Mr. Mid-Century is the latest stage in what has been about six years of learning, loving and living mid-century. In April 2012, our family of 6 moved into our 1966 mid-century ranch home in Boise, Idaho. Although at the time, our home selection was largely based on its “turnkey” condition, location in the city and the size required for what would be (unbeknownst to us) a still growing family, today our home has become a 5+ year restoration project. The mid-century bug has bitten our family HARD. As a result we are attempting to restore our home to its original condition, or at least as close as we can. After a lot of “new” old furniture, removal of big box remodels and a few planned “vintage update” we are closing in on what will hopefully be a project well done.
As we look forward to the end of our home remodel we looked for what we could do next. As soon as we asked, we found the answer in a bright yellow and white, 1978 Volkswagen T2 Transporter. As a nearly life-long lover of VWs my dream car has always been a vintage bus. After years of searching the spring of 2019 brought about the opportunity. We look forward to giving this well loved for and well taken care of beauty a little makeover and make it the air-cooled gem it begs to be.
My hope is that this little sliver of the internet can serve as a one stop shop for all things mid-century. Primarily I would like to use it as an avenue to pass on the knowledge I have gained over the past several years, as well as the knowledge I will undoubtedly continue to gather. I will also be sharing mid-century nuggets found scattered throughout the internet, bring you along on our mid-century ranch and vintage bus restoration journeys and finally bring you stories from the field as I also take the step into mid-century real estate. That’s right, they say, “Find something you love and figure out how to get paid to do it.” Nearly 20 years of my professional life has been dedicated to working with youth and young adults, particularly those with trauma histories and kids in foster care. I loved it and found a way to make money doing it but after more than 18 years, it was time to transition. At the beginning of 2019 I took up my love for mid-century homes and joined Mid-Century Homes by Moniker Real Estate. The Mid-Century Homes team is Boise’s only group focusing on the roughly 11,000 homes build in the city during the 50s and 60s. Together we strive to preserve these homes though finding owners who are other mid-century enthusiasts or just people that love the home’s character and want to embrace it. >Hop in the air-cooled VW and join me as we look at all things mid-century including architecture, furniture design, pop culture, the era in modern media and historic events that shaped the greatest generation and have had a lasting effect on all generations since.