I keep intending to make a long post about all of the minor updates we have done so far and then things come up. We took a minor break from house renovation the past few days to completely finish unpacking and to plant our vegetable garden out back and put in flowers out from. It was time for the plants and past time to finish the unpacking. With family coming in tomorrow to help us with some of our projects, it is now time post the the list of our initial home accomplishments.

1. Cleaning off blankets and newspapers from 1964 “insulating” the attic fan. The attic fan works (which has been great, see #13)!
2. Trimming of grapes (still need wrapped more securely).
3. Demolishing shelves in cedar closet and installing a closet rod.
4. Clearing  vegetation around perimeter fence.
5. Pulling yew and other shrubs from front landscaping.
   

   
6. Installing new shower head and finding shower organizer.
7. Removing fake cupola from roofline.
8. Replacing house-shakingly-loud, ancient garbage disposal.
9. Replacing leaky kitchen sink faucet. 
10. Disposing of fake plastic shutters and associated wasps.
    

    
11. Cleaning bathroom sink aerators.
12. Adjusting mixer shelf height.
13. Diagnosing the A/C and getting quotes for new HVAC system.
14. Unpacking, unpacking, unpacking.

I would like to start showcasing and discussing some of the cool features in our home. This segment is to be called Friday Features. I am hoping that I will be able to find some history of the item or some information about the company or builder related to the item.

First up, the built-in mixer cabinet. When we toured the house, we were intrigued by the cantilevered mixer shelf that moved from storing the mixer below the cabinet to swinging the mixer up to counter height, ready for use.

Having lived in the age of pre-fab cabinets, we thought it was a nifty feature and were impressed by the hardware- large springs and latching system. These cabinets are Mutschler custom cabinets, a company still in business and deserving of at least one future post.

Below, the shelf was a pull out drawer for accessories.

When we unpacked the kitchen, we were disappointed to discover that our modern Kitchen Aid mixer was too tall to fit on the shelf. We were able to lower the shelf an inch by removing and reinstalling 14 screws.

Violà, a mixer cabinet that leaves you dying to make chocolate chip cookies (don’t mind that we have to ground and install a GFCI outlet to plug in the mixer).

We closed on the house three weeks ago. We moved in two weeks ago. What have we accomplished in that time?

First, we redid the floors.

The once-den-now-bedroom has pegged flooring that I am guessing is not original to the house. Poking around on the Internet has led me to believe that the flooring was installed at a later date, 1960s-1980s (Floor Dejour blog). I would be interested to be directed to more resources. My suspicion about the pegged flooring seems valid when you compare it to the flooring under the two back bedrooms. At any rate, the flooring was in decent shape, a little bit of gaping between floor boards but nothing too terrible with an okay finish.

 

The previous owner had taken the time to tear out the carpet in one of the back bedrooms. Underneath was a sunny oak floor that needed refinished. Peeking under the carpet in the other bedroom, we found the same flooring. We had both bedrooms refinished.

 

Unfortunately, the living room and hallway only had sub-flooring under the carpet. A few of our neighbors have lived on our street for many years (>25 years) and they swear that at one point that living room had hardwood flooring. Who knows what happened to it: sold to pay for the new carpet, ripped out due to some unimaginable damage, a figment of the imagination). We decided that our RestoMod style of remodeling could handle this and went with new oak flooring in the hallway and living room to match the two bedrooms and closets (really, the closets still had hardwood!).

While we were at it and before our things arrived, we went ahead and had the den-to-bedroom refinished in a sunny oak to lighten it up a little.

After living on the new floors for three weeks, we love it. The house feels cleaner and more open. It seems to have brightened up the bedrooms and living area.

 

 

Ten weeks ago, my family found out that we would be relocating for my husband’s new career opportunity. Seven weeks ago, we made the exciting six-hour drive for a whirlwind house hunting trip. At that time, we had no intention of finding a mid-century home. We had a modest budget and pre-approval from two local banks. We also had a wish list- two car garage, between 0.25 and 2 acre lot, 3 bedroom house, 1.5+ bathroom, dishwasher desirable, and within 15 miles of my husband’s job. With the help of two wonderful realtors, we were able to find a wonderful brick home at the end of a quiet street that met all of our criteria.

Our new home also happened to be a mid-century ranch home, built by a contractor/concrete plant owner to be his forever home for his family. Because the first home owners intended this home to be their forever house, it has some amazing features, including marble window sills and a sunken garage with carpeting to keep snow and mud from being tracked into the house.

 

We loved that the home was built very sturdily. The home has also had very few owners- the original family, then the daughter and son-in-law of the original family (who lived in the house only part of the year), and the owner before us who never lived in the house. As a result, many of the home’s original features are intact, including the original kitchen cabinets, bathroom tile, and  bathroom fixtures. These high quality original items added to the charm of the house. We also loved the fairly open layout. We knew nothing about mid-century design or architecture, we were simply attracted the quality and charm of the house. If you had asked us at the time what style the house was or if it was mid-century modern, we would have probably shrugged.

While we waited to close on the home, our blissful ignorance quickly changed. We began researching our oven, range, bathroom vents, and other features of the house and got a crash course in mid-century home features. We also started researching the design of the house. Having looked at mid-century modern homes, our smaller home without vaulted ceilings and a sprawling layout did not seem to be the quintessential mid-century modern home. However, being a roughly 1,900 square foot ranch (on the main level) with custom cabinets, a marble-topped built-in and window sills, original commercial grade air conditioner, whole house humidifier, two fireplaces, exposed beams, and custom-built cabinets, the house did not seem to meet the definition of mid-century modest. This house seemed to fall somewhere in between. There are mid-century modern touches, but it appears that the house was mostly decorated by a family who actually had tastes that leaned more toward Country Living and less towards Herman Miller.

As we moved towards our closing date, we agreed that because the home had been updated in ways that are not in-line with the original style of the house (dishwasher was added at some point, kitchen linoleum looks to be about 10 years old, carpet was poorly installed over hardwood), we wanted to update the home in the style of a RestoMod. For those unfamiliar, this is a term used in classic car restoration when a car has the wonderful vintage look and style with the benefit of the advances in technology and comfort. My husband has always been a “car guy” and had done a RestoMod before. The term seems to fit with our aspirations for the house. A true restore returns the house or the car to how it was originally. Because the house has been updated and changed slightly over the years, a true restoration doesn’t feel authentic to us. We would like to take the great bones of the home, add that mid-century style back into places where it is lacking, and hopefully create a home that is comfortable for our family and a tribute to mid-century design and architecture.

Thirteen days ago, we closed on the house and we hit the ground running with our projects and ideas. I hope you enjoy following along on our first adventure in home ownership.