Show us your vintage home!

[dhermann1]

There's something about a home that's been preserved so perfectly like this that no modern attempt to reproduce can beat. This is a real genuine vintage home. It could be museum, except it looks fresh and tidy and lived in. Big Man, I think you've retired the cup for "Best Vintage Home". Reminds me of places I knew back in the 50's, homes that were old then, and just plain gone now.
I almost expect Andy Griffith to walk in the door!

 

[cookie]

There's something about a home that's been preserved so perfectly like this that no modern attempt to reproduce can beat. This is a real genuine vintage home. It could be museum, except it looks fresh and tidy and lived in. Big Man, I think you've retired the cup for "Best Vintage Home". Reminds me of places I knew back in the 50's, homes that were old then, and just plain gone now.
I almost expect Andy Griffith to walk in the door!

Love it - integrity - history - provenance - I sound like the Antiques Road Show lol lol

 

[deelovely]

Big Man, I absolutely adore your beautiful home! Thanks for sharing these pictures!

 

[Mid-fogey]

Big Man...

...great place. Awesome preservation by your family.

Our old place went to the wrecking ball last year.

 

[hotrod_elf]

Our 1950 Lanonn Stone

This house was built by a guy who did everything him self. The layout on the inside is different than most houses of that time. He also cut every stone by hand. In the closets instead of wallpaper he used 50's shelf contact paper.

 

[PeeWee]

Big Man - that is one fantastic house!!!!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap
WOW!

Ditto...a place like that with a slew of martin gourds...man I'd be in hog's heaven!

 

[MAGNAVERDE]

Big Man, those rooms--and those photgraphs-- are wonderful, but I'm an interior designer, and if these get out into the world at large, they could put me out of business.

Today, a lot of people are turned off by the fakery of the Tuscany-by-way-of T. J. Maxx look, or the slick white-lacquer-&-mirrored-furniture Hollywood Regency look, and they turn instead to Martha Stewart's calm, unfussy, pale-walled style, but put her rooms next to yours, and her version of 'simplicity' is immediately exposed for the stage-managed fraud that it is, while your place--despite the chrome on the stove & the modern thermostat on the wall--glows with the character & honest dignity of 19th Century Shaker rooms.

I've spent 2O years or so collecting photographs of vernacular interiors from about 185O on, so rooms like yours are not new to me, but to see them in full color--and, especially, without any intrusive, self-consciously "country" accessories added by the photographer--is rare. Thanks for posting these remarkable & evocative photos. They are going straight into my reference file.

M.

 

[Dr Doran]

Big Man -- stunning place.

 

[Big Man]

Thanks for the comments. The house has been "lived in" like this all along. Very little has changed since the day my grandparents moved in in 1917. I've been trying to find the "original" paint colors in the rooms, although the room colors in the photos have been the same since at least the early 1950's. Actually, except for the kitchen, the walls have not been painted since (at least) the 50's.

The paint in the kitchen (it had been green since as long as I could remember) was in real bad shape, so I gained access to behind the kitchen sink and discovered blue paint (I matched the color of the old as best I could with what is in the picture). I know my granddad added running water about 1920, so the blue paint for the kitchen was there at that time.

Other areas of the house have given clues to "original" paint schemes, but one thing that sticks in my mind is my aunt saying that "one time dad had the entire house painted this color". she was speaking of the eggshell/pale yellow color that all the downstairs rooms are now. My granddad died in 1932, so I know that the rooms downstairs have been the same color since at least that time.

It's a wonderful house and it's "home." It was good enough for my family to live there like that without "modern" furniture, so I can see no reason why I shouldn't as well.

 

[Dr Doran]

Isn't the mania for updating houses a sad one? People add and subtract things to "modernize" and they ruin them.

 

[Big Man]

As a general rule I like to see "old" stay as it was. However, using my house for an example. When my grandparents moved there in 1917, they did not have indoor plumbing or electricity. By about 1920, my granddad had added a bathroom (on the back porch) to replace the outhouse and running water. The running water was accomplished by having a gasoline powered pump in the basement that pumped water into a reservoir upstairs. Gravity then provided the pressure for the system. they had a water jacket and reservoir on the wood stove in the kitchen. In 1930, electricity came to Nebo. Each room had one light fixture on the ceiling, with the front room being the only room with base plugs.

So, in effect, they "modernized" the house then. The fact that its been 70 some years since the last "renovation" is another story. I guess it's all in how you look at things. [huh]

 

[dhermann1]

A Far Cry

A far cry from BigMan's lovely old home is this co-op biuilding in the Bronx. I have decided that I no longer can pay Brooklyn rents, and have been house hunting in the Bronx. I found a beautiful, and LARGE, apartment in this grand 1937 Art Deco gem of a building. Have't made a formal offer, yet, but I expect I will. 40% at most of the price of a comparable place in Brooklyn. Transportation is excellent, but amenities are definitely lacking in the area. Plenty of shopping, but not "upscale'. Like wise, no fancy schmany restaurants nearby. Easy commute to work.
It's a really elegant Deco place, with much nice detail, inside and out, plus it seems like it has very nice people in the building. And it's very well kept up. Now I have to do my home work and get my finances in order, as well as make a favorable impression with the board.
I'll let you all know how it progresses. You're all invited to the housewarming.

 

[Tommy Katkins]

Big Man I'm not easily impressed by the vintage homes of others' but your's is in a category all of its own...I also have to say it also looks vaguely haunted like you've made it homely for ghosts...

best wishes, TK

 

[Big Man]

Big Man I'm not easily impressed by the vintage homes of others' but your's is in a category all of its own...I also have to say it also looks vaguely haunted like you've made it homely for ghosts...

best wishes, TK

Thanks. I don't know that I've tried to make it "homely for ghosts" as it looks and is arranged just about the same as it has been for as long as I can remember. While I don't buy into the "haunted" feeling, I do feel the memory of my grandparents and aunts are strongest here. Of course I would also relate this feeling as the "feeling of home". I've tried hard to keep things the way they were, and this possibly contributes to that look.

 

[John K Stetson]

Nice Skillets

Big Man,

I noticed the cast iron skillets hanging on the kitchen wall - nice grouping. I recently returned to using a couple wondered why I stopped...found a place not far from me that has bunch. Friends picked up some true vintage items there, a Griswold and Wagner and they love them. What make are yours ?

 

[John K Stetson]

Passing the Board...

From dhermann1:

...as well as make a favorable impression with the board

No worries, dhermann1, just tell them you're a member of the Montauk Club

 

[Big Man]

Big Man,

I noticed the cast iron skillets hanging on the kitchen wall - nice grouping. I recently returned to using a couple wondered why I stopped...found a place not far from me that has bunch. Friends picked up some true vintage items there, a Griswold and Wagner and they love them. What make are yours ?

I have no idea what make they are, if there even is a maker's name on them. I'll take a look and see. These are the same iron skillets that my grandmother used for years and years, and that I've been using for at least the last 20 or 25 years.

There is an old Dutch oven that my grandmother used for baking that has places in the lid completely worn through. Do you know how much use it takes to wear out cast iron? Now that's a lot of cooking!

 

[dhermann1]

Montauk Club

From dhermann1:
No worries, dhermann1, just tell them you're a member of the Montauk Club

It's such a bummer! Now I'll be miles away, instead of a 10 minute walk. Kind of defeats the purpose.

 

[Babydoll]

I was doing a bit of research online this weekend, and I found a photo of the house I grew up in, circa 1926. It was a lumber mill owner's house, so there is a lot of evidence of the logging activity in the area. I've never seen such an old photo of the area, but I immediately knew which house it was by the roads. They have not changed in the past 80+ years.

As the house looked earlier this year:

 

[Big Man]

I was doing a bit of research online this weekend, and I found a photo of the house I grew up in, circa 1926. It was a lumber mill owner's house, so there is a lot of evidence of the logging activity in the area. I've never seen such an old photo of the area, but I immediately knew which house it was by the roads. They have not changed in the past 80+ years ...

That's a great find. Having a connection to the past like that is always interesting.