Sad "renovation" of a lovely mid-century home

[downtowndahlgren]

"Life looks better through wavy glass" Eric, that is great! I am having a bumper sticker made that says this.

[James]

Well I had never read this blog before. And I won't read it again. Not my style of house, or my style of redecorating. Don't mind the painted brick, only change I really liked, but to do away with knotty pine in my opinion is clearly a mental disorder, love that stuff(but never met a woman who did). Actually about the only thing in the house I did like. But its their house.

[downtowndahlgren]

Hey James - I like knotty pine, depending on the room and style of the house. I owned a mid-century ranch that had a knotty pine family room, and it was the coziest room in the house, especially when the wood fireplace was in use.

[James]

Well you are a rarity then. Most women I have come across can't stand it. They seem to have a real problem with natural wood. Of course my place is not knotty pine paneling per se, but it is knotty pines predecessor, beaded edge wide pine sheathing boards, and rare in that they have never been painted. Rare enough that Preservation NC included those in the convenants which is odd. Normally the convenants don't dictate much about what you can and can't do with the interiors, only example I know of where they keep you from painting parts of the interior.
And as for those kitchen cabinets, if they reused them they must have flipped them around because they were raised panels and now they are flat panels. Possible if the the back sides were flat paneled. But still, much preferred the old kitchen. But the room with the brick, will agree looks better now, but then I don't claim to like brick outside of a chimney or two. And the new bath room sink, not a fan. But as already said, it's their house and not one that I would have strong feelings about at all, aside from the knotty pine. Original patio was nicer to in my opinion, tho condition could have required that to be redone if it was unlevel due to roots etc. Like someone else said, all just to Pottery Barn. But lots of folks hate my place, in the words of my youngest nephew, "whats with all the old stuff".

[triguy128]

I tend ot agree. Most mid centuriy homes are only one small step removed frmo post war tract homes. Or they are odd contemporary ccustom homes. But either way, while there are elements worth saving such as good quality asbestos lineoluem if it's a nice color, plaster walls, large picture windows, and and neat built-ins. But otherwise, I see little difference as you transition to the 60's and 70's and we know plenty about the quality and chanracter of most 70's and on homes. Ranches, ranches, more ranches, pretend colonials because there are shutters on them and fake divides, and ohhhh... then you have the neoecclectics. Oh... and the split levels. I've never been in a split level that flowed well or felt bright, or warm & inviting. Most seems like dark caves that you explore to find out what's there.

[eperot]

Most women I have come across can't stand it. They seem to have a real problem with natural wood.

This is perfect. So true. You should have seen my wife's reaction when I told her I wanted a wooden seat for our toilet. She thought it was disgusting and would look terrible and basically that hell would freeze over before she would let one in the house. I told her it was historically accurate but no doing. White seat it is. That has to be replaced periodically because it's made of MDF that doesn't hold up. But I'm not bitter.

[nezwick]

Most mid centuriy homes are only one small step removed frmo post war tract homes. Or they are odd contemporary ccustom homes. But otherwise, I see little difference as you transition to the 60's and 70's and we know plenty about the quality and chanracter of most 70's and on homes.

I agree that this is true a lot of the time. For example, we looked at three houses built in the 1940s and they had a lot of individuality - even the dumpy, cobbled together one had some quirky character that I liked. However, when my girlfriend and I first started dating, she and her parents lived in a cookie-cutter 1960's ranch and it was so boring and bland that I wouldn't have cared one bit if someone did a complete gut-reno. The only things it had going for it was hardwood floors and the pink/blue bathroom with original fixtures (though the bathroom needed a major restoration effort). Much of the kitchen was probably original but it was poorly done from the beginning (plywood?) so probably not worth saving.

One difference between mid-century houses and old houses is that even the cheapest, most basic old houses are usually really cool. Our house is pretty much the farthest thing from "fancy" or upscale, and everything is crooked/unsquare/unlevel but it's built like a tank and has a great NON open-concept layout.

Neoecclectics - ICK !

[circuspeanut]

Most women I have come across can't stand it. They seem to have a real problem with natural wood.

This is perfect. So true. You should have seen my wife's reaction when I told her I wanted a wooden seat for our toilet. She thought it was disgusting and would look terrible and basically that hell would freeze over before she would let one in the house. I told her it was historically accurate but no doing. White seat it is. That has to be replaced periodically because it's made of MDF that doesn't hold up. But I'm not bitter.

That's a generational thing, I suspect? My mother is also from the era when stained wood implied a social "hardscrabble" status, i.e., that you weren't classy enough to put a glossy fake finish on it.

But many women really don't think like that; I insisted on stained, not painted, kitchen cabinetry. And I was the one who had to cajole my boyfriend into stripping the painted trim in our entire old house. He loves it now, but it was like dragging the dog to the vet at first --

[downtowndahlgren]

Re" the "generational" thing - my now 93-year old Mom used to paint the entire house annually (inside; it was a brick row house). My Dad used to joke that the square footage had decreased during the 30 some years they lived there.

[JRC]

I'm not a big follower of MCM architecture, but the high-end stuff can be interesting. IMO, it's sad to see some of the original features of this house removed, even if I'm not interested in them.

I must laugh a little at those who say "it's only a MCM home, so who cares if those silly original features are ripped out." 50 years ago, people were saying the same thing about our craftsman, foursquare, and Victorian homes, and many of us are doing our best to put those original features back, and cursing the PO's who took them out in the first place.