Show us your vintage home!

[Miss sofia]

Dubya those stairs are scary! nice house though...Miss Golightly I'd definately be saving the kitchen cupboars/sink etc, the fireplaces are a great Britsish take on 'Art Deco'. When we bought our first house(c 1987) we saw plenty like yours over here in Derbyshire with pot sinks, tiled fireplaces even leaded windows, I liked them the good lady didn't so we didn't buy one:-(
Sadly many of these 1920-1940's home especially the Council ones have been gutted over several years of 'improvements'!
Just last year we saw the council ripping out pitch pine 4 panel doors complete with cast iron/ brass handled snap locks, I managed to bag two complete doors as we were one short in our house across the street so I got a spare lock too!
The wife's grandmother died also last year and her house was untouched from the 1950's and the new owners gutted it, so out came the leaded deco windows, the fully tiled deco bathroom and the 'English Rose' sheet metal kitchen cabinets that were made just after WW2 in the same factories that made Spitfires! so very sad!

Oh dear God, i feel rather ill just reading about your wife's grandmother's home. It really makes me rather sad, when these lovely homes with all their character and original features are destroyed in the name of modernisation.

We still have the loo in our house downstairs next to the kitchen and most of the original doors and cupboards, no fireplaces sadly, but i'm grateful for what was left. I really am. But luckily a family had lived in my house for forty odd years and not done a thing to it. Then some property developer bought it when they died and ripped out all the fireplaces and windows.

My previous house, luckily was listed, so everything was pretty much intact, inglenook, bread oven, floors, the works. We even managed to get a grant to help with the re-thatching and to preserve some 16th century murals that were on the sitting room wall. Thank heavens there are laws in place to preserve such homes.

 

[esteban68]

On our estate(one of the garden city types) there are a few c 1920 houses left intact with original doors, windows and porches I bet that when the current owners depart they also will be butchered, a few years ago in our local paper there was a then and now feature and one of the photos showed workmen pulling out the 'old fashioned' windows and replacing them with modern UPVC...I think it was as recent as the 1990's!
I'll try and get up some photos of our house and perhaps some of the local gems that are left.

 

[esteban68]

On our estate(one of the garden city types) there are a few c 1920 houses left intact with original doors, windows and porches I bet that when the current owners depart they also will be butchered, a few years ago in our local paper there was a then and now feature and one of the photos showed workmen pulling out the 'old fashioned' windows and replacing them with modern UPVC...I think it was as recent as the 1990's!
I'll try and get up some photos of our house and perhaps some of the local gems that are left.

 

[Connery]

Sadly many of these 1920-1940's home especially the Council ones have been gutted over several years of 'improvements'!
Just last year we saw the council ripping out pitch pine 4 panel doors complete with cast iron/ brass handled snap locks, I managed to bag two complete doors as we were one short in our house across the street so I got a spare lock too!
The wife's grandmother died also last year and her house was untouched from the 1950's and the new owners gutted it, so out came the leaded deco windows, the fully tiled deco bathroom and the 'English Rose' sheet metal kitchen cabinets that were made just after WW2 in the same factories that made Spitfires! so very sad!

I find it curious that people would want to replace good, sturdy and well build aspects of their home, especially if there is nothing wrong with it to begin with. What you describe is reminiscent of "new construction". I do not know one person who has had a newly constructed home where there were not problems with the materials, workmanship or both. I will choose an "old" house over new construction any day of the week.

 

[tonyb]

I find it curious that people would want to replace good, sturdy and well build aspects of their home, especially if there is nothing wrong with it to begin with. What you describe is reminiscent of "new construction". I do not know one person who has had a newly constructed home where there were not problems with the materials, workmanship or both. I will choose an "old" house over new construction any day of the week.

I find all that curious (to understate the case) as well, Connery. Some of it might be attributed to the seemingly innate human desire to change things, to leave one's own mark. And some of it (maybe most) has to do with the seemingly innate human tendency to do silly things.

If I were younger and more knowledgable about construction and such and handier than I am, I'd prefer having an older home, too. But I've been around long enough now, and have made enough bad decisions, to have a better sense of what I am and am not able and/or willing to do. Among the many houses we looked at prior to buying the place we moved into in late '09 were a couple of late 19th century structures, which is quite old by local standards. One of those places was fairly well maintained and remained essentially faithful to its original look; and the other, well, no, not at all. Indeed, it was a real dump that had had whatever character it may have once had remodeled out of it over the many decades. The romantic in me was tempted by the first one, but the realist in me saw nothing but hassles and dollar signs. The realist won out.

The place we ended up buying was built in 1993. The quality of the construction is quite high, really. If anything, it's overbuilt. It doesn't have the character of that hundred-and-some-year-old place, but it suits our purposes better. I just hope that the person who bought that old place is the "right" person for that place -- you know, someone prepared to give it the TLC it needs to stay in decent shape and looking the way it ought to.

 

[Connery]

^^^
Excellent points tonyb. What I should have added was choose an "old" house over new construction", if practicable. Otherwise it could be a money pit or worse.

 

[Stearmen]

It is a shame, with todays high tech window factories, it is posable to get a completely modern window that looks right in an old house. Maybe not the hand blown glass, though that is being reproduced also. I often wondered why more new houses don't take their styling ques from Victorian houses. The technology is out there, and some of the better man made products look very convincing. I'm not necessarily talking a full on Queen Ann, but some of the nice simple designs. I have seen turrets making a comeback, so who knows!

 

[rue]

Didn't want to jinx it until we knew for sure, but now we do, so......

This is our new home:

I did a little research on the woman that had it built in 1929 and found her picture that was taken about ten years prior:

More pictures of the house when we move in and I get things put away.

Well if anyone hasn't heard... I have finally moved into my new home and have been unpacking. I have two rooms just about finished, so I thought I'd share them


This is the tiny den off the kitchen:

 

[rue]

Here is the entry/living room:
This is half way through the unpacking process:

and here it is now...... (please excuse the dogs playing and the magazines waiting to be thrown out by the door.....)

The pictures are a bit dark, but I hope you can see them okay.

Oh and the couch is going to be recovered

 

[Miss sofia]

Stunning Rue, you have lovely taste. Sumptuous yet cosy, which is a difficult look to pull off i think. I love all your furniture and ornaments. My mum was just looking at the pics too, as she does love looking at a home interior does Mum and she admired it immensely!

I love seeing loungers pets in photos.

Good luck with the rest of your home. I look forward to seeing the rest of it.

S x

 

[Wire9Vintage]

Rue, that is really lovely. It looks so warm and cozy (and I love your fireplace!).

Cute pups!

 

[rue]

Stunning Rue, you have lovely taste. Sumptuous yet cosy, which is a difficult look to pull off i think. I love all your furniture and ornaments. My mum was just looking at the pics too, as she does love looking at a home interior does Mum and she admired it immensely!

I love seeing loungers pets in photos.

Good luck with the rest of your home. I look forward to seeing the rest of it.

S x

Thank you so much Miss S and thank your mum for me too

Rue, that is really lovely. It looks so warm and cozy (and I love your fireplace!).

Cute pups!

Thank you!


It's nice to hear from both of you that it looks cozy, because that's exactly what I want.... for people to want to curl up on the couch and get a warm feeling.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Rue, you did a wonderful job making that place feel like home!

 

[rue]

Rue, you did a wonderful job making that place feel like home!

Thank you little brother! I'll even let you put your feet up on the table

 

[AtomicEraTom]

How sweet of you

Thank you little brother! I'll even let you put your feet up on the table

 

[Connery]

Very nice house with a rich history rue. The design is very storybook and charming.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Very very nice...rue. Expert picture hanger..you are!
HD

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Here is the entry/living room:
This is half way through the unpacking process:

and here it is now...... (please excuse the dogs playing and the magazines waiting to be thrown out by the door.....)

The pictures are a bit dark, but I hope you can see them okay.

Oh and the couch is going to be recovered

Very nice Rue. So you have your couch heading to a recovery program....hope it will come out clean and sober! lol! (just teasing).....

 

[dhermann1]

Your sofa will be recovered before I've recovered . . . from being totally gob smacked at your beautiful wonderful home. Congrats, and thanks for sharing.
More pics! More! More!

 

[rue]

Very nice house with a rich history rue. The design is very storybook and charming.

Thank you Connery I love it too!

Very very nice...rue. Expert picture hanger..you are!
HD

lol I don't know about expert.... there's a few extra holes in those walls Thank you though

Very nice Rue. So you have your couch heading to a recovery program....hope it will come out clean and sober! lol! (just teasing).....

I know you are and thank you

Your sofa will be recovered before I've recovered . . . from being totally gob smacked at your beautiful wonderful home. Congrats, and thanks for sharing.
More pics! More! More!

I will! I will! As soon as I can Thank you dhermann!