Charming Features of Older Homes

Happy Friday! Are you looking forward to the weekend? I have some projects to work on so it will be a busy one. I have a little catching up to do around here. I was out of town visiting family (my son and, his family) and I just returned last night. It was a fun trip and the days flew by.

My son and DIL purchased a beautiful, older home a while back and this was the first time I’ve visited since they moved in. Their home was built in 1929, per my daughter-in-law and I was captivated all week by the many charming features the previous owners had left intact. What a treasure!

With their permission, I’m sharing some of the wonderful details, details we no longer see in most homes today. Starting here at the front door, this door must have been a precursor to our ugly, metal/modern storm doors of today. It’s a heavy wood door containing a true divided-light glass panel that’s removable and can be replaced with a screened panel during the summer. The screened panel was stored in the basement, ready for use. The door leading out to their screened porch is the same way. Loved this!

Vintage French Door with Removable Screen

 

Loved the front door handle…soooo glad the previous owners never got rid of this, but then I could say that about every vintage thing in their home. You can’t go out and buy patina like this. Well, actually you can buy handles with fake patina, but it will never look like this.

Antique Brass Doorknob

 

These adorable lanterns were on either side of the front door. I loved them so much! I see reproductions like this in high-end catalogs and they are always so expensive.

Exterior Lighting for the Cottage Home

 

All week I felt like I had been transported back to another time. I was in nostalgia heaven the whole time. For example, the mailman still brings your mail right up to the front door and inserts it into the mail slot beside the door. When you have outgoing mail, you just stick it out of the slot like this and the mailman picks it up.

I was also tickled to see the trash is still picked up right at the home. You just put your trash in normal trash cans hidden on the back side of the garage. That’s it! There’s no pushing a giant ugly bucket to the curb where it sits in all its unsightly plastic glory the live-long day until garbage pickup occurs and you return home from work to push it back.

Vintage Antique Mail Slot

 

Here’s how the mail slot looks from the inside. 🙂

Vintage Mail Slot in Wall

 

I loved the front door with its decorative window.

Old Front Door with Window

 

All week long I was ooohing and ahhing over all their interior doors. I’ve been on many historic home tours in my time and I don’t think I’ve ever seen doors I liked as much as the ones in this 1930’s home. I should have taken a close-up because each panel in the door is multi-leveled or grooved. Not sure what you call that but it’s beautiful. I think you’ll be able to see it in some other pictures further down in this post.

Interior Panel Door

 

Surprisingly, it wasn’t just the main doors that were like this. Every single door in the home is like this, including the closets! Speaking of closets, this home was way ahead of its time. Two of the upstairs bedrooms were built with double “his and her” closets!

Antique Paneled Interior Door

 

You know how so many folks are now buying and installing the reproduction ORB knobs? Every door in the home had these beautiful old knobs and plates, even the closets.

Antique Doorknob

 

And many of them still had keys sticking out of them!

Antique Doorknob with Antique Key

 

I forgot to capture it but several of the doorways leading from one room to the next were arched. I loved the main staircase leading up because it went up to a landing that was beautifully lit by a large window. The staircase turned and continued up. Love staircases that aren’t a continuous long staircase but are broken with a landing. They are also safer for little ones when they are just learning to navigate stairs.

Beautiful hall light…

Vintage Lighting

 

All the floors throughout the home (downstairs and upstairs) were hardwood, hidden under carpet. They were able to be refinished and turned out beautifully. So wonderful to move into a home already designed with hardwood flooring throughout. I’ve been gradually adding it to my home and I still have two rooms to go.

Vintage Hardwood Floors

 

Two of the three bedrooms had dormer windows on both sides of the room…love me a dormer window!

Dormer Windows_wm

 

Many (maybe all—I didn’t check) of the window sills throughout the home were marble.

Marble Window Sill

 

Two of the three bathrooms had these wonderful old wall heaters and amazingly they still work! So, in addition to the central heat and air, you can make things nice and toasty when bathing. Love that!

Wall Heater_wm

 

I got a little chuckle because my modern toothbrush was too fat to fit inside the vintage toothbrush holder. If I lived here, I think I’d have to buy some of the flat skinny retro-looking toothbrushes to tuck inside.

Toothpaste Holder

 

Two of the bathrooms were sporting laundry shoots for transporting laundry directly down to the laundry room. I asked my son and DIL if they do use them and they said yes, all the time. See what I mean…I was dying all week over all these cute vintage features! I know they thought I was crazy! lol

Laundry Shoot_wm

 

The basket-weave tile floors in one of the bathrooms was soooo beautiful!

Basket Weave Tile

 

Are you as completely smitten by older homes as I am? Do you ever wish you could be transported back to a simpler time and place? Okay, I don’t want to give up my iPad but I could sure do with some of this vintage charm. Having my mail delivered right to my front door wouldn’t be so bad, either! 🙂

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Comments

  1. Yes, I love older homes, and only wish we all had a little more restraint to just enjoy those things and live a little simpler. Love all the details you pointed out. Glad you had the chance to visit your son & DIL.

  2. San di Lee says

    What a wonderful home-is it a craftsman style-the doors appear to be. Is this the son with the new baby? I know you had a great time and thanks for sharing. I’m with you on older homes. Anything prior to WW2 is what I like!! They are so lucky to have all the vintage details as well as mail and garbage pick up 50’s style.

  3. We live in a cottage home, with many charming features -we love it! You couldn’t pay me to live in a brand new home, unless we could incorporate all the features that we have in this home. (And I’m sure that would cost a fortune!)

  4. Wow. I’m in love. It’s so cute. Love the door handles and the laundry chute especially. They are so lucky!!

    • Thanks, Joni! I so love the older homes, too!

      • Cheryl Hauser says

        We live in and love our home which was built in 1930. I shared all of your comments and photos with my husband because our home has all of those features, too! It reminded us again of the things we originally fell in love with, but sometimes take for granted.

  5. We live in a charming cottage home and love it! You couldn’t pay me to live in a new house, unless it had the same charm & character of our current home. (And that would probably cost a fortune!)

  6. pam ~ crumpety cottage says

    Susan, you sneaky pete! I didn’t know you had snuck off. I’m so glad you got to meet little Court and of course, spend time with Chip and his wife. And yes, their house is lovely. I too love all the vintage features, particularly those lovely lanterns, the fun laundry chute and the removable glass door inserts! But more importantly, I hope we’ll get to see lots of pictures of you holding that baby! I can’t WAIT to be a grandma, I am just bursting and I have to make due ooohing and aaahhing over other peoples grandbabies in the meantime. 😀 So don’t be stingy, show off little Court.

    One of the main things I loved about our house when I first saw it was the wonderful union of old timey elements with the modern styles and conveniences. I do so love old timey architecture and I would be having a fit over all the same cute things you did. *Sigh* I hope they are happily settled and enjoying their house and particularly their new baby. I can’t wait to see you holding him. 🙂

  7. Sandi, I’m not exactly sure. It was described as a cape cod when they bought it. It’s all brick and stone and makes me think of storybook homes. 🙂

  8. pam ~ crumpety cottage says

    Btw, Susan, I just wanted to let you know that when I go to post, I no longer get the ‘chance to reread it or the your post is waiting to be moderated’ page .” This has happened several times now. And in fact, if I go to post again, my name and email are no longer automatically there as they were previously. Just fyi.

  9. How fortunate they were to find a home that had not been “updated.” I love the hardwood floors and the interior doors. Someone obviously loved this home and took care of it. And it sounds like it’s again in good hands.

    • Vickie, I think the home has only had a couple of owners. You can tell it was well cared for. It has a beautiful perennial garden out back…can’t wait to see it in bloom.

  10. This was so fun and you must have had a marvelous time!! Alas, moving from our 1937 English Tudor is so tough…so many of those same details in our home. Downsizing isn’t easy for me and hope the “new family” will cherish it as we have these past forty plus years. franki

  11. Charlotte says

    I love the charm of an older house. I love the yellow walls too. Now they are building homes with reclaimed doors, floors, light fixtures, etc. so you get a new house with lots of charm – perfect balance. Can’t wait to see pictures of your Grandbaby!

  12. Oh Susan, there’s nothing wrong with you, I too adore vintage homes and specially the bathrooms, they have so much vintage character, like the tiles, fixtures, features like the gorgeous ones here… and tooth brush holders, lol! I also love to visit historic homes here as well with terraces and all. In fact, hubby’s grandfather’s house is great to go see it, as now it’s a historic building. Thank you for sharing. Enjoy your weekend.
    FABBY

  13. Baby pictures please. Isn’t it just the most wonderful feeling holding that first grandchild! What a fabulous home for him to grow up in. A laundry chute & marble window sills, oh my! Our little brick cottage style home was built in the early 60’s but also came with some unique features…like a rotary phone in the wall that still works, hardwood floors that creak, and I won’t let my husband oil the wooden screen door that squeaks. No beautiful old light fixtures, no overheads at all but we’re working on that as needed. Our mailman delivers & picks up at the front door (he even rings the bell if delivering packages), and we get phone calls alerting us of any garbage pick up changes and predictions/solutions for power outages. I love living in a very small town.

  14. We live in a house that was built in the 1840s, and I love the historic features of an old house like this. Updating it to add modern conveniences (like electricity, plumbing, central heat and air, etc.) is a balancing act. Previous owners of our house did very little to mess up the original features of the house, thank goodness. Our updates and renovations have been geared toward returning the historic character to this old place, without making things too modern. That said, it’s great to now be able to walk into a room and turn on a light from a switch, instead of stumbling in the dark to turn on a lamp … just one of the many things that we take for granted.

    Will I ever live in a new house again? Probably not. This place is built much more solidly than any new place, and the simple proportions suit my taste perfectly. (photos of the evolution of our house are found in a link below the header on my blog, if you want to see.)

  15. Kathie Taylor says

    Congrats on being a grandma! I have 4.
    The house is darling and loved the finishes that were left in place. You would so love a show on DIY tv called “ReHab Addict” She restores old homes to their former glory….most of the houses are in Minnesota. I love old homes as well, but I would really have to ‘hunt’ for one here in Florida. I’m three miles from the beach though. We all have our concessions!

  16. I love older homes, too. So much charm and character – and most times fantastic workmanship. How many toothbrush holders made today will last 80+ years?? 🙂
    Luckily I do still live in a neighborhood where mail is delivered to my door – LOVE it!

  17. Vicki Daugherty says

    So glad you visited that new baby, and their house. It looks like an adorable cottage. So many wonderful things not to take for granted. Are visiting your ex governor’s wife to check on her Easter decorations? I think we need a fix of her lavishness! Looking forward to your new grandson pictures. Vicki in Louisville KY

  18. What a charming home! I would be exclaiming over all the details too! I live in a house that was built in the 1930s, but except for the wonderful front porch and arched doorways, most of the charm had been removed when we bought it. 16 years later, we are returning those precious details that make a vintage house charming. We have salvaged old paneled doors, installed period style windows, tore out hideous shag carpet to reveal beautiful oak floors, and so on. It’s so nice to see a house that no one has messed with in your pics!

  19. Hi Susan. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I grew up in a house that was a hundred years old then, with some of the features you speak of, as well as reproduction Queen Anne furniture with leather seats and glass ball feet and a leather trunk. Also, stained glass windows, porcelain door knobs and fireplaces in every room. The difference between what you speak of and what I experienced was our rental house was not maintained and was not a stately structure. It was just an old house. And true to the period, the only bathroom was the third floor up, with a claw foot tub. Oh yes, the kitchen had a cast iron cook stove. The house burned down after the family had moved out.
    For years after I left that house, I hated that style of decor, but surprisingly to me, I never forgot some of the aspects of the house I grew up in because I now own some Queen Anne furniture and I am still fascinated with claw foot tubs and cast iron cook stoves. My memories of that house bring mixed feelings and I still have dreams of running
    up the three flights of stairs.
    Phyllisa

  20. Christy Keyton says

    Our first home was built in the 40’s by my husband’s grandparents. It had many of these details and other things I loved – crystal doorknobs, built in corner cabinets, and an old 1950’s stove that worked like a charm. We outgrew that little cottage and I cried the day we moved. If it ever comes back on the market, my husband and I say we are moving back when we are empty nesters. LOVE vintage homes and their details!

  21. Susan…..Love all the original features! They are so lucky that someone had not stripped it of all that charm! I laugh every time I see someone with a laundry shoot. The only house I had one was in Germany….larger than American ones. On more than one occasion, my daughters friends (high school) would hide and get the biggest kick out of scaring me as I opened it in the basement!!! Be careful….little people LOVE to crawl into little cubbies!

  22. I love old homes and I bless those who treasure and respect them.
    I wish your son and daughter-in-love much happiness in it and that they share it with you and you with us creating a lovely circle of awesomeness.
    I live on a old home and wouldn’t trade it for nothing… there’s more challenge that’s for sure – compared to new and hi-tech homes – but even there lays the beauty and love.
    Wishing you a warm and happy Springly weekend,
    Teresa

  23. Hi Susan,

    Loved the tour. This house reminds me of my aunt’s which was also built in the’30s.
    That house had similar features… Including a Laundry Shoot my cousins decided to use to get downstairs
    faster! Luckily my aunt intervened before anyone got stuck.
    Thanks for bringing back a fun family memory,
    SheilaC

  24. Wow there are some great features in their home. I’m impressed with the light fixtures. It’s obvious the they were high quality from the start since they’ve stood the test of time so well. It looks like a home that has been well cared for. We still have door to door mail delivery in town but not out where I live. Glad you are back home- I bet you had a hard time leaving!!

  25. Loved seeing your son’s beautiful old home. I too live in a older home that was built in 1927. It still has many of the original features though it has been updated in the kitchen and baths. The updates reflect the period of the home as best as we could make them. Some people just see all the quirks of older homes and find fault because they are not perfect but that is what makes me love them.
    Wonder how many of the McMansions will stand the test of time??

  26. I loved seeing all the lovely details in your son and daughter-in-law’s home! You just can’t replicate the wonderful patina on those door knobs and plates! And the paneled doors are incredible! Sounds like they found the perfect home in which to raise that baby! So glad you took some time off to visit! 🙂

  27. Thanks for sharing these photo’s, the house is lovely but I want to see more, more, more. LOL

  28. Elizabeth Savage says

    I love, love the house! Congratulations on becoming a Grandma, it is a wonderful thing !

  29. My dad was born in August 1930 in the front bedroom of a house my grandparents built a few years earlier in Lincoln, Nebraska. My grandma insisted on a lot of quality details like stained oak molding and beautiful crystal door knobs, but as far as my brothers and I were concerned, the most amazing thing in the house was the laundry chute from the bathroom down to the laundry area in the basement. We lived in a new ranch-style home with no basement in the Albuquerque suburbs, and we thought this was pretty exotic! Thanks for some lovely memories!

    • I think they’re pretty exotic, too! 🙂 I actually had one in my first house after we married…we requested it but it didn’t get used very much since it was for the guest room primarily.

  30. Not a thing wrong with you liking it so much – just shows you have good taste. 😀 Looks and sounds they made a great choice. Bet you did enjoy time with that precious Grand.
    I also like the details in older homes – gives them so much more character. So many homes built now are cookie cutter homes. May look a bit different on the outside, but often same on the inside.
    Have a great weekend.

  31. OH MY WORD, what a COOL house. I loved all the features. Your son and DIL are probably thankful I am not the mother and MIL, I wouldn’t have left. LOL What a GREAT house. I hope you have more to share. I am nosy and want to see the rest of the house 😀

    And where are some up dated pictures of your sweet grandbaby? I know you had a ball with him.

    I am so happy for your son and his wife to have purchased such a treasure. AND mostly happy you were able to go to see your family!

    • Thanks, Mary! You are so sweet! I forgot to take a picture of the old Charleston fire plaque/mark hanging on the garage wall. I’d love to go back later in the spring and see the backyard garden in full bloom. You can tell the folks who lived there loved gardening.

  32. Susan, what a wonderful old home! Okay, yes, I’d love to go back in time…at times! Love the features you’ve shared of your son’s home, they are just great, just delightful! Marble window sills?? That’s amazing. Love those old heaters, warm and toasty is right! Loved your post, would love to see more!
    Nancy

  33. Dear Susan,
    Your son’s beautiful home , again a lovely reminder of my grandparents’ home. The doorknobs, plates, and the old skeleton keys i used to play with; all fond memories. My grandmother had similar bright yellow tile and I had forgotten about the space wall heater. HOW CLASSIC!

    BTW, does your son have a built in the wall linen storage with very deep drawers underneath? My grandmother did,
    and it stored quite a bit of linen, that she use to embroider. Glad you had a wonderful visit!
    Ann

    • Thanks, Ann! What wonderful memories from your grandparents home. ♥ I remember one time when we were upstairs, my dil opened a closet door that had nice deep shelves, but I can’t remember now where it was…may have been in the upstairs hall near the bathroom. They do have wonderful built-in bookshelves just inside the front door…loved those!

  34. What a lovely home your grandson will grow up in!

    I can’t believe they have his and her closets! I wonder if that was incorporated in the original structure? Very unusual, but how cool is that?

    The only feature I could do without is the toothbrush holder. I’m not giving up my vibrating toothbrush 😉

  35. Oh Susan, I’d love for you to come and see our home. It was built in 1930 and lovingly restored in 2002. We have rock arches on the porch, all the old doors and hardware, original hardwood floors, bathroom built ins with the original mirror, huge cedar mantel on the rock fireplace that matches the rock work on the porch…..the list goes on and on…..the grand daughter of the original owners lives in the area and stopped by one afternoon to share some interesting memories of the house with me!
    I really enjoyed the home tour photos of your sweet family’s “new” old home. I know they’ll treasure living there.

    Tammy

  36. What a charming home. So glad you had the time to visit your son and DIL and your new grandbaby. Come on now, we know you REALLY visited to play with the new baby, although having a new old home to tour was right up your alley. Enjoyed the details you posted.

  37. Susan, how did I miss that your Grandbaby arrived? I get a daily doze of your blog..what was the baby and when was it born? I thought she wasn’t due until sometime in May.. Love your son’s home..Looks like it has a lot of potenial..what kind of kitchen did it have? Have they put much work into it besides painting and basic maintainence?

    • They had a sweet little boy and he turns 4 weeks old this weekend. He is doing great and growing like the proverbial weed. 🙂 Thanks, Betty! The kitchen is done in kind of a retro style and doesn’t have the layout they would like. They are hoping to do a kitchen renovation at some point.

  38. bobbi duncan says

    Thank you, Susan, for the lovely pictures of your children’s charming home. I always feel like I’ve gone back in time in an older home. There are many stone and brick homes where we live and we so enjoy strolling past each one. Unfortunately, we chose a new home this time because we felt we were at the age where we didn’t want any drastic remodeling. Now we’re not so sure. Land is very expensive here or we would have built a 1930-1940’s era style home. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll get that when we retire to another state because we feel happiest in that kind of home. In the meantime we’ll add nice architectural details to this home so it feels more “homey”, but, you know, it’s still not the same as the real thing. Know you must be in Grandma Heaven about your new Grandchild–our first, Dylan Cooper, was born four months ago and he is just precious. Spring is in the air up here–thank goodness!

    • Thanks, Bobbi! It was wonderful seeing and holding him and listening to all those cute sounds babies make. I could see changes in him in just the time I was there. Amazing how fast they learn and how they grow a little every day. I hope you get the home you want in the future. I’ll eventually downsize and hope to find something similar to what my son found. You can just tell how solid those older homes were built! Glad spring is headed your way! 🙂

  39. Love all those charming features in vintage homes!!! Forgot about those old wall heaters, they were really nice to have. But where are the pics of the baby??? Who does he favor in looks??? Inquiring minds need to know…..

  40. Susan, wow what fabulous details. Would be good to see a photo of the outside of the home. I am in love with all those doors and knobs! Amazing how trends turn in circles. Guess that’s why my mother never threw anything away!
    Thanks for sharing and hope more is to come.
    Susan Y.

  41. Susan, My house has a number of similar details; it was built in 1932. It fascinates me to think about homes being built in the depression. I wonder if the people were well off or if they had to cut back on the choices they made for the house. My doorknobs have a different backplate from the ones shown in your pictures but they all have crystal knobs. They had been painted over many times. When I started to strip them it turned out the backplates inside of the closets are a grayish metal but the sides that face into the rooms are brass. My house has tons of charm but also a bathroom floor set into 2 inches of concrete (because that’s how they made them to last ). Unfortunately at 80 plus years the only bath must be replaced and all of the concrete and the wall that holds the old plumbing must be torn out. It puts a real crimp on any money for the fun stuff. So we have have good and we have have bad but I’ve only lived in one “new” house as an adult. (1960’s build) Thanks for sharing.

  42. Alas, I am in a mixed marriage. I like everything old and he likes everything new. He thinks that old automatically means fragile, and in imminent need of repair (like me, for instance). HA! I say to that. Our house was built in 1989, and despite the excellent grade of materials used, he has learned the hard way that owning a home is one long succession of repairs and DIY improvements. (We bought the house in 1996, at which time he considered it old.) My faves include the basket-weave tile bathroom floor, laundry chute, door knobs with escutcheons and keys, the art deco accent tile on the bathroom wall, and I loved the curved corners of the dormer extension; I’ve never seen that before. And sturdy, solid-wood storm doors — wonderful. We put up what we thought was a good-quality storm door with glass and screen insets, and it needed replacing in less than a decade.
    I agree with a previous commenter, all we need is a milkman. When I was a small child (1960’s), I remember the thrill of checking the milk-box for deliveries and putting the empty glass bottles out for return. (I know, glass bottles!!) I still remember the illustration of grazing cows painted in green on the side of the metal milk-box on our step, and the scripty font proclaiming “McIntire’s Dairy Farm”. It was a big deal to read then, but then to read it in “cursive”, oh my! (That’s what big brothers are for.) Oh Susan, thanks for inviting me on this little trip down Memory Lane.

  43. How lucky they are! i love every detail you showed. I grew up in a house with a similar mailbox, and my parents still use it. Nothing like charm. 😉

  44. How beautiful!! I too live in a 1930 gem! My Facebook page is The Walnut Cottage..I lived in a home we built in 1987 and when we moved here to downsize, I can’t tell you how many people visit and tell me (with their hand over their mouth) that they like this house more than our new house. The character is what caught my eye. I peeked in the back door window one evening and threw the street light, I saw the staircase and leaded window up above the front door and was smitten! I always wonder why they stopped putting laundry shoots in…..go figure!

  45. Wow, love it! Thanks for the tour. Show us the exterior on your next visit.

  46. Janet Mills says

    Susan, This house is charming! How did you get there- car, plane, or time machine??? lol I had to read the part about the trash being collected from behind the garage, not on the street, more than once! I haven’t seen that since I was a young girl! This home reminds me of one I used to visit in LaGrange, Georgia, when I was a little girl. I can still close my eyes and see the home’s enclosed porch. Thanks for sharing this delightful home with us.

  47. Linda Page says

    What a wonderful house your son and DIL have. I don’t care what anyone says, new houses just don’t have the character that older houses have. I love older houses, inside and out! Their home is wonderfully charming. I know you were in heaven: New grandson, son and DIL, and a vintage house to boot. Doesn’t get much better than that. Now, where is a picture of that grandbaby?

  48. I read this post audibly sighing with contentment. What a lovely home and detail.

  49. I adore older homes – and actually have mostly only lived in them –
    We just bought a fixer upper older one though – and this may just be the cure I needed LMHO – a little too rough around the edges.
    BUT I LOVE the details in your Son’s home – my favorite is the little mailbox door ( my Mom had one like it on the side of her house – but it was for the milk man to leave 2 bottles in ! )
    LOVED this post
    Thanks for sharing
    Hugs,
    Suzan

  50. Oh my goodness, how fabulous!! What a great house!! I am in love with the door knobs too. I am crazy over old houses, and am lucky enough to have doors, windows, mouldings, flooring, beadboard, etc., from my grandparents house that was torn down. Because my grandfather bundled and stored them when the early 1900 house was torn down, we are slowly adding them to our newer house one thing at a time. What a great house for them to have and how wonderful that they are respecting those details that most would rip out and replace today.

  51. I just took a short break to eat lunch at my desk and thought I would go to my happy place while eating – – your blog. As I scanned the list of recent posts, this one caught my eye and upon reading it I was ashamed of myself for having missed so many posts that I didn’t realize your adorable grandson had arrived. Of course I went back through the posts to the find the announcement and he is just the sweetest. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said except THAT is what it is all about. I wish so many good things for you and your family. I hope as you enter this new world it is everything you want and more. Oh oh, I also have a grandma name I heard once that was so sweet I thought I’d claim it some day. I will rack my brain to think of it and post it in a comment when I do. In the meantime, blessings!

    • Thanks, Angela…he is so precious. It was hard to put him down when I visited. You just want to stare at him all the time. lol I like the name, Mim! So cute! When I was shopping in A Classy Flea recently, they asked what he was going to call me. I told them I wasn’t sure and they suggested GiGi and Mimi which I think is spelled Mémé because the person who suggested it said it’s French. I bounced those off my dil and son and they both liked Mémé. I like Mim, too! We’ll have to see what he can say or if he names me himself. I hear they do that sometimes. 🙂

  52. Mim!

  53. Yes, there’s just something about an old house that means so much more than mere words can describe. I live in an old “farm” house (actually more of a cottage with 2 small bedrooms & no closets) that was already on the property when my great-grandparents bought 100+ acres of wooded land in the mid-1890s. The original house was made of hand hewn logs on the walls & ceiling beams, hand milled boards from trees harvested on the site, and with 4 large stone fireplaces from stone quarried on the property. There has been a kitchen enlargement & a workshop addition both of which were fairly obvious. Indoor plumbing was added sometime in the early part of the 20th century, which eliminated both the old cistern/cold storage shed & the old hand pump conveniently located in the dirt floored basement. For the past 45-50 years this house was a rental property or standing vacant & forgotten.

    During the past 2 years, my new hubby & I have been in the process of renovating the old place with a lot of care & attention being given to recycling as much of the original logs (most with their bark still intact) & boards as possible and using materials, hardware, & fixtures very reminiscent of what we feel were probably here many years ago…thanks primarily to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I have always loved this old house since I was a child & had playmates living here with their parents who rented it. Hubs has also fallen under the spell of this old house & now that the renovations are almost finished, we’re both looking forward to finally being able to move in & make the old place our home. We’re also looking forward to selling his house in the suburbs (which is very “nice” but just not us) & getting rid of that mortgage payment forever.

  54. Kathy Hammett says

    Those wall space heaters found in old bathrooms are handy, BUT they are not safe. They aren’t vented and shouldn’t be left on, very long. Lovely home, though

  55. oh Susan.. I love that cottage.. what a perfect little home for empty nesters.
    So bright and airy, made me yearn for a cup of tea and good book.

    Your sons home is lovely with so many charming original details.
    We have a little door through the wall for our mail as well and we still have door to door mail delivery by mailman on foot.
    I almost always hear the mailman opening it and putting the mail in.
    but when we first moved into this house the sound would startle me a little because it almost sounded like someone opening the front door but now I’m used to it and I love it 🙂

  56. Followed the link from today’s post on a cottage; your son and dil have an absolute jewel of a home. Tell them thanks for letting you share these photos.

  57. Yes. We recently bought our first home and we sadly lost out on 2 1920s Tudor revivals and 2 1910s craftsman homes. Love all of the little details. We got a 1940s minimal traditional and even it has a lot of cool little touches even though that is around the time you started seeing a lot of cookie cutter homes.

  58. The features you showcased are fantastic. Love everyone of them. Old houses are the best .

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