A Swanky New (Read: OLD) Rug for the Ranch; or - How to Win at eBay Auctions More Often that You Lose.

The rug, as seen on eBay

The house needs some color splashes here and there, and I've been keeping an eye on Craigslist, Bisman (our local online free ad), Etsy, and eBay. With any of this mid century stuff, if you've begun collecting in the post-Madmen era, you know that the prices have gone up steadily. There are a few ways to combat this. One is to have patience, scour your online and in-print ads, and hit your local thrifts *every* *SINGLE* *WEEK*. I've seen some pretty cool stuff in and around Minot at thrifts, junk sales, flea markets, and yard sales. Man, do I miss the Long Beach Flea Market. I have found some great stuff here, though. Just not the kind of rugs that we're after. You would think that there would be some here - they are a Scandanavian art form after all...

First Month Changes

The 1950's character of this house was buried. It was buried beneath layers of flooring, it was camouflaged in paint colors not appropriate for our tastes, and it was buried beneath colonial-style trim details (see previous post of living room). On the day of the closing we showed up tools in hand after taking possession of the house only a few minutes before. We walked in with a toolbox and painting supplies. She got busy cutting in a nice pale shade of grey that will go lovely with all of our vibrantly-colored mid century stuff. I've always had great luck with Behr paints, so we went with a color called 'swirling water' - it's a nice pale grey - a bit on the cool side, but close enough to white that it will work with our furnishings without being distracting, and still goes quite well with the mid-century ethos. Every room in the house needed paint, and several rooms needed two coats, even with the milkshake-like consistency of the Behr eggshell with built-in primer that  we picked up at home dumpster. Especially that red.

An Atomic Ranch (in the Rough)...

We moved up to Minot over 2 years ago when I took a job at the University. We were not sure if, or how long, we'd be staying here, but we finally made the decision this past summer to buy a house - so I guess we're here for longer than just the short term now. We scoured Zillow for months looking for something that we both agreed had good bones. There are enclaves of mid century houses here in Minot, but they are spread out. Finding a place that we both liked took a few months, and really it was one feature in particular that did it for me.

It's not a looker right now from the street. But it's also not a dog. It was build in the Bel Air addition in 1959, so it is a true mid-century raised ranch. The bones are there on the outside, but they will need some help to show through the skin at some point down the road. Yeah, it's clad in vinyl, yeah the lot is pretty small, but look at the low angles of the roof, and that  wall of original Andersen windows across the front! It's what is inside that we both really liked though.