Show us your vintage home!

[Forgotten Man]

Yeah, I agree, old piano's do have a special sound. Most people today don't appreciate them... so much so that the older piano's will sit in antique shops forever till they're given away or tossed out!

Save the old uprights!

 

[dhermann1]

The problem with old pianos is that they need (like all quality musical instruments) to be PLAYED on a regular basis, or they'll go bad. Just tuning them from time to time isn't enough. So anybody, if you have an old piano sitting around, even if you can't play real music, give the ivories a regular tinkle. Fake it! Scare the cats! But keep the parts vibrating. They need it.

 

[David Conwill]

The problem with old pianios is that they need (like all quality musical instruments) to be PLAYED on a regular basis, or they'll go bad. Just tuning them from time to time isn't enough. So anybody, if you have an old piano sitting around, even if you can't play real music, give the ivories a regular tinkle. Fake it! Scare the cats! But keep the parts vibrating. They need it.

My two-year-old will be happy to hear that. I need to start hunting Craigslist for a vintage upright that she can "play".

-Dave

 

[Silver Dollar]

The problem with old pianos is that they need (like all quality musical instruments) to be PLAYED on a regular basis, or they'll go bad. Just tuning them from time to time isn't enough. So anybody, if you have an old piano sitting around, even if you can't play real music, give the ivories a regular tinkle. Fake it! Scare the cats! But keep the parts vibrating. They need it.

I'm glad somebody besides myself understands this. This is why a Stradivarius is so great and they can't duplicate it. It's been played for several hundred years. The wood has opened up, the varnish has shrunk down and dried out and the soul has been allowed to develop. I hate when someone buys a mint condition vintage guitar like a 1930's Gibson archtop, puts it away in a vault and never plays it. The instrument is cold, lifeless and many times harsh. An old, well played "axe" that looks terrible many times sounds incredible. The unfair thing is the mint guitar will always fetch way more than a well used, even repaired instrument.

 

[Silver Dollar]

The only room I have that's vintage is my workshop where I build and superdetail my large scale vintage model cars and WWII aircraft. It's based on a 1940's gas station garage that's still around in the late 50's.

I used to model cars strictly but i've always favored the WWII aircraft.

 

[MikeBravo]

I especially love the grafitti on the wall. In particular the "Kilroy was here" or "Foo was here" as we cal him over here in Oz.

Now that I mention it, I haven't seen that guy around for decades. Foo, where are you?

 

[David Conwill]

I used to model cars strictly but i've always favored the WWII aircraft.

I think we need a couple display case threads out of you: One for Golden Era cars and one for WWII aircraft.

When you say "large scale", I'm imagining 1/18 and larger. Is that about right?

-Dave

 

[airgrabber666]

my house, this Spring

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

My house - built 1883.

The first photo below is from the early 1890s.

Then:

Now:

 

[Shangas]

Yeah, I agree, old piano's do have a special sound. Most people today don't appreciate them... so much so that the older piano's will sit in antique shops forever till they're given away or tossed out!

Save the old uprights!

I've been in love with antique pianos ever since I saw my piano-teacher's one. She's...probably approaching seventy now. But when she was a young lass, she recieved a stunning upright piano as a present from friends. It's still in her house today. A massive, Richard Lipp & Sohn upright piano with original ivory keys, from 1910!! Going to her house for lessons every Saturday afternoon was worth it, just to play on that antique beauty!

 

[David Conwill]

HarpPlayerGene, mind if I ask how you managed to dig up a period photo of your house? I've been trying to do that for a while, and haven't had much luck.

-Dave

 

[kampkatz]

HarpPlayerGene,
Your house had its own charming appeal in the 1890's. However its current look is also pleasant, and no doubt more up to modern codes as well as easier to maintain. It certainly is roomier. I wish I had photos of my home in the 1890's to compare with today.

 

[PistolPete1969]

I LOVE this thread!!!

My wife & I just bought our house. It was built in 1961, so not sure if strictly "vintage" or not. It came complete with a bright pink bathroom, blood-red shag carpet over hardwood in the living room and hallway, and 10 years of neglected yard. It is truly a labor of love.

Pics forthcoming.


Pete

 

[David Conwill]

1961...bright pink bathroom

Save that pink bathroom!

And I hope you're an Atomic Ranch subscriber.

-Dave

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

HarpPlayerGene, mind if I ask how you managed to dig up a period photo of your house? I've been trying to do that for a while, and haven't had much luck.

-Dave

We have a historical society here in town. One day, after living here for a few years already, I went in and asked if they had anything on file for my address. The lady asked, "What year was it built?". I told her, 1883. She said, "No, no, that can't be... That would make it older than the Mote-Morris house (a local historic landmark)!" Then, sure enough, she found the records, confirmed the 1883 build date and produced the old mounted photo. I convinced her to let me borrow it for scanning and returned the original to their archives.

More on my little old town and the MM house:
http://www.ci.leesburg.fl.us/history/mote_morris.aspx

It turns out ours was one of the first homes built in this area. The original owner (shown standing in front with his wife) was Asa Sleeth Hardman, a Union Civil War veteran, witness to Picket's Charge at Gettysburg, writer of memoirs and settler of the southern swamplands. I visited his headstone in our Lone Oak Cemetary about 3 miles from here.

More on him here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=J9...AA#v=onepage&q=Asa Hardman gettysburg&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=hK...Bw#v=onepage&q=Asa Hardman gettysburg&f=false

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

HarpPlayerGene,
Your house had its own charming appeal in the 1890's. However its current look is also pleasant, and no doubt more up to modern codes as well as easier to maintain. It certainly is roomier. I wish I had photos of my home in the 1890's to compare with today.

I understand that it was in the 1920s, when an attorney named Collins acquired the house, that the 'sleeping porches' were enclosed and the stucco was done on the exterior. Old Portland Cement cladding the entire structure. Most walls inside are plaster but some of them are also stucco. Let me tell you, ours is the HEAVIEST house on the street. When the outer bands of hurricanes have caused our neighboring old homes to sway, ours was rock-solid.

They really overbuilt back then but I'm glad. All full cut timber, heart pine that has cured like steel. Studs at 12" on center!

Where the side door is on the old photo, is now a sizable addition. You can barely see it in the reverse angle modern shot. There have also been additions projecting from the back which all together helps with the interior square footage.

 

[David Conwill]

A carpetbagger’s house! Cool. The history of your house sounds a lot like mine. I wish I could find photos to go along with what I know, but the local historical societies aren’t very well organized or staffed. I wish I had more time to go through the newspaper microfilms at the local library, but work, commuting, and family keep me too busy.

I’ve done a lot of digging, both literally and figuratively. I don’t remember if I’ve reported it here before, so forgive me if I repeat myself.

My house was built c. 1882, based on the newspapers we found stuffed in/above the plaster in the dining room, and the owner of the lot at that time was a woman named Harriet McPhail, the wife of a mill (lumber and grist) owner, and shop owner named William McPhail (incidentally, they were the grandparents of Leland Sanford “Larry” MacPhail, who is in the baseball hall of fame for starting night baseball in the ‘30s).

Based on the remaining gingerbread, ours was originally built in the Queen Anne style, but was updated c. 1917 with electrical, plumbing, and a Colonial Revival interior. The owner at that time was a local banker named Henry Parker, who had immigrated from England and worked his way up from the lumber fields of Michigan to become partner in a banking firm called Ealy & Co.

In 1919, Parker sold to a local attorney named Harry P. George. George, however, died of a brain anneurism shortly after the sale. He died in his driveway, according to the period newspaper article, but whether that was my driveway or the house he was moving from, I’m not sure.

George’s young widow sold to a man named Charles Neal, who had been a successful farmer in the countryside north of town, and who had moved into Caro and become Commissioner of Streets for the village. He also served as special drain commissioner for the county.

Neal lived in my house until his death in 1943, and after his widow died in 1944, their daughters took over ownership. Their oldest daughter, Eleanor, was a beloved, if somewhat reclusive, teacher at the local high school from the 1920s until the 1960s or ‘70s. She never married, and owned the house until her death in 1995. Her name and the fact that you can still “feel” her in the house, inspired us to name our youngest daughter Eleanor.

At the time of Miss Neal’s death, the house had been unoccupied for a few years, but a local family bought it from her estate and stabilized the problems that had developed while it was vacant.

After the family sold the house to move to the Dakotas, the house was the site of a failed attempt at producing a scrapbooking resort/B&B in the early 2000s. We bought it from the bank that foreclosed because we were so taken with its 90% pre-WWII appointments. Miss Neal had the enclosed porch, the kitchen, and the downstairs bathroom remodeled mid-century (probably about 1970 based on the date in the toilet tank), but other than that and some wallpaper and paint, the place looks like 1917 inside and out.

The reason I’d love to find old photos is twofold: I’d like a historic paint-scheme reference. Everyone in town only remembers the house being painted solid white and its current gray/white/black/salmon color scheme. I would also like a pre-1917 porch reference, as the heavy pillar and to-the-ground clapboards of the remodel make the house appear unbalanced when compared with the second-floor gingerbread. We’d like to go back to a 19th Century style porch.

Sorry to be so long winded, I just can’t get enough of old buildings. I’m so happy to own one at last, and I get a little crazy when people casually tell me that I should be spraying my walls full of foam and ripping out hardwood double hungs in favor of throwaway vinyl windows. This stuff has lasted a century, why would I change it??

-Dave

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

This stuff has lasted a century, why would I change it??

-Dave

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

I'm glad you were long-winded. I enjoyed reading every bit!

-------------------

Our place was in stable physical shape when we bought it in '97, but the decorating was atrocious. We called the scheme 'Redneck Barbie On Acid'. I'll dig out the Before and Afters of interior rooms and scan the prints some time to share here. We didn't feel the need to go super period accurate, but just eliminating all the cheap, gaudy, frilly '80s country crap and furnishing with antiques was a huge improvement.

BTW, here's a better angle for comparison of current to the historic shot:

 

[Silver Dollar]

I think we need a couple display case threads out of you: One for Golden Era cars and one for WWII aircraft.

When you say "large scale", I'm imagining 1/18 and larger. Is that about right?

-Dave

I just realized I never answered this. My deepest apologies to you, Dave.

Actually, the size I work in is between 1/12 which is still too small to 1/6 which makes display a little difficult. I usually center around 1/8 scale for the cars. For the aircraft, large scale is considered 1/32 scale and 1/24 scale for plastic kits. For R/C models or large static displays, I've seen things go all the way up to 1/6. There's one R/C site that was selling a 1/6 scale B17. Talk about huge, you just about need a hangar to build the thing in. The wingspan on that sucker is 18 feet and the length is about 13 feet. My basement isn't nearly big enough for me to make this and it costs way too much for me but when you see one of these things, you wouldn't believe how real it looks.

 

[Mav]

Original structure 1852 (redwood plank shotgun shack), bay and Victorian facade added 1898. I was perfectly happy in my townhouse, but my wife decided I didn't have enough to do on the weekends.