apologizing and saying everything could be modernized… but I thought NO WAY! It was only the 4th house that we looked at, but we knew it was meant to be ours!!
So we had a VERY nice time capsule house to start with! Not only did I walk into a home that had a furnished 50s kitchen with original stove & cabinets…
I now had THREE 50s kitchens from the former apartments!!! Over the last 11 years we have slowly converted it back to a one residence home.
Here is a list of just some of the major projects we have undertaken over the years:
- Converted 2nd downstairs kitchen into a spacious vintage laundry room
- Removed lots of asbestos flooring [Precautionary Pam reminds: Find and consult with properly licensed professionals, dear readers!]
- Resanded some of the beautiful wood floors
- Restored all electricity & plumbing
- Paint — lots of paint!
- Added more white metal cabinets here & there (mostly found in heavy trash)
- Put the grand pocket doors back in (they had been walled over when they converted to the 3 apartments)
Cool story — when we knocked a hole in the wall hoping to find the pocket doors hidden inside — they weren’t there!!! Shortly after, we coincidently went to a garage sale at a neighbors house and they had these pocket doors shown in my photos for sale for $100!!! When we brought them home, the bolts in the doors threaded perfectly into the holes in our track… we think they might have been ours. Maybe neighbors traded them years ago… who knows!!
And of course there have been tons more decorating and redecorating over the years.
At times, I have dreamed about saving up for a “real” 50s ranch in a better neighborhood. However we have put so much of our heart & souls into remodeling this house… we have really grown attached to it. In some ways, I feel like I have the best of both worlds… original 50s fixtures, built-ins & wallpaper AND turn of the century woodwork, clawfoot tubs and high ceilings. And I honestly don’t know that I would ever find another time capsule home as great as this one… especially for the price — Since it is in a depressed neighborhood, we purchased it for less than $50K! I still dream of fixing up a long & lean rambling 1950s ranch one day, but I have learned to love the house I’m in!! It is so large with plenty of elbow room.
Yes, I did use Pam’s kitchen curtain fabric to spruce up my kitchen recently!
Tappan Stove is a 1961 model. (Same year the previous owner’s husband passed away, so the owner said she never used it much *sad*.) Very clean works perfect!
We love the original pegboard wall in our small kitchen — I don’t know why pegboard hasn’t made a big comeback yet!
The original mermaid wall paper in my upstairs bathroom is my favorite wall paper ever.
One other interesting note is that we have done most of the projects on a shoestring budget! We are full time ebayers, so we don’t have huge amounts of money to buy the best every time. (Despite people thinking that we are making millions on Ebay.) We have had to be really creative and work slowly over years at a time. It does help that we are constantly at thrift shops, estate sales & garage sales constantly for our work… it does make it easier to find things inexpensively… but not always on demand when you need it. I’m still waiting for the right pink 50s clothing hamper to come along to me at a sale for a dollar or two! I can’t bear to spend $80 for one on Ebay! My dining room is home to all of our Ebay storage… that’s what’s hidden behind all those colorful bins!
The bins are just large cardboard boxes covered with fabric — I’m cheap, but I think they turned out looking really custom!
It’s the most 70s room… not my favorite era, but I needed a challenge… now it’s one of my favorite rooms!
In the next couple of months I am getting ready to re-do the downstairs bath. It’s the one with the aqua blue wall board with faux tiles. The wall tiles are not holding up to splashes and it can’t really be cleaned. We are going to splurge and have a tiler do it basically in the same style, but with real tiles and adding a black border with pencil stick trim. I have the Daltile Aqua Glow tiles stacked in my garage just waiting till we save money for the flooring. I’m decorating with chalkware fish & have most of the decor! Thanks to you and your support of saving pink bathrooms… I gathered lots of inspiration from those articles!
A couple of years ago when we realized we were probably staying here for the long haul, we decided to buy the two houses on each side in order to make the neighborhood better and feed our hobby of fixing up old houses! 😉 They were not time capsules, but still had some cool features & old fireplaces. We fixed those up as well and they are now rented out to close friends of ours for very reasonable cost. We fenced in all three back yards to make one large backyard and we feel happy knowing we are improving the quality of this block. We have a lovely community patio in back — it really does feel like an oasis right in the middle of the city. It’s been cool!
Kristen and Paul — thanks so much for letting us take a peek into your character-filled home. You’ve done a terrific job with your remodeling and decorating — we think your mix of 1899-1930s-and-1950s is totally charming, totally homey, totally you! Kudos to you both for showing how we can create beautiful interiors on a shoestring, loving the house you’re in. From the looks of it, I’d say the house loves you back.
Link love:
Kristen and Paul’s ebay store, The Robot Parade. (*affiliate link)
- Want to make a collage wall like Kristen’s? See Kristen’s 7 step-by-step tips to make a pleasing gallery wall.
- Or shop the Etsy version of The Robot Parade.
Rob says
Wow! The stove…the cabinets…the lustreware canisters! Amazing! (Rob)
Robin, NV says
What I love about this house is the authenticity of it. It’s a 100+ year old house – lots of living goes on in 100 years. The 20th century is probably the most dynamic century in human history. What was available and desirable in 1899 was not the same in 1950. You add modern appliances, convert rooms to take in boarders, maybe even build an addition for a new laundry room. It’s life. It’s real. As much as I enjoy time capsules “stuck” in their respective eras, this is a real house that has evolved with time. It’s been lived in and loved and changed but the roots of what the make the house great have endured.
Kristen says
Beautifully put. I totally agree!
ChrisH says
My thoughts exactly.
Jean says
Yes! I actually just said something similar in a reply above this. I feel much the same about my Victorian house that’s seen a lot since it was built 140 years ago. One of my favorite things in it are the beautiful heart pine threshold boards at every door way. They’re heavily worn in the direction that people would have crossed over them into the rooms all these years. I feel like everyone who’s lived here before has left some fairly tangible aspect of themselves in this home through those imprints. It’s so neat, in my mind. I regard the remodeling that the house has seen similarly.
Kirsten says
This is my favorite house ever featured! I am one of those people who love style from the 1890s through the 1960s, specifically Craftsman and mid-century, so this is absolutely a dream find!
Kristen and Paul: Can I be your best friend?!
Kristen says
Yes. Yes, you can! Thank you for the glowing feedback!
Jean says
Yes yes yes!! I had the same feelings. I want to be friends with you, Kristen and Paul!
I just moved into an 1870s home that had some significantremodeling done in the early 60s. I have great appreciation for pretty much every era’s aesthetics up to the mid-1960s–basically I just really love old things. So, being nearly broke but also loving the way my house wears the history of its residency all over, inside and out, I embraced what was here (for example, I’m restoring all the original c. 1870 moldings and doors and c. 1960 replacement doors alike) and there are midcentury modern decorative elements mixed in with Victorian goodness.
It’s a renovation style that feels respectful of the fact that this is a home that’s seen a lot of life and change. It was a relatively modest middle class home with some truly beautiful woodwork and craftsmanship in various places, but it was never a mansion of grandeur. It’s seen at least six decades of life as a rental since then. Trying to make it a shiny like-new Victorian reconstruction would seem absurd and, well, tacky. (Not that I don’t want to do that to another, much more majestic Victorian home some day…)
I love to find other folks who have similar feelings about their homes. Not to mention, devoted thrifters and ebayers! I haven’t bought a single thing at retail in this process so far, minus minor things like, you know, scraping and painting tools. I’ve been buying everything off of ebay since I was 14 years old and see absolutely no reason to stop!
Ben says
I love it! This is what I’m slowly trying to do with my old Greek revival. And to those who remember my posts from months ago–I’m working again and that means progress on the house. I’m hoping to have post-worthy pictures this fall.
In the meanwhile, I’m already looking at these pictures and thinking of re-painting my kitchen. Kristen and Paul, you’ve done an amazing job!
Diane in CO says
So many young families are going into debt, running up credit cards to the max and living beyond their means. How refreshing to see a realistic and creative couple who have made their home and their life fun, comfortable, and quite exciting. Clever people rule!!
I just love that you bought the adjacent homes and have made a communal outdoor space with your friends – what a nifty idea! And your contribution to your neighborhood wonderful. I hope things turn around and well they may – sometimes all it takes to alter a neighborhood is one small positive step.
I would love to know the paint color of your living room – in the first photo, with the fireplace.
Kristen says
Diane, Let me see if I can find that paint chip…
Kristen says
The wall paint color for the fireplace room is Arbor Green EB33-2 by Eddie Bauer Home from the series ‘Craftsman Bungalow’ I have never regretted this color at all… rich & cozy!
Diane in CO says
Got it! Thank you so much, Kristen. Stunning wall color, especially with the wood tones.
Jay says
Extraordinary! Who wouldn’t want several kitchens to display all their kitchen collectables? You foks have a great knack for visual presentation. Those long windows! Who gets to clean the venetian blinds? How nice to find an old house (100+) that’s been used but not abused.
Sarah g (roundhouse) says
Love the bathroom wallpaper!!!
Janet in CT says
Absolutely wonderful job! We have been waiting months now to close on a fifties ranch up in Maine and this story makes me ever so anxious to get up there! It also has the faux tile in the bathroom which I am hoping we don’t have to tear out as I really love it, especially being original! I think you did a fantastic job decorating and I especially wanted to comment on the wallpapers! I too was floored with the wallpaper with the mermaid in the shower! And I noticed the truck wallpaper in the last bathroom shot. I love children’s wallpapers and I think they are often overlooked as whimsical options for a bathroom. Case in point is this one on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/390547263519?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 – just what I want but not enough there to do a bath, wah! You have obviously done what YOU like and kudos to you for decorating in what pleases you! Keep up the good work!
TenantProof says
I love your 1899 home with its 1950’s kitchens. I am so glad you did not paint the original woodwork. The 1950’s furniture makes living in the home that much more comfortable although I do love Craftsman furniture. Thank you so much for sharing. Love the home you have indeed. Your home was much solidly built with better materials and craftsmanship then many 1950’s ranch. You have a beautiful treasure of a home.
Becky says
What a beautiful, charming, HOME in every sense of the word. I too dream of ranches, but if I found a home like this and we could afford it I’d snatch it up in a heartbeat. Very nostalgic for me also…my grandmother grew up in a foursquare that looked very similar, and after her husband died in 1946 my great-grandmother had a kitchen put in upstairs and rented to boarders. My mother and her cousin used to “play house” in the upstairs apartment when it was vacant, “cooking” in their very own kitchen. : )
pam kueber says
My house in Michigan was very similar to this one, too – I swear, we have the exact same front square case. It was the house that truly launched my love affair with houses. I cried for two years after we had to move and we had to sell it. 🙂
judy says
if this isn’t just the cutest—well done