Favorite Feature?

Linen Closet
Originally uploaded by white_chevy

What is your favorite feature in your mid-century house? If you are like me you would have a hard time choosing one thing. Definitely one of the things at the top of my list is my huge built-in hall linen closet. This thing is huge, especially for the size of my house. At 4'9" wide, 8' tall and 14" deep, it holds a lot of stuff! I have only been in one mid-century home that has a larger unit in it, and that unit was probably the same height and depth, but somewhere in the 6' to 7' wide range.

The upper portion has 2 doors and shelving where I store, what else, linens. I also keep light bulbs and laundry materials in here. My washer is in a closet across the hall from this. The middle 2 drawers are great as well. One of them holds extension cords and other similar materials, and I keep place mats in the other one. The 2 doors on the bottom open up to a large open space where I store my Rainbow vacuum and furnace filters. My house has more storage in it than I have ever seen in a house in the 1000 square foot range. I got lucky!

Why aren't modern houses constructed with great built-ins like this? Thoughtful touches like this really make life a lot easier!

Sorry about the poor quality of the picture, there just isn't a way to get a really good picture of it.

The One That Started it All

I have shown you a couple of antique radios out of my vast and growing collection in previous posts.  My collection is literally to the point that I have lost count of how many radios I own.  They are stashed everywhere.  I am working on getting one large shelving unit set up in the spare bedroom to keep them all on.  Hopefully they'll all fit!

I am well aware that the radio that I am featuring above is not from the mid-century era.  This is the most important radio in my collection, the one that I would keep if I had to choose only one, and just might run into a burning house to save.  I would date this antique Admiral tombstone style radio to the 1930s.  Of all the radios in my collection, this is the one that I have the least information on.  There is no model number on it and I have yet to find another like it on the internet.  This was the first antique radio that I restored.  This radio was given to me by my great aunt and great uncle somewhere around 1998, I believe.  It was purchased new by my great-grandfather, and after he passed away, my great aunt and uncle ended up with it.  My great uncle used it in his woodworking shop behind his house for several years before stashing it up in their attic.

When I ended up with it, I plugged it in to see if it worked.  Teenagers do silly things like this.  If you get one of these old radios, check it out carefully before attempting to plug it in!  Anyway, I was pleased to find that it was working, and has a beautiful rich tone.  The case was in terrible shape.  The grille cloth was rotted out and had holes in it, the finish was coming off the wood, it had paint splatters all over it, and the cabinet had a bad place in the wood on the top.

This became a project for my grandfather and I to get it looking good again.  We carefully disassembled the radio and stripped the cabinet down to bare wood.  We did what we could to fix the top, but there is only so much one can do to repair that kind of damage.  I polished the metal parts, repainted the black strip at the bottom, ordered new grille cloth, and re-stained the cabinet and gave it a nice coat of polyurethane.  In the middle of all of this process, my grandfather passed away.  We started the project together, but it was mine to finish on my own.  It sat untouched for quite a while, I just wasn't interested in touching it.  After quite a while, I finished the cabinet, installed the new grille cloth, re-installed the metal pieces, and finally was able to put the chassis and speaker back in it.  The result is what you see above.

This was proudly displayed in my room through the rest of my high school years, and when I purchased my mobile home in college, it came with me.  It has had a place of honor in my house ever since.

As I said before, I have no information on this radio.  If anyone can give me a model number, year of manufacture, anything, I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks!

My Door Knocker and Peep Hole...A Cul-De-Sac Shack Follow-Up

I had a request for more pictures of the door knocker and peep hole that I mentioned in the post on my door a couple of days ago. So, here ya go!

As I said before, I love my door knocker. It has a great size that isn't chunky or overbearing on the door. I like that it is understated.

The big request was for more information on my peep hole.  I disassembled the peep-hole today to try to locate manufacturer information.  I was unable to find a manufacturer listed, but I did locate a patent number.  A search for the patent number led me to discover that the US Patent Office issued the patent number on December 20, 1949.  Although I still did not know the manufacturer, I was becoming intrigued.  I have never given much thought to my peep hole.  I knew that I had never seen one like it, but searching for other information on it never really crossed my mind.  After doing a patent search on the US Patent Office website, I returned to Yahoo and entered the patent number in the search box.  This brought me to the following web site: http://www.peeko.com/index.html.  I discovered that this vintage peep-hole, which is officially named the Peek-O, is still in production.  It is available in almost any standard finish.

According to their website:

"HOME PROTECTOR MFG. CO., INC. manufactures PEEK-O Revolving Door Viewers designed for use in residences, apartments, commercial and professional buildings.

The Peek-O units are manufactured in all standard finishes. They are Made in the United States for over 50 years. Peek-O is approved by Board of Standards and Appeals for use in New York City under Cal. No. 663-67-SM. These units are for doors 1" to 2" in thickness.

Peek-O is one of those pride-of-ownership details homebuyers remember and appreciate. It’s the best door viewer available:

• Engineered to provide a full 140 degree of visibility.
• Revolves to provide an extra measure of safety a 40 degree extra view.
• Stamped brass components
• Finest crystal glass lenses
• Enhances front door hardware"

I really liked this link, which shows the catalog page for the Peek-O: http://www.peeko.com/CatalogPage.pdf.  You'll need a PDF viewer to see the catalog page.

I did a little more searching, and found one website that sells them.  It looks like they are around $50.  After owning mine, and realizing how beneficial it can be to have a peep-hole that can revolve in the door so that I can see more of what's outside, I think that it's worth it.  Plus, this really makes a big impact on the looks of the door, especially if your door is somewhat plain and in need of a focal point.  The only website I have found them on so far is this one: http://www.securityproductsinc.com/individualproducts/peeko.htm.

Below I have posted some more pictures of my peep-hole both in the door and disassembled to give you an idea on how it works.

If anyone has more information on my door knocker, I would be interested in finding out more about it.

It's Monday, start the week off with a smile!

As always, click on these pictures to enlarge them for better viewing.

This Weekend's Estate Sale Finds

I got a few nice finds yesterday, and since it is Sunday, I'm going to relax and just share my new finds with you.  I haven't had a chance to clean any of them up yet, so you get to see them just as they were when I bought them.  If you want to see one of the pictures larger, just click on it.  First off, I got this great aluminum Pepsi-Cola cooler.  The lid is a little dented and the metal on the bottom has a place where it is going bad, but it still looks great in my opinion.  It will be great to display and have as storage as well.  Secondly, I got this great starburst style electric clock, which does work.  The clock was manufactured by United Metal Goods and I love the style.  Third, I found these really cool ceramic pheasant wall hangings.  There is no marking on them to indicate who manufactured them, but they sure seem to have a great mid-century feel to me!  Finally of the things I would like to share today, I found this great green (chartreuse?) and gray planter made by Shawnee.  I really like this color combination.  Must remember this combination for future use in my house, I'm thinking a spare bedroom.  What do you think?  I'm thinking gray and green would look really good with my new Heywood Wakefield bedroom set. 

I got a few more things that I haven't pictured or discussed, and I'll just quickly list them.  I'll probably get around to sharing more about them this winter when the estate sales slow down and I need topics to write on.  I got a great working electric RCA Victor AM/FM tube table radio in a wooden case that needs to be refinished.  I also got an antique press-back oak dining chair to strip and refinish, a red aluminum serving tray and an aluminum pitcher with three colored tumblers.

I had a question for more pictures of the door knocker and peep-hole in my front door.  I'll try to feature them tomorrow.

Church, Sunday School, and an Ad-Council meeting this morning.  Have a relaxing Sunday!

A Welcoming Entry

Front Door
Originally uploaded by white_chevy

I believe that my house is one of only two, maybe three houses on my block that still have the original front entry door. To put this in a little better perspective, there are 10 houses on my block. This comes down to a 20% - 30% survival rate. The house across the street from me still has it's original front door, but it is a hollow-core door, and I would probably replace it if I lived there. I feel fortunate that my house has this beautiful 8 panel entry door with these great carved panels. It really adds a lot of interest to the front entry. I replaced the lock set on the door shortly after moving in. The set on it was not original, and I didn't really care for the polished brass on the door. Also, since the house had been a rental before my purchase, I didn't know who might have a key to the house. I believe that the peep-hole is original to the door. It is a great feature, and it swivels so that you can look side to side or up and down to be able to best see who is at the door. I love my door knocker. I can report that I know for certain that it is not original to the house. I purchased this vintage door knocker on ebay when I was in college for the mobile home that I owned at the time. When I sold the mobile home, I kept the knocker. If ever I should happen to sell this house, I will remove the knocker from this house as well and proudly mount it on the door of my new home. The knocker is not like most modern knockers which are wide and chunky feeling. This knocker is thin and has a very elegant appearance. Sometimes it is best to keep things understated.

It's Saturday, and there is a great estate auction in town today. I'm looking forward to a day doing what I enjoy, I hope you have the opportunity to spend your Saturday doing what you enjoy!

1946 Majestic Radio

In my earlier post on the platform rocker, I mentioned that I got the rocker when it was put together with an antique radio that I was interested in buying at an estate auction.

Today, I would like to share that radio with you.  When I purchased the radio, it had been sitting in a house that had been locked up for 20 years after the owner's death.  The lines of this great radio caught my eye, and I decided if it went cheap enough I would buy it.  When I bought it, two of the wood trim pieces had come off the cabinet.  Luckily, the pieces had been stuck inside and were easy to reinstall when I restored the radio.  I paid $2 for the radio and the chair, and ended up with 2 beautiful pieces of furniture from the deal.  The unit was manufactured by Majestic in 1946, is model 4810, and has an am radio and a phonograph.  There are two lids on this unit.  The lid on the left lifts to reveal the phonograph, and the lid on the right lifts to reveal the radio and the unit controls.  I disassembled the unit, stripped the original finish down to the bare wood, sanded and re-stained the unit in red mahogany.  I then added three coats of lacquer (not polyurethane), and reassembled it.  I am quite pleased with the way that it turned out.  The best thing about it is that it works, or at least the radio does.  If you have never had the opportunity to hear one of the vintage tube-type radios in action, you are missing out.  They have a beautiful rich tone that you can't get in a modern radio.

For specific information on this model, please visit this site: http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/majestic_8s473_8_s_473_ch4810.html

I now have quite a large collection of antique radios, one of my favorite things to collect.  They sure do take up a lot of room!  I purchased another console similar to this last weekend to restore, probably next summer.  I'm sure that you will be seeing a lot more of my collection, both the restored pieces and the ones awaiting restoration. 

Wishing you a great, stress-free Friday!

New Windows for a Mid-Century House

November 2008
Originally uploaded by white_chevy

When I purchased my house, it had the original wood 4 lite windows. These windows were cold and drafty in the winter and the storm windows did little to help the situation. Soaring utility bills encouraged me to seek more insulation in the attic and new windows (I mean really, should my utility bills be as expensive as my parent's, when my house is half the size? I don't think so). My search for new windows was quite a lengthy process. First on my list was that from the street, the windows had to look like they were original. This required being able to custom order the grills to recreate the 4 lite design so popular in mid-century homes. I looked at vinyl windows that could be custom ordered with the correct grills, and they would have been fine, but I felt they were of flimsy build and quality. If I am going to invest the money to upgrade the windows, I want something that will last. I dreamed of new wood windows to keep the original appearance inside the house as well. I read an advertisement in our local classifieds paper for the local Pella Window representative. This got me in the thinking of "only the best for my house!" He offered vinyl windows, which could not have the grills custom ordered, Pella Impervia windows which are incredibly strong fiberglass windows which could have custom grills and beautiful wood Pella windows. The estimates came back without including pricing for the custom grills. First off, since I was replacing all 10 windows in my house, I had to rule out the wood windows. In a perfect world, they would be in the house right now. I really liked the price of the vinyl windows (somewhere in the $2400 range, if I remember correctly), and the Impervia windows came back at a price of approximately $3800 - $3900. I asked for the price of having the grills customized in the Impervia, and was quoted a price of $18 per window. I felt that in the long run, I would be much happier if I spent the extra $180 to get the look that I really wanted.

Still put off by what I perceived to be flimsy vinyl windows (please don't hate me if you have vinyl windows, I know that they are good windows, I just was not impressed with them), I bit the bullet and ordered the Pella Impervia windows which you can see in the picture. I have never once regretted buying these windows. I really feel that the extra investment was worth it, especially since I plan to be in this house for a long time (unless the perfect house comes on the market, which I haven't found yet - and I've kept my eyes open to current listings). The hardest thing to get used to was the fact that the wood was gone on the windows and the frames on the inside are now white.

Such a pricey window may be overkill for such a small house, especially one that probably wouldn't see the return on the investment if I were to sell it, but I don't regret the choice. If you are looking to replace your windows in your mid-century house, I recommend the following. 1) Check your original windows over carefully and see if there is a way to make them more energy efficient, such as adding new storm windows. 2) Take your time and look at many different windows. It took me a long time to pick the windows that I have. This is an investment for the house that will most likely outlast you, and it should be a good one made on well-informed decision making. 3) Do everything that you can to retain the original look and character of your house and the original windows. The original windows are part of the character of your house and should you replace them, you want to retain that character.

Whatever you choose for your house, you will most likely be living with the choice for a long time. Sometimes it is better to wait and save up for what you really want instead of rushing into purchasing something. You will be much happier in the end. Good luck with your restoration!