I too am a fan of architecture and mid-century design. I own several Herman Miller pieces, as well as some Haywood Wakefield furniture and other items. The house is by no means full of a single period. We have rather eclectic tastes, mixing arts and crafts, deco, art nouveau and mid-century together (sounds weird but it can be made to work). The trick is to use common elements and shapes, plus leave open space. The house itself becomes the cohesive element, so you don't get caught up into specific periods which can be very limiting.

We had lived in our neighborhood for 3 years and had always admired this particular house. When it came on the market, we took the opportunity to buy it - it is slowly transforming into our dream home. After a new roof, new HVAC and landscaping it's finally starting to come together after 2 years of habitation. I'm currently in the process of changing out all the old can-track lighting and replacing it with updated halogens. I've painted all the walls and was staining the ceilings (we replaced a lot of rotten lumber while the roof was off) to match the current stain plus patina when I hurt my back. After 2 months of recuperating it's time to get back to painting the trim. The entire house was painted an institutional lime green with dark green trim. It's now a subdued light gold going to a dark brown trim.

Next I'm replacing windows that have lost their seals, plus I'm changing the doors back to be more like the original doors (they were replaced at some point). My friends keep bugging me as to why I haven't installed the Super Charger I originally bought from Tone when he first offered it - now you can see what I've been spending my time on. So far I've managed to do all the upgrades without taking out any loans - doing most of the work myself or serving as the contracter for larger projects. At least at this point the house is livable. When we first bought the house we had to sleep in the spare bedroom because of the state of disrepair.

-- Best, John