Blog - Page 24 of 35 - MidMod Midwest

Find a Mid Mod Fixer Upper

3 min readToday, get this architect’s top tips for finding the perfect fixer upper to turn into your mid mod dream home.

Some people are looking for their turn key dream house but others want a fixer upper they can make their own. Fixing up modest little ranch houses into mid mod show pieces is kind of my jam.

Here are this architect’s ideas for how to win at the house hunting game.

Maximize the “Zillow Phase” of your House Hunt

3 min readListen in on a chat with first time home buyer – and my sister – KJ Hansmann on how she’s using the early “Zillow Phase” of her hunt to plan for her dream home.

Finding the right Mid-Century home to make your own is an exciting challenge for a first time home buyer. To kick off Season Four of Mid Mod Remodel, this week I chat with my sister, KJ Hansmann. She is in the earliest “Zillow” phase of planning to buy a modest MCM ranch to fix up with her partner.

We’ve been talking about her house hunt process so much in recent weeks. Finally, I realized that I should capture it for the podcast. Listen in as we dish on some family history, chat about why she’s choosing to live near her work place and have some fun discussing this essential phase of any millennial’s house hunt!

Find Madison Mid-Century Neighborhoods To Explore

2 min readDon’t panic, but I’m about to take a short hiatus. To tide you over, today’s podcast will tell you exactly how to seek out Madison Mid-Century Neighborhoods to explore on your own and highlight a few of my very favorites!

If you, like me, LOVE walking around looking at MCM houses, you’ve probably been relying on that as a primary source of out-of-the-house fun during the last few months. Today, I’m going to share my top tips for seeking out the hidden mid-century areas in your town and some Madison mid-century neighborhoods that I particularly love!

Interview with George Smart of US Modernist Radio

Today, Mid Mod Remodel Podcast has … a GUEST! I am so excited to share my chat with George Smart, AKA Mr. Modernism of US Modernist Radio.

Plan A Doable DIYable Remodel for your MCM Home

3 min readYes, you CAN plan the remodel your family needs right now. Meet challenging times by planning your home update as a Doable DIYable remodel!

You’ve had plenty of time to consider closely how your house is or isn’t meeting your family’s needs right now. It is clear that your home might need a few updates. But there are some new challenges tacked on to the process of a remodel at the moment. Still, I don’t want you to loose hope that you can make the changes you need. This is where the doable DIY remodel comes in.

Your Roadmap Thru a Mid Mod Remodel You Can Love

2 min readI made this for you: a roadmap you can use to plan a remodel that will be flexible through changing circumstances.

I thought about calling calling this weeks episode a guide to get you to your ideal remodel but in actual fact … its much more a roadmap through the remodel process.

Today I want to share with you the steps I see as absolutely essential when you’re planning an update for your mid-century ranch.

Collier Heights: Vintage MCM by and for Black Americans

2 min readWhat Collier Heights, a stunning MCM neighborhood built by and for Black people outside Atlanta Georgia, can teach about racism in America.

Today, let’s chat about the gorgeous mid-century modern neighborhood of Collier Heights in Atlanta, Georgia which was planned for, built by, and lived in by Black Atlantans.

Note: This isn’t a story about a silver lining to the bad situation that is racism. Nor is it any kind of an example of solutions that point the a way forward today. (We will not make America better by building better quality segregated spaces.)

Instead, I see the history of Collier Heights and the dedicated citizens who built it as example of making lemonade out of some pretty sour lemons.

Housing Discrimination and Racism in Mid-Century America

2 min readThere’s a dark side to the MCM era that we love … it was also an era of overt housing discrimination which cut Black Americans out of decades of post war prosperity building. Let’s talk about that today.

This isn’t the episode I was planning to record this week but I hope you’ll stick around to think about how the history of housing discrimination in America affects the mid-century houses we love and the world we all live in.

If your parents or grandparents bought a house in America during the post war boom years … they and you benefited from a system of racial oppression that encouraged white wealth building through home ownership with one hand … and held back black families with the other.

Mine did and I do.

Design Tips to Help you Fight Clutter!

4 min readYour house can’t help you sort what you love from what you don’t – its not a robot. But design can help you fight clutter by creating places the things you love where use use them!

So how has the battle to fight clutter been going at your house lately?

For me, housekeeping isn’t my strongest suit at the best of times but I do know that I feel better about life and myself when I’m not looking at to-do lists (in pile form) all over the dining table.

Some amount of clutter-busting will always be a form of #adulting but we can make the job harder or easier when the house we live in is designed a certain way. How can you design changes into your house that will help you stop clutter before it can start.

Love yourself? Love your home!

3 min readOur homes – where we spend the majority of our hours – profoundly shape our lives. That should inform the way we plan a remodel!

If planning a remodel seems like a superficial thing to be discussing right now, I want to tell you that I believe it is ANYTHING BUT. The space we live in defines our experience of life. Why not help that space be its best so that it can help us in turn. If you love yourself, you should love your home too.

It will love you back!