Cottage- It's a post war blight 1950's ranch house. But I like these two queens. They are inoffensive and down to earth unlike that couple in France or the UK who were remodeling that white elephant.
Two Homosexuals Transform 1950's Cottage In Upstate New York
by Anonymous | reply 107 | August 15, 2025 1:57 PM |
Oh, God. They’re opening up the kitchen.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | August 11, 2025 1:33 PM |
"It's a post war blight 1950's ranch house."
That "blight" of which you speak allowed thousands and thousands of renters to become homeowners for the first time because of these homes' affordability, something completely lost in today's real estate marketplace.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | August 11, 2025 1:44 PM |
R2- The original price of the first Levittown New York houses was about $7,900. In today's money that's $116,000. That would be a dirt cheap bargain.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 11, 2025 1:48 PM |
R2. Your outrage has been duly registered.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | August 11, 2025 1:49 PM |
Video blocked for everyone not in the US.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | August 11, 2025 2:02 PM |
Clearly they're not Dataloungers or they would've welcome us with "WELL, hello!"
by Anonymous | reply 6 | August 11, 2025 2:03 PM |
Oh god, every proposed change sounds disastrous. I am not a fan of knotty pine but those cabinets looked in good shape. If they can be cleaned up, lean into the 50s ranch-ness of them. And two sinks in a tiny bathroom sounds crazy. Did he grow up in a huge family? Because how often do people brush their teeth at the exact same time? I’d rather have counter space.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | August 11, 2025 2:05 PM |
+ no ceiling light in the bedroom, that’s a plus! Unless you want a ceiling fan. But ceiling lights are terrible. You can get lamps that tie into a wall switch.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | August 11, 2025 2:09 PM |
R7- I agree with you - but you must remember that these two queens are from Wisconsin and it does not occur to them that period details like the knotty pine cabinets in the kitchen are worth preserving.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | August 11, 2025 2:17 PM |
I grew up in a ranch house in NJ exactly like the one here, bought in 1952 when I was 3 (I think for about $8000), with those very same knotty pine cabinets with the black iron decorative joints.
They were originally finished with an orangey varnish but in the late 1960s my mother had me paint over them them with one of those kits that had two steps, the first for color (ours was a sort of wedgewood blue) and then a feathered kind of coating that left a faux antique finish. I hated those cabinets in either incarnation. and I'm not surprised the style has never been revived.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | August 11, 2025 2:20 PM |
Same childhood kitchen but in a Cape Cod. Couldn’t they be stripped though? I like the look of white unfinished pine but it darkens with age if you don’t preserve it somehow.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | August 11, 2025 2:26 PM |
I love what they did to it! However. I would have got rid of the stone feature wall where the fireplace is. That faux stone is very dated. It looks OK and I loved the fireplace screen. Of course they had to spend money on fixing the problems with the water, and trying to stay within their budget. Over all they did a great job. The kitchen and the guest bedroom were my absolute favorites.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | August 11, 2025 2:29 PM |
They need another bathroom.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | August 11, 2025 2:30 PM |
Sure but they’d have to give up a bedroom, that house is tiny by current standards. Their best bet is build an extension to enlarge the master and put a bathroom in that.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 11, 2025 2:51 PM |
They seem very much in love and they're the sweet nerdy kind of guys that have always attracted me. I like what they did with the house. Guest room and kitchen were great looking.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | August 11, 2025 2:52 PM |
It looks like with their property they'll have plenty of space to build an extension to the house when they've saved up more money.
Sweet guys. I wish them well!
by Anonymous | reply 16 | August 11, 2025 2:55 PM |
[quote] But I like these two queens.
Then you probably shouldn't be calling them queens.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | August 11, 2025 3:04 PM |
Are you actually gay R17? And what are you doing here?
by Anonymous | reply 18 | August 11, 2025 3:28 PM |
OMG. I so wanted to be bitchy and snarky but those girls went to WERK! They transformed that place into something cute for just $51,000?! All I can do is give them a deep Thatcher-esque curtsy.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | August 11, 2025 4:13 PM |
I can't view the video, but from the DL comments it's a too familiar story: >95% of people -- and no smaller percentage of gays and lesbians-- who restore or renovate a house think they invented the fucking wheel. And in the process they obliterate nearly all of what attracted them in the first place.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | August 11, 2025 5:57 PM |
Did they ever mention what they do for work in that tiny town?
by Anonymous | reply 21 | August 11, 2025 6:27 PM |
Sounds like work from home.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | August 11, 2025 6:55 PM |
I don't understand people who buy mid-century modern homes because they like the MCM vibe, but then proceed to tear out and destroy everything that gives the house the MCM vibe: the kitchen cabinets, the pink bathroom fixtures, the fireplaces, the vinyl flooring, etc.
That's why I like Lustron houses. You can't take out the MCM features unless you dismantle the entire house.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | August 11, 2025 7:09 PM |
R23, That house was a fucking time capsule. IMO there was nothing worth saving in that kitchen with the atrocious cabinets!
by Anonymous | reply 24 | August 11, 2025 7:11 PM |
[bold]So this is the Magnolia Network trying to LGBTQ friendly now? [/bold] The ratings must be slipping. They were so not "gay friendly" up until this point. Remember them saying how religious they were and it was nothing personal but they would not show gay couples on their show ever.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | August 11, 2025 7:28 PM |
[quote]I don't understand people who buy mid-century modern homes because they like the MCM vibe, but then proceed to tear out and destroy everything that gives the house the MCM vibe
Most people buy a house because they need one to live in, not as a glorified art project or second home.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | August 11, 2025 7:30 PM |
[quote]two sinks in a tiny bathroom sounds crazy. Did he grow up in a huge family? Because how often do people brush their teeth at the exact same time?
Did you grow up with a silver spoon in your mouth? When I first met my partner we lived in something even smaller than that and I could tell you every time we needed to go out to some event we were always tripping over each other in the bathroom at the same time. Taking turns does not always work when both have last minute things they need to do in the bathroom and leave the house at the same time.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | August 11, 2025 7:36 PM |
"Most people buy a house because they need one to live in, not as a glorified art project or second home."
And most people buy a home because they need one to live in and want said home to be in move-in condition as much as possible (within their financial constraints) because they don't want to deal with the hassles and aggravation of major home renovations/contractors/permits, etc.
So someone who intentionally buys a house with "dated" features with the intention of remaking it into their image and likeness most likely will not mind if their home is an art project or a second home.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | August 11, 2025 7:47 PM |
OP's response at R3 makes no sense.
People should not use words they do not understand, even if they represent the "blight" they're using as some sort of pejorative word for standardized, "affordable," postwar subdivision housing.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | August 11, 2025 7:49 PM |
For God's sake the "damaged cedar siding" they are handling isn't cedar siding at all, it is asbestos shingles. I didn't watch much of the video but hope they got professionals in to replace the siding.
Also, there is nothing in Ellenville but multiple drug rehab centers. It's not some up and coming place in the Hudson Valley. It's bleak. But their property does look very lovely.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | August 11, 2025 8:04 PM |
[quote]I don't understand people who buy mid-century modern homes because they like the MCM vibe, but then proceed to tear out and destroy everything that gives the house the MCM vibe: the kitchen cabinets, the pink bathroom fixtures, the fireplaces, the vinyl flooring, etc.
Did they say that? I admit I didn't watch much of it. I assumed they bought the house because they could afford it. Also, how long do you expect vinyl flooring to remain in use?
by Anonymous | reply 31 | August 11, 2025 8:24 PM |
They did a good job. Hope they fixed that chimney leak. Kind of glided right by that.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | August 11, 2025 8:26 PM |
I'm not a fan of open plan., but it is a nice transformation. In the first place, it wasn't an architectural marvel that required preservation. Second, except for the kitchen, the layout and features of the original house largely remain.
Reading some of the comments here, you would think they gutted the place or were tampering with Mount Vernon or Monticello.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | August 11, 2025 8:35 PM |
[quote]And most people buy a home because they need one to live in and want said home to be in move-in condition as much as possible (within their financial constraints) because they don't want to deal with the hassles and aggravation of major home renovations/contractors/permit - s, etc
More Silver Spoon talking. Yes it's a hassle, but when you dont have a lot of money and you see it as an investment down the line, most people will suck it up and plan to eventually remodel kitchens, bathrooms etc. It's only rich and entitled that see renovation as inconvenient and turnkey as the standard.
"Approximately 62% of homeowners in the US are planning to undertake some form of home renovation or remodeling within the next year, according to a recent survey by Civic Science."
by Anonymous | reply 34 | August 11, 2025 8:37 PM |
[quote]I would have got rid of the stone feature wall where the fireplace is. That faux stone is very dated.
That shows how subjective opinions on interior design are. Like them, I view it as one of the best features of the house. At this point, it's so old it's not dated.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | August 11, 2025 8:39 PM |
[bold]The uploader has not made this available in your country[/bold]
by Anonymous | reply 36 | August 11, 2025 8:40 PM |
Truth be told that house wasn't worth what they paid for it, and if an inspector had come round before they closed and saw that chimney leak, and the damaged siding they could have saved another $15,000 on the purchase price. Maybe more.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | August 11, 2025 9:04 PM |
By doing it themselves they didn't have to pull permits and believe me their property taxes would go up if there was a public record of the renovations.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | August 11, 2025 9:06 PM |
R37 What did they pay for it?
by Anonymous | reply 39 | August 11, 2025 9:20 PM |
I couldn't keep watching... those two guys were just exhausting. I may go back and just fast forward to see the end result, but man, they were irritating.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | August 11, 2025 9:22 PM |
They were enthusiastic, not irritating. Good for them to get their piece of the American Dream for just about $315k all-in. That's fantastic for 2025.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | August 11, 2025 10:30 PM |
While Ellenville and that area of the Catskills is depressed in places and lots of MAGA REpugs live there, there's also a thriving gay community, mostly of married couples, with great gay-owned affordable restaurants, coffee houses, indie book stores and small movie theaters. I went to the Borscht Belt Film Festival up there last fall and really enjoyed exploring the area. Certainly great for a weekend getaway home if not a full-time residence.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | August 11, 2025 10:37 PM |
"Upstate". Please, go to someplace like Hannibal and let's start talking "Upstate".
by Anonymous | reply 43 | August 11, 2025 10:40 PM |
[quote]Most people buy a house because they need one to live in, not as a glorified art project or second home.
Well, yes, and as my older brother liked to tell me when I was in a separation of foods on the plate phase, "Don't bother. It all makes a turd."
It's a small minority of people, even among educated, prosperous people who can afford the time and priority to focus on the fine points of their house. It seems crazy to me that most people at a comfortable level of income take my brother's attitude toward where and how they live. Most couldn't give a rat's ass, or exercise any opinion on aesthetics. They have no knowledge and no vocabulary for it. Hence, The Property Brothers.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | August 11, 2025 11:28 PM |
Oh, yeah. I watched this a while back. It was part of the show "In With The Old" on Magnolia (if you have HBO Max it's there too).
R25 This show has had 6 or 7 seasons and there were a fair number of gays on them. Another episode had a single gay man in the Finger Lakes. There was a black lesbian renovating an old house in Baltimore. Not quite as many gays in the last season or two but I think a few have popped up.
Magnolia also had two "friends" who were on First Time Fixer and then got their own show and I'd eat my hat if those two women weren't lesbian lovers.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | August 11, 2025 11:46 PM |
The view of the hill is gorgeous.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | August 12, 2025 1:06 AM |
I bet it was done to (eventually) be an airbnb.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | August 12, 2025 1:16 AM |
R35 is Joanna Gains.
Sorry Dear, that show has not had gays on it before this one and it's only had 5 seasons. Chip & Joanna Gaines have been very publicly leaning into blaming their religion as to why they never feature gay couples on their show and now their network. It's only NOW that ratings are slipping that suddenly they have become gay friendly.
Chip & Joanna Gaines are the Chick-Fill-A of LGBTQ friendly businesses. Talking out of both sides of their mouths.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | August 12, 2025 1:22 AM |
^^R45 not 35.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | August 12, 2025 1:23 AM |
It doesn't look THAT dramatically different to me. Just a few cosmetic updates.
Not sure this is considered 'transformative'. Minor updates and some decor.
I guess this is what passes on Chip and Joanna Gaines' channel as a renovation. There's no wow moment or wow factor - at all.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | August 12, 2025 1:32 AM |
“Look I’m Martha Stewart!” 🤡
by Anonymous | reply 51 | August 12, 2025 1:47 AM |
Why are the gays always trying to transform, rehab and restore? Can't they just buy something, sit back and put theirr feet up?
A friend of a friend went nuts with MCM. He spent every waking hour purchasing that 50s shit with an unlimited budget from his husband. The house looked like Donna Reed threw-up.
Yeah, they divorced. Husband kept the house.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | August 12, 2025 1:51 AM |
R50 the kitchen definitely deserves a Wow! when you consider what it looked like originally. They did a good job on the bathroom, too, and knocked out a wall between the Kitchen and the living r oom.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | August 12, 2025 1:53 AM |
R47. What grounds do you have for that speculation?
And is that a highly rentable location?
by Anonymous | reply 54 | August 12, 2025 1:56 AM |
[quote] Why are the gays always trying to transform, rehab and restore? Can't they just buy something, sit back and put theirr feet up?
Yeah. It would probably be nice not to work as well and just put your feet up.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | August 12, 2025 1:58 AM |
I've always had a fascination with small, post WWII houses like those found in Levittown. We elder gays used to call them gay couple houses.
In my Canadian hometown there are several large pockets of them, built from around 1946 to 1953 or so, same footprint as a Levittown Cape Cod - 25x30. The difference was Canada's climate and frost line made a full basement more practical and city regulations required brick cladding.
They were small, solid, starter homes mostly on 50'x100' lots. They came with a finished main floor with two bedrooms, living, kitchen with dining nook, bathroom on the main floor. All hardwood floors except the bathroom. The upper floor came unfinished with the possibility of two additional bedrooms with sloped ceilings under the eaves. Many large boomer families lived this way. Basements were converted to living space.
As years passed, some were extended, others modified the layout within the footprint. My uncle, then a schoolteacher, bought one new in 1950 for $9,500., the limit of what he could afford. My cousin recently sold it for about 100x that. They were worth about 10x that in the 1990s.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | August 12, 2025 2:09 AM |
I tell ya, knotty pine will come back in style.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | August 12, 2025 2:21 AM |
The only thing worse than knotty pine is knotty pine laminate. Sadly, I have seen this for real.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | August 12, 2025 2:36 AM |
Kitchen cabinets, paneled walls, and interior woodwork should not be more orange than your tabby cab.
In *some* cases, paint can do a world of good in making something of the deep vertical mouldings which toning all that acid orange the fuck down.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | August 12, 2025 2:44 AM |
[quote]city regulations required brick cladding.
That’s wild. I’ve never heard of such a thing.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | August 12, 2025 3:22 AM |
They like to entertain but got rid of a lot of kitchen storage--makes no sense. I'd agree that the knotty pine is a nice period feature if they're in good shape--not my usual taste but good kitchen cabinets are expensive and you want to invest in more pressing needs.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | August 12, 2025 3:50 AM |
R61, I believe it was something to do with impeding the spread of fire.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | August 12, 2025 4:02 AM |
Ugly dog---thick bodied little dogs seem popular now--heaven knows why.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | August 12, 2025 4:14 AM |
[quote]They like to entertain but got rid of a lot of kitchen storage--makes no sense.
Well it was on trend a few years ago to get rid of all the upper cabinets and use shelves to display your plates and dishware. I think since then it's died down a bit since it's not really practical, you have to dust all that crap now that it's in the open and grease gets all over that stuff when cooking.
That said, they probably cut their new cabinet cost in half by doing that. Plus it does make tiny kitchens look more spacious.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | August 12, 2025 5:50 AM |
UGH a tv over the fireplace.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | August 12, 2025 12:46 PM |
I do hate that ^^^^^^^^^^^ very tacky.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | August 12, 2025 12:47 PM |
R65: Debatable that it makes kitchens look more spacious--often they seem more sparse.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | August 12, 2025 12:49 PM |
We bought a 1957 ranch with the original kitchen, including the knotty pine cabinets and electric wall oven/cooktop. It was great if you wanted to live in a time capsule but not practical.
We waited 6 years until we gutted it and did a complete renovation, including covering up a second doorway into the adjoining den to create more counter and cabinet space.
We spent $75k but it looks amazing. Will post a video.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | August 12, 2025 12:54 PM |
I give it two years before that dump is back on the market at a 200k markup and they’re on their way back to a rental they can’t afford in the city.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | August 12, 2025 12:55 PM |
Perhaps it will be on the market with a 200k markup. It won't sell for that.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | August 12, 2025 1:08 PM |
They're cute. I'd fuck them.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | August 12, 2025 1:11 PM |
R17 is probably straight.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | August 12, 2025 1:13 PM |
R66 "UGH a tv over the fireplace"
No, no, NO!!!!
Can't see the vid but I'm guessing "a u-shaped kitchen/diner which makes a great social space!"
by Anonymous | reply 74 | August 12, 2025 1:57 PM |
R48 I'm not a Joanna Gaines fangurl - I start most of the HGTV threads here and I dislike "Chip 'n Jo". I know their anti-LGBTQ history.
I do like a few of the Magnolia shows, including the one the episode at OP came from (In With The Old) because they tend to be a little bit lighter on the faked drama or oversharing of personal stuff.
They do have a bunch of fundie people on most of their shows - including Donna Summer's daughter - and I avoid most of them, but there's a few I'll watch.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | August 12, 2025 1:57 PM |
Also, I stand corrected - the other gays weren't in the first seasons of In With The Old but in season 3 and 4.
The Baltimore lesbian is in S3 Episode 2 "Charm City."
And the younger gurlina who renos a Finger Lakes place with boyfriend is S4 E4 "Silver Lake."
by Anonymous | reply 76 | August 12, 2025 2:04 PM |
They did an extraordinary job and it is phenomenal that they did almost all of it on their own, learning as they went along. I really liked them. They seem like authentic, kind men.
Meanwhile, the queens on The DL can't even get figure out a VPN and how to get one.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | August 12, 2025 2:28 PM |
The tall one is kinda hot.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | August 12, 2025 2:31 PM |
My parents lived in a tiny tract house with aluminum siding, 800 SF and paid $8,000 for it. It was their first home after renting for five years. When suburbia grew and the tract houses were little one story, brick boxes, with maybe 1200 SF like the one in NY, the floor plans were all the same. They weren't "ranch" houses. They were almost perfectly square. My Aunt lived in one until my uncle died. I had another aunt who was very proud of her two bedroom ranch house. I find them uninteresting and kind emblematic of the era: Stifling, and repressed.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | August 12, 2025 5:08 PM |
They did a good job and stayed on budget. I wish them well.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | August 12, 2025 8:55 PM |
[quote] I went to the Borscht Belt Film Festival up there last fall
R42 For those who don’t know, that area of the Catskills was, from the 1940s into the 1960s, a summer vacation location that was popular with Jewish people from NYC. I know because my parents took the family on summer vacations there when I was a gayling.
We went to a place in Kerhonkson, which is northeast of Ellenville. It was, shall we say, rustic. Even way back then, the “downtowns”of Kerhonkson and Ellenville looked rough to me. I was already a little queen, because I loathed it.
Frighteningly, the place in Kerhonkson still exists, is used as a camp for Yeshiva kids, and has sewage problems that stink up the area (think lactose intolerance). You don’t have to be a queen to not want to be around that!
by Anonymous | reply 81 | August 13, 2025 12:48 AM |
Meh. Everybody’s a homosexual in or from upstate New York, OP.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | August 13, 2025 2:37 AM |
Here's the Hudson Valley lesbians. But they were on HGTV (not Magnolia)
by Anonymous | reply 83 | August 13, 2025 4:29 AM |
The tall one is a woman???
by Anonymous | reply 84 | August 13, 2025 12:08 PM |
R84 Yup.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | August 13, 2025 12:11 PM |
R83, I liked those two gals and the work they did.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | August 13, 2025 2:50 PM |
It was a cute show, nice houses. I don't think it will come back, though.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | August 13, 2025 2:55 PM |
I like those two as well - but not gonna lie, the tall lesbian could have taken me. She had such a fresh, frat-boy look about her. She looked considerably younger than her partner.
I thought she was a very handsome, nice-looking man. And I mean that in all the right ways. And she's not trans.
This has happened before for me - some young, sporty, clean-cut lesbians passing as good-looking twinks.
by Anonymous | reply 88 | August 13, 2025 6:48 PM |
r88 That happened to me several times in my first years out at the bars.
Love at first sight across the room.....until I learned the man of my dreams was a butch lesbian.
*sob*
by Anonymous | reply 89 | August 13, 2025 7:25 PM |
R61: That's why you don't see wood frame houses in the City of Chicago, unless it was built150 years ago. The fire changed everything.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | August 13, 2025 10:39 PM |
Was this sponsored by Wayfair?
by Anonymous | reply 91 | August 13, 2025 11:19 PM |
Very, mine is in the crowded mid-September range. I was really annoyed when I had to start sharing my birthday cakes with my annoying and obnoxious sister-in-law.
by Anonymous | reply 92 | August 14, 2025 2:36 PM |
Absolutely beautiful renovation. I'm with R7 about the two sinks in the bathroom. It looks like they put in a narrow vanity to make it work. I'd rather have a second bathroom. I have no desire to have another man in there with me (unless we are in the shower together playing drop the soap), while I do my business.
Separate bathrooms, please.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | August 14, 2025 3:12 PM |
I assume the desire for two sinks is more about being able to leave your personal stuff out, not about using the sinks at the same time, but in this case the lack of counter space is a fail.
I think everyone would prefer two bathrooms, but that’s not an option here.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | August 14, 2025 3:26 PM |
In our two sink bathroom (which I love!) we have lovely shelves over our sinks with room for all of our ointments, unguents, creams, pastes and moisturizers. Not to mention the electric toothbrushes.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | August 14, 2025 9:17 PM |
Jesus R95, please tell me you are making a joke. Two sinks, separate shelves because two grown men have that many ointments, creams and such?
Where is Matt Damon to comment when you need him?!
by Anonymous | reply 96 | August 15, 2025 1:06 AM |
Ummmm, not joking, r96. Sorry.
by Anonymous | reply 97 | August 15, 2025 2:11 AM |
Some people up thread are calling this mid-century modern. It is not. The style of home in the above video is called Minimal Traditional. Houses built from the 30s to the early 50s. Mid-century moderns featured things like flat or nearly flat roofs, lots of floor to ceiling windows, and, yes, sometimes pink or bright blue tiles. If you google the names of both styles, you'll see pictures of both kinds of homes. There are very few special features in minimal traditional houses worth preserving. The dimensions of these kinds of houses are very small. Huge swaths of Americans were raised in minimal traditional houses, because they were the dominant house type for kids born in the 40s through the 60s. Anyone who knows the style, knows that bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms are all TINY. But the materials of the houses were basically good - real wood was used extensively. They don't talk much about their basement. In theory, once they work out the seeping water issues (AAGGHH), they could finish the basement - at minimum create a laundry room and rec room, but maybe even add a small bathroom down there.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | August 15, 2025 6:40 AM |
R97, whew! Glad I didn't reach out to Damon for comment.
And R98 is right, there's a big difference between a MCM home and what those guys purchased, which you can call Minimal Traditional. The demand for housing post-WWII created the quick, but solidly-built MT... tracts upon tracts of them around the nation.
Of course there was also the split-level (the style my parents purchased in '54) and a Cape Cod styled home. None of those styles are huge in size with many amenities, but nice sized rooms, a full bath (sometimes a half bath too!) with a garage and a front and back yard. Very, very satisfying for couples starting families.
by Anonymous | reply 99 | August 15, 2025 9:21 AM |
The traditional minimal are basically descendants of the "kit" houses that were popular between the world wars, and ordered from Sears, Wards or your local lumberyard. Basically similar dimensions, but more open layouts, and fewer design features. Pre-fabricated but with optional features in both cases.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | August 15, 2025 11:43 AM |
A distinctive feature of the Traditional Minimal I grew up in, built and bought in 1952, as one of about 100 that were part of the tract housing of our NJ neighborhood, were rows of 2-3 small square windows that were at the top of the walls in the bedrooms. They provided light without the undesirable view of the your neighbor's house, just several feet away. Obviously, they also prohibited your neighbor peering into your bedroom. So, my memory as a child, was never having a window to the world.
The houses all had exactly the same floor plan but the options were in the 3 different roof styles. Many families finished their basements as extra dens or playrooms, inevitably with real knotty pine paneling and linoleum floors or added on a large room at the back of the house, as we did, with the same paneling and floors. Bullfighting posters were a must! Original cast albums of My Fair Lady and West Side Story blaring on the hi-fi.
These houses were the new thing, replacing the dowdy 1940s Cap Cods on the next block, but soon superseded by the end of the 1950s by the chicer Split Levels mentioned just upthread.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | August 15, 2025 12:10 PM |
The guys are cute and very industrious to have done it all on their own. More power to them. Not what I would have done but it's their house. The view is killer.
Now, since this is DL, can I just say that their random tattoos are ridiculous? And that their friends that came over for "friendsgiving" (sic) couldn't have been more stereotypically flaming, with their (surprise!) trendy gay haircuts.
In Ellenville, for god's sake! Ellenvile was just a town you drove through on the way to somewhere else: Binghamton, Albany, Cooperstown, Oneonte, Kingston, etc.
I guess they all work from home, because there is nothing in Ellenville and its environs.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | August 15, 2025 12:56 PM |
^^^OneontA
by Anonymous | reply 103 | August 15, 2025 1:15 PM |
[quote]Video unavailable [quote]The uploader has not made this video available in your country
by Anonymous | reply 104 | August 15, 2025 1:44 PM |
Well, I fucked that up. But you get the picture.
by Anonymous | reply 105 | August 15, 2025 1:44 PM |
I might have missed this but did they update any of the systems? You know heating, air conditioning, water heater and septic / sewer line? I would have prioritized those first. I'm also curious if they had to update their electrical panel and plumbing. The back yard with that view is crying for a fire pit, pool and spa!
by Anonymous | reply 106 | August 15, 2025 1:50 PM |
[quote]The style of home in the above video is called Minimal Traditional.
"Minimal Traditional"? The term appears to have been farbed up by the idiots at McMansion Hell. It's a misnomer because Minimal in art and architectural history means a cultivated rejection of past styles, of ornament and so-called excess, and attempt to make a style based upon emphasis of the music basic elements of architecture.
This house and every house built between 1935/1940 and McMansions is not some half-assed hybrid of Minimalist and Traditional architecture, it's simply the poverty of intention: tar paper cover shacks elaborated as much as the budget would allow.
There are plenty of books from that time period that describe The Next-to-Nothing-House (it's own trend), but none of these in wide ranging discussions puts forth some idea that translates, even decades later, to anything like Minimal Traditional.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | August 15, 2025 1:57 PM |