Show us your vintage home!

[Fading Fast]

Point taken. :nod:

I wish you good luck with the apartment. Will you be trying to restore the kitchen? And congratulations again, on the vintage-loving super.

Thank you for your kind wishes. We are going to restore the kitchen and have been doing a lot of research as it was completely redone in the last ten or so years and other than the radiator (thank God) does not have one original detail left. In addition to tons of bookmarked sites and my girlfriend's kitchen Pinterest page, we have all these books on architecture, kitchens, etc. of the 1920s scattered around our apartment.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fading Fast, I love your bathroom! I live in a huge 1800s rowhouse that has been covered to apartments and I have a bathroom that was done much more recently and very cheaply, very blah, but recently my neighbor downstairs redid his bathroom and considering the claw foot tub and pedestal sink that was being thrown out, I'd say he had one of the original bathrooms in the house and frankly it really upsets me that he destroyed it and put something modern in. I'm also just really jealous because my bathroom has none of that historic charm.

I weep with you that he threw those things out - it breaks my heart. I am so fortunate that our new super is a vintage nut like we are (I spent half an hour with him the other day looking at old doorknobs and light fixtures he saved as people just toss this stuff when they renovate in our building).

I also feel a responsibility to preserve the last original bathroom in the building (but even if there were 59 others, I would preserve it) as it feels so right in the building - the big porcelain handles, the crazy sink with the water coming out off the back part of it (not out of a faucet), the beautifully finished tile work - it's all incredible and so right for the building and apartment.

The light fixtures were replaced, but we have found (on Ebay) and bought two original 1920s bathroom fixtures (an overhead and a light over the medicine cabinet - which is still original) that look like they could have been original to the bathroom and, at least, are truly from the 1920s.

Your desk is outrageous as are the other vintage items shown like that beautiful gladstone.

 

[LadyBaltimore]

This looks great!! Very creative re-purposing. I really like it.

The desk is very nice too.

I can't believe your neighbor pitched a claw foot tub. Even if they are rusted , they can be restored, and they fetch big $$$.

Thank you! It wasn't even rusted either, it looked to still be in great condition, so did the sink.

 

[LadyBaltimore]

I weep with you that he threw those things out - it breaks my heart. I am so fortunate that our new super is a vintage nut like we are (I spent half an hour with him the other day looking at old doorknobs and light fixtures he saved as people just toss this stuff when they renovate in our building).

I also feel a responsibility to preserve the last original bathroom in the building (but even if there were 59 others, I would preserve it) as it feels so right in the building - the big porcelain handles, the crazy sink with the water coming out off the back part of it (not out of a faucet), the beautifully finished tile work - it's all incredible and so right for the building and apartment.

The light fixtures were replaced, but we have found (on Ebay) and bought two original 1920s bathroom fixtures (an overhead and a light over the medicine cabinet - which is still original) that look like they could have been original to the bathroom and, at least, are truly from the 1920s.

Your desk is outrageous as are the other vintage items shown like that beautiful gladstone.

Your super sounds awesome! I'd love anybody who I could appreciate things like old doorknobs and light fixtures with! Do most the people in your building own their apartments? I'm hesitate to invest much money in any renovation projects in my apartment, due to only being a renter, and of course, I'd also need to the approval of my landlord. Luckily no one's messed with the original hardwood floors and there's still some original details around, but ah, the bathrooms and kitchen are an eyesore, I really don't know what to do with them.

Have you ever seen the show Rehab Addict? She's always restoring bathrooms (the whole house really) like yours, and if she doesn't have the original fixtures, she'll find some from the same era that look like they belong and I love that. So many people who fix up old houses want to modernize them, and she's all about putting things back the way they used to be.

Thank you so much, I'm glad you like them!

 

[dh66]

Thank you! It wasn't even rusted either, it looked to still be in great condition, so did the sink.

What a fool. I see stuff like this all the time. When someone wants a trendy remodel, I hate to see it but it is their house so it's their business, but I have to shake my head at what people throw away because they have no idea it might actually be worth something to someone else. They are truly robbing themselves.

Whenever I am involved in a remodel (I am a plumber) and I see someone about to pitch out something worthwhile, I always 'volunteer' to haul it off for them.

 

[DecoDame]

Fading Fast: What a score! Very pleased that you two have landed in such a place and that it can be properly appreciated and preserved. So a score for the apartment itself, as far as I'm concerned!

That reminds me of my first city apartment I got out of high school. It was preserved more out of benign neglect than purposeful preservation (I still remember fondly the time I was brushing my teeth and the plaster ceiling above the tub next to me crashed into the tub. I've told myself since it was a tub leak from the apartment above, not a toilet). But still glad I experienced that whole building in it's run down glory.

(FF: Too much to ask that your radiator is still functioning eh? )

Lady Baltimore: What a great desk area! Very creative. (The arched windows behind the fellow in the b/w picture make it look like he has angel's wings) And whatever "Rehab Addict" I can find on-line, I devour! At last someone who nurtures the historical elements on one of those shows!

I grit my teeth too, over ripping out period items to stuff it with trendy box store furnishings that it's a wonder I have any molars left - but it really gets me when usable items are just trashed, not even sent to salvage or left out front for someone with sense to grab. That's just criminal. I wish I could make a citizen's citation for "acts of architectural stupidity and waste" when that happens...

 

[Fading Fast]

Lady Baltimore: It is a coop apartment house where everyone owns their own apartment. Otherwise, and like you, we would not put any money into fixing it up. We waited a long time to be able to do this. I have not seen "Rehab Addict" but will now look for - thank you for the tip.

DecoDame - unbelievably, but it and the other two original radiators still work (we are so pumped, they were hissing away the other day when we were up there). And I have lived in many "original not by choice" apartments in this city which have had some great original details amidst the decay and not-working-well water, heat, etc. And I'll join your citizen citation watch group anytime - it pains me to see what gets thrown away.

This (picture below) is another original working radiator in the apartment - it is in the other bathroom (which, other than this radiator has been redone and which we are going to restore back to 1920s era). How cool is this crazy thing with the pipes coming in and out of the wall like that? It's been painted over a hundred times (which well have stripped off so that it looks like it did in the '20s):

 

[esteban68]

Yes, it's the old house where we live. The table was my great grandmother's table (1847-1928), and the silverware was my grandmother's (1882-1983). The hutch was my Mom and Dad's that they got in 1952. The portrait (of me) was done by my son. Having "connections" like these make it all the better.

The portrait has a distinct feel of Joseph Wright of Derby to it BM!

 

[LadyBaltimore]

What a fool. I see stuff like this all the time. When someone wants a trendy remodel, I hate to see it but it is their house so it's their business, but I have to shake my head at what people throw away because they have no idea it might actually be worth something to someone else. They are truly robbing themselves.

Whenever I am involved in a remodel (I am a plumber) and I see someone about to pitch out something worthwhile, I always 'volunteer' to haul it off for them.

See, I wish I had a job where I could haul off people's unwanted rusty gold. That's great that you save those pieces!

Lady Baltimore: What a great desk area! Very creative. (The arched windows behind the fellow in the b/w picture make it look like he has angel's wings) And whatever "Rehab Addict" I can find on-line, I devour! At last someone who nurtures the historical elements on one of those shows!

I grit my teeth too, over ripping out period items to stuff it with trendy box store furnishings that it's a wonder I have any molars left - but it really gets me when usable items are just trashed, not even sent to salvage or left out front for someone with sense to grab. That's just criminal. I wish I could make a citizen's citation for "acts of architectural stupidity and waste" when that happens...

Thank you! It was my late grandfather's desk. I keep just as much stuff on it as he did...neither of us are/were the sparse-desk kind of people with like a lamp and a notepad and nothing else. That photo is an old postcard, one of my favorites I've ever found, the man only has one boxing glove on, as well, and I don't know, there's just something great about him, I've had it on my desk for years, and I love that you noticed it even though it's just a small detail in the whole scope of my desk.

I don't own a TV, but as a nanny, I'm able to watch shows on demand at work, been catching up with the new season of Rehab Addict lately. Every time she lovingly restores the hardwood floors no matter how many pet stains or what abuse it's been through, even using the sub-flooring, I'm just like, "God bless you," haha. Carpet has no place in my heart either.

 

[LadyBaltimore]

Lady Baltimore: It is a coop apartment house where everyone owns their own apartment. Otherwise, and like you, we would not put any money into fixing it up. We waited a long time to be able to do this. I have not seen "Rehab Addict" but will now look for - thank you for the tip.

I'd actually love it if I could buy my apartment because it's great space, asides from the bathrooms and kitchen, which all being small, could probably be done feasibly over the years. So glad you own though and can take your apartment back to it's original beauty!

That radiator is lovely. I'm a sucker for old radiators and struggle to understand people who want to hide them! Show us a photo of it after you've stripped the paint? Or really, I'd love it if you kept us updated on any restoration projects you're doing in your place.

 

[dh66]

Thank you! It was my late grandfather's desk. I keep just as much stuff on it as he did...neither of us are/were the sparse-desk kind of people with like a lamp and a notepad and nothing else.......

 

[Fading Fast]

I'd actually love it if I could buy my apartment because it's great space, asides from the bathrooms and kitchen, which all being small, could probably be done feasibly over the years. So glad you own though and can take your apartment back to it's original beauty!

That radiator is lovely. I'm a sucker for old radiators and struggle to understand people who want to hide them! Show us a photo of it after you've stripped the paint? Or really, I'd love it if you kept us updated on any restoration projects you're doing in your place.

Like you, I love old radiators - hate that they took them out of several rooms, but am grateful for the ones that are there. And we have no intention of covering them up. I know I'm crazy, but I love their hiss and clonking. I plan to take more pictures and to update as we go. It's all a little intimidating, but also, exciting.

 

[sheeplady]

It is new! If I would have just used my low tech coat hanger I would have had it done in a few minutes. With he coat hanger, if you get hung up, you just pull real hard and the hook unbends. Still, would rather have these problems, as apposed to foundation or structural!

Ah, I've dealt with my share of structural issues, mainly rotted sills. Two in the 1980s addition in the 1942 house and a small corner in the 1853 house.

It seems as if I'm not interested in buying a house unless:
1. You can see outside the house from the inside, not just through doors and windows.
2. There must be several species of animals living inside the house, including (but not limited to): mice, squirrels, and bats. Bonus points for raccoons.
3. Someone must have locked their pet inside and not allowed them out to use the bathroom.
4. There must be garbag left in the house, strewn about the floor.
5. It must be abandoned at least a year.
6. Several real estate agents must refuse to show it because of the smell, looks, garbage, animals, etc.
7. The house must have potential. It hapens to only be potential I can see, but it IS THERE, I TELL YOU.

 

[Stearmen]

Fading Fast, I love your bathroom! I live in a huge 1800s rowhouse that has been covered to apartments and I have a bathroom that was done much more recently and very cheaply, very blah, but recently my neighbor downstairs redid his bathroom and considering the claw foot tub and pedestal sink that was being thrown out, I'd say he had one of the original bathrooms in the house and frankly it really upsets me that he destroyed it and put something modern in. I'm also just really jealous because my bathroom has none of that historic charm.

And here I am trying to find a claw foot tub!

 

[vitanola]

Brown isn't a color. It's a state of mind.

Very Victorian

Actually, a "Brown Living Room" was rather a cliche for the last half of the Nineteenth Century and first forty years of so of the last. Brown was seen as a safe, sober and prudent color choice for a Parlor or Living Room, so of course the "creative types" ridiculed it mercilessly. Even so, I think it took the excesses of the 1970's to put the days of the universal subpar ban Family Room decorated in various shades of Mud Glub to rest.

Even so, I'm doing a brown living room in the house that I'm currently restoring, for it is so typical of the period.

 

[Stearmen]

Have you ever seen the show Rehab Addict? She's always restoring bathrooms (the whole house really) like yours, and if she doesn't have the original fixtures, she'll find some from the same era that look like they belong and I love that. So many people who fix up old houses want to modernize them, and she's all about putting things back the way they used to be.

Thank you so much, I'm glad you like them!

That is a good show!

 

[LadyBaltimore]

Like you, I love old radiators - hate that they took them out of several rooms, but am grateful for the ones that are there. And we have no intention of covering them up. I know I'm crazy, but I love their hiss and clonking. I plan to take more pictures and to update as we go. It's all a little intimidating, but also, exciting.

One of the families I nannied for had radiators, such a great sound indeed and the one that was in the bathroom made that room so toasty warm compared to most bathrooms I've used. Sound really sets the atmosphere, I mean, its part of the reason I still use typewriters sometimes, and yesterday I finally hooked up my old rotary telephone and then found myself calling my landline repeatedly from my cell phone just to hear that incredible ring, a far cry from the ringtones of today. I also love the way the receiver feels in my hand, curved beautifully and weighty. It feels so different from the cheap home phone I had before, that was all flat and lightweight plastic. Then there's the fun of dialing a number in circular motions instead of punching buttons.

 

[LadyBaltimore]

That is a good show!

Yay, fun finding more fans of this show here! If I say HGTV, most people think House Hunters, Love It or List It, shows like that, which are okay-ish, but I some of the renovations they do on shows are exactly the kind of renovations I hate, that is, when people destroy the original, old character of a home in lieu of inexpensive modern updates. So, needless to say, Rehab Addict is kind of in a class of it's own, in that she truly cares about the homes and isn't just looking to make a buck on a quick flip.

 

[Panadora]

... It took two coats of primer and two coats of paint to cover that ****.

The master bedroom is a shade of green that is almost that dark. I haven't mustered the energy (or spare $$) to tackle it yet.

All these difficult dark colors have one special feature; the room kind of disappears in the evening then it's dark outside and leaving attention only to what's going in the light clusters from lit lamps.

Here is a perfect example of classic Danish design (not my apartment unfortunately)

 

[Bushman]

It's like he knows me! lol