Creating your living time capsule

[PrettySquareGal]

My vintage webbed lawn chairs are my favorite- just like the ones that belong to the older folks in my neighborhood. Some of them will sit in front of their garage on a nice day and relax and engage in small talk with passers-by.

"I've got better things to do than sit around!"

How often do you hear that? OK, so what's better? Obsessing over twitter and facebook? Playing video games? Eating junk in front of the TV?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The hallmark of summer when I was a kid was sitting on the front porch with the window to the living room open so you could hear the Red Sox game playing on the radio while my grandfather sucked on his pipe and my grandmother darned stockings. Absolute tranquility. Add a yellow light bulb to chase away the black flies, and it was just about perfect. On the rare summer nights when I don't work I can often be found on my own porch doing the same thing.

 

[Dan'l]

"I've got better things to do than sit around!"

How often do you hear that?

Too much, really you make a good point with the techno gadets (yes I'm using one now but will soon walk away)
It's all in how we choose to spend our time. I prefer people over gadets. Also, it seems more civil to ask questions like, "where did you get that webbed lawn chair?" compared to "Did you see what (fill in the blank) wore on tv last night?"
Sorry, I'm starting to rant.
This is a good thread. Thanks for starting it PrettySquareGal. Square is hip in the right circles

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Too much, really you make a good point with the techno gadets (yes I'm using one now but will soon walk away)
It's all in how we choose to spend our time. I prefer people over gadets. Also, it seems more civil to ask questions like, "where did you get that webbed lawn chair?" compared to "Did you see what (fill in the blank) wore on tv last night?"
Sorry, I'm starting to rant.
This is a good thread. Thanks for starting it PrettySquareGal. Square is hip in the right circles

Thanks for participating in the thread. It's always nice to be understood and "hip" is a bonus!

You make an excellent point about conversation openers, too. One values the people and present whereas the other is a joint venture into escapism. I knew the end was near when one of my real-life neighbors asked me to join her in Farmville. She and another neighbor proceeded to talk about that!

 

[Dan'l]

The hallmark of summer when I was a kid was sitting on the front porch with the window to the living room open so you could hear the Red Sox game playing on the radio while my grandfather sucked on his pipe and my grandmother darned stockings. Absolute tranquility. Add a yellow light bulb to chase away the black flies, and it was just about perfect. On the rare summer nights when I don't work I can often be found on my own porch doing the same thing.

What a wonderful memory you’ve shared. It immediately took me back to Saturday afternoons in the summer time. I would ride my bike up and down the alleys and from the garages I could hear the sound of transistor radios broadcasting the Cubs games while the men “tinkered” in the garage. I noticed that most of them were just sitting in the garage sipping beer and listening to the game. Somewhere nearby one can hear the sound of a lawn mower and the chirp of birds. The air smells of fresh mown grass and summer. The sun seemed brighter back then… Maybe my eyes are just dimmer now.

I know, I know, sentimental old me.

 

[Edward]

Much as I would love to fit out my flat entirely with late Forties / early Fifties (and earlier) style furniture (this would be appropriate, the block having opened in 1952), it's simply a matter of practicalities and economics: I require a large amount of storage / shelving (for DVDs, books, and the like), and I simply cannot find suitable vintage furniture which meets my needs and which I can also afford. I'm in the position of doing the best I can with what I can afford. Most of my furniture is actually IKEA, though it is entirely possible to find some very nice pieces in there if one is prepared to make the effort to look for them. Unfortunately, again, the quantity of shelving I require kills the chances of me being able to go for anything sold to meet that need, but maybe one day when the money is available. I do at least hope eventually to buy a Deco-style sofa, though that's not financially viable at present.

 

[rue]

I pretty much live in a time capsule that stopped somewhere around the late 1950s, at least at first glance.
People have a hard time understanding us when they walk in to our home. For example, our house (built in 1908) was on an antique home tour to benefit the historical society in our town and I was asked countless times where all our electronics were. When I told them that most of them were hidden including the modern phones because I think they're ugly, there was a lot of strange looks, especially when they couldn't find the microwave (It's hidden in the pantry). I was asked how I cooked without one in the kitchen and then was treated to even stranger looks when I told them I only use it to heat up the dog food and sometimes melt butter.
I have a tiny tv in the kitchen to watch the morning news and we have one in the den (which is hidden) for night time viewing, both are only on about 2 hours if that and then they are turned off. There has never been a TV in our bedroom.
It's also odd to have someone over that we don't know very well and they find me in the kitchen with my hair done, make-up on and wearing an apron while baking something or making dinner with my old music playing. They almost always say something stupid like "oh how cute"

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Speaking of microwave ovens in old houses, please be safe and don't use them if your wiring is knob-and-tube, for example. Older wiring wasn't designed to withstand the higher voltages and burdens of many modern day appliances and a fire can spark.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I pretty much live in a time capsule that stopped somewhere around the late 1950s, at least at first glance.
People have a hard time understanding us when they walk in to our home. For example, our house (built in 1908) was on an antique home tour to benefit the historical society in our town and I was asked countless times where all our electronics were. When I told them that most of them were hidden including the modern phones because I think they're ugly, there was a lot of strange looks, especially when they couldn't find the microwave (It's hidden in the pantry). I was asked how I cooked without one in the kitchen and then was treated to even stranger looks when I told them I only use it to heat up the dog food and sometimes melt butter.

This is pretty much the same way I'm set up -- I have a microwave that was given to me as a present in 1988, and when it goes, I don't think I'll bother to replace it. I use it to heat up leftovers when I'm in a hurry, but otherwise it's just a glorified stand to sit a Kleenex box on top of. It's over in a corner of the pantry and you don't see it if you're not looking for it.

I have kind of a chronological melange in my house. My living room has a reupholstered Victorian couch, an Edwardian pump organ, a 1920s coffee table, an early-thirties telephone, a mid-thirties easy chair, a console radio and phonograph attachment from 1937, and a 1954 table-model television set. There's a VCR stuck off in the corner on a bookcase, but you can't see it unless you look behind the edge of the couch. Most of the accessories are prewar/early postwar vintage, and the general aesthetic is of a room first decorated in the mid-thirties, using whatever was at hand, and updated only very occasionally since.

Which is pretty much the aesthetic that I grew up with, so it feels very natural to be in such a room. Anything else would feel jarring to me.

My house was built in 1911, and to think of it as "an antique home" is also jarring.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Speaking of sitting in lawn chairs in the summertime, during the summer, my Pa and I will set up lawn chairs in front of the gun shop and talk to people walking by. One of my favorite times doing that was these people asked me to watch their motorcycles, they thought I was the sheriff, which happens a lot around here haha.

 

[rue]

Speaking of microwave ovens in old houses, please be safe and don't use them if your wiring is knob-and-tube, for example. Older wiring wasn't designed to withstand the higher voltages and burdens of many modern day appliances and a fire can spark.

Not to worry. It was done before we moved in

This is pretty much the same way I'm set up -- I have a microwave that was given to me as a present in 1988, and when it goes, I don't think I'll bother to replace it. I use it to heat up leftovers when I'm in a hurry, but otherwise it's just a glorified stand to sit a Kleenex box on top of. It's over in a corner of the pantry and you don't see it if you're not looking for it.

I have kind of a chronological melange in my house. My living room has a reupholstered Victorian couch, an Edwardian pump organ, a 1920s coffee table, an early-thirties telephone, a mid-thirties easy chair, a console radio and phonograph attachment from 1937, and a 1954 table-model television set. There's a VCR stuck off in the corner on a bookcase, but you can't see it unless you look behind the edge of the couch. Most of the accessories are prewar/early postwar vintage, and the general aesthetic is of a room first decorated in the mid-thirties, using whatever was at hand, and updated only very occasionally since.

Which is pretty much the aesthetic that I grew up with, so it feels very natural to be in such a room. Anything else would feel jarring to me.

My house was built in 1911, and to think of it as "an antique home" is also jarring.

I like that... a chronological melange.... that's how it is in our house too. I really wish you would take some pictures of the rest of your house Lizzie. I just love your kitchen.

Being in most peoples homes is jarring to me. Heck, most places in general are.

Oh and I just think of our house as a nice older home, but those are the words the tour people used. I wouldn't even have been on it, if it wasn't to raise money for a good cause. I'm not one to let a bunch of strangers into my home normally.

 

[subject101]

I was asked countless times where all our electronics were. When I told them that most of them were hidden including the modern phones because I think they're ugly

Well, since I'm into the 40s era, I don't have anything against electronics but I agree modern designs are ugly.

I'd like to turn one of those modern flat screen tvs or my computer monitor into an old Predicta set, like this one;

Perfect for watching old B series horror movies. I already own a vintage radio reproducction and an early century vintage wall phone.

 

[rue]

Well, since I'm into the 40s era, I don't have anything against electronics but I agree modern designs are ugly.

I'd like to turn one of those modern flat screen tvs or my computer monitor into an old Predicta set, like this one;

Perfect for watching old B series horror movies. I already own a vintage radio reproducction and an early century vintage wall phone.

I should specify :eusa_doh: Electronics from the modern era are ugly, but electronics from the past are a whole different animal
I have been dreaming of doing that to an old TV myself (swoon)

 

[subject101]

An amazing retro designed computer here;

http://www.schultzeworks.com/philcopc/

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I am a firm believer that TV's should never have the ability to mount to a wall (which my HD loving best friend would disagree completely). They are meant to look something similar to this!

 

[Marla]

I don't think I could stand to live in a modern-built house -- the whole flimsy feeling of wallboard, hollow-core doors, and particle-board cabinetry unsettles me, as does the general sterility of modern design. I go to places like that and I feel like I'm in a branch bank in a small town strip mall, and that's not a pleasant feeling.

I went from living in my parents' 1935-built, never-restored home to living in a modern apartment and it's quite frankly horrible. Textured walls! Not to mention anachronistic with my 1940s furnishings. A move is in my imminent future.

 

[Diamondback]

I am a firm believer that TV's should never have the ability to mount to a wall (which my HD loving best friend would disagree completely). They are meant to look something similar to this!

Cabinets are nice for smaller screens, but when you're looking at a 52"... well, I'm thinking have flip-up chartboards mounted over it to retract up against the ceiling when it's time to screen a movie or fire up the TV-on-DVD box-sets.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

That's a great idea for such a large screen. A lot of people have necessity for such a big screen, just not me. As I've mentioned before, I'm still watching TV on the same console I did as a kid. I just love the warm character they possess. I used to be an electronics salesman and selling those LCD and Plasma Sets, you'd think I would've picked one up. They're just not me and they'd stick out like a sore thumb in my Eisenhower-era decorated home.

Cabinets are nice for smaller screens, but when you're looking at a 52"... well, I'm thinking have flip-up chartboards mounted over it to retract up against the ceiling when it's time to screen a movie or fire up the TV-on-DVD box-sets.

 

[martinsantos]

When my wife wanted a Tv set I offered to buy a vintage one (she wanted a new). I tried to offer her that if we get a vintage Tv, I could by to her too a Playstation to use in it!!!

Unhappilly she didn't agree with my propose.

Well, since I'm into the 40s era, I don't have anything against electronics but I agree modern designs are ugly.

I'd like to turn one of those modern flat screen tvs or my computer monitor into an old Predicta set, like this one;

Perfect for watching old B series horror movies. I already own a vintage radio reproducction and an early century vintage wall phone.

 

[martinsantos]

Back to the theme... Certainly I'm making my home with the thinks I like. Always lived in old buildings, from art nuveau (from 1922) to art deco (from 1937). Now I'm living in a 1948 building, almost untouched. All forniture is from the 40s. Just didn't get the time and money to buy the wood library I really want, but this is something that will come soon.