Show us your vintage home!

[AmateisGal]

Sorry these are a little blurry, but...


This is my entertainment centre.

My writing area.

I love that radio! And the writing area is great! Do you mind me asking what it is that you write? There are a few other writers here at the FL (and I'm one of them!).

 

[dhermann1]

Big Man, is that a linoleum rug on the floor? It looks like a classic section of rug patterned linoleum. Folks might not take note of it, but they're all the rage now. In the Victorian cottage I sold a few years ago, there was a linoleum rug that had a complete simulated oriental rug pattern to it. Very cool.

 

[RetroPat]

Big Man,
Thank you for sharing your home with us. It is one of the most beautiful and inviting spaces I have seen in a while. It reminds of pictures I've seen of my grandfather's childhood home. It was torn down for a trailer park before I was born, and I wish it still existed so that I could make the same kinds of renovations you made to your house. I would love to renovate a home, and I think having one with the sentimental value that yours does would make the project that much more enjoyable.

 

[Minerva]

Big Man, you've done a beautiful job. It's just stunning! :eusa_clap

 

[Down2BDapper]

Do you mind me asking what it is that you write?

Not at all. Mostly I write short stories, almost all of which are crime suspense fiction. I am also working on a play, which is kind of a melancholy dramedy. What sort of stuff do you write?

 

[Big Man]

Big Man, is that a linoleum rug on the floor? It looks like a classic section of rug patterned linoleum. Folks might not take note of it, but they're all the rage now. In the Victorian cottage I sold a few years ago, there was a linoleum rug that had a complete simulated oriental rug pattern to it. Very cool.

I guess you could call it a "linoleum rug". It's not as wide/long as the room, and is tacked down around the edges. That one has been there since the mid-1960's, as I do recall when the "old" one was replaced. The old piece of linoleum was a darker blue with a smaller design. Who knows how old that piece was, but I can remember it was pretty well worn out (thus the replacement).

I thought about taking this piece up, but believe I'll leave it there. It's so much a part of the house that I just can't bear to remove it, even though there are some really bad worn places.

 

[J. M. Stovall]

We had one in one of out rooms when we bought the house. We left it for several years but it started to fall apart and we threw it away. When we pulled it up it disintegrated in our hands.

 

[MadelienneBlack]

Big man, please post pictures of your kitchen! If your dining room is that lovely, I can only imagine what the kitchen looks like.

And Dapper, your appartment is so perfect. My bedroom looks surprisingly similar to your room. We also have the same lamp and radio.

 

[Down2BDapper]

Oh yeah? Which lamp? You should totally post some photos of your place here.

 

[MadelienneBlack]

Oh yeah? Which lamp? You should totally post some photos of your place here.

The green desk lamp with the gold stand. The quintessential lamp to complete the look of any vintage desk.

I've lived in the same house all my life, and this past summer I completely gutted my room and redecorated starting all over from the beginning. It's done now, but I didn't get a chance to finish putting up all of the wall decorations before I had to leave to go back to college. When ever I'm home next I'll be sure to finish decorating and then I'll snap some pictures so we can compare.

 

[Big Man]

Big man, please post pictures of your kitchen! If your dining room is that lovely, I can only imagine what the kitchen looks like ...

I wouldn't consider the kitchen "lovely", as it's just an old "country kitchen". But, since you asked, here are some pictures ...

This is looking from the dining room into the kitchen. The stove is a Hotpoint from about 1948. My Mother and Dad started housekeeping with this stove and when they got a "new stove", brought this one to my Grandmother's house. She didn't like the thought of an electric stove, so it sat on the back porch for several years before she finally consented to let it replace her wood cookstove (which sat in about the same place). The little plate on the wall above the stove was my Dad's "baby plate" from 1924, and has a Little Red Riding Hood theme painted on the plate. The refrigerator is the most modern appliance in the house (it's only about 30 years old). The first "refrigerator" (ice box) sat out on the back porch. There is still a hole in the porch floor where the drain from that old ice box was.

Behind this curtain is a pass-through window into the pantry (that has a door that opens in the Dining room). The window is not anything really practical, and serves only to allow cold air to come in the kitchen during the winter. The kitchen table is the same table that's been in the house since at least 1917.

And last but not least is the kitchen sink (excuse the dishes in the drying rack). The door to the right of the sink is the back door that opens onto a large screened-in porch.

So, there you have it. Nothing fancy, just a country kitchen.

 

[MadelienneBlack]

So, there you have it. Nothing fancy, just a country kitchen.

Well, maybe not fancy, but it's quite cozy looking! I find a smaller kitchen more comfortable anyway. I just want to say I love the splendid job you've done preserving all of your family's heirloom items! Kudos to you on such a wonderful home.:eusa_clap

 

[Big Man]

Well, maybe not fancy, but it's quite cozy looking! I find a smaller kitchen more comfortable anyway. I just want to say I love the splendid job you've done preserving all of your family's heirloom items! Kudos to you on such a wonderful home.:eusa_clap

Thank you. I am truly fortunate to be able to have kept all the old things in place, and maintain somewhat of a connection with the past. There are so many good memories associated with the old house and the old things, and I try my best to pass those all along to my children and grandchildren.

Back in the "old days" the kitchen was a place to cook the meal and the dining room was a place to eat the meal. This was the case hear at my grandmother's. My dad said that they always ate breakfast in the kitchen, but dinner and supper were in the dining room.

By the time I came around, my grandmother had "converted" the dining room to her bedroom (my aunt had the other down stairs bedroom), so everyone always ate in the kitchen (or on the back porch during the summer).

 

[MadelienneBlack]

My dad said that they always ate breakfast in the kitchen, but dinner and supper were in the dining room.

This is a tad off topic, but it always catches me off gaurd when I hear dinner and supper used to describe two different things. Where I'm from (and maybe even a bit of when, as in my generation), dinner and supper are the same. Lunch is the mid-day meal. lol

 

[Big Man]

This is a tad off topic, but it always catches me off gaurd when I hear dinner and supper used to describe two different things. Where I'm from (and maybe even a bit of when, as in my generation), dinner and supper are the same. Lunch is the mid-day meal. lol

Where I'm from (and, I guess it's more of a "generational thing"), the mid-day meal is dinner, as that is the main (i.e. "big meal") meal of the day. Supper is usually a lighter meal.

That's the way it was when I was growing up. [huh]

 

[J. M. Stovall]

It's a southern thing, my family said the same thing. I still spring it on people to confuse them.

More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch

 

[Bluebird]

Dinner/Supper

My Great-gram used to call Lunch "Dinner" as well. Gramma was from England, and it seems that the south has a lot of the English manners/isms. (Or is it just me?)

I have also heard that it depends on the time of day. Dinner being an earlier meal. Tea at 3, Dinner at 5, and Supper at 8. [huh]

I guess with North America being as Global as it is, there is bound to be several definitions!

Big Man, I've been watching your progress and may I say I wish I had your home. My family doesn't have a "homestead", we seemed to be constantly on the move. I am very jealous. I hope your home stays in your family another hundred years! Congrats...great job...

^_^bluebird

 

[Creeping Past]

There's sometimes a social class-related usage of these terms in the UK, but that's not to say this is a fixed thing, because they're used differently in different parts of the country.

When I was growing up it was breakfast, dinner (midday), tea (early evening meal). My parents were part of the new middle class of the 1960s and 70s and trying to leave working class ways behind, but they still kept the same meals.

Other kids at school talked of having dinner in the evening and lunch in the middle of the day. Some had parents who were well off and much better educated.

If you're British and you still call your evening meal 'tea' you're very probably working class and/or from the North.

Thanks for the photos, Big Man, you've kept the place looking like a proper home.

 

[FStephenMasek]

Hi there, everyone! I've been lurking up until now, but I couldn't resist joining the show-n-tell!

I see that there are at least two of us who collect old radios. I restore them electronically and am trying to learn to refinish the wood. I've got about 50 now. I'll sell most of them when I am finished with them, just keeping the most interesting and best sounding ones. Studying how they were made, where they were made, and so forth are the most enjoyable aspects, although I am starting to see that bringing back some wonderful wood cabinets hidden under yellowed old lacquer might also eb very rewwarding.

 

[Bluebird]

Colour!!

Wow, Atomic Glee! What fab-u-lous colours! I love the texture of the walls (I see in the hall) is that stipple? I don't know the name for it, but it looks great!

^_^bluebird