Report #2 on their new Retro Renovation journey
Mike and Lindsey were so eager to see whether there was beautiful original terrazzo flooring under the miles of wall-to-wall carpet in their “new” 1964 Edward Durell Stone “House of Good Taste” that after they closed, they made an immediate bee-line to pull up the carpet. Much to their delight, they uncovered a whole lot of terrazzo flooring in excellent structural condition — although there were also a few strange surprised hiding under all that cream carpet.
Mike writes:
We knew prior to buying the home that the original terrazzo floors were hiding under the carpet. The owner admitted never seeing them, as the same carpet had been down for the entire 25 years they owned the home. Unable to get confirmation of their condition, and only able to get a small peak by pulling back a corner of the carpet, we hoped, prayed, and kept our fingers crossed that they were in good shape. We knew that refinishing structurally sound terrazzo would not be a huge deal, but repairing significantly damaged terrazzo is a big expensive undertaking. We literally headed straight to the house after closing to pull the carpet up and find out what were were dealing with…
Each section of carpet we pulled back produced a huge sigh of relief as we unveiled some of the coolest terrazzo we had ever seen. A bright white base with black, grey, and green flecks. Although it was extremely dirty, yellowed, and covered in carpet pad glue, it was in excellent condition. There were carpet tack strips nailed directly into the terrazzo all around the perimeter, but from research we knew those holes could be dealt with. What confused us were all of the square paint lines on the floor… it took us a minute to figure out what they were… but we realized that someone must have taken all the doors from the kitchen cabinets, laid them out on the floor, and proceeded to paint them directly on the terrazzo!!! I can just image what was gong through their head, “who cares, nobody will ever want to see these ugly floors anyway”
With the terrazzo exposed to the light of day after 25 years, The House of Good Taste renovation begins!
Our overall goals for this renovation include giving the house a timeless feel, so that regardless of whether it is 50 years ago, present day, or 50 years from now, things just “feel” right.
The following is our general renovation outline, which we are sure will evolve as we get into the details. We are blessed to have our master carpenters from L&D Construction also acting as our general contractor. The house was last updated in the late 80’s, and we look forward to peeling back the interior layers while keeping its great bones intact. We hope you enjoy this journey with us. We welcome all comments, suggestions, and criticisms along the way 🙂
Kitchen
Complete redo, but with same basic layout.Walls and ceilings
Scrape popcorn and every inch floated out completely smooth. [Precautionary Pam reminds: Be sure to work with a properly licensed professional to determine whether there is any vintage nastiness such as lead or asbestos in the surfaces and layers of your house before remodeling!]
Floors
Restore the terrazzo and new flooring in all the non-terrazzo areas.Doors and trim
Replace all doors and trim throughout.Electrical
New ambient and accent lighting throughout. Outside of the huge skylight, the lighting does little for a house that has so much to show.Laundry
Complete redo.Bathrooms
Not touching them at this point, they good enough as is to live with for now. Gotta leave some projects for the coming years right?Exterior and landscape
Exterior does not really need much besides some paint touch up, and thinking about landscaping at this point would make our heads explode.But first things first… DEMO!!!
Congratulations, Mike and Lindsey on the awesome terrazzo!
Ack! I cannot understand the logic behind painting doors inside the house on perfectly fine terrazzo flooring without drop cloths. I sure hope Mike and Lindsey — with the help of their properly licensed professionals — can clean up their beautiful terrazzo floors and make them look as good as new. Mike and Lindsey — It sounds like you have your hands full with that long list of projects — I for one am super excited to see how your home progresses over the next several weeks. Thanks again for sending another installment of the “House of Good Taste” chronicles and keep up the good work and updates.
ineffablespace says
The original House of Good Taste at the ’64 World’s Fair had smooth ceilings. The popcorn ceilings were probably a local building practice.
One thing that I read about the house at the Fair was that it was hung with art on lone from museums and galleries. I think that Stone was really emphasizing the house as a white backdrop to its contents and surroundings.
judy says
Aren’t the popcorn ceilings original to the house? Our house was built in ’66. Someone before us scraped the downstairs ceilings but I still have them upstairs in the bedrooms with glitter! I like them.
Hugh says
I was wondering if I was only one to like popcorn ceilings!
Caroline says
So cool to see a great house go to people who love and appreciate it for what it is!!! Good luck and I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THOSE FLOORS!!!!! 🙂
Carlie says
My old middle school had terrazzo floors. They wouldn’t let anyone salvage them before they tore it down, though 🙁
ineffablespace says
People covered terrazzo because it can be hard on your joints and cold if you don’t live in a warm climate.
People covered hardwood floors, because they were standard construction, not an upgrade; because they didn’t have the durable finishes that they have today, and they needed maintenance. Bare floors also didn’t seem very luxurious for a generation who grew up in the Depression with bare floors. Something that was soft and warm, low maintenance and could be cleaned with a machine while you were standing up was the height of post-War luxury.
That said, I would have terrazzo floors in two seconds and prefer hardwood everywhere except bedrooms.
Danita says
You hit the nail on the head with the synopsis of the WW2 generation. My parents did not want bare floors for exactly the reasons you cited! Me? I love bare wood floors and terrazzo. They are so easy to clean and a nice accent rug looks so much better than wall-to-wall carpeting. It pains me to see beautiful mid-century houses in Florida with lovely terrazzo flooring being covered with tile!?!! What are people thinking? Sure wish the contractors would have terrazzo floors as an option today.
Priscilla says
My 1960’s house has terrazzo floors just like Mike & Lindsey’s house (minus the glue & paint). I would love to see “after” photos!
Katie says
Another option for redoing a popcorn ceiling is to cover it over with styrofoam ceiling tiles. They come Ina variety of nifty patterns, and can be painted.
Cynthia says
Hurray for the terrazzo! The combo of colors sounds great. I hope they send a close-up so we can see its beauty once cleaned up. Painting doors on top of unprotected terrazzo tells me that some prior owner thought of it as no more important than unfinished concrete or plywood. However, I can’t judge too harshly because I confess to having installed ceramic tile (and carpet) over a terrazzo floor in a 1950s house back in about 1980. Mea maxima culpa. The carpet tacking strip holes on the perimeter can be repaired without too much trouble by a terrazzo repair person, I’m told. Hopefully the paint will come up with relative ease, too. What a terrific house!
Lisa says
Congrats on the house. I had the same issue in my ’61 with the carpet glue and tack strips but it is on tile. I have never been able to get the glue off, if you find a good product I would love to hear about it. I think I will solve the broken tile from the tack strips but just adding a contrasting color and make a new border pattern.
Sara says
Congrats on your wonderful find! I can’t wait to see it once it’s all polished up. It will be just stunning! As for the funny paint lines, isn’t it amazing what people will do to floors? As if it would’ve been difficult to put down a drop cloth first! The first thing I did when escrow closed on my house was pull the nasty old carpet out of the bedroom. Underneath are beautiful original oak floors from 1950…completely covered in paint over-spray and painty footprints from the last time they painted. The living rooms is undoubtedly in the same shape, but I’m not ready to pull that carpet and re-finish the floors yet. Granted, the paint can be sanded off, but why would someone do this? Especially when it would’ve been so easily prevented.