What Impressed You as a Kid?

[razz]

As a kid, we went to visit our neighbours in the country. Most people lived in the kitchen or large food prep area but had a parlour for important visitors. I remember being in a parlour one afternoon and slapping the upholstered arm of the large chair and the sunlight caught all the dust that arose from it. Never looked at upholstered chairs the same way again.

Tradd, we owned a house similar to the one you noted - a compact story and a half, with two large bedrooms upstairs with shag, two small BR on the ground floor (guest room and sewing room), one bath, modest LR and large kitchen with great counter space and full concrete basement for water pump, furnace etc. I loved that design for its efficiency, convenience, ease of cleaning and heating. If all the world went back to that design, it would make a lot of sense for all ages and abilities.

[catherine]

I always thought my great-aunt's unwinterized summer cottage in Connecticut was PERFECT--because it sat across the street from the beach on a slight incline with a deep front yard so that you could sit on the porch and feel the ocean breezes, as opposed to my friends in the more expensive waterfront homes that were hotter. She had a little balcony on the second floor which almost looked like a widow's watch that I thought was so cool, and I really loved how the smell of the house was a mixture of salt and timber, because there was no insulation at all. I thought it was cool that there was an outdoor shower and the first floor toilet was only accessible by going outside and then entering it from off the porch (kind of like an attached outhouse but with plumbing).

I also like my best friend's house. She had a normal three bedroom, one bath house, but as her parents grew the family to 9 children, they didn't consider moving--my friend's dad, who was a carpenter, simply divided each room in two and added bunk beds. So there WERE five bedrooms ultimately, but they were so small you basically had about two feet between the bunkbed set and the dresser. The most amazing part of this house was that it was always as neat as a pin! My friend's mom really should have written a book on clutter control.

[pinkytoe]

I grew up in a stodgy, old money neighborhood not beacuse we had money but because my mom bought the cheapest house she could find in a good school district after my parents divorced. The neighborhood however was ringed with very low income households. So it was the great variety of my friend's houses that totally amazed me - everything from palatial estates to shotgun shanties. The house that impressed me the most thought was that of a girl from Denmark. Their house was incredibly clean, simple and spartan. Wood floors, no curtains, basic wood furniture - that image of simplicity and lack of chaos always stuck with me as something I wanted to emulate.

[Selah]

I had a friend in high school who lived in what seemed to be a giant, old, dark, mansion-like home in the fraternity/sorority section of Ann Arbor. The family was truly preppie (sp?) and their home seemed to be like something out of an L.L. Bean catalogue. In true Ann Arbor professorial style, the family car was a Volvo station wagon, I believe. I was raised in east Ann Arbor, adjacent to Ypsilanti, and the homes in my neighborhood were reasonably nice, but nothing like my friend's home. I still think "wow!" whenever I remember her house. They used these kind of stiff board "placemats" that I had never seen before. Then I saw them again, years later, in England.

And yes, seeing friends who had color television and a water/ice dispenser in their refrigerator door was something definitely gasp-worthy.

[Kestra]

Any house that was really unique architecturally. I remember one in California we visited that was really quirky and included an outside staircase to the second floor. Being from Edmonton, the idea of an outside staircase seemed very strange.
Also always loved whatever the style of house is called that is all 90 degree angles - all very square, with lots of windows, and pale exterior. There were a few of those in the city and I loved to drive by them. And tall houses. Always liked the idea of an apartment or condo with multiple stories. Love the look of 3-4 stories, but don't think I'd actually like to live in a house with that many stairs.

For interior and the clutter vs minimalist thing that many people comment on, we had family friends that were DINKs (compared to our house with 1 income, 5 kids) and their houses were always so neat, tastefully and minimally decorated, compared to the inevitable clutter we had. Their houses were just so incredibly peaceful. I just loved going there. I really wanted to be like them, and now I am, except we don't have the house yet. I do need to get better at cleaning and putting stuff away. But the peacefulness and freedom is there.

[cdttmm]

I must have been a weird kid. I was rarely impressed by anything in other people's houses, but I was always fascinated by other people's barns. I grew up on a diary farm and was active in 4-H. Every summer our 4-H club would have a tour where kids from the club could show off their projects before the county fair. Since most club members' primary projects were livestock, we would go from farm to farm to so that kids could show off their cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, chickens, etc. I was always really impressed by how clean and modern some of the barns were in comparison to the older style barn that we had and the less than high-tech milking equipment that we used. I always imagined that I would grow up to live on a farm and was sure it would have an ultra-modern barn with all the latest and greatest equipment for my livestock.

[iris lily]

... They used these kind of stiff board "placemats" that I had never seen before. Then I saw them again, years later, in England...

I know! I remember first seeing those 40 years ago in England, my mom wanted to buy some, but I don't remember us having them at home, so I think she might have decided not to do it. They always had photos of country estates or castles or olde townes.

[JaneV2.0]

I was impressed by my grandmother's big old five-bedroom house with a full basement and a full attic and a music room, a sewing room, sets of glass pocket doors, an imposing central staircase... She was my role model for living alone with a taste for recreational shopping. And I was impressed as well with my great aunt, who lived (also alone--two widows) in the teeniest house I ever saw. I'd say it was about the size of my garage--but it did have the advantage of a site just a block or two from the ocean. Like Iris Lily, I was raised in old houses with plenty of carefully-crafted furnishings, and never did my (frustrated interior designer) mother let me forget how superior Everything Old was and always will be. This is probably why, to this day, I have the utmost respect for Everything Old, but vastly prefer contemporary architecture and furnishings. Always the black sheep.

[Lainey]

What struck me in thinking about this was that in my blue-collar/working class childhood, kids did not typically hang out at each other's houses. Everyone was outside playing pretty much year round. Houses were too small, and families too big, to have any kind of entertaining space for non-family, not to mention the cost involved in offering snacks and drinks to neighborhood kids.
I remember one acquaintence who had a semi-finished basement which I visited once and that memory sticks with me because it was a big deal.

[fidgiegirl]

not to mention the cost involved in offering snacks and drinks to neighborhood kids.

It's interesting that you mention that. We always hung out at the neighbor's, but knew that when dinner started, our welcome was over. My co-worker says they have a little boy who just pulls up a chair and joins them! And since his DM is very preggo and appears to have her hands full, DCW (Dear CoWorker, lol) lets him eat every time.

I have been thinking hard about this and really enjoying this thread. I think for me it was houses that had: No TV on, at least not ALL THE TIME, and spaces that you could just USE without having to clean them first. Like, if we wanted to play a game on the floor or on a table, we didn't have to clear away all the junk and mess to do so.

Also, my friends had an older home in town and there were two stairways, one for the family and one that must have been a butler's access years ago. That one does stand out.