The Kitchen Walls

This is what the "breakfast nook" looked like before and after I stripped off the wallpaper (also before it snowed).

I learned that I should not have used a razor blade to scrape the wallpaper off the wall. Doing so engraved some gouges into the wall that I will have to fill and sand before painting. Next time I will use a less-potentially-wall-damaging putty knife.

About Those Kitchen Cabinets

The internet has little to tell me about the cabinets made by Scheirich Kitchens. Most of the info I have gathered came from the responses to a post on The Pioneer Woman's blog.

Angela In CA said Scheirich was pronounced "Shy-rik". Good to know!

Many of the commenters referred to the website for Spencer's Scheirich Cabinets for replicas and replacement parts.

Generally, anyone who mentioned Scheirich cabinets adored them, and waxed nostalgic about how they used to be in gramma's kitchen, or at the little cabin by the lake, et cetera. They loved the cabinets' durability and quality of construction.

A comment from Jen states: "I don’t know about yours but I can’t fit a box of cereal, ketchup bottle or anything in mine! My new plates have to be put in at an angle and the door barely closes on them.... The things are hard to clean too! You wipe too hard and the varnish will come off and when they dry you have a light spot where you rub."

That was the only negative comment regarding these cabinets. Well, should I encounter those drawbacks, maybe I can do something about them. The shelves in the cabinets are fixed in place, which could be aggravating. Perhaps I can modify them to be adjustable-height. I'm not too concerned with keeping the insides of the cabinet boxes perfectly vintage.

Also, coincidence of coincidences, good friends of mine who live nearby (near where we live now, not near the house featured in this blog) have these exact same cabinets in her kitchen! I only noticed a few days ago! Theirs are in better condition than mine, and probably have the original handles. Plus, theirs has very nice glass doors on the cabinet over the fridge. I'll be sure to post a picture of that.

Dangit, where did I put my camera?

Name that Room

I can't seem to settle on a name for this room. It is not the formal living room (formal? Us? Ha!) on the main floor, but the more casual room downstairs.

It will be used for entertaining friends, watching TV, and passing from the patio/pool area to the rest of the house. There will also be some exercise equipment in there. Whether we will use it as an exercise room remains to be seen.

The Rec Room? The Family Room? The Lounge? The Den? The TV Room? What would you call it?

EDIT: Tom has informed me that "the lounge" was an euphamism for the bathroom when he was growing up. So strike that one from the list of suggestions. :)

However, now I am inspired to fill the downstairs bathroom with tiki decor. It will really be "The Tiki Lounge"! Hardy har har!

Selecting Floor Tile for the Entryway and Kitchen: Suggestions?

I don't aim to decorate my mid-century home with period-style furnishings, but I do want to keep the features of this house consistent with the time and spirit in which it was built.

Originally, the entryway and kitchen had some kind of speckled, multicolored resilient sheet flooring, which we discovered when we removed the pink, wall-to-wall living room carpet. Doesn't it look festive?

I love the idea of a durable, nonporous, easy-to-clean floor in these areas. I'd settle for a new layer of sheet vinyl, but Tom feels strongly that it should be some kind of ceramic tile. I have asked him several times about just how strongly he feels about vinyl vs tile, and he is unmoving.

I must confess I am not inflexible on this; I dig ceramic tile. Also, this decision needs to be made quickly, if the work is to be done and we are to move in before the end of January.

However, I still want to restore, not "remuddle". I am hoping to find a ceramic tile usage consistent to the era, but the retro research I've done so far only shows ceramic tile in bathrooms. Was it ever used in other parts of the house? Would it be anachronistic to do so?

To-Do List

House Systems

• Get the sewer main cleared. The high-pressure water-blasting device freezes if the weather is too cold, so the service call was rescheduled for a few days later, when we are expecting warmer temperatures. Then the plumber can run the camera down the line and see just how damaged it is, and we can decide what to do about it. Maybe replace the line, maybe just pour root-killer in every so often. We shall see.
• Fix deadbolt on door to deck (even though the current security brace is kind of interesting to look at).
• Replace existing vintage (programmable?) thermostat with new programmable one. I think the old one has character, but I can't find instructions for it, and the hubby does not trust it, so away it goes.
  
  
  
  
• Put a filter in the HVAC system. The mildew remediators said they went to remove the old one and found there wasn't one at all.

Appliances

• Buy a refrigerator. There currently isn't one.
• Trade dishwashers between current house and new house.

Flooring

• Installation of unfinished hardwood flooring in living room. Will be red oak 1/4" x 2 1/4" to match that on the stairs up, and in the upstairs hallway and bedrooms. Have not yet decided on finish. Am consulting a post on Retro Renovation: "What color stain to use for mid-century oak flooring?"
• Refinishing of stairs and hallway, repair and refinishing of hardwood flooring in bedrooms. At least one plank is termite-burrowed, and the other room has a poorly-putty-filled hole.
• Do we want a carpet runner on the stairs? Here is one way to do it, again from Retro Renovation: "Carpet runner for the oak stairs"
• Installation of ceramic/porcelain tile in entryway, probably over the original vinyl/linoleum flooring (I feel like we should keep it, buried in the precambrian layer, as a record of what originally was there).
• Replacement of tile flooring in kitchen, to match that in the entryway. Even though the kitchen floor is functional, as long as the workmen are there, it makes sense to do this now.

One of the bidding contractors (the only one I thought to ask, duuuh) said he could start January 9 and the project would take about four weeks. Which means we wouldn't be able to move in until February. How frustrating...I want to have my tiki-themed housewarming party now! *pouts and stomps feet*