Mid-Century Modern House Project

Welcome!

2010-07-24T12:58:00.003-04:00

2010-03-18T16:28:00.002-04:00

When we first moved in, the entry had dark floors and sun-faded discolored fiber wallpaper. We stripped all of the wallpaper (what a chore!), refinished the floors, and added a wonderful white glass globe that we had found in an antique store in Mt. Vernon. The floors are a hand-laid rift and quartersawn oak parquet. It's amazing! We love our entry!

Fireplace Screen

2010-03-18T16:23:00.004-04:00

Mark Mitchell, an artist from Zanesville, designed and fabricated a custom fireplace screen for us. It's as functional as it is beautiful!

Hallway in the "wing"

2010-03-18T15:40:00.005-04:00

Part of our house is in a horseshoe shape with a private patio in the middle of the horseshoe. This hallway runs along the side of the patio and was uninviting when we had first moved in. With a little creativity, we tied the feel of the wood cabinets to the wood floors to the wood behind the master bed into the ceiling of this hallway. It gives the hallway a very modern galley look...now when the sun shines in from the patio the whole space glows!

Boiler system upgrade

2010-03-18T15:27:00.003-04:00

When we purchased the house in 2007, the boiler was obviously outdated. After many nights of research, we settled on installing a very high-tech, ultra efficient Munchkin variable 140k BTU boiler system. The house has 3 heating zones (rare for a 1957 build) and the tiny boiler handles all of them with ease. We added a 4th zone to heat the new hot water system (pictured underneath the square boiler). Not only are we saving the environment, but we're saving enough on our heating bills for an extra vacation per year!

Guest Bathroom

2009-08-22T12:10:00.003-04:00

Our guest bathroom...before and after pictures. We are extremely pleased with the results! As with the rest of the house project, Libby and I ended up tearing out the bathroom to the studs. The good part about this is that it gave the ceilings a ton of height. Libby installed the floor tile and cabinets. She used Ikea cabinets and countertop.

Front sitting room

2009-03-18T00:12:00.003-04:00

Here is the front sitting room. It is the room to the right as you enter our house. As you can see, we decided to remove the pink wallpaper, curtains, carpet and shutters. The floor was very interesting...at first glance it did not look like wood...it looked more like linoleum from a distance. But, after some very careful sanding and finishing, we have a magnificent hand laid parquet, rift and quartered white oak floor!

Entertainment center

2009-03-18T00:04:00.004-04:00

Once we took out the old cabinets, window air conditioner and all of the drywall off of the walls, we had a clean slate to work with. Keeping in the same style as the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, we decided to add a little black glass cabinet face to work with the line of slate that wraps the fireplace and the black glass mosaic tile kitchen backsplash. LED lighting shines down from under the black glass cabinets and creates a nice mood in the evening. Once again, Libby had some great ideas!

Main living room

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This is our main living room. We love the fireplace! The entertainment center on the right was fun to design...all of the cabinets are from IKEA.

Kitchen

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A front on view of the kitchen. The cabinets are IKEA, the appliances are Jenn-Air and the flooring is sanded and finished rift and quarterersawn white oak. Notice the little air unit in the top left corner of the finished product. This is part of a 2 stage air conditioning system that is made by Fujitsu. It heats and cools and is over 98% efficient. The house did not come with an air conditioning system and this Fujitsu mini-split system sure saved the day! We still utilize out hot water boiler system that has been fully upgraded with a Munchkin boiler for heat in the winter.

Master bathroom

2009-03-15T11:05:00.005-04:00

The master bathroom. Libby put quite a bit of work into the concept of the master bathroom. It started out fully carpeted, with a pink cast iron shower, pink toilet and a "Hollywood 1970's" vanity. We took the same position here as we did the rest of the house...tear it out down to the studs. Libby found this beautiful Italian glass mosaic tile for about $2.50 a square foot on Ebay. The same goes for the faucets and vessel sinks. The chrome faucets look like bamboo! To keep in sync with the rest of the cabinets in the house, Libby decided to use the same IKEA cabinets here. She had some custom granite countertops made out of a remnant by Distinctive Marble and Granite in Powell, Ohio which turned out great. The granite in the bathroom was about $600 but was well worth it! Bathrooms are expensive little spaces to renovate!

Alternate view of kitchen

2009-03-15T10:48:00.010-04:00

Soon after we purchased the house we started demolition. This is the area that opens up into the kitchen. As we started tearing the place apart, the project became much more intense than we had thought. The carpet came up easily, but I then had to tear out an entire layer of 5/8" subfloor that was nailed down every 6 inches with screw nails (this is so the new hardwood flooring could be installed). It was so difficult that I could only physically tear out one piece of 4x8 subfloor a day! As we entrenched ourselves deeper and deeper into the demolition, it became apparent that the drywall and plaster had to be taken off as well. The final picture in this set includes a full IKEA kitchen (designed by Libby), Jenn-Air appliances and brand new flooring. The flooring was installed, sanded and finished by us too...it is a 3/4" tongue and groove rift and quartered white oak with a high traffic water base finish. The water base finish keeps the floor light and modern.

Exterior of house

2009-03-15T09:13:00.004-04:00

The first pictures were taken in the spring of 2007 just after we purchased the house. The landscaping was overgrown and in need of a major facelift. So after tearing out all of the overgrown shrubbery and ivy, we decided to keep things minimal. The last photo was taken summer of 2008 and we will be finishing up the outside landscaping this summer, 2009. You'll notice some white piping and wires...that is our high efficiency Muchkin hot water boiler exhaust that we had installed (more pictures of this amazing system later). The pipes will be painted and blend in well.