No Pattern Required

By RetroRuth

Finally!!  I know I have been promising to post pictures of the new basement floor for a while, and I have finally had time to sit down, edit photos and pick out some good ones. 

Everyone will be happy to know that ALL of the nasty, gross carpeting is GONE from the basement. Huzzah! And it has been replaced with Armstrong VCT tile in red and black.

Let’s take a look, shall we???

Down the stairs aaaaaaaand….

Ta-Da!!!  What do you think? Too crazy?  We messed around with a lot of patterns and color combinations before coming up with this.  First, we decided on the pattern, which was inspired by Tom’s grandparent’s basement.

Here is Tom’s little sister playing shuffleboard in his grandparent’s house. 

I know, I know, we really should have gotten the shuffleboard. 

We then threw color ideas around, wanting to go with something that wouldn’t impact resale too much, and at the same time be the retro basement we longed for.

In the end, we just decided to bite the bullet, forget about resale and go with the red and black we really wanted.  And I think it ended up looking pretty good!  Next up, paint on the walls, and new Formica for the countertops.

The carpet was also pulled out of my sewing room, thank goodness!  I went with a nice neutral gray in this room.  It looks like of institutional now, but my accent color is going to be turquoise, and the walls will all be painted gray in the near future.  More pictures of this coming soon!

And here is Midnight enjoying the new floor!!! At first, the cats didn’t care for the new floor, one of them even refused to walk on the red squares and hopped from black to black across the floor.  But they have all settled in now, and love the coolness of the floor compared to the hot, sticky summer upstairs.

Did anyone else just finish a big summer project??? Let us know!

By RetroRuth

Well, hello there readers!  Not expecting me today, were you??  Well, I BEGGED Sablemable to give me a shot at this week’s WYBMN because I stumbled on a honey of a gem of a fun find. 

A Lustron home for sale in in Hays, Kansas! This gorgeous pre-fab home is ultra-mid-century modern, if that is even a term, which I am pretty sure it is now.

This cute baby is for sale by Steve.  It has two bedrooms, one bathroom and he is asking $85,000.  The fun site he created for the home is here, and you should check it out.  Not only does he have more pics of the house, but information on the Lustron line and some sweet vintage pictures. And I couldn’t resist posting a few of the more adorable bits here on this site.

A little bit of background on this one.  The Lustron homes were created by Carl Strandlund, a Swedish-born designer living in the US.  His vision was to create a mass-produced house made entirely of steel.  The Lustron homes were produced in Ohio from 1948-1951, when the company went bankrupt.  Only 2,500 homes were produced by the company, which makes this fun home even more unique. 

The house was described in a 2008 exhibit of the history of pre-fabricated homes in the US  in MOMA:

[The home] consisted of a concrete foundation and steel skeleton frame topped by trusses. All internal divisions are pre-fabricated modular units that double as shelving, cabinetry, closets, dressers and vanities, and the exterior is clad in porcelain-enameled steel panels.  The entire house was designed to pack flat for arrival on a Lustron truck. Assembly took approximately eight days with half-dozen workers.

So, after that fun intro, here is Steve’s house.  And his ultra-awesome collection of mid-century furniture and accents. Great job, Steve!

Close-up of the exterior.

The living room.  Notice the metal walls!

The dining room.  That view kills me, and I adore the light.

You know I love a cute kitchen!

Master bedroom.

A vanity to die for.

Guest room.

Another view of the guest room, so we can appreciate the coolness of the linens and the hotness of that Thermos collection. Love it.

So, anyone decided to move to Hays yet??? Be sure to check out Steve’s site for more pictures and a ton more information on Lustron.  Thanks, Steve!!

By RetroRuth

I had an amazing weekend.  Tom’s parents were up visiting, and we packed every single minute of the weekend full with activities.  Not that I mind at all, it was a ton of fun!  But I must say, the best activity was the tour at the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio.

I have featured a few Alden B. Down houses on the site, such as this home in Saginaw Township, the Calvin Campbell House and this house down the street from us.  If you want to learn more about Alden B. Down and his designs, you can visit the Home and Studio website or make the trip and attend the tour yourself.  It is more than worth it, trust me.

Unfortunately, photographs of the inside of the house where not allowed on the tour.  It is probably a good thing, because all of my dear, faithful readers would have DIED if I showed them to you.  I am not kidding here.  Tom and I had to keep each other propped up during the tour, because we were both on the verge of fainting the entire time.  Even heroic, stoic Tom leaned over and breathed in my ear “Oh my Goooooooooooooooooooood,” like a little schoolgirl when we were sitting in the Bertoia/Knoll furniture on the screened porch.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

You must come and see the tour.  All of you reading this. All. Of. You.  Not only is the house spectacular in and of itself (and on the Historic Register since 1989), but the tour is a very unique experience.  Per the wishes of Alden Dow and his wife, there are no velvet ropes, or closed off rooms, or docents shaking fingers at you saying, “No, no, don’t touch.” It is a completely interactive tour.  Completely.  I traced my fingers along the painted murals, scuffed my feet in the mosaic-like carpet in the “family” room, leaned against world-map wallpaper, rested in Eames chairs when I got light-headed and secretly hugged a grass-green tiled bathroom wall when no one was looking.  It was completely interactive.  Completely.  Our friendly tour guides must have thought I was insane as I staggered around from room to room, sitting in every chair, touching the George Nelson lights and being the very last one to leave the kitchen with its white Geneva cabinets.  For a lover of Mid-Century, it was a Mecca.  I saw and TOUCHED things that I may otherwise have never seen in my lifetime, let alone afford for my own home.  I SAT on works of art.  It was amazing.   Some of the highlights included:

A complete set of white Geneva cabinets in the kitchen, with such innovations as a blender INSIDE the countertop and a microwave built into the cabinets.  They looked exactly like the cabinets in my kitchen. Exactly, except for the color.

The floor of the Dow kitchen was a pebbled yellow linolieum.  It was very pretty.

The bathrooms of the home all had white Crane sinks with chrome legs and chrome towel bars on the side.  The bathrooms were blue, green and brown. The tile on the walls went from floor to ceiling, and the tiles on the floor were white.  They looked like the bathrooms from the Saginaw Township home, except without the wooden accents.

I saw at least two George Nelson ceiling fixtures.  One was the classic saucer lamp, which I touched.

The chairs we sat in were numerous, and have become sort of a soft blur of amazingly cool seating in my mind.  But the ones that still stand out are:

Bertoia Bird Chairs

Photo from AllModern 

Two white Arne Jacobsen Swan chairs.

Photo from FritzHansen.com

Of course, the classic Eames Lounge Chair. There were two of them, in fact.  Tom and I both sat in one, and sighed.

Photo from StyleCrave.com.

Bliss.

But the most informative part, and the part of the home where I would love to spend more time, is the Archive room.  Thousands of design plans, stories and vintage photography lay dormant in a brightly painted room in the house.  They are open to the public by appointment so I can play to my heart’s content, but the challenge will be trying to bring the information to all you lovely readers.  Will I be able to?  Will you get to see decades of amazing Midwestern Modern designs??? 

Give me some feedback and leave some comments on your thoughts about having some of the Alden B. Dow archive on the blog.  I want to convince them to let me show you some amazing houses!

By RetroRuth

Wow!  My friend Kathryn and I recently stumbled on the most amazing estate sale.  Unfortunately, everything was priced a little too rich for us, but we sure did have a great time digging through boxes of stuff and taking pictures. A lot of pictures!  Check out the slideshow below of over 40 pictures of the house.  It had some great, colorful combos, and lots of really interesting pieces to drool over!

By RetroRuth

So, we went up and visited my parents in Minocqua, Wisconsin over the Fourth of July weekend.  I must say, they have a sweet little set-up there.  And I thought it was even sweeter after my mom showed me the clubhouse in the little senior park that they live in.  It was completely 1960′s, and not ashamed of itself at all!

My favorite was the library with the two cute gold reading chairs.  Adorable!

By Sablemable

Not exactly next door, since the featured home is in Toledo, Ohio, approximately a 3 hour drive from my home in Michigan.  Quite a distance to travel to borrow a cup of sugar!

Why Toledo, you ask.  One, there wasn’t any new time-capsule homes for sale in my neck of the woods, and two, childhood memories:  my parents grew up there, later met when they worked for Short Way Bus Lines, and of course, soon married.  Every summer we would travel to Toledo to visit the grandparents and other relatives.  Such good times we had back then!

Toledo has some very lovely neighborhoods and some wonderful mid-century modern homes such as this one at 3624 Camille Drive.  The home has 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths and the asking price is $119,900.00.  That’s a great price, but I have no idea what the job situation is in Toledo nowadays.  There used to be a Chevy plant there and the American Motors/Jeep Corporation plant, along with Kaiser Aluminum and Libbey-Owens factories.

Sit back, sip your favorite beverage and enjoy the photos courtesy of www.realtor.com.  I’m not going to point out the fabulous features; I’ll let you go on a treasure hunt and ooh and ahh over your finds.

The photos are arranged in this order:  front of the house, back of the house, entrance, kitchen/eating area, family room, bedrooms and the full bath.

Oh, how I miss Toledo!

Jan aka sablemable

Today we have a time capsule house for sale in Birch Run, Michigan, which is about 45 minutes from our house in Midland.  This house was built in 1960, and could easily be a showplace with a little restoration.  Aaaand some of the current owner’s furniture!

This house is a little over 2100 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.  They are asking $89,500 for it, which is a flaming steal if the structure of the house is in good shape.

Love the fireplace with the floating stone shelves.  And if you look closely, you can see the slate tile in the entryway.

Holy furniture, Batman! That totally looks like Drexel furniture to me, or at least a good-looking Drexel knockoff.  A cute dining room. However, I would rip out that ceiling fan and do something about that closet in the back.

Wow. Fake Brick + Stripe Wallpaper = Too much.  However, I love the floor and the lights. 

Another view of the kitchen.

Wood paneled family room.

Here is the master bedroom.  I love the bathroom, even though it looks like it might be a new bathroom done in a retro style.  But still pretty sweet!

Thanks for the great post, Sara!  This is amazing!!!!

Someone, I need smelling salts……..Ruth…….Jan…….somebody! I have fainted, and I am in need of serious resuscitation here because I have actually come across a time capsule house here in Tempe - built in 1959!!!! I mean seriously, coming across a time capsule here in the Phoenix area is about as likely as spotting a purple cow walking down the street – it just really ain’t gonna happen because most people here want NEW, NEW, NEW…………….wait, I think I see a purple cow!  This is a time capsule MCM house with pink bathrooms too!!! HOORAY!!! The reason I went to this house in the first place was because there was an Estate Sale going on there – that is why there are random people in the pictures and stuff all over the place. People were looking at me like I had dun’ lost my mind taking all these pictures. I am sure they were thinking, “Girl, don’t you know there is an Estate Sale going on here?” But, I had to get pics for you all to see how FAB this house is.

OMG! First up the the FAN-TAB-U-LOUS front entry/courtyard with the AWESOME open blocks! Who would not kill for this?????

And here is the inside of the courtyard with the cool MCM light!

I am totally OBSESSED with these type of fireplaces. I think it is Flagstone, I completely love it! I don’t know if you can tell from the pic, but there are 3 little stone ledge shelves built into the fireplace.

Onto the kitchen! It still had the original birch wood cabinets – unpainted! Hooray!

Cool built-in’s in the dining room area.

The original counter-tops were a light brown linen look Formica. So Cool!

OK Y’all get out your smelling salts now for the best part of the kitchen……………………………..

The AWESOME OVEN!!!! It is the same concept as the Frigidaire Flair – only these doors swing out to either side, not up. This oven is a Tappan. I wanted to pull the burner slider out, but I just knew if I did all the stuff would fall off.

These super cute wall sconces were all along the hallway!

This was a cool glass ceiling light shade in one of the bedrooms.

OH! MY! GOSH!  OK y’all get out those smelling salts once again because we are ready to enter pink bathroom territory! As you can see we have a double vanity with all pink tile and 2 pink sinks! The cabinets (and walls) were kind of a light aqua blue. I’m almost wondering if the cabinets originally looked the the wooden ones in the kitchen?

The original vinyl tile flooring, which I think is SUPER cool with all those different colors; and the pink American Standard toilet!

And finally the ultra cool angled pink tub!       

LOVE IT!

A retro dresser hides amongst the Estate Sale goodies up for grabs!

The original NuTone Doorbell and a cute little light in the laundry room.

This was the Master Bedroom. It was a little on the smaller side as you would expect for a house back then.

And…….here is the pink Master Bathroom!

Cool black and white vinyl tile in the Master Bathroom.

WOW! What a cool house!

Now, for the bad news kids. The house will be put up for sale, but unfortunately it is not the right size for Mike and I – otherwise I would be all over this place like white on rice! The Real Estate sales flyer said “Price To Follow Home Updates” …………..and we all know what that means! I called the agent to see if there was anything they would be willing to sell me but he has yet to return my call. I sincerely hope they do not just throw all of the cool retro stuff out in the garbage. HELP! Does anyone want to buy a time capsule house here in Tempe?

Meanwhile y’all, watch out for those Purple Cows – and let us all know when you spot one!

Not sure what the obsession is with curtains in this super-sweet 1958 ranch in Saginaw Township, but they totally ruin the amazing amount of natural light in this place.

This cute place is about 1500 square feet, has three bedrooms and two bathrooms (which they don’t show) and is selling for the bargain price of $137,900. Yipe.  I am going to have to hide this listing from Tom so he doesn’t cry too much.

See what I mean about the curtains??  I understand that people want privacy, but jeez.

I am pretty sure those are the original cabinets painted white.  I like the high ceilings.

All the woodwork is painted, but they still have some amazing original lights!  Love them!

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Hi everyone!  Got another great Alden B. Dow home that is for sale on the golf course in Saginaw Township, which is a lot nicer than Saginaw itself.

This home is about 2900 square feet, has three bathrooms and four bedrooms, and they are asking $264,00 for it.  Wow.

Unfortunately, whoever took these pictures didn’t do a very good job, but you get the idea of how gorgeous this house could be if it was restored.

See??? Terrible shot of the kitchen.

Love the vanity!

Look at the heater!  And is that a Crane sink??

Ohhhhh….look at that crack in the tile floor. Poor bathroom.

I hope someone buys this place and restores it!!!