Welcome

A few years ago my wife and I moved into our current house. We relocated to be closer to work (mine) and had outgrown the old place. With a new baby on the way and a 20 mile commute it was a welcome change. Before the move we didn't agree much on house styles.The Wife wanted Victorian and I was more of a bungalow guy. I grew up in a bungalow. Of course the Arts and Crafts movement was pretty much the
antithesis of Victorian ideals so you can see this didn't get us very far. I can be flexible, and quite honestly, I can appreciate many different styles. As long as they are not Victorian. Many apologies to the Queen. All that frill and gilt is not my bag. More importantly, I'm not going to be spending my summers on a ladder painting aging wood two stories up. So what else fits? Without getting too far down the rabbit hole we found something we can both agree on. Modern. I've always liked Art Deco and for the most part, the resurgence of it in the fifties. Also, we both like weird in general.  Well, maybe not Post Modernism but kitschy. Odd for the sake of being fun rather than weird for the sake of well...forsaking.

So we're looking at houses for sale and anything Modern is head and shoulders above our price range. The stuff we find in our price range is mostly older homes in every conceivable style imaginable and all decorated in a "country" motif. Country is in quotes because while I'm sure folks around here know what I mean I don't think that's a recognizable decorating style. Or maybe it is. I'm not disparaging it or the folks who like it. I do not care for it. More on that later. So at the time a friend I've known for years was selling his house.

Right before we moved in almost five years ago.  Not much different today.

It's close to work, it's got heat, air, appliances, three bedrooms, two baths, a garage and the price was right. Not an exciting looking place. What it did have going for it was what it did not have. It had no decor. It had no landscaping, it had nothing to be undone. Every wall is white. It had all the original fixtures in the bathrooms, original countertops. Well, four years later and it still has all those things. Except for the air conditioning and the roof. The air quit last summer and the roof will need to be replaced soon. The idea was buy the house and fix it up to make it whatever we want. In that time it's grown to feel like a bad motel room where something horrible had happened the previous week. I won't say that this house was cheaply built because that's not exactly fair. It was built well enough with an exception or two but this is one no-frills house. It'll never be an Eichler or a Neutra but It's home. I think it's one of the last built in the neighborhood and it's clearly smaller and less ornate than all the rest.

So what the hell are we going to do with it? Let's start with what we're not going to do. We're not going to turn it into something it's not. Wow, that's a lot of not's. I don't see us turning this into some museum of 50's kitsch with lots of sea-foam green and boomerang laminates and skinny cat paintings. I love the Mid-Century Modern style and all of it's imitators. I even like the skinny cat paintings. But like I said, this house was built in 1978, not 1958. I probably won't be filling it with Eames Lounge chairs and Noguchi tables either.There probably isn't going to be many walls moving or roof-line changes. O.K., I might put an Eames lounge chair on the wish list but the Noguchi table and room additions are cost prohibitive. I also need to keep things realistic from a resale prospective. This is Northwest Indiana. The average homebuyer looking at my house in 10 or so years probably won't have any idea who Noguchi and Neutra are. Hey, that's just fine with me but Palm Springs this ain't, so I gotta keep the buyer in mind to a degree. I do want to procure some groovy vintage furniture but I don't want to lock into retro. But hey, the Barcelona chair was designed in the 20's and it looks like it could easily be launched tomorrow and still knock people out. 1929 wasn't exactly Midcentury.

The idea is freshen up the place with a nice clean look that fits our lifestyle, such as it is, and make it more comfortable and efficient. It's a ranch so there will be some ranchyness going on, it's 2013 so we'll use some new tech and modern (lower case m) conveniences. There's some non-fun stuff to do like insulating and updating wiring, roofing, etc... All in all, I'm looking forward to sharing this with any readers we might have. I'm hoping to have a few questions answered along the way so if you're an expert, or think you are, maybe you can help. Welcome to Most Mod Cons.