OMG a kitchen to die for! (sort of)

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I much prefer the first one because it's a raised ranch (split foyer, bi-level) while the second one is a tri-level split with all those stairs to contend. Grew up in a split-level. Our house in Calgary was a raised hillside ranch with walkout basement and it was the greatest I thought. Now what do we end up with here... a 4 level split and it seems like, no it is, forever walking up and down 4 or 5 steps whenever you have to go to get or do something. But we knew that when we bought it and it was the only house for sale at that time in this neighborhood which I definitely wanted to move to. I was really hoping for one of the ranch style houses with a full basement. It's somewhat annoying and definitely not a house you want to grow old in. Granted I think split levels look nicer in many instances but for practicality, nope. Just my opinion LOL
 
well space-wise

I've looked at similar houses of each, they are about the same as far as square footage goes.

The raised ranch has a kinda funky layout, the upper lever level is LR/DR/Kitchen 2 bedrooms and a full bath. Downstairs is a family room, laundry room, and two more bedrooms and a bathroom. Its definately not your typical 1960's raised ranch.

I like the tri-level split, thats the same model as I almost bought last year. I guess if I were to have a "dream house" this one(or one very much like it) would be it. I do agree with you that sometimes stairs can be a pain, but 5 or 6 at a time is not so bad. This tri-level looks very nice, I may have to go see it in person!
 
Speaking of nice kitchens

This kitchen is in the house that belonged to the builder of many of the 50's houses in my little neighborhood including mine. It was bought last year by a friend of mine, her family were friends of the builder growing up, so it never got on the market and they sold it to her when time came they had to move out. It's a fantastic 50's ranch with many of the elements still in it. She's been busily dolling it up over the past year with bright colors etc.. LOL But look at that grill in the kitchen. Above the counters is a wavy free form sort of header.

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Canada, here I come!

Very nice!

Looks likek the exhaust fan over the bar counter and the exhaust hood over the grill are powerfull to the point that they suck air out of (down) the fireplace chimney. Look at all that soot on the walls!

It is always wise to crack a window open or otheriwise provide make-up air for devices that pull air out of a house/space.

and just for you PeteK-
"G-d bless Canada!"
 
It's a fab house that's for sure, not humongous but was definitely upscale when it was built. This is what it looks like from the backyard. It was white but she's painted it black. Its a ranch house not two storey but being built on a back slope the basement is at ground level on the back. From the front it looks just like a nice low ranch house. So the kitchen is up there on the balcony

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Peter, that kitchen is way way cool. That was a really good Wesstinghouse oven, the exact same one that was across the street in 1961, but that one was seafoam color. I wonder if the Westy rollout didhwasher is still there as well as a westy cooktop. As of 2002, the Westy Coil cook top was still in the house across the street from my parents' old house and she would have shot anyone if they tried to remove it. She loved that cooktop.
 
I would swap the DW there out for my KDS 17A though!

Jeff, if you did that, someone here I'm sure would love that dishwasher. It's a Whrlpool Power-Clean design Kenmore UltraWash.
 
You go, Hoove!

I'll take a clasic KitchenAid any day!

Me, I'm not sure I could live in a house as small as either one that you've shown us, and the lot-sizes are incomprehensible to one such as me who's spent nearly two decades living out in the vastness of the country. I firmly believe that bigger is better. However, both of them show promise -- in the right hands!

My sister once told me that the secret to successful cohabitation was seperate bathrooms. I take it one step further, and say that the secret to long-term happiness is seperate berdrooms. There are any number of things I enjoy doing with my roommate, but I sleep best alone.

I love the coolness of lots of stairs, but I appreciate the convenience that goes with accessibility. Especially since I collect large items like jukeboxes. My Raised-Ranch home has ground-level entrances on each floor. Much better than carrying a 400-pound jukebox up or down stairs!

Pete, I love many things about your friend's house, but whoever put the wall oven adjacent to the refrigerator deserves to be bitch-slapped. Very cool looks all around, but the workflow is appalling! Form, from what I've heard, should follow function. Still, with a bit of re-arranging, the house is definitley fab!

Sadly, nobody asks me until it's too late. Their loss, I suppose.

-kevin
 
Kevin, ya gotta remember thought was much different bakc in 1960-1962 (ha ha ha) I saw many a house have the fridge parallel next to the wall oven. As a matter of fact the house on one side of us was that way. Our house had the dishwasher and fridge perpendicular to each other and when the deeper SxS came in, it had to be moved partway into diningroom door so the dishwasher could be opened with door fully down.
 
Hey, the house I'm redoing had a family room addition in the mid '60s very similar to those pictured.. It's a 26' x 22' room. The entire back wall, 22', is massive red brick floor to 10'ceiling. The fireplace is in the center and adjacent to that on the right is a charcoal grill, followed by a 4 burner Frigidaire stainless steel Custom Imperial cook top. Above those is a massive piece of angle iron to support the 4' of brick above it so it wont fall on your head while you are cooking and grilling. The interior of the "hood area - actually runs the length of the grill and cook top and about 2'deep - is lined with stainless steel. There is one large exhaust fan over the grill.

Below the cook top was a set of drawers and a cutting board that had never been used. Around the corner from the cook top as a large 10' wet bar and space for a fridge. Of course the walls were all paneled in a dark wood, the beamed ceiling was T&G Cedar stained to match the walls. The floor had black and white asbestos floor tiles set in a 6x6 checker board pattern.

Heresy to some here, but all that remains is the charcoal grill adjacent to the fireplace. The paneling is now drywall and the ceiling took 9 gallons of pain to cover the old porous wood. The wet bar is gone and the sink is now where the cook top was and a mini fridge below the sink. I also drywalled 1/3 of the brick on the wall. It still has character, but fits the needs of a modern family.

It takes a real commitment to live in a '50s or '60 house and keep it true to the times, something and 99.999% of the population is unwilling to do. It's fun to look at pictures of what people have done to return a home to it's original feel, but to be honest I'd not want to live there.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still looking for that matching '59 Frigidaire CI washer and dryer (ideally turquoise )to add to my "modern" home!
 
Our Kitchen

We found a VA foreclosure 3 years ago and gutted it. Here is a kitchen pic. The GE frig and Panasonic micro are new. We kept the Whirlpool double ovens but added a JennAir cooktop. We kept the Kitchen Aid dishwasher and added stainless sinks. I don't consider granite to be a superior counter surface, but I have a client/friend Darryl in the granite business and when he heard what I was up to, he set aside this stone for me. [He had to hide it because there was no more and the interior designers wanted it]. Cabinets are new and backsplash is a ribbed metal laminate. Another client does floors so we put in ash cut to 4".

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A couple more shots

I bought an I-beam from a salavage yard and had it cut into 42" lengths. I fabricated from angle iron a rack to place on the top and then made a template for another piece of granite to top that off. It is free standing.

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This is Amazing

Well, it was painful when my dad decided to sell our family home in 1996. We moved into it in August, 1967. After Mom passed away in 1994, he decided condo living was best for him, so he moved to Century City in a high rise, which my brother and I sold pursuant to dad's passing in 2004. Now, our old home is on the market again, which is twice as painful (lots of memories in that house), and the price still amazes me. Although real estate has decreased in the last couple of years, I am sure it will not sell for much more than it did in 1996...no improvements or changes have been made.

 
Nice house rex! I bet it sold for less than $50,000 in 1967. *Sigh* the good old days......
 

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