this woman’s work

Now you need to understand that we’re not really looking. At least not officially. But we are trying to get an idea of what’s available since we’re focusing on a really narrow area. If there isn’t anything that works for us, we would have to go back to the drawing board so we figure, what the heck, we’ll look a bit.

Well, there’s one house that’s price way under market because of cosmetics, which is a nice way of saying it’s cheap because there is hideous carpet in the bathrooms. And maybe — just maybe — we could swing it before this one sells. That’s a discussion unto itself but back to the house — I’m putting the pros and cons below the cut.

Here are the pros of the house:
–beautiful built-in shelving in the living room;
–beautiful hardwood floors throughout;
–high ceilings;
–two bathrooms;
–big, clean, dry basement (with a ping-pong table, one of those old weight loss machines with a belt and you strap yourself in and turn it on and the belt shakes you around, an old exercise bike and an old 3-speed bike in dandy condition);
–nice, shady yard;
–solar panels (2!)
–newer roof;
–cement driveway;
-narrow front porch and back covered patio;
–new, insulated windows nicer than the ones we just put in here;
–laundry chute!
–spacious closets;
–spacious kitchen with lots of storage and original knotty pine cabinets;
–brand new heavy-duty ceiling fans in every bedroom;
–attic fan;
–picture window over-looking backyard;
–storage shed attached to garage;
–GREAT location;
–GREAT price;
–original owners left his collection of retro clip-on ties some of which are quite funny.

These are the cons:
–Aforementioned hideous carpet in the bathrooms AND the kitchen;
–the original kitchen also has the original built in stove top and double range, which may actually be a pro;
–the bathrooms are weird. You go in one from the hall and from there you can get to another tiny room with the bath and from there you can get to the bathroom that leads to the master;
–older electrical (and few three pronged outlets);
–older AC and heat;
–brand new ceiling fans are UGLY but probably switching out the light covers would help quite a bit;
–bedrooms are smallish (like the ones we have here);
–basement isn’t finished although Noah could play down there anyway;
–patio roof is ugly;
–one car garage is detached (although actually we don’t care about that) and the garage roof is shot (we do care about that however);
–backyard needs to be fenced.
–smells funny (like Brett’s grandparent’s house if you know what I’m saying).

There’s lots of weirdness like there’s an extra faucet in the kitchen maybe for filtered water but we don’t know. We have no idea if the solar panels are hooked up and if so, to what? There’s a water softener but we’re not clear how it works. Ummm, what else. There are a lot of “Jesus Loves You” lightswitch covers, which spook me out.

The couple were the original owners, which we always like. They took good care of the house up until about ten years ago and everything is pretty clean although the kitchen could use a good scrubbing. And the kitchen — I can’t tell whether it’s fabulous or hideous. As I said, all the cabinets are knotty-pine and the connected dining area is paneled. We think the paneling is also original. The counters are original, too, and in great shape.

The built-ins are GE and stainless steel. I think they must have been quite modern for their time. We have no idea how well they work and tearing them out would cost a fortune. (A realtor said we’ll just slap a home warranty on them.) The lighting is strange — fluroescent bulbs behind frosted plastic panels up in the ceiling.

See, Brett and I really like mid-century modern but we realized that we’re kinda ignorant about the many various styles of the mid-century. This is much more ski lodge than we’ve seen but we think we like it. I’m not crazy about the hardware but I wouldn’t want to change it out since I like that everything is exactly what it was fifty years ago.

My mom hates 50s style since that’s the era she grew up in. I’m pretty sure that all of the grandparents would think the kitchen was the ugliest thing going. I’d say it would be like Noah growing up and decorating all 80s with terrible Nagel prints and those loosely-stuffed couches with airy brushstrokes in aqua and peach. I think that I might have to cut visits short if he did that.

However we went hunting to learn what we could about the kitchen (like we’re curious — was it high-end or low-end for its time? What did people think of knotty pine?) and it looks like original 50s kitchen are in high demand. Like if we lost our minds and pulled it all out, we could sell the cabinetry. But we don’t want to do that since we like it better than the new stuff we just put in here.

Anyway, we’re thinking on it.

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