No Pattern Required

By Sara In AZ

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Probably by now most of you are aware that Mike and I are searching all over the Phoenix area for our very own 1950s time capsule house. I’m not saying it has to be anywhere near perfect, I’m really not expecting to find perfection at all. Just something that is kinda original, maybe has been maintained a bit, and in our price range. Well, there are slim pickins’ here in Phoenix for a 4 bedroom with an enclosed garage that is kind of time-capsuley. Reader Shen (who has a Phoenix time capsule of her own) has been helping me on my mission, sending me links for time capsule homes when she finds them. But there has been no luck so far. It has probably been about 2 years since we have really, actively been looking – but nothing has jived yet. It is either a wrong location, wrong layout, crappy neighborhood, no garage, to small, flippers have already gotten to it so no time capsule left, etc., etc., etc. I am not giving up hope that something is out there for us. I may have found a *possibility* house, but the price is over $300,000. And, there is no possible way we could afford that. So, if y’all found it in your hearts, could you put a special prayer out into the “retro house” universe that they will lower the price of the *possibility*house! I don’t want to blog about that house yet. But I will let y’all know what happens. So anyway, I came across this house in my never ending search for our time capsule house and it was funny because Shen did too. She sent me the link, but I e-mailed her that I had already seen the house and the pictures look a whole lot better than the actual house. Flippers had gotten to it, you see. I was really excited when I first saw this house come up because I thought this could be the perfect house for us. We made an appointment with my agent to see it they very next day. Just to back-track a bit here is a pic of the house from 2000, before the flippers got to it.

So charming. I would have begged Mike to buy it even though it did not have an enclosed garage!

And here it is now.

I honestly did not think it was the same house at first, but it is. I thought it still could have potential even though it had been changed  — A LOT. Well, the flip was done in a really horrible way that does not convey that well in pictures so I will try to explain as best as I can. 

As you can see from the pictures the carport was obviously enclosed. They actually made 2 bedrooms out of the carport area and bought the 3 car garage out towards the street more. They were using metal exterior doors for interior doors in that area – like for the bedroom doors and stuff. Weird.

The house did still have the original windows and the some of the rooms had floor to ceiling windows, which were awesome, but where you used to be able to open them - they were now painted and screwed shut. Screwed though the aluminum frame – from the inside to the outside. EEPS! So, no window in the house would open.

The house had a lot of slate tile. But this slate was laid by someone who had no clue as to what they were doing. Since slate itself is very un-even you have to be careful when you lay it to keep the floor surface even. This floor had really high and low points, it was really bad. There were huge gaps in the baseboards because the floor was so un-even.

This house had a really nice fireplace – minus the beige/brown paint. I guess someone thought it would be really fun to slather on a coat of really thick beige/brown paint over the original stone. Bummer. Pictures do not convey how really bad this fireplace looked. The paint was really thick and gloppy looking.

The kitchen had all IKEA cabinets. I really like IKEA and think most of the stuff they have is really great, but this kitchen was done in a really poor way. See the upper cabinets, well you had to hold those up with one hand while putting something in with the other hand. They would not stay open on their own. Those were the ONLY upper cabinets. I would probably want to rip those doors right off after one day of trying to unload the dishwasher!

This is the laundry room. I *think* the white cabinets were probably what was in the kitchen originally. The pulls look vintage. See that mess of plugs and wires and power strips off to the left on the counter. They actually had lighting from the kitchen plugged into that. The laundry is on the backside of the kitchen and there was a hole in the wall that a bunch of wires were fed though. You actually had to turn on some of the kitchen lights from the laundry room. Mike was TOTALLY freaking out!!!!! He thought the place was going to burn down right then and there. Mike went running to see if he could arm himself with a Fire Extinguisher!

Since the wiring in the kitchen area was so hodge-podgy we were wondering what there was that we could not see lurking beneath the drywall.

I actually really felt bad for the house itself. I wish I had found this little gem before it was ever touched. This looked like such a great house before, it is really too bad what happened. I hope some MCM lover will buy it up and put it all back together, but I guess it can’t be us!

Please remember to vote for Eartha Kitsch in the Kozy Shack Contest! Click HERE for the link. Thanks y’all!

By Sara In AZ

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First off, let me offer my many thanks to reader Shen for doing some retro recon for us all! Shen is a great time capsule spotter and lover of vintage homes, in fact she has a vintage 50s house herself and I am dying to see pics of it. Please Shen, Please! Shen knows how hard it is to find time capsule houses here in the Phoenix area - where everyone seems to love granite, granite, granite – so she has been trying to help me in my search for a time capsule (thanks, Shen!). Here is a rare Phoenix time capsule that Shen recently visited while there was an open house. She was kind enough to take mucho photos for all of us to drool over. Fasten your seat belts kids, we’re off!~

Cool 1950s  brick rancher.

Check out that Rad-A-Licious Starburst Door Escutcheon!

Door Interior. The good ol’ days when you still had mail through the door. Now everyone in newer houses gets to go to the big gray community box!

Cool planter on the inside! Who didn’t want an indoor planter in the 50s?

Looking down the entry hallway. By the above planter.

Super cool flooring in the entry hallway!

Waaaaay rad living room! Check out the original lights and the blonde paneling and the built-ins! LOVE that fireplace!

Cool matching pole light by the patio door.

Pass through to the kitchen.

The kitchen. Hey Shen, what kind of floors were those in the kitchen?

Original tile and stove top in the kitchen.

Double ovens, but I am not sure if  these are from the 50s??? Looks more later 60s to me.

Cool atomic drawer liner paper in one of the kitchen drawers.

Awesome mint green bathroom, though I think the tile looks like it has been renovated  more recently.

Such a cool shower door!!!

Cool old heater in the wall and one of those rotating toothbrush holders. Gotta love that!

And, the built in Kleenex holder.

Vanity area.

Even more awesome shower door in the other bathroom!

I think this could be original wallpaper in the powder room. Looks like seashells.

Cool retro light fixture.

Retro wall sconce.

This house is in central Phoenix and was built in 1954. It is for sale for $295,000.  It is a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath with 2,400 sq. feet.  Thanks again Shen for all these great pictures, we really appreciate it! Great job!!! Does anyone want to save a time capsule in Phoenix?

***ALERT*** Mary Deluxe of Welcome To Deluxeville is having a giveaway! She is giving away this cool 1950s lamp.

If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you definitely should. Click HERE for the link. She has the best retro atomic pad and she always has great pics of her vintage clothes. Here is a pic of Mary D. I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna enter right now!

By Sara In AZ

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OK, so a while back Mike and I were possibly going to be moving to Colorado. With the possibility of a move, I started checking out real estate online a bit north of the Denver area. Well, I came across this Mid-Century Dream House in Fort Collins, Colorado – which is about an hour north of downtown Denver. My Mom was living in the Denver area at the time (my aunt and uncle also live there) so I begged, and I pleaded for her to go check out this house for me – and she did! Thanks Mom! Unfortunately, Mom is not as much of a psycho picture taker as I am, so there are not that many pictures to show you all…………..but you will get the idea anyway. Man, I probably would have been in this place all day long taking pictures, they would have had to drag me outta’ here. This house was built in1960 and is a total time capsule!

The first pic is the only pic I have of the front of the house. That is the real estate agent and my cousin walking up the path.

These super awesome decorative blocks were in the front entry, just beside the front door.

In the formal living room the whole wall had this awesome flagstone fireplace and built in blonde bookshelf/cabinets.

Check out that awesome original light fixture in the formal dining room! The ceiling for both the formal living room and formal dining room was covered in this tongue and groove blonde wood with these awesome beams. Oh my gosh, I am in love!

It is kitchen time! And the kitchen does not disappoint. It also had the tongue and groove blonde wood with the awesome beams! As you can see it also had the original light fixtures and the original birch cabinets. Just lovely! I wonder if that counter top is gold flecked Formica??? I’ll just bet it is.

Here is the other side of the kitchen.  This side backed up to the flagstone fireplace and had a cute little indoor grill!

Here is a picture of one of the bathrooms! Hooray for turquoise! Check out that turquoise toilet in the mirror and the gold fleck Formica counter top! I think I have gone to retro heaven!

Here is the pink bathroom! I SOOOO wish that I had more pics to show y’all. Mom said that it had all pink fixtures though. Check out the cool decorative tile in the shower.

Here is a pic of the back of the house. Love, love, love those original light fixtures!!!

Finally, here is a floor plan of the house that the real estate agent sent to me. It will give you a pretty good idea of the layout of the house.

So, this house was for sale alllllllll the way back in September 2006 (gosh time flies!) - that is when I was looking at it anyway, for I *think* around $280,000. We obviously never moved there or I would be writing to you all from Sara’s retro dream land right now. He He!  I was totally in love with this time capsule house and I tried to keep track of it to see if/when it ever sold, but I do not think it ever did sell. I think the owners just pulled it off the market and have held onto it ever since. I sincerely hope if they ever do sell it that it goes to someone who adores Mid-Century. Please retro gods – can you hear me???

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

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!!!

So, this is a little different than what I usually post, but I decided to take a break from mid-century modern and mid-century traditional and do a really cute 1930′s  English Country style house.

This beautiful 3,360 square foot house is a little more grand that I usually post, but for all its impressive outside, this house is really kind of looks like a cozy little home inside. Built in 1938, this home is located on the other side of the country club from where we have our house, and everything is a little more grand and enormous over there.  They are asking $318,000 for this house, and it is totally worth every penny.

Pretty sweet, huh?

Here is the backyard of the house.  It is on a corner lot, so it isn’t a very private backyard, but I like it just the same.  If you look closely you can see the awesome light they have in the back, a long pole with several lights branching off of it.  There are other lights like that in our neighborhood and they are vintage.  Not sure how old, but I am sure I love them!

Slate tile and excellent built-ins!

Kitchen with parquet flooring and shuttered cabinets.  I wasn’t sure until recently if these were vintage, but after seeing them in several other time capsule houses in the area, I believe they are.  I don’t know if they are 1930′s, though. Maybe a later addition.  Anyone with more info, feel free to share!

Another view of the kitchen.

So cute!  Love the built-ins in this room.

Cute bathroom!!!

Love the built-ins and that chair.

That little sink next to the bed is such a cute idea.  And I love the little reading lamp over the bed.

Window seat!

More built-ins, although they aren’t as cute as some of the others.

And finally, the excellent, excellent basement.  Check out that killer floor!!

Okay, so not much today for time capsules, so we are going to play Frankenhouse today.  What’s Frankenhouse?  Well, it’s where I take aspects from a bunch of different houses until I get what I want, which is a perfect time capsule.  Is it cheating?  Maybe.  Is it my blog and can I do whatever I want?  Mmmmm…most definitely.

First of all, I want a completely adorable exterior, and this house in Essexville  ($119,000)is very cute.

Or maybe I should go with the exterior of this house in Midland ($169,900)?  I drive past this all the time, and I always drool over it.  Now it is for sale!

Either way, I am going with the dining room from the Midland house.  That room divider is so amazing, I almost can’t breathe. Whew.

For the kitchen, I am totally going with this house from Bay City ($114,900).  It is just screaming to make the Mid-Century Menu.  Check out those nice, light cabinets! All it needs is a better floor.

The bathroom needs to be classic pink, of course, like the one from this house in Bay City ($105,500).

And this can be my bedroom…or my craftroom…or the room I spend the rest of my life in.  Check out that floor! God! And the lights, so cool. From this house in Saginaw ($89,900).

Have a great Sunday!

Pink is the name of this game in this awesome 1967 time capsule for sale right now in Midland.  Pink counter in kitchen, pink bedroom and, oh yeah, TWO pink and blue bathrooms.  I think I feel faint. Sable, are you with me??

Anyway, the house is just under 2000 square feet with four bedrooms and two bathrooms.  They are only asking $109,900 because according to them it needs “TLC”.   Of course, I totally, totally love it.

Wait…let me catch my breath.  Those are terrible pictures of those bathrooms, I am sure they are much better than those pictures.

The only thing is…what is the deal with the oven in the kitchen??? Is it just sitting on the countertop?

Eh, who cares. I’ll take it!

As I mentioned in my previous post about the Woods Cafe, my parents recently bought a little house on a lake in Woodruff, Wisconsin in a retirement community.  I was really excited for them because they have been wanting to move up there for years, but also because the place was built in the early 1970′s and has never been updated.

“You will love it!”  my mom squealed over the phone, “there is even a yellow toilet in the bathroom!”

“Really?  Sounds awesome.  Take some pictures for me.”

“I will.  But your father wants to take them out.”

“No way!  Tell him no.”

I could hear my mom, muffled, as she turned to talk to my dad. “She says you can’t take out the toilet,” and a quiet, ”Oh crap,” in the background.

My mom came back on the phone.  “Your father said ‘Oh, crap’.”

I rolled my eyes.  “Yeah, Mom.  I heard him.”

But I think my dad is starting to warm up to the yellow fixtures.  He even found a yellow toilet seat to replace the white one that was on their when they bought the place, so I think I might have him convinced!