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I agree, people have lost the script of what is "needed" and what is "wanted". Having laminate countertops doesn't make a kitchen useless. The best part is the people I know with the fanciest kitchens often never cook!
Waving my hand! I would LOVE a white bathroom and a white kitchen. I would gut a pink, green, blue, black, brown bathroom in a heartbeat.
I add color with paint and decorations. That way when I get sick of a particular look I can easily change it. I'm not about to replace cabinets, counters, appliances, tiles, tubs, sinks, etc every time my feelings about decor change.
I'd rip any and all paneling out the week I moved in. I've done it with carpet. Absolutely hate paneling! Painting it doesn't improve it at all in my world.
I actually understand where you're coming from. When I build dollhouses, I have to make a decision about the walls. If I wallpaper them, then the house looks finished. If I go for white stucco, then I know I have to add color via the furnishing, rugs, pictures, and everything else. It does make changing the color of a room much easier.
What I should have clarified is that I hate all white kitchens with stainless steel appliances, gray floors, and white counter tops. If someone was in a white suit or dress, they'd disappear in that kitchen!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungalove
I like you! I have a blue tub and light blue wall tiles with cap tiles that match the tub. However, if I ever redo my bathroom, I'd love to find a complete salvaged set of "Ming Green" tub, sink, and toilet with lighter green wall tiles and black accent tiles. That would look absolutely gorgeous in my house. And I LOVE my red and white restored 1953 gas stove!
Picture, PLEASE! How much did it cost to restore it, if you don't mind me asking?
We never bought a renovated house. that is not our preference because we have specific taste and want to make our own choices, but love old, established neighborhoods with big trees. I understand completely why some prefer to buy a house already done. renovating is giant pain in the ass. It is so much easier to pay for a done house unless a homeowner is willing to go through dirt/dust, lack of privacy, and noise for months and months and months. renovating is awful.
Last edited by texan2yankee; 03-09-2018 at 06:36 PM..
I actually understand where you're coming from. When I build dollhouses, I have to make a decision about the walls. If I wallpaper them, then the house looks finished. If I go for white stucco, then I know I have to add color via the furnishing, rugs, pictures, and everything else. It does make changing the color of a room much easier.
What I should have clarified is that I hate all white kitchens with stainless steel appliances, gray floors, and white counter tops. If someone was in a white suit or dress, they'd disappear in that kitchen!
Picture, PLEASE! How much did it cost to restore it, if you don't mind me asking?
I don't know how to post pictures, but if you go to the DreamStoves website and look at their portfolio, mine is in the gallery of stoves from the 1940s - 1950s, Wedgewood. It's the fourth one down on the right-hand side. I specified the colors I wanted. Total cost was $4500 including shipping.
In the coming age of energy scarcity, many of today's appliances won't be functional. One renovation I have considered is replacing all my heating units--stove, furnace, water heater, and fireplace--with wood burning stoves. That may not work so well in this sprawling ranch home. I may be living in just one room with one stove while the rest of the house is cold storage.
I don't know how to post pictures, but if you go to the DreamStoves website and look at their portfolio, mine is in the gallery of stoves from the 1940s - 1950s, Wedgewood. It's the fourth one down on the right-hand side. I specified the colors I wanted. Total cost was $4500 including shipping.
Wow! And $4500 isn't that bad. I think Elmira charges $5000+ to make their stoves. Thank you!
Wow! And $4500 isn't that bad. I think Elmira charges $5000+ to make their stoves. Thank you!
I bought a worn magic chef 1000 on E-bay for a few hundred dollars and started restoring it. It was very time consuming, so I contacted a coup;e of stove places to see what it would cost for them to restore it:
$15,000 (Not that is not a typo - as much as a brand new car for one of my kids is the cost to restore a working stove)
I am still working on it. It will take a few more years to get it done.
I think the coolest of the older stoves is the Magic Chef 6300.
I see a lot of 1960s/1970s houses for sale that have been immaculately kept since they were new, some even still have the original appliances that also look new. It would be very hard for me to buy a house like that, where someone has worked hard to keep it perfect for over 50 years, and then gut it.
Much is based on taste of the beholder... wants drive the improvement business.
I bought a 1922 Craftsman Bungalow from the original owner... she was 18 and a newlywed when they bought the home brand new.
Her husband was 38... never married prior and they had almost 50 very happy years together and she could not have children... She had lost her family tragically at 17...
Anyway... the last 10 years or so it was simply too hard for her to keep up anything... and the cats kind of took over part of the house...
When I bought the home... it was all original... right down to the chrome bath fixtures, kitchen cabinets, tile, high leg stove, matchwood floors, button light switches, double hung windows, built in hutches, etc... even the electric was original and untouched... also the big gravity gas furnace in the basement... more on that later.
My friends were very disappointed when I called off the demo party... money was tight and over the course of a year, I went room by room, cleaning, refinishing and repairing... things like the window sash cord, new glazing, paint, polish, etc.
When I was done... I had spent VERY LITTLE MONEY... the home looked like new as in 1922 and I really enjoyed it.
When it came time to sell... it went for a new record price in the area... see, it had not suffered numerous botched remodels over the years like the neighbors...
I have done a lot of down to the studs projects on property that needed it... but this home was a diamond in the rough that just needed lots of TLC.
I was in the home during the Loma Prieta earthquake and power was out for almost a week... the old gas range, gas central heat needed no electricity to function... those with modern heat and electric self cleaning ranges did fair so well.
I loved that silent central heat... and my utility bills were always modest...
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 03-17-2018 at 10:02 AM..
I watched someone on House Hunters once walk into a 30s home and complain about the very 1940s stove. I would have killed to have had that stove (if it worked), and I would have taken it with me when I left.
I've lived in trailers with pink and green tubs and sinks, and the only thing I don't like about them is that they're hard to color coordinate with anything. However, if I was ever lucky enough to get a complete bathroom set in powder blue, I'd be thrilled. Who would want to change that out for boring white?
Same with kitchen appliances. I grew up with avocado green and harvest gold and I don't like them, but I would love to buy a light butter yellow 1940s stove and fridge from Elmira and decorate around them with more yellow and blue with white trim.
I'm so sick of looking at kitchens that are gray, brown, or white, or a combination of all three. I love color.
However, depending on the paneling, I would probably paint that all an off white or cream color. I hate the greenish brown paneling that's in so many old trailers and manufactured homes. Although sometimes, though, the wood is pine with knotholes and that I'd keep. I'd never paint over that. Likewise I'd never paint over the paneling of an old Craftsman house.
I have the most beautiful Wedgwood 1940 porcelain and chrome Wedgwood... one side is gas and the other wood... it is a treasure... the sellers told me not to worry they were getting rid of it but it was too heavy on their first attempt.
I wrote it into my contract and bought the place.
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(Not that is not a typo - as much as a brand new car for one of my kids is the cost to restore a working stove)
