House - interior
Home Up House - interior Fixtures

 

 

The living and dining rooms of the house are not really separated; the division between them is marked by a wide Tudor arch on the ceiling.  I like the openness of the space, though I miss having a proper dining room.

Below is the living room.  The outstanding feature is the tapestry brick fireplace and the arched windows on either side.  These are pretty strange for a bungalow, but I love them.   When the light hits right it throws their precise image on the opposite wall.  I've seen this style on only two other houses, both within a half mile of mine and from the same era.   The doors here lead to the sunroom (L) and porch (R).

Below is the dining area.  A previous owner wallpapered the dining area in a multi-hued, textured russet paper that's grown on me -- at least I haven't yet come up with a better treatment.    I hope to restore the ceiling and molding within a few years (it currently has tiles) and get a period-appropriate fixture for over the table. 

 

Close-up of the fireplace in use after restoration; the bricks match those on the exterior.  The hearth is green tile with a white stripe around the edge (approximately like the edge of the sofa in the photo above).

Below is the sunroom/den off the living room -- you can see the porch through the windows on the left (with its former ugly green paint); three sides are almost all windows.  All of the woodwork downstairs -- oak in public rooms, pine elsewhere -- is original (that's common here; the craze for painting it seems to have bypassed this area).  I've recently gotten a more appropriate rug and futon cover.  

Here's my bedroom.  The door (to the sunroom) has an inset beveled mirror.  The walls are a buttery cream color -- more yellow than they appear in this photo.  

Two shots of the second (guest) bedroom.  The walls are a muted peach.  Both bedrooms have closets with bifold doors -- from some marks in the interior plaster they appear to have been widened at some point.  The kilim on the floor I lugged back from an outdoor market in London, and the chair is an original Mission piece that was stashed away in my parents' house.

Below, two shots of the kitchen.  The decor is from the previous owner; I'll probably change it at some point, but I like it well enough for now.  The floor is 8" x 8" vinyl asbestos tiles with a neutral marbled pattern laid in checkerboard; they look dirty in these shots, but aren't.  Clearly not original, but I don't mind them -- they hide dirt and mop up well and look to me similar to the retro linoleum people are buying.   

The original cabinets are mostly intact, though the hardware and countertops have been changed.  The lower cabinets on the right were also extended outwards about 8" -- though the laminate countertop still hangs out over them!  The lower cabinets in the left-hand photo are newer (there's a porcelain light above, so perhaps the sink went there originally).   In the right-hand shot, you can get a glimpse of the house's built-in icebox (see the next page here for a better view).  There's a sink and window to the left of the cabinets you see on the right; all the cabinets in the sink section are new, and I'm wondering what was there before.  Someday I hope to get new custom cabinets made to match the existing old ones.

The original wall surface is intact at the back of the lower cabinets:  plaster scored to look like subway tile.  I'd like to bring that back at some point, too.

   

Below left:  Here's the stairwell to the room above the garage (my office).  Since these photos were taken, I've repainted both halls visible below in a much warmer antique white.   The office room is a bright, airy space; the window trim matches the rest of the house, but is painted.

Below right:  The bathroom.  Completely modernized, alas, about six months before I bought the house.   Still, at least it's white and has that "sanitary" look, with tileboard on the lower half of the walls.  I hope to replace the icky vinyl floor with hex tile soon.

   

 

Exterior and Porch

Light fixtures and other features