Parade of Atomic Homes is Here!

Hi there, and Welcome to our Parade of Atomic Homes! My name is Babette and I will be your tour guide.


Now I'd like to invite each and every one of ya'll to our first home on today's tour - it's a single story ranch style called "the Delores" built in 1958. Doesn't that just sound dreamy?! Let's have a look inside, okay? Now watch your step. There's a lot of stairs to climb, isn't there? There you go! Oh, isn't this landscaping just adorable? I hear that most all of the flowers and greenery are original to the property's beginnings.

Allrighty then! As we step inside can anyone tell me what Mid-Century Modern is? Does anyone know? That's right ma'am! Mid-Century Modern is the style of decor highly popularized during the 1950's, and that's the style that we see today inside of this very home.


The Living Area
Has everyone made their way inside? Could one of your gentlemen please help Mrs. Roberts up with her walker? There we go! You just go right ahead and please make yourself feel right at home.

Oh, by the way, the owner requested that if everyone would please watch their step? And please walk around his genuine imitation Himalayan Nanny Goat Hair Rug... He is kind of overly-sensitive about that. *wink*

Thank you so much!


If everyone would line up behind me, I'll escort you to the next room on the tour. Yes, there's plenty more yet to see!

Oh, Mrs. Roberts, now there's no need for pushing and shoving like that! You'll all get your turn soon enough...

= = =

Be sure to return next time, as we continue the Tour!

Plumbing Paydirt!

Brace yourself... this is going to be a long one ;) If you happened to see a dark cloud of nasty words floating over middle America today, it's because I was working on the plumbing again. Actually I had incredibly good luck earlier this afternoon. You know the kind of fortune, the kind you only hear happening to the other guy.

Since I was already in the neighborhood, I had a look in the cramped little plumbing hardware that I'd been forced to beg for help from a year ago. This is the place that put an end to a four month long leaky faucet ordeal (a.k.a. nightmare! which included the cold water knob being blown off the tub, the bathroom getting flooded and my then 8 year old Junior so traumatized he couldn't be left alone in the bath for a week). This little shop carried the part for my fixture which nobody, not Menards, not Ace, or any of the big chains had ever seen before because it was longer in production.

Anyway, I had a look at what they had to sell me, and I was excited. There was not only just one but enough to give a person some choices in rebuilt mid-century faucets and accessories. Craigslist never had anything like this!

A clerk came over and asked what I was looking for. I think I scared him off because after I told him, he looked a bit lost and then walked back to the counter. LoL

After ogling the goods for a while, I caught up with the lost clerk and asked if he had sink basins too. He kinda mumbled and led me to the back. My hopes sank because everything he showed me was contemporary. Then I spied over the display fixtures to something way back, hanging from a peg on the corner wall. Chills ran through me - could it be? It was a porcelain kitchen sink, like we had when I was a kid.... like new and never used! It may have been covered in dust and cobwebs, and it may have been sitting around for who knows how long, but it was a thing of porcelain beauty.

The clerk didn't know what to charge since it had been forgotten so long, but I think he must have been glad to finally unload it - he asked only $25 for it. I was stunned... I forgot all about the faucets!

Another epic search was over and I took off for home with my sink like someone who'd just robbed Fort Knox.

...now where did I put that pipe wrench?...

Dear Mr. Knowitall... Help!

Today I woke to the morning sunshine, filled with vim and vigor, aka ambition. With it being my day off, I was determined to get things done around the old homestead. I decided I had enough with mild attempts... Yes, I decided to go on the offensive with the living room floor in our humble little home. No more Mister Nice Guy!

First every stick of furniture in the living room had to be squeezed into two bedrooms, and some went out the door to set in the backyard. Yes, I was going to get things done.

Next, since I was already expecting to scrub the wood floor within a inch of its life, I may as well mop the bathroom and kitchen as well. Why pass up killing two birds with one stone, right? So some of the kitchenette set went out the back door to join the others as well. It was starting to look like I really meant business now.

My brother, a.k.a. Brother Dear had suggested that a floor sander would take care of my floor situation. But for a while I've been doing a little bit of atomic research of my own for ways to remove stubborn water stains from wood floors... ever since the icky old carpeting was torn out last year. One idea is to use household vinegar, another is to use bleach, and if all else fails, try oxalic acid. Though I had my doubts, I chose to go with vinegar first, just to see what would happen.

After three applications, I discovered that the only result was that my house now smelled like a Subway sandwich restaurant.

"What did you do next" you ask? Not to worry, I shall tell all in due time.

I passed on the use of household bleach. Too risky, I thought. With my luck the floor would turn pale white. Not a very appealing image. So I trucked on down to the local Q.P. Hardware after having a Kids Meal lunch with my Junior at school, and picked up a small tub of oxalic acid crystals - a bleaching agent safe for treating stains without bleaching the natural color of the wood. Mind you, this stuff is poisonous so please treat it with utmost respect (eye protection, adequate ventilation, rubber gloves, etc...)!

The day was already half over. I dumped the crystals in a warm gallon of water and used the hard-working mop for application so I wouldn't have to handle the acid. And so I began mopping the wood. And mopped. And mopped. Scrubbing it repeatedly into those nasty stains. After four applications (waiting at least ten minutes between each) the floor was then gone over with a wash of plain water, applied three separate times to remove the acid.

The verdict: My wood floor did indeed lighten up, almost to the natural wood color. And a few discolored spots lightened right up. But (and there's always a "but") those mean old dark water stain rings lightened up only slightly. Definitely not enough that I'd dare think of refinishing anything yet.

Anyways, to cut a long story short... a thunderstorm moved in as the final wash was still drying. All our valuable goodies outside had to be rushed back inside as the rain drops started to fall. Now the furniture is almost all back in place. I haven't felt good all night (*gasp* oxalic acid poisoning??? Or maybe it was that second fast food cheeseburger for the day topped off by a treat at D.Q?) ...And Brother Dear still thinks I should have rented a floor sander.

Oh well...

Some days it just doesn't pay to be ambitious ;)

My So-Called Retro Life

It is Spring. I crawl out of the man-cave, take the first deep breath of fresh air and turn my face to feel the bask of the warm rays of a new day's sun. Yes, it is Spring...

Time to do some serious cleaning out the cobwebs of a long, long winter. A time to take stock of where we are in our grand experiment, of what has been accomplished in a year's time and with the return of warmer weather we can begin to plan what new things we want to make happen next.

Junior is Nine, and going on Sixteen it seems. He's got his own ideas what to do with his life and his room - he wants to keep the display of tin space toys, but has surprised me with a desire to return some of the old cowboy and horses theme he had when he was a mere child. He's also thinking of joining the Boy Scouts. How retro is that??

There's no cable television in our home. We're a year now living without and personally I don't miss it a bit! And I've taken ultimate control by unplugging the glut of undesirable content my nine-year old was being exposed to - even on the kids channels. Thanks to the wide variety of dvd offerings available now (I also allow Junior his video games), we have the best of both worlds, so to speak. Junior no longer lives in front of the tv screen. When he does view he enjoys watching classic westerns with the Old Man (The Magnificent Seven, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly), Lost in Space, The Abbott & Costello Show and more recently Sid Caesar.

Junior is always eager to show-off his skills on the blue 70's Schwinn Stingray (still trying to locate a sissybar for the banana seat). He loves to go camping and fishing. I can just smell the campfire now. Did I mention that he won't go to sleep at night unless he can listen to an episode from the Father Knows Best radio series? That's my boy!

The ranch home has come a long ways in a year... not as fast or as far as I'd like (what renovation, especially a retrovation ever does that?) But there's no mistaking what era this house harkens to.

A year ago the bath was stripped to the wall studs. The troubles I had with our retailer restocking plain black bullnose tile to finish the walls was even more monumental than locating a certain out-of-production faucet valve stem. Now its just hunting for the right accessories that fit the room - we have the medicine cabinet, sink, shelving, towel racks, hamper.... still hunting for the right bath mat and sink fixtures.

The livingroom... Oh yes, the living room. That abused wooden floor has been glaring up at me all winter long.

The kitchen has been the easiest to accesorize. I am convinced that when the menfolk pass on, the women toss out everything belonging to them into the waste can, but mothers pass on kitchen utensils to daughters as if they're the family treasures.

Storage. Another monster I've been dealing with in hand-to-hand combat, and not always getting the upperhand I might add. When these houses were built, American families didn't have/need all the daily items/things/junk that we load ourselves down with in the 21st century. Add to that, that I'm a natural horder and you know why I've got problems. The Attic crawlspace is filled to capacity, the basement crawlspace is choked, all my closets carry a warning "Open At Your Own Risk" and the storeroom is ummmm, let's just say its living up to it's name.

Finally, I long for a livable 9-5 employment. It's not much I ask. Just the simple desire to drop Junior off at school, then off to work, come home, eat dinner with my family on a daily basis, perhaps even weekends off for family outings! What's happened to us and the American Dream? The American employer is killing the American Family!

Whatever happens, this year is sure to bring us interesting adventures of retrovation a'plenty. But in the meantime I need to power up the Electrolux and vacuum Junior's dirty footprints from the imitation Himalayan Nanny Goat rug.

What Lies Beneath

Please Excuse Me While I Have to Go Cry

I decided to go through with it. Today I pulled up the living room carpeting. This was it, the big moment, the Big Reveal.

I already had a preview of what lies beneath the hallway carpeting. With some relief I found the flooring there was in fine shape. Some cleaning and filling would be all it needed before refinishing. But I was really dreading what lurked under our living room. Now that the walls are freshly painted, it was time. I started peeling the old blue carpeting back, beginning at the front window.



The flooring was decidedly worse than what I'd hoped for...



This might be a worse nightmare than the bathroom...

Definitely.

Welcome to The Ranch (aka "In the Beginning...")

Here we are. A lot has happened since our own little piece of ticky-tacky was built back in 1958. Mom and dad moved in to a still-unfinished, built-to-order single story, 3-bedroom ranch house, along with my brother and sis. At the time the neighborhood was so new the roads weren't even paved... not to mention some other utilities.

But, my parents were young and filled with the enthusiasm of the age. Dad was a commercial artist working 9-5, of limited means but modern-design concious and Mom was the homemaker 24/7. In many ways, our family was much like what you'd see idealized on television at the time.

At this same time, our grandparents moved in to an almost identical house just next door. I remember both homes filled with products from the Fifties when I was very young. Dad appreciated the fine lines of modern design (after all, he was an artist!). We had shelving on one wall of the livingroom for the hi-fi and television, tiled walls in the bath and pastel colors on the walls. The house was decorated modern-with-that-colonial touch. Walnut finishes. Oval twill rugs. Wood & metal geese scupture flew across our wall. Paintings everywhere done by Dad. Sling chairs outdoors.

My Grandparent's house on the otherhand was Very Early 50's modern, with a few modest splashes of kitsch here and there. Grandma collected Japanese-influence housewares. The livingroom indulged a sculpted beige wall-to-wall carpet, an aqua-color leather lounge chair accompanied by a pole lamp with built-in table, and a large counsel tv. The kitchen showcased a Scandinavian table & 3-legged chair set and a stylish pink built-in oven and stove. And the bath was always in pink. I'll associate that color with bathrooms to this day!

Today, both homes have seen a lot of changes (dad was an avid remodellor), they hold innumeral memories, and they are still in the family. After my parents' passing I wanted to bring back the entire house somewhat back to the age it was born in. I have some work to do!