Monday, November 15, 2010

staying in

We have had a beautiful, warm, lengthy (for us) fall this year. Believe me I have nothing to complain about, but this weekend the other shoe dropped:
winter arrived with an 8 to 10 inch snowfall. The temps haven't dropped into the deep freeze yet so hopefully most of this will melt, but we've been known to start winter in Oct. and not come out of it completely until April. It was a good weekend to stay indoors and read-
I decided to start with this old supplement to Woman's Weekly from 1923- The Home.
Only a few of the pages are in color, but it is chock full of helpful household hints, decorating tips,but mostly floor plans and room designs.
A poem by Edgar A. Guest:
There is even a long article on the new availability of the radio for every home including instructions for making your own radio receiving set. My dad told me about making his own crystal radio set when he was a kid in the 40's.
When watching the Home and Garden channel I am always amazed by what first time home buyers expect in there first home. Apparently the term 'starter home' means something else these days. I wonder how well these cozy little numbers would go over today.

In this one the space for the cars seems bigger then the living space. I wonder how many people owned 2 cars?
This is one of my favorite articles. I had never heard of 'garlows' before- a combination of garage and bungalow. Apparently you built this with partitions for walls and one of the exterior walls could be easily disassembled. When the money was more plentiful you added on the permanent structure and this original building became the garage! Ingenious!
You bought what you could afford rather then starting out with way too much house. We started out in a house almost exactly like this one.
I love this interpretation of an English cottage:
The interiors in the book look so cozy. I love this sunroom:
and this sunny kitchen.
How nice that every home aspired to having a sewing room.
And look at the modern conveniences for the laundry room!
A helpful color chart for your decorating decisions:
and a nice example of a porch pictured in color.
It even includes ideas for the garden. This page shows beautiful annuals to plant. I may be looking at this page for a long time!

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