Former glory

We thought we had beige/brown terrazzo. Of course, we knew it needed to be cleaned, because it has obvious grimey build-up around the walls that mopping won't remove, but we were shocked when we found out that it was originally white...and could be again.

The representative of a local stone restoration company came out to do an estimate, and he gave me a demonstration of what to expect from their services. He asked me to show him the spot in the house where the floor is in the worst condition, so I pointed him in the direction of a group of 9 tiles near the back door that I thought were damaged and covered with 66 years' worth of wax (and who knows what else). He sprayed some Mar-Tek Pro-Strip on one tile, scrubbed it with a brush, and toweled the area dry. Here's what resulted.

Stripped terrazzo tile

He was almost as surprised at the dramatic difference as I was. This tile was put down 66 years ago. Who knows how long it's been since this floor was stripped and honed? Maybe never.

His estimate: $2422. Naturally, we'll be getting other bids, but this is definitely on our Must Do list.

Details

Charles Eames once said, "The details are not the details. They make the design." Accordingly, we have changed quite a few things about the front of our house.

First, a cage of burglar bars originally covered a large portion of the front porch. Not only was it unsightly, it screamed paranoia and had to go. In fact, the inspection report listed it as a hazard, so we stipulated that it be removed before we took possession of the house.

Burglar bars...gone before we got here

Also, our mailbox originally was positioned in the flowerbed beside the driveway and looked like this:

Old mailbox

Besides needing a paint job, it was inconveniently located, so we offered it free on Craigslist. Someone came out almost immediately and removed it, which involved a good bit of digging and ultimately pulling out of the ground with a large pickup truck. (Giving things away on Craigslist is the fastest, cheapest method of getting things cleaned out or torn down. People will take absolutely anything if it's free, no matter how much work they have to do to get it.)

The new mailbox is on the front porch, which is more attractive and makes much more sense.

New mailbox
Kingso Locking Stainless Steel Letterbox - amazon.com

The old porch lights were brass carriage house style, which were completely wrong for the house. Here they are in ignominy, sitting in the free CL pile.

Old porch lights

We happily replaced them with something far more in keeping with a 1950s ranch style house. They look great with our door hardware and coordinate nicely with the mailbox.

New porch lights
George Kovacs Outdoor Sconce - allmodern.com

The previous hardwired doorbell had been pulled out of the wall and left on the front windowsill months or perhaps even years before. We replaced it with a Ring Video Doorbell. It works with your smartphone, allowing you see and talk to anyone at your door, even if you're not at home. It also has a motion detector, which alerts you of any movement on your front porch or in your yard.

New doorbell
Ring video doorbell - lowes.com

Finally, we bought a 5-foot doormat to put in front of the double doors. Of all the purchases we made, it is probably my least favorite. I thought it was a plain rubber mat, but it turned out to be the felted type and has to be hosed off more often than a rubber mat would. That aside, I like the pattern, so I'll still chalk it up as a win.

New doormat
Aqua-Shield Elipse Doormat - allmodern.com

All in all, we're making good progress. Next on the list...the terrazzo floors.

The not-so-exciting part of renovating

Sure, choosing new rugs, decorative pillows, lamps, cabinet pulls, light fixtures, door knobs, ceiling fans, appliances, and plumbing fixtures is fun. That's the showy part of giving an old house a facelift. I've spent hours upon hours lately doing just that, and they're all ordered.

Now comes the other part of renovating. The electrical, the plumbing, the painting. Equally, if not more, important and certainly more expensive...but not particularly exciting. I've spent several days getting bids, and now it's time for the electricians and plumbers and painters to do their respective things.

The previous owner put in a large, new electrical breaker box outside, but there's still one of these fuse boxes in the hall closet, which will be replaced with its modern counterpart soon. I haven't seen glass fuses since I was a kid!

Fuse box in hall closet

We need a plumber to check the water pressure and to install a garbage disposal and dishwasher and to revamp the icemaker hookup, which was done in an unusual janky way, to say the least. Nothing exciting to see here, folks. Painters will come out to put a fresh coat of Sherwin Williams Dover White on the walls. All the trim and built-ins are painted a creamy white, but the previous owners slapped a coat of bright white on the walls, I'm guessing just to clean it up for showing, so we're toning that down a bit.

sherwinwilliams.com

Exciting or not, all these things are part of the process when you buy an old home. After all, the combined effect is what's important. As tedious as it is to schedule bids and work, in a couple of weeks we'll be happy with the results.

And the transformation begins...

Anyone who has bought a home built in the 1950s or 1960s knows that time can take a toll in many ways, one of which is a complete destruction of continuity. Often a hodgepodge of add-ons faces a new owner, and such is the case in our new house.

We have brass doorknobs in several styles. We have chrome doorknobs in several styles. In some places we have brass on one side of a door and chrome on the other...in mismatched styles. We have deadbolts in the most peculiar places. (I had never before seen one on the door between the living room and the hall that leads to the bedrooms, but there's one in this house. And on the master bedroom door. Creepy.) We have light fixtures and ceiling fans of every conceivable era, style, and color.

Yesterday we bought five 52" ceiling fans like this. They will go in the bedrooms, the living room, and the upstairs apartment, now called the boys' playroom. We had planned to Airbnb it, but the boys made a convincing argument for turning into their space...something about keeping their toys out of sight and their bedroom neat, but you know how that will go. Nevertheless, they won us over.

52" Verano fan by Casa Vieja
lampsplus.com

We've ordered this 60" fan for the family room/dining room.

60" Casa Aleso fan by Casa Vieja
lampsplus.com

Our kitchen is relatively small and currently has a massive and ornate ceiling fan instead of a light fixture, which will be replaced by this fixture.

Lattice flush mount fixture
lampsplus.com

After buying several samples cabinet knobs and pulls, we finally decided on these unusual ones with a 1950s feel, which influenced our decision in the choice of a kitchen light fixture.

A279BN CKP Brand modern pull
coolknobsandpulls.com

Our soon-to-be very plain double front doors will have round retro knobs, the Orbit model by Schlage, and narrow star escutcheons from Rejuvenation. The rest of the doors, interior as well as exterior, will have the same round knobs.

 

Narrow star escutcheon
rejuvenation.com

Schlage Orbit door set
lowes.com

Instead of a Sputnik fixture over the dining table, we've decided to go with this cone light look.

Ronald cone pendant
franceandson.com

My power drill and I are going to be very busy in a few days, but once we're done, the house will look like a new place. New, that is, with a nod to the way it might have looked in 1950 when it was built.

Part 2: How bad is too bad?

Remember when I asked in a post a few days ago if a house could skip "bad" and go straight to "too bad"? After making an appointment to see said house, here is what we found upon entering.

We were a little surprised that the sellers hadn't made even the most minimal effort to clean out the house. It would quite literally take a crew with a dump truck to get rid of all the detritus that was left behind when the previous owner vacated. That's probably one of the reasons it's been sitting on the market for 170 days.

The verdict: It is a lot cooler than we had expected...and in worse shape than we thought, inside and out. In addition to the mounds of trash and abandoned personal belongings, we found obvious water damage, possible mold, and general dilapidation of wood and stone structures outside.

Still, we haven't ruled it out, if for no other reason than that both bathrooms have vintage Pomona tile designed by George Nelson sometime in the late 50s or early 60s for the Distinguished Designer series (which included tiles by Paul McCobb, Millard Sheets, Dorothy Liebes, Saul Bass, Paul Laszlo, and Dong Kingman). At some point, the top of the vanity in one bathroom was replaced with marble, but I found a lot of 76 of the tiles on Ebay, and failing finding the same tile later, we could always have it tiled with a complementary untextured tile. (Yes, I'm already starting to obsess.)

ebay.com

New house: First things first

When we found our house, there were a number of details we were willing to overlook. The owners had bought the house to flip, and they had chosen very "mainstream" materials for the re-do, as they had a legitimate reason to do. They obviously didn't want to limit their potential buyers to hardcore mid-century lovers, so they took the more traditional route in preparing the 1964 beauty for sale.

Granite countertops. Check. Ornate light fixtures and fans. Check. Tan walls with white trim. Check. They were particularly proud of the ceiling fan in the living room, which they called their "wow factor." We were only wowed by the fact that it has the smallest fan blades on the planet and puts out no air, despite its dual design.

For those of you who aren't from Texas, believe me when I say ceiling fans are necessary, but it's possible for them to be less obtrusive. The curly metal and baby blades will be replaced with this simple fan:

Roto ceiling fan by Minka Aire
lumens.com

Also being replaced are the ubiquitous builders' grade "booby lights," both the flush mount and its slightly fancier semi-flush sister.

They will be replaced by these fixtures.

Golden Lighting Multi-Family flush mount fixture
allmodern.com

Philips Discus semi-flush fixture
allmodern.com

This is the fixture over the kitchen island.

It will be replaced by two (or maybe three) of these:

Bromi Design Camden pendant
thelightshop.com

Last, but by no means least, is the dining room fixture, which we're hoping someone buys the minute we put it on Craigslist. I'm sure it will be lovely in someone else's home...but not in ours.

   

It will be replaced with this Sputnik style chandelier.

Style Selections 18-light  brushed nickel chandelier
lowes.com

The interior walls and beams will be painted a gloriously creamy coat of Benjamin Moore White Dove, which we finally selected after agonizing over more white paint chips than we ever knew existed and multiple swaths of actual paint blotching those perfectly blah tan walls.

It's one of the most popular of the Benjamin Moore whites, described as a soft white with just a hint of yellow, which I hope will look just right with our creamy white brick walls of the sun room and the atrium. As soon as the walls and beams are white, the new light fixtures will go up.

After that, we'll start looking for something to replace the granite countertops...but that's another post.