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Good - and by Good I mean Groovy - House of the Yearbook: 1973 again lol
🕑 Added 2020-05-16 19:59:09 +0000 UTCI'll admit: I'm fudging this one. I came across it because real estate websites won't let you search for a single year, only a range of years. Despite not being from 1974, this house was simply WAY TOO GOOD to pass up. Part of the reason for doing the Yearbook is an attempt to find time capsule houses - those properties which are virtually untouched since the era in which they were built. This is one of those houses. Link to listing: https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/nj/perth-amboy/572-harding-ave/pid_35995683/
Let's start off with the exterior. This house was built in 1973, an era where the shed style was in full swing. This is a variation of the shed style I call the "cedar shed" because it features cedar shingles instead of the more conventional wood siding. It's kind of a weird house, but in an endearing way. It's not exactly balanced and yet somehow it works - the slight cantilever is adventurous, the garage petit, and the entryway slightly askew. It's somehow a modern house and yet the shingles and cutesy garage and front doors say otherwise. It's one of those houses I can't quite explain but am nevertheless glad exists.
The interior is very important.
As you can see with this first image, the house is perfectly preserved in the amber of the 70s (with some 80s touches, like the sofas). That chandelier. That carpet. Those vertical blinds with their own tiny bizarre vertical blind valance. It's perfect.
The thing I love about this house is that they obviously re-did the furnishings in the 1980s and these themselves are spectacularly dated. I can't get over the glass table and wispy chintz dining chairs and the teal-purple-pink sponge paint. And yet, every lighting fixture and permanent surface retains its 70s charm!
The kitchen totally gives the 70s origins away. Those weird barrel-esque cabinets complete with bamboo-stalk brass hardware and that wallpaper and the brown electrical outlets. Museum quality kitsch.
I'm not going to include every room in the house here, just the ones I think are the most emblematic of the listing. Look at this wallpaper. Look at that tiny tile and oak baseboard and that baseboard heater and that toilet seat and the weird tiny gallery wall. I can't get over all of the little gems of datedness lurking around every corner.
This room is absolutely hideous but in an honest way that says "this was actually how people decorated at midcentury" which is important to keep in mind considering our popular imaginary of the time revolves around the aesthetics of Mad Men.
Alright, alright: last one
Returning to the entryway look at that linoleum and those carpeted stairs!!! Also what's interesting is I thought this house was a split level, but apparently it just has this weird split-level-esque landing and no actual downstairs part. Truly a land of contrasts!
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of what has to be one of the most charmingly antiquated little houses on the planet - or, at least in New Jersey. Have a great weekend!
Comments
Sunken... entry way? That's a new one.
Michael Cadger
That kitchen rules.
