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!

Related posts:

1. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Amazing Vintage Bathroom With Pearlescent Tile Wow.  Not a lot to choose from this week. There were...
2. Mid-Century Bathroom Renovations – Regrouting and Repairing Our Pink Tile Since my parents are coming to spend Thanksgiving with us,...
3. Tiki Dreams – Inspiration For Our Tiki Redo By RetroRuth I am SO EXCITED! Tom and I have...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It is too bad that the Detroit Metro area is in dire straits economically as the housing prices in the suburbs are pretty inexpensive. 

Such a house is at 543 Hidden Lane, Grosse Pointe, Michigan.  The brick ranch, built in 1954,  has 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,343 square feet of living space, a 2 car attached garage and is listed at $174,900.00.  Coldwell Banker has the listing and for more information, one can contact them through the Woodward Market Center, (248)288-3500.  Photos are courtesy of Keller Williams (www.kw.com).

THE FRONT

THE FOYER

THE LIVING ROOM (FACES THE REAR OF THE HOUSE)

THE FAMILY ROOM (REAR)

THE KITCHEN (FACES THE STREET)

TWO (2) OF THE BATHROOMS

THE BASEMENT

Even though the photography is poor, this home has all of the features one could ever hope for in an untouched MCM home.  I particularly adore the front entry door (I’ve never seen a door like that before) and the pink corner tub.

What’s your favorite detail(s), Readers?

Related posts:

1. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? By Sablemable aka Jan Welcome to Merrillville, Indiana!  Merrillville is...
2. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? By Sablemable aka Jan Nothing new in MCM homes for...
3. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Ruth’s Choice By Sablemable aka Jan I am ever so grateful to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I love this pillow.  The pattern is from a vintage Workbasket magazine, which I found a ton of recently.

Love the colors!

Related posts:

1. Vintage Crafty Saturdays – Junior TV Slippers Free Knitting Pattern By RetroRuth Hello, All!  Time for this week’s free pattern. ...
2. Vintage Crafty – Comfy Bed Slippers Free Pattern By RetroRuth I was completely charmed by this cute pattern...
3. Vintage Crafty – Free Felt Horse Softie Pattern By RetroRuth Ok, I am totally restraining myself from letting...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How can anyone take a lovely, beautiful MCM home as this………..

and this…………..

turning them into something un-MCMrecognizable?   Like, altering the original architecture.

Changing the doors, inside, outside and overhead.

Doing God knows what to the limestone and brick fireplaces.

Ripping out all the marvelous wood and metal kitchen cabinets for something more 21st century.

 Not to mention the new flooring and, God forbide, G-R-A-N-I-T-E countertops!

But the worst crime to be done to a MCM home is the destruction of the pink, blue, yellow and green bathrooms!

Tell me, dear friends; what “upgrades” make you want to scream and claw your face?

Related posts:

1. MCM Home Improvement: Garage Doors By Sablemable aka Jan My overhead garage door is original...
2. MCM Home Improvement: Playing By The Numbers By Sablemable aka Jan Remember the ugly “updated” house numbers...
3. MCM Home Improvement: New Construction By Sablemable aka Jan Whew!  Quite a feat in home...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

By Sara In AZ

___________________________________________________

Who amongst us caught the Mad Men episode “The Rejected”  on August 15th or “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” on August 22? Well, I did and I was floored by what I saw! My Sunbeam clock! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Here is a picture from “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” and it shows the clock right between Peggy and Joan.

Picture from video clip on http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

I bought this clock a few years ago at an Estate sale, and it is the same clock Joan has in her office!!!

Totally bizarre!

Here is a close up of the hands, I think they are so cool.

This clock is really interesting because you can hang it vertically or horizontally. Here are the instructions on the back.

Here is a close up of the Sunbeam label.

And, finally, here is the clock hanging in it’s natural habitat – on the wall above my one armed couch!

Please remember to vote for Eartha Kitsch in the Kozy Shack Contest! Please spread the word if you can, we need to get Eartha’s votes up! Click HERE for the link. Thanks y’all!

Related posts:

1. Super Secret Project – REVEALED!!!! By Sara In AZ ______________________________________ Better known as: The saga of my...
2. Jeffie The Lefton Mouse And His Cheese – Thrifted Salt & Pepper Shaker By RetroRuth I found the cutest salt and pepper shakers...
3. Super Secret Project – Fabric FUN Time! By Sara In AZ _____________________________________________________ OK, so I finally have...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

By RetroRuth

*Note – Our recent contest for the Worst Mid-Century Recipe forced my brain to reluctantly recall the many horrible things we have made on this blog. Eggs Oriental was prominent in those memories. This post was originally published in April 2009, and looking at pictures of it still make me gag!

You know, I don’t consider myself to be the most orderly person. Or the most driven person. I have great ideas, but, like most people, a good majority of them never really pan out.  But here it is, only three weeks into my Mid-Century Menu project, and I have already met my goal of finding a ridiculous recipe that really shouldn’t be made. Mission accomplished.

Huzzah.

This week’s recipe is from the slightly (slightly?!?) disturbing cookbook put out by Heinz Ketchup.

This recipe is bad. Really, really bad. I wonder if I should even finish this post?  It is so horrible that it might disgust all you nice, innocent readers, who only came  out of curiosity to see what I made. It might cause you to never return again.  And then it might cause you to spread the news all over Twitter and Digg, and might cause everyone to recoil in horror if they even read the name of my blog, let alone go and visit it.

The recipe is that bad. Really.

Don’t believe me?  Well, here. Look for yourself.

Eggs Oriental, huh?  You coulda fooled me.  It looks like Eggs in Cream of Mushroom Soup. With ketchup. They could have at least added some soy sauce!

But as always, Hubs was game, so off we went.

Not so bad, right?  Nothing wrong with some prepped ingredients.  Except fooooooooor……

this bowl. Which is all the “seasoning” for this dish. Yum.

The mushrooms and green peppers, happily cooking in a quarter cup (!) of butter. This is a lot of butter. Half that would have sufficed for the small amount of veggies that needed to be cooked.

Far too much butter, browning in the pan.

All the “seasonings” added to the pan. At this point, the mixture started to give off the most noxious smell. If anyone has ever smelled cream of mushroom soup with ketchup in it, it is not a good mix. Not at all.

After adding the egg slices, I turned to Hubs and said, “The eggs better make this magically taste better. Otherwise this is going to be bad.”

Hubs was unusually silent during the cooking, except for an occasional burst of incredulous laughter.

Finished up and plated. All one can really say is….Eww.  I decided to serve it over noodles because…well, it seemed like a sin to serve it over rice. I was already wasting enough ingredients, I wasn’t about to waste some of our good brown rice.

Being perversely enjoyed by Hubs. He couldn’t stop laughing throughout the whole meal. It was truly horrible. The smell was amazingly bad, and every time I took a bite I was shocked by the combination of ketchup and cream soup.  The eggs surprisingly did help, making it edible. But it was far from delicious.

The Verdict: Horrible

As I was sitting there, staring at and smelling this plate of food, I realized that serving bad food is a pretty new thing for me.  I was unhappy, even uncomfortable, with the idea that this was our dinner. That I had made….this thing that tasted horrible. It was a pretty new experience for me.   As an adventurous cook, I have made things in the past that hadn’t gone exactly as planned, but nothing had ever, EVER been this bad.  It was a strange feeling.  I was definitely out of my comfort zone.

I made it through the serving on my plate, but it was a close one.  Hubs ate more, mostly because he had just gone for a long run and was really hungry.  But even he was eventually forced to stop by the smell. The rest hit the trash.

*From the Mid-Century Menu Archive!

Related posts:

1. Mid-Century Menu Contest Finalist #3 – Creamed Eggs in Corned Beef Crust By RetroRuth Holy Cow!  The Worst Mid-Century Recipe Contest marches...
2. Mid-Century Menu – Stuffed Eggs on Rice Rice, rice, rice, rice! This week on the Mid-Century Menu,...
3. Mid-Century Menu – Jellied Stuffed Eggs Well, we’ve finally done it.  I didn’t think the Mid-Century...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Who can say anything bad about MCM bathroom fixtures?  All those brightly colored fixtures with matching or coordinating ceramic tiled walls that makes our MCM  homes so special.

Crane has been around for about 160 years and has acquired American Standard and Eljer.   Here are some of their classic fixtures from 1952.

First off, the color chart.   Starting on the left and going down the columns are Pale Jade; Citrus Yellow; Persian Red; Shell Pink; India Ivory; Sun Tan; French Gray and Sky Blue.

Our favorite sink from the Criterion Group.

The Diana Group in Pale Jade.

Now I know this blog has the most intelligent readers and would know what that little green sink attached to the wall was for, but I, your trusty composer is not that smart.  I thought it was a child’s sink.  Wrong!!!!!  It’s Crane’s oral hygiene lavatory from their Drexel Group!  There’s not a lot of information about these dental lavatories, however, at www.vintageplumbing.com, a customer asked the what and what for of these sinks.  It was believed that one should not brush one’s teeth in the same basin where one washes one’s hands, thus, the dental lavatory was born.  According to Vintage Plumbing, these sinks were seen mostly in homes of the well-to-do.  I adore them!

Who has original Crane or other companies’ fixtures in their homes?  If you have photos, send them to me and I’ll do a follow-up post!

Related posts:

1. Save A Blue Bathroom – Mid-Century Bathroom in MI Scheduled For Demo Check out this GORGEOUS blue bathroom scheduled for demo after...
2. Let’s Shop! – Mid-Century Modern Light Fixtures At Schoolhouse Electric I think I found it!  Tom and I have been...
3. Ginger’s Mind-Blowing Mid-Century Pink Bathroom Ahhh…I love it!!  I just got this amazing picture of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Okay, so Tom and I have a deal when it comes to movie rentals.  We see something he likes, and then we see something I like.  It works out pretty well this way, both for seeing good movies and for the good of our marriage.  We both tend to pick out a couple stinkers, and once in a while get a really good one we both like.

The Right Stuff met all of our criteria. A good story, science-y, a good cast, good dialogue and AND it had 1950′s and 1960′s sets and clothing. Sc-ore.

(Okay, I am going to show you some awesome scenes now, which belong to the movie The Right Stuff and not to me or this website. DO NOT reproduce these, but feel free to link back.)

Pretty sweet, huh?  It was a good movie, too.  It is based on a book of the same name by Tom Wolfe, which follows the 7 original astronauts in the United States. A good pick if you like history, science, space and, most importantly, mid-century clothing and furniture. Fun times!

Part of the Cocoa Beach scenes.

A little men’s fashion.

The scenes inside of the wives’ homes were especially fun.  And the dresses!

Apron alert!

Love this shot.

Inside NASA, with all the required science-y stuff; big buttons, levers and TV screens in the console.

Kitchen and vintage mixmaster!

An emotional scene.  A cool shelf.

I adore this lavender dress!

So, I hope these shots have peaked your interest in the movie. If you have seen the movie before, let us know what you thought of it. If you haven’t, add it to your Netflix right now!

Related posts:

1. Tuesday’s Retro Guest – Jan’s Christmas Movie Trivia Game Tis The Season For A Guessing Game! Thanks to Jan for this fun movie quote game.  I...
2. Tuesday’s Retro Guest – MSN’s Mid-Century Architecture Article Thanks to Sara for the heads up on this great article! ...
3. Awesome Mid-Century Furniture on Ohio C-List Here is some great furniture, thanks to reader Carolyn for...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Nothing new in MCM homes for sale here in my area of Michigan, soooo, I paddled my canoe (the poor man’s yacht) across Lake Michigan to the Chicagoland area for a look-see.

At 108 Howe Terrace in Barrington, Illinois, is a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom MCM home built in 1954.  There is 2,334 square feet of living space, a walk-out basement and 2 car attached garage.  Everything looks pretty original, except someone talked the owner(s) into replacing the entry doors.  RE/MAX of Barrington is the broker and has it listed for $398,500.00.  Photos are courtesy of Keller-Williams (www.kw.com).

THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE (2 VIEWS)

THE FOYER

THE COMBO LIVING/DINING ROOM (3 VIEWS)

THE KITCHEN (2 VIEWS)

A YELLOW BATHROOM

A GREEN BATHROOM

THE WALK-OUT BASEMENT

The only drawback I see with this house is the flat roof, which in freezing cold temperatures can be a problem, but I still love the house!

What was my favorite original piece from the home?  The door chimes in the foyer!

Related posts:

1. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? By Sablemable aka Jan Our un-virtual tour is at 3132...
2. Won’t You Be My Neighbor – Time Capsules From Jan Thanks for the great houses, Jan! Finding time capsule homes...
3. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? By Sablemable aka Jan I’m always happy whenever I find...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Good Lord!!!!  I found the World’s Scariest Clown Doll in the whole world!  Don’t believe me, huh??  Well check this out!

Reeeee! Reeeeeeee!! Reeeeeee!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Check out the extra-long neck, perfect for wrapping around your poor child’s neck to choke them while they are sleeping.  And if that isn’t scary enough, the darn thing actually has eyelashes. Orange eyelashes!!! What. Were. They. Thinking.  “Wow, this would be the perfect clown, if only he had some orange eyelashes.  Just one more…there. Completely terrifying!” 

*Eye roll* Good grief.

The menacing shadow in the photograph is great as well. Is that really necessary. Is it???

Any volunteers to make this sucker???? I would love to see it in all it’s awful glory.

Related posts:

1. Vintage Crafty – Mitzi, The Peasant Doll Doorstop Pattern By RetroRuth Oh boy!  Today, Crafty Saturday is dedicated to...
2. Vintage Crafty Saturdays – Vintage Pattern For Knitted Fashion Doll Sweater Hello, all!  Tom and I are off to run errands...
3. Vintage Crafty – Comfy Bed Slippers Free Pattern By RetroRuth I was completely charmed by this cute pattern...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.