Time Travel to Houzzers' Childhood Homes, Part 3
See postwar homes built by family members, rural farmsteads, cold-water flats and much more
Many of these Houzzers' childhood homes were built by grandfathers and fathers, and some are still in the family, being lovingly renovated by the next generation. Some of these home builders learned construction as they went and enlisted help from their communities. In today's economic climate, we could learn a lot from the ancestors of these Houzz members; they built what they could when they could afford it. Take a break from work and enjoy these memories of childhood homes.
More: Childhood homes, part 1 and part 2
More: Childhood homes, part 1 and part 2
Goochland, Virginia. "I am now living in the house I grew up in," says Houzz user beegeek. "My mom passed away last year. I am fortunate enough to be able to keep our family home and do some renovations that I dreamed of doing as a child. The process has been bittersweet, but I think my parents would love what I've done with our family home."
Highland Park, Illinois. "My dad built my childhood home after serving in both theaters of World War II," says Houzz user olson04. "I lived there from birth until I was 19. It has a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom and tiny back porch on the ground floor; two bedrooms and a bath on the second floor; and a full basement. I always loved the large picture window in the living room, which is not really as narrow as its photo makes it seem. In the kitchen, instead of the cabinetry on the right, we had our kitchen table, where we ate together as a family every night. Oh, and our refrigerator was always referred to as our 'icebox!'"
Middlebury, Vermont. "Like many others, ours was mostly midcentury, built by young parents just coming out of World War II," says Heather Bellanca. "My father, having spent time in Switzerland during the war, was enamored of chalets in the Alps, so he garnered this hilltop location overlooking the town. He and my mother designed a split level with floating stone hearth in an upstairs living room in one of the first Techbuilt houses. It was a prefab structure — something they could afford."
San Francisco. "We lived in a residential area of San Francisco. My mother, Kayla, was always known in the city for her original sense of style and her elegance," says Houzz user deanejackie. "She had curtains made, chose furniture and collected art with my father when they traveled, to create a home with a sense of opulence and simplicity at the same time. I have memories of fabulous adult parties in these rooms. Also in these rooms, my family — including me, a mother of three and former dance critic; my mother (deceased); my law professor sister (who sadly died at 54 of a rare disease); and my humorous and hip scientist father (who is still going strong at 86, thank God) — conversed intelligently, laughed uncontrollably and danced our hearts out. We didn't have to try to get along — we just did, and oh so easily and naturally!"
Northern Alabama. "Our house was built by my grandfather in the 1940s in northern Alabama," says deb7. "My mom bathed my sister and I in the kitchen sink when we were very young. It had to have been easier on her back than bending over the bathroom tub."
Northwest Indiana. Houzz user jannie was able to find an aerial shot online of her childhood home, which was once surrounded by farmland. "My childhood home is in rural northwest Indiana. The property is situated on a hill with another hill behind the house — great sledding, as you can imagine," she says. "We had a 2-acre yard to mow and 8 acres of wooded pastureland to run around, dodging cow pies before our grandparents, who lived down the road, retired their farm. A couple decades of overgrowth later, the cow path from our property to my grandma's barn was still visible and walkable. Before the other 8 acres were parceled off in the 1970s, that path was the preferred route to run to our grandma's house."
Jannie adds, "There was a canning area with storage cupboards, a very large freezer and a laundry with clotheslines running the length of the house. Clothes were hung to dry in the basement in winter, since we didn't have an automatic washer or dryer until the mid-1970s. Our mother did the laundry for our large family with a wringer washer and rinse tubs for the first 20 years, including a dozen of those years with one or more kids in cloth diapers."
Jannie adds, "There was a canning area with storage cupboards, a very large freezer and a laundry with clotheslines running the length of the house. Clothes were hung to dry in the basement in winter, since we didn't have an automatic washer or dryer until the mid-1970s. Our mother did the laundry for our large family with a wringer washer and rinse tubs for the first 20 years, including a dozen of those years with one or more kids in cloth diapers."
Monticello, Florida. "I began my life in my grandmother's home; my grandfather was killed in an accident, so Mom and Dad moved in with her right after they married," says Cindy Littlejohn. "This was her home and my home, too, until I was almost 5 years old."
"Then dad built a home next door," Littlejohn continues. "He only built as he had the money. We never had a mortgage. Neither did my grandparents. He wasn't a carpenter, but he would go onsite where other houses were being built so he could figure out how to do each part. When he needed help, like when raising the trusses for the roof, he served beer and invited his buddies to help. The two houses are still owned by my family. I own the one dad built, and my sister owns my grandparents' home. I plan to move back someday."
She adds, "I lived in the house until I was 19 [and went] to college and got married. During the entire time, Dad was always working on that house. When I was 27 we bought the house from my parents and moved back. We raised our daughters in the house, too. Lots of wonderful memories were made in the house that my dad built."
She adds, "I lived in the house until I was 19 [and went] to college and got married. During the entire time, Dad was always working on that house. When I was 27 we bought the house from my parents and moved back. We raised our daughters in the house, too. Lots of wonderful memories were made in the house that my dad built."
Alameda, California. "I grew up from 1948 to 1964 on Clinton Avenue in Alameda, California, an island just off Oakland in the San Francisco Bay," says Houzz user lizoregon. "It was a great place to be a kid in the 1950s."
She describes, "Ours is the small white house between the apartment building and the larger blue house next door. It was one story in front, with the bedrooms upstairs in back and a basement where my dad had a workbench and my mom hung laundry. We had a huge backyard with a grapestake fence dividing the yard into a section of lawn and red geraniums from the wild side with my swing, tetherball pole and a wonderful satsuma plum tree. I loved that my bedroom window overlooked the backyard. I don't think our house influenced my decorating style, but I have always liked to be able to see my yard easily."
She describes, "Ours is the small white house between the apartment building and the larger blue house next door. It was one story in front, with the bedrooms upstairs in back and a basement where my dad had a workbench and my mom hung laundry. We had a huge backyard with a grapestake fence dividing the yard into a section of lawn and red geraniums from the wild side with my swing, tetherball pole and a wonderful satsuma plum tree. I loved that my bedroom window overlooked the backyard. I don't think our house influenced my decorating style, but I have always liked to be able to see my yard easily."
Here are lizoregon and her parents in 1949. "We lived right across the street from the bay, and I spent many happy hours playing on our neighbor's beach and in the waves until the bay off Alameda was filled in around 1956 for a housing development and shopping center," she recalls. "My beloved beach was going to disappear, so I organized my friends, and we made a large butcher paper banner for the living room window protesting 'the fill.' My parents were rather amused when they came home but made me take it down. It was my first protest, a precursor of the 1960s."
Durham, North Carolina. "Here are some of the pictures of my childhood home. It was built in the early 1970s — the harvest-gold kitchen appliances give you a clue there," says Kimberly Montgomery. "It is the house I lived in from fifth grade to when I got married."
Here are those aforementioned harvest-gold appliances in Montgomery's childhood kitchen.
Innsbruck, Austria. "First we lived with my grandparents in the apartment on the second floor right, since the left side was bombed out. When it was rebuilt, we moved into the third-floor apartment on the newly finished side," says Houzz user ruthmand.
"The building was built in 1909 and provided nothing but cold water to each flat. Each apartment had a coal bin in the cellar, and we had to haul coal up for heat. Originally my grandmother even had a coal-burning cookstove in the kitchen. This photo of the new paint job was taken recently by my cousin, who still lives in the building. Having been raised in an apartment with three brothers makes me appreciate the spaces we have today!"
She adds, "I was born in Innsbruck shortly after the war. My parents immigrated to the U.S. when I was a teenager, and that was the first time we lived in a single-family home. What a thrill for us four kids to be able to run around in our home without the downstairs neighbor knocking up against her ceiling with a broomstick to complain about the noise! To have a yard! The new freedom made up for the fact that we had to learn a new language. Though, I must say, growing up in Innsbruck at that time was wonderful. No one had much of anything, so we all made do with hand-me-downs, meatless meals and sharing living spaces with family yet never felt deprived."
"The building was built in 1909 and provided nothing but cold water to each flat. Each apartment had a coal bin in the cellar, and we had to haul coal up for heat. Originally my grandmother even had a coal-burning cookstove in the kitchen. This photo of the new paint job was taken recently by my cousin, who still lives in the building. Having been raised in an apartment with three brothers makes me appreciate the spaces we have today!"
She adds, "I was born in Innsbruck shortly after the war. My parents immigrated to the U.S. when I was a teenager, and that was the first time we lived in a single-family home. What a thrill for us four kids to be able to run around in our home without the downstairs neighbor knocking up against her ceiling with a broomstick to complain about the noise! To have a yard! The new freedom made up for the fact that we had to learn a new language. Though, I must say, growing up in Innsbruck at that time was wonderful. No one had much of anything, so we all made do with hand-me-downs, meatless meals and sharing living spaces with family yet never felt deprived."
Williamson County, Texas. "This house has been in our family since 1910," says Jim Fowler. "My brother has taken it to a whole new level while retaining its historic charm!"
Here's another look at Fowler's childhood home.
Wisconsin. "I always loved this picture of my mother studying for her nursing exams in Wisconsin in 1952," says Houzz professional Anita Roll. "As far as the wallpaper ... what goes around comes around!"
Blairsville, Pennsylvania. "That's my dad and his housekeeper on the porch before he married Mom," says Houzz user uberv. "In summer I always remember my parents sitting on what was called the side porch in the evening, listening to Pirates baseball on KDKA. The tabletop radio was plugged into an outlet in the adjoining room, and the window was left open."
San Fernando Valley, California. "I'm moving back to the 1950s ranch house house I grew up in as soon as it's renovated," says Houzz user helenebear. "I'm keeping the Meyer lemon trees but losing the original built-in breakfast nook. I learned how to cook Greek and Jewish recipes at that table, rolled different doughs on the Formica tabletop, ate all of my meals there, and as an adult, returned every Friday night for a home-cooked meal and to catch up with the family. I'm going to miss that old built-in, but I'm keeping all the wonderful memories!"
Southern Maryland. "Our family of eight, including my grandmother, grew up in this split level in Southern Maryland," says Houzz user goodmat. "It was situated on a small hill on 2 acres, and we lived here for 45 wonderful years."
"The house itself was spacious, with a large side screened porch and large open deck on the back," goodmat describes. "Our backyard was the gathering place for all the neighborhood kids to play baseball, football, volleyball, badminton — you name it."
Easton, Pennsylvania. "I have no full photos of my childhood home, but I do have this lovely watercolor," says Houzz user kelmick. "It had place of pride in my folks' house, and after my mother passed a couple years ago, I made certain to display it in my 'grown-up' home. It represents some very happy family times as well as the difficult times, and is a reminder that where we came from isn't all of who we are, but that it is a part of who we are."
Western Massachusetts. "Dad built this classic center-chimney Cape Cod in 1949," says sherry403. "Dad passed away in 1984, but Mom lived there until her death two years ago. Due to her failing health, the house needed updating and maintenance before my sister and I could sell it. We cleaned, painted, updated bathrooms and made it shine. We owed it to Dad, Mom and the house to spruce her up. It sold to a lovely young couple in one day at asking price."