With old houses come spirits.. Took these pictures during Christmas open house a few years ago. Crystal clear 50 degree evening. This wasn't evident at all during the time I took the pictures. First picture of a series.
I went to an estate sale last year that the kitchen was dead perfect 50's except for the fridge (which I'll get to in a minute). The original owner (only owner) was a Dr and his wife rarely cooked. It had a perfect pink wall unit stove. The current owner (Docs son) was ripping it all out to remodel. (more in a minute). I believe he wanted $250 for the stove. Not long ago I still had a 50's vintage fridge. I mention it only because it was a bit of a PITA. The ice box would feeze up and overtake the thing. I was always having to defrost it. Back to the house. It had two incredible bathrooms upstairs. The boys was black and teal tile with deco furnishings. The girls was white and pink tile with the same furnishing. Both were perfect. He was ripping them out. I offered to do the dismantling for free for the tile and furnishings. He looked at me like I had just crapped on his sofa. Dismissed me with a "no" and walked off. I heard both simply got ripped out.
Now that I'm moved in, I'll post a recent photo. We love this house. I could never live in 'traditional' house again. I've had problems with food delivery knocking on the door. They usually call from out front confused. They've said "I thought this was a church" and "I thought this was an doctor's office!" I'm surrounded by 3-story Victorians. My house looks small by comparison, although it is 2800 sq ft. btw, this is a city street. I can walk to the train, several bodegas, and the Atlantic ocean is a block away. The neighborhood kids call us "The weirdos who moved into the murder house on High street" -according to a teacher friend of ours.
heres a few of my house... built in 59, bought last year from the 2nd owner (wsa here since 61!) these are after redoing the front landscaping, grass has grown in since then haha also, scoob asked about 50s kitchens.. here are our original to the house in 59 calorics, still work GREAT, love em.. dig the original backsplash (aluminum), and original door hardware throught the kitchen.. wish i knew how to convert a old fridge to new insides cause they use way too much energy for us to have one
Big house, 6,000 sq.ft., built 1895 on a little harbor on MA. We ran it as a B&B for over 10 years and would pick up arriving B&B guests coming in by boat at the dock in the woodie for a quick ride back here!!
I'm a regular on the retrorenovation site. I love it. I have a monsterously large vintage pink kitchen with 20 cabinets, wall fridges, wall ovens, dishwasher, smoothie maker, ice crusher, a pink 61 imperial flair stove, crosley shelvador with door mount water dispenser fridge, and more. I even got the matching washer and dryer out of the house. I was thinking about selling it but it's so cool (wife hates the pink, I can actually live with it), that I kind of think I'd be hard pressed to get another one this large and nice ever again. Curious to hear about utilities and usage...
Here is a pic of most of ours. Built about 1950. Nothing special but we fit and we like our area. Now that I think of it......Never a dull moment on our block!!
Mines the one on the right. Built in 1916. I bought it last December and hope to have Christmas in it this year. Re-wired, re-plumbed, new HVAC, you name it. We are restoring all of the original doors, hardware and windows. Definitely a labor of love. Unfortunately, we lost the original garage and quarters in last winters ice storm. I'd guess the picture is late 50's - early 60's.
Wow! Buzzard! Great mid-century modern style. Had a couple of Eames chairs but my ex has them now. I Love the case study houses and Eichler houses.
Lived in this 1960's vintage Streamline Duchess for 5 years after my divorce . You can probably guess why .
Stop by anytime. We've had a few people from TX find their way! I've got a bunch of new junk in the works. I have onw more show that I promised the Berry Wagon to and then I'm gonna figure out how to get it in the first floor. I figure rollback to the deck, fenders off and then in through the elevator door.
We have been doing a bit of work, and research on our house. We found some neat stuff. We are working on applying for a state exterior rehabilitation grant to help fix the roof next year. In the process we found out a bit about our house and the neighborhood. Construction started in our area in 1940, and stopped at the east side of our street in early 1941, until after the war. This was odd, as our house is on the west side of the street, and is listed as built in 41. We found that the architect who designed this first section of the neighborhood was Orville A. Bell, and that he had the first house west of 16th Ave built for himself. Owning the house owned by a prominent Phx architect is helping in the point system for determining grand distribution! Here are a few photos. First is the Dec 14 1941 Az Republic news item announcing the building of the house, second is a photo the state had in their archives from 2001, third is the photo when we bought the house in 2005, and last is today. it is hard to see the work done from the front, we have had to replace the front door due to a brake in, as well as a ton of other work
Built in 1944 on a 22 acre parcel of land in NJ. The log cabin across the driveway from me in the original home built on the land in 1941. My house was built for the mother in law. Down the driveway lives the daughter of the man who built the log cabin and my home. Her family has lived on this land until now. My wife and I are the first people to live on this land not related to the family in 63 years. Its a great home. It retains most of its original wood work and the two car garage is heated because the pipes for the heating in the house run in the garage!! Great for those cold winter nights we have been having. I need to get brighter lights int he garage though.
Our home was built back in the mid 1800's Originally 3 rooms and from what I hear built by one of my great great great uncles or something. Then added another room and bathroom. Then kitchen and eventually upstairs. It has halfdecent insulation, and when we redid some of it with all the drywall off it looked like a log cabin. Was definatly a neat experience. Is mostly made out of oak and it had an old coal furnace and coal chute. Course, we upgrade to a propane furnace and when the old brick chimmney fell on the roof during a tornado, didn't do anything to roof or the house, just a couple rafters needed replaced. we put up a new one. Covered with asbestos siding, which as my dad tells me lasts forever. And a very leaky half basement. we live down in the river bottoms and whenever it rains major here we get atleast a half inch of water in the basement. Its cool to see little fountains of water coming up in all the crack
Geez, This post has been around a long time.!! I've actually built another house since I posted the first one. This one is gonna be a rental. I;m looking for a fairy princess or a bearded dwarf or something
This is a shot of my old house in Illinois. Was built in 1920. I took this shot last spring when I was back to visit. The guy that lives there now really let the yard go to hell and the house is starting to get run down. I loved that house. When we had it my wife had the huge backyard looking like something out of a landscape magazine. It had so much character like arched doorways and built in cabinets, way nicer than the generic ass house I have now in Arizona.
The Jalopy Journal
