Where to Start?

Before we moved in, my grandparents built our house and lived here for nearly 52 years. One of the cool things about that for us is it means we have literally all of the history of the house in pictures and sometimes our own memories. I have stacks of pictures and slides, and a bunch of pictures I took a while before my grandmother moved out so we could see how different things end up being.

Well, this may take several posts..

Let’s start here. The shot at right is the living room circa 2011, taken from the balcony of the top floor (where the bedrooms are.) When you enter the house (just out of sight on the right side of the picture) you are greeted by a cathedral ceiling and the foyer and living room are open to the second floor. My grandparents had all of the hardwood floors in the house carpeted as of about 1962. The couch in the picture is gold crushed velour – it was reupholstered from the original seafoam green in 1983. It is a spectacular couch that we retained and had reupholstered ourselves. I start with this because it is probably the coolest view in the house.

Next, this is a picture of where the first picture was taken – the balcony. Not too much to say about this portion of the house except for a few details: all of the doorknobs and accessories in the house are brushed bronze (or sometimes brass.) The paneling I believe is cherry. It was put up unfinished and then stained\sealed once on the wall. It doesn’t show in the picture but the railing needs a repainting pretty badly, too. I never really understood the purpose of the ceiling fan in this location – that was a 1980s energy efficiency thing, I am pretty sure. As a side note, the gold color clock is an Atmos clock – it was an expensive gift given by IBM to employees who had 30 years of service. You could choose (I believe) the clock or a watch.

Another shot of the balcony, this time including the foyer. There is a story behind the chandelier – the original chandelier was a 24-arm Sputnik chandelier in brass, but one of my aunts took it a few years earlier. It’s hard to picture, but there is hardwood floors under all that carpeting.

 

 

 

In addition the tile in the foyer is the original 9-inch set on a bias. It’s spectacular and completely intact. Here is a closer look at that foyer floor.

 

More to follow.

6 thoughts on “Where to Start?

  1. robert

    I answered my own question about if you blog or not. I just clicked on your name. I can be pretty dense at times. Your house is awesome and I’m quite jealous of your sunken living room.

    Reply
    1. dougcamin Post author

      Haha, no worries. Thanks for the comments – your blog is awesome and you’ve got a great writing style. Your house is such a great time capsule. Just wait for the “after” picture on the living room. The wood floors are amazing.

      Reply

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