I also hate it when people go in and paint everything white, and replace everything with any character. I would have loved a "mid century modern" house, but it wasn't meant to be.

This house will be difficult because of it wasn't very attractive, even when it was new. I like the real wood paneling in the room with the gold carpet, but I'm not fond of the fake wood paneling in the kitchen and one other room. The rest of the house has drywall which can be saved by resurfacing. Most of the light fixtures were cheap when they were new, or have been replaced with awful fluorescent office lights, so they will have to go. Hopefully I can find some attractive vintage light fixtures that will fit in.

Oh ditto on the light fixtures. The only thing I don't like about your house are those flourescent lights. Everything else is just awesome. My house here has a bit of that 70's flare, although it was built in 1979, it's all original. High vault wood ceilengs and a 100% Redwood house. The builder even told me that the beams are redwood too.
I had an appraser come through here and tell me that he would have painted all the wood white and I was shocked. I dont think you would want to paint over redwood.

If I were to restore my house to original I would have a oil lamp in every room, built in mid 1800's it held up pretty good and survived a few twisters a few hail storms, now can it put up with my teenagers??? that will be the test of time.

Nice home.

Looks like that home may have been saved by the recession - thank goodness some flipper didn't get to it first and modernize(I really mean bastardize) it with neutral taupes and earthtone paint, cheap berber carpet or even worse, cheap snap lock laminate flooring planks, and full it with assemble it yourself furniture from Ikea and overpriced southeastern Asian knick knacks from Pier 1 imports

I'm with you regarding finding vintage light fixtures. Unfortunately, I had no choice when I redid my house, and I can tell you that anything sold by Home Depot or Lowe's is mostly Chinese crap, and I mean crap. The finish starts deteriorating on exterior fixtures in a matter of weeks. Also beware of the small-base candelabra bulbs used in many of the new fixtures - those bulbs are weak and fail often.

One of the first projects will be replacing the leaky solar water heater. It looks like it will cost $1500-$2000 to replace the 10 year old tank, assuming the rest of the system is fine. A new system will be closer to $5000. I'm leaning toward installing a regular water heater and forgetting about the solar for now.

Nice home.

Looks like that home may have been saved by the recession - thank goodness some flipper didn't get to it first and modernize(I really mean bastardize) it with neutral taupes and earthtone paint, cheap berber carpet or even worse, cheap snap lock laminate flooring planks, and full it with assemble it yourself furniture from Ikea and overpriced southeastern Asian knick knacks from Pier 1 imports

Thats what they did to mine a year ago, but it was supposed to be set up for a rental home, and the original stuff was just old junk abused beyond use, but I bought the thing from relatives. It was a former cattle farm so I can do with the new modern restyling, the recent hailstorm took care of the outside so it gets done the way I want it this time. And I have been converting it to retro in a couple side rooms.

Well, this week has been productive. We have ripped up all the worn out carpet, and are removing everything from the ceilings and walls ready for the drywall people. It's quicker and cheaper to have professionals repair the walls and ceilings while it's empty than to try to do it ourselves. I think it will quickly start to feel like home soon.