That all depends. Was it designed by a significant architect? (there’s a difference between beautiful and just “retro”)
kj: In the Boston area, there are a number of mid-century modern enclaves and there are a few realtors who specialize in selling/finding these homes. Is it possible that there is something similar in your area?
http://lexingtonjanovitz.com/2013/08/five-fields-in-the-boston-globe/
No musicamusica…just plain “retro”. It is a typical suburban 50’s house. Nothing of significant architectural value. We just kept everything as is, because it was high quality at the time it was built, and we saw no reason to change it. (great wood floors, fully tiled baths, interior brick walls, etc.). I’m glad we didn’t update much when we moved in, because the update would now be much more “dated” than the original!
Well there are many housing developments here in California that were designed by significant architects. The house that I was interested in is in a small (originally middle class) neighborhood where all the homes were designed by Donald Wexler. I do think you are smart not the update the character right out of the house.
just for fun, heres a blog on really nice mid-mods here in LA
http://takesunset.com/blog/mid-century-modern-real-estate-architecture-los-angeles/
@kelsmom I live in a house built in the 1950’s too. Rather than mid century modern I refer to mine as mid century vernacular. They do have some significant advantages typically. First they are usually ranches and therefore relatively easy to get around if one chooses to age in place. Second, they normally are comparatively small with open floor plans so they are relatively inexpensive to heat and cool. Ours is only about 1400 sq. ft. with a full basement. We decided that by the time we can afford a larger house (when the kids are out of college) we won’t need one. The only thing to do is move the laundry upstairs.
I think part of my attraction to the style is that my kids are grown. I grew up in one and it was great when we were little but a real problem as we got older: had to be quiet at night because it was open and sound carried, had to watch even the lighting for same reason.
I think if you are going to live in those beautiful mid century moderns, you need to be rather neat and tidy. They just look so clean in terms of the lines, so it would be a shame to mess that up with lots of clutter or mess.
And it’s a lot easier to keep a house picked up after the kids are gone. At least, that has been my experience.
Yes, I have an open floor plan and we try to keep all the “stuff” at a minimum. It tends to keep me from buying things. Every time I got shopping and see some extraneous item that I THINK I want, I have to imagine that thing on a shelf in the closet, because that’s where it will be for the next few years. Suddenly that item looses its cache.
If you have some time to spend, look at North Carolina Modernist Homes. I am from NC, and cannot believe all the wonderful modernist homes. Unfortunately, several have been lost to the bulldozer, but many are getting a wonderful rebirth.
A small city with a great number of Mid Century buildings is Columbus Indiana. Our family went on a tour there a couple of weeks ago. Buildings designed by both Eliel and Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Harry Weese and others are among six modernist buildings designated as National Historic Landmarks. It’s a town of about 45k and has around 70 building considered architecturally significant. All in all a nice weekend trip if your in the area.
Columbus Indiana is an interesting town. I went there when I was working on a project document fire houses all over the US. J. Irwin Miller created the Cummins Foundation, which subsidizes a large number of architectural projects throughout the city by up-and-coming engineers and architects. So they have this amazing collection of schools and other public buildings by famous architects - and because of that many of the famous architects also did other private buildings in town. We were there to see the Robert Venturi fire house http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/Fire_Station_Number_4.html/cid_1145710937_P7410025.html , but this art deco one was even cooler! http://www.columbus.in.us/art-architecture/fire-station-no-1