Finding the right mid-century home for you with Susan Halla

44 min readSusan Halla, founder of Make It Mid-Century and mid-century enthusiast, joins me this week to dish about her own recent house hunt.

If anyone knows what they’re looking for in a mid-century home, it’s Susan Halla. She has spent the last decade making retro-focused DIY doable for mid-century lovers of all stripes.

When she had to move, she knew she needed another perfect mid-century house to make her home. And she’s just completed a multi-city search that was laser focused on finding a relatively untouched, not too high end mid-century home. 

But even for a well-connected expert like Susan, finding the right mid-century home with original charm posed some serious challenges. And one of the biggies was finding a realtor who truly understands and appreciates mid-century architecture.

Too many agents don’t grasp the value of untouched vintage features and when representing sellers they often suggest updates that erase a home’s character. 

In the end Susan found the right home for her…one that boasts two full original pink bathrooms and some truly unique wallpaper! Photos below include one that Susan describes as “1960s people on horseback”. It’s a weird pattern she hadn’t seen before but it’s definitely staying! As is the old newspaper print wallpaper (ala a classic Wendy’s restaurant table) in the powder room. There are also plenty of projects to keep Susan busy! Including a remuddled kitchen that needs a serious infusion of mid-century charm.  

In Today’s Episode You’ll Hear:

  • What matters most when deciding which realtor to work with. 
  • How to recognize the value in “original charm”.
  • Which compromises you can make and still get the right house for you.

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And you can always…

Della Hansmann 

Yeah, there is a sweet spot to getting the absolute best advice, and it exists around catching someone who is passionate about an expert in a topic right as they are fresh off of wrapping up a new adventure that branches off from their major interest.

Della Hansmann 

So if you’ve been thinking about hunting down a new to you mid-century house, or even if you just think time capsule. Houses are great and want to think about them in detail for a little while. You are going to love my conversation this week with Susan Halla of make it mid-century. I caught her at the perfect moment for maximum shareable expertise, because she is fresh off of a successful multi city mid-century house hunt. We’re going to talk about finding the right realtors, vintage quality, deal breakers and the kind of house you can or cannot wear your sweatpants in.

Della Hansmann 

Hey there. Welcome back to mid mod remodel. This is the show about updating MCM homes, helping you match a mid-century home to your modern life. I’m your host, Della Hansmann, architect and mid-century ranch enthusiast, and you’re listening to Episode 2112 now for my mid-century house hunters out there, you need advice, you need support. So I will link in the show notes to a number of past episodes I’ve got on this topic.

Della Hansmann 

If you’re just looking for help tracking down mid-century neighborhoods around you for house hunting purposes, or just for mid-century house inspiration, check out episode 314 it’s a real throwback for advice on finding and buying a mid mod fixer upper perfect for a master plan you’ll want to check out episode 402 that’ll be focused on the features that might turn off other buyers, but make a house perfect for you, and if you want to start your master plan process even before you find the right house.

Della Hansmann 

Episode 401 from back In 2020 focuses on how to maximize the Zillow phase of a house hunt process, and in it, I’m going to share with you the advice I gave my own beloved baby sister on her mid-century house hunt process. Now, once you’ve got your new mid-century house hunted, you’ll want to check out my episode on the Quick Start Guide for new mid-century homeowners on the first changes you might want to make or not make to your new home. That’s episode 1903 from last fall.

Della Hansmann 

But it’s going to dovetail perfectly with one of the last times I spoke to Susan about her particular expertise in mid-century and her philosophy on mid-century houses, because we really get into the value of taking the time to get to know your mid-century house before you dive in with a remodel and how much that can regret proof your choices in Episode 1811 and then going back a few before that, in 1803 we talk about the difference between mid-century and MIT mod and how to Identify your love for one the other or both.

Della Hansmann 

Those links, plus where you can find Susan and her wonderful small business providing kits and authentic materials to mid-century remodelers and back daters vintage lovers everywhere. Plus where you can sign up for her amazing, fabulous fun and super helpful monthly newsletter will be in the show notes today. That is at mid mod midwest.com/ 2112 This is such a great chat, and Susan is such a great mid-century friend. Let’s dive right in.

Della Hansmann 

Here I am with Susan Halla, owner of make it mid-century, and you’ve been someone that I’ve turned to over the years on the internet for both good products, but also great advice on how to really keep the mid-century charm alive in your home and in one’s home, and now you’re about to start that journey again. Because just before we started recording, you told me that you are about to close on a new, I assume, a new mid-century house. Tell me about this.

Susan Halla

Yes, it is. So I currently live in a mid-century house in St Louis, and it is. It has a lot of the original features and all of the good stuff, the original metal cabinets and tile, which I’ve been regrouping tile all weekend. But it’s time for us to move. And so we are moving cross country to Philadelphia, and we found an even more mid-century house. It’s not we were we actually had a contract, or we actually had an offer in on a house in Chicago.

Susan Halla

We were looking in multiple places around the country, and one thing my husband said about it, he’s like, I’m not going to be able to wear my sweatpants around here, because it was like, high end, mid-century, and for whatever, for whatever reason, if it was the universe telling us it wasn’t the right place, this other House in Philadelphia popped up, and we still hadn’t heard anything, any kind of like negotiations on this offer we’d put in on this house in Chicago, when this house and when in the House in Philadelphia popped up, and we saw it, and we both looked at each other, and we’re like, we need to withdraw our offer on the house in Chicago, because This one just feels more us, because I love high style, high end mid-century, don’t get me wrong.

Susan Halla

But kind of what I really groove on is more of the everyday person’s mid-century, which tends to be, have a little more kitsch to it, have a little more like less, you know, more. You can wear your sweatpants around the house. Yeah. So, so that’s where we’re moving, but it’s still it has like, wonderful, like weird roof line, and it has so many of the original features. It’s a three and a half bath house, and two of the full baths are pink. So it’s all original, and even original, there’s this fantastic wallpaper which I can’t exactly describe, except it’s like 1960s people on horseback, but not like, like, I can’t even describe it exactly, because that almost reminds me of like, wise men from Christmas kind of look. It’s weird. I can’t describe it, but is it stand? Oh, yeah, it’s staying.

Della Hansmann 

Oh, what a feature. Oh, this is so exciting. So, I mean, all right, I have so many questions. Um, let’s, let’s go in order so you’re moving without a specific destination in mind. That’s a really interesting way to relocate yourself and without prying into your you know, your personal life too much. What was the impetus to change from one house to another without saying like we’re going to a specific place?

Susan Halla

Well, both of my husband and I work from home, and so because my business is currently in my home and will continue to be in my home, so we needed to find a place that was big enough for that too. So we could, we could move anywhere we without trying to get you shamed off the internet or whatever it was for political reasons that we had to get out of. Where we are taxation without representation. It’s a long story, but and so we looked in many different places that we really liked but that politically aligned with our beliefs.

Susan Halla

And so we were looking in Chicago, upstate New York, Delaware and the Philadelphia area. And it so happens that both of my kids live in Philadelphia. One of them’s in college right now in Philadelphia. And so it’s great because they’re there, but it’s also that that we know that area a lot better, having visited them a lot. So that was helpful too, and that we would have people there already built in, people there that we knew, not just my kids. We had we know other people in the Philadelphia area.

Susan Halla

So it just, I mean again, we were about to move to Chicago. One thing we really need. My husband travels all the time for business, and so we needed somewhere that had really good airport access. So Chicago was great because we had not one but two airports to get to. And really, in Philadelphia, we have several airports to choose from around the around the area, so it’s going to be great for us.

Della Hansmann 

That’s so fun. And it doesn’t have anything to do with mid-century, but I’ve always find it fascinating. I am. I’m such a Wisconsin girl, even though I’ve lived in other places around the Midwest, like my family history is from here, and then my parents are the anchor in our household. They moved back to Madison when I was in college, and then they moved out and picked a spot in the country.

Della Hansmann 

And so for me, it’s always been like, how much of a yoyo do I want to be away from them so but I know other people who’ve just been like, we wanted to be in a place that we liked, that was good, where that place was, roll the dice. And so that’s such an it’s such an exciting, adventurous way to move. But I can see, yeah, for two people running a business from home, what the house is more important than a lot of other geographic considerations.

Della Hansmann 

And then right there are some geopolitical considerations and airport logistical considerations that are still super important. This sounds like a great move for you,

Susan Halla

and I will say we are leaving my elderly parents, they are here, and my sister is here. I don’t have a large family. I’m an old my parents are both only children, so I don’t have any aunts, uncles or cousins. So it’s not like the people that are still around in my family are in St Louis, and so this except for my kids. And so this will be a little bit of a different thing. And I can’t say that some of my family’s happy about it, but I have to, I have to have good mental peace as well.

Della Hansmann 

Wisconsin is a purple state. I live in Madison. It’s a struggle. It’s a, yeah, it’s a choice we all have to make. But you’ve got, you’ve got your reason to go back for family, and there’s that. And then now you’re gonna make a new a new hub, which is exciting. So what is it like? Exactly?

Della Hansmann 

I’m so curious. I hear from a lot my clients are struggling to find mid-century-ish houses, but you are perhaps the person who has the most specific idea of what it is you were looking for, what’s good, what’s bad, what you can work with. What was it like to take on housing search? What were your main criteria? What did you tackle there?

Susan Halla

Well, I think the biggest hurdle is finding the right realtor who understands your vision, like, what are you looking for? Because I think somebody that’s really in search of an old school mid-century home is really kind of the needle in the haystack kind of thing. And Realtors aren’t used to working with those so it was finding the right realtors in all of those different locations.

Susan Halla

Because there weren’t realtors. One realtor that like, obviously, that could handle all those locations. So we are working with multiple realtors. In fact, the realtor we have in Chicago is she knows mid-century, and I talked about her in our last newsletter. So if anybody wants to go back and look at that, they should, because if you’re in Chicago land, you need to look up Kate Sanderson. She’s fantastic. But that was like, kind of the first issue. And then the second issue is finding something that has been relatively untouched, right?

Susan Halla

I know that comes with its issues, and we’ll, I’m sure, get into that, because there’s a lot of things that we’ll need to do on the home that we’re purchasing, but there’s a lot of things that we won’t because it has three and a half bathrooms. Two of those are the original pink bathrooms. One of them is an original white bathroom, and the other one, it has the craziest wallpaper that looks like old newspapers. And if you’re of a certain age, and I know I’m older than you, Della but Wendy’s used to have these tables in their dining rooms that were like old newspaper print, and so I just call it the Wendy’s bathroom, because that’s what it looks like.

Susan Halla

Oh, it’s great. And so, like, there’s all these crazy things, but it’s difficult to find that. And in fact, this house had only just come on the market, hadn’t had any open houses or anything, and it was actually purchased from there have been a family living there since the 1970s so it wasn’t the original owner, but it was the second owner of this house since it was built in 56 and then it was purchased by a flipper, I know, and so, but that flipper decided that they had, they already had too many houses going right now, and because they got it for a song, so they’re walking away with 150,000 from what we what we’re then paying them for it they did have to clean out the house. Makes me wonder what was in there, because, God knows, it probably been something really cool.

Della Hansmann 

Might have been some very musty, very cool vintage furniture, right?

Susan Halla

Exactly, so, but that’s okay, but, and so when my husband and I found out that we’re like, okay, we need this house because we need to keep it away from the flipper, you have to rescue it exactly. So a lot of it is just darn stupid luck, because that’s really what happened to us. Once the realtor in Philly figured out what it was that we were looking for, she really understood the memo then, and when this one came up, even though she knew we had an offer under another house, she’s like, I have to send this to them.

Susan Halla

And we were both like, that’s the one where I literally remember we’re standing in our basement rumpus room, my husband and I with the phone on speakerphone, you know, talking to a realtor, Paula, and we’re looking at these pictures as she’s talking to us, and we’re like, looking at each other, going, I think we have a decision we need to make here, Because I think we need to call the other realtor and tell her that we need to withdraw our offer. So yeah, it’s, I think the realtor is the first place to start, yeah.

Della Hansmann 

And it’s, it is actually astonishing. So okay, I’ll say my piece, and then I’ve got a question, which is, I’m always astonished when I am in, even in my own neighborhood, I just pop in when there’s an open house and, you know, I want to peek in and see what’s been going on behind my neighbor’s walls all these years and again and again. When this happens, I’ll end up making small talk with a realtor who’s showing it.

Della Hansmann 

And they never know the word mid-century. They never understand that I’m here because I think the House is cool, and I at this point, at this stage in the game, I am shocked. I’m shocked at how few people even understand that. It’s a good buzzword to use, even if they can’t see it for themselves. But it really does feel like there are people out there who get it, and I’m friends with a lot of them on mid-century Instagram, but they seem to be so few and far between.

Della Hansmann 

So how did you go about picking How did you search in a in a market for the person who felt like they were going to get it? Did you have to go through a lot of conversations to find that person in each place?

Susan Halla

I think I kind of lucked out with three of the four. The wonderful realtor we had in upstate New York. She was actually a friend of it was in Troy, New York. It was an area that I went to college in, so I knew it from that. And I had another friend that used to live there, and they had used this particular realtor when they sold their house. Their house was not mid-century. This is not what this woman does. But when I told her I was looking for a mid-century home, the very first home she found for me. There was a Carl coke tech built house. Oh, cool.

Susan Halla

That’s the first place I flew to check out. That first place I knew I needed to go check out in person, because it was they had multiple offers, and they needed the offers by a certain date, and so I flew out there to see it. And it was fantastic. An all original, but it was too small, okay, for what we needed, yeah, for two run from home businesses. So exactly. That’s cool, though. So that was, it was such a bummer.

Susan Halla

But, I mean, it was, it was such a pleasure to go through. And when she found that house, and she saw, like, the things that I was doing, and eyeing over, she’s like, then she got the memo, and she started sending me other things that she knew I would like, there was another one that was it was more true. It was the don’t wear sweatpants, kind of mid-century house, but it had an indoor lap pool in it, which was just hilarious, but it was also fabulous, but it was a little bit over our budget, but we were thinking about it and right now, it’s a seller’s market, and while we were thinking about it, it went under contract that fast. I mean, things are going really, really fast right now. So if you’re looking to sell your house, now’s the time.

Della Hansmann 

It’s the moment, it’s the moment. Yeah, it’s interesting. The real estate market has been up and down through the eras that I have, like, I guess it’s just been a couple of years. It’s been a while. It’s been almost a decade since I’ve been an obsessive and

Susan Halla

and it’s amazing that it’s a seller’s market, because right now, the mortgage rates are really high. I mean, they’re as high as they were when I bought my very first house, which was inner in somewhat of a recession back in 95 I think is when I closed on that house. So it’s, it’s interesting to watch it, because, like, we’re moving from a house where we had a mortgage rate of, I think two and a quarter was our mortgage rate on a 15 year mortgage, and we’re only 30,000 away from paying it off to moving to a house with a six and three quarter inch, six and three quarter percent rate, and it’s worth more than what we’re going to be able to sell our house for here.

Susan Halla

So we are, we’re remortgaging and going back into a mortgage and all of that, but it’s worth it for us. And you know that wasn’t the original intent. The original intent was trying to find something that we could buy with what cash we had on hand and whatever. But that was really unrealistic if we were looking in the places we were looking, so especially the East Coast.

Della Hansmann 

yeah, and sometimes, I mean, that’s the way with buying house, and it’s the day with remodeling, sometimes is there’s what you want it to cost, and then there’s what it costs, and it’s still worth it to you, because you wanted all the other things in addition to the price. Hopefully there’ll be a come for you and for everybody else that’s buying right now. Hopefully there’ll be a time soon when it’s possible to refinance, exactly when you need a new place you have to go.

Della Hansmann 

So I think I’m also dealing with a bunch of people who would like to sell, but they just can’t, psychologically, they can’t give up their low interest rates. So it’s causing people to want to remodel in the house that they’re in, rather than adjust to find the house that works perfectly for them as they are.

Susan Halla

But yes, and we’ve kind of outgrown this house, just having both businesses in there like one thing, my husband and I both share an office. So right now, I had to decant to another room in our house to be able to take this because he is on the phone when he’s home. He’s on the phone all the time. So in our new house, we each be able to have our own separate office spaces and just things like that. Being able to have the luxury of having a little more space, which is funny, because we’re now empty nesters.

Della Hansmann 

Right? So, in theory, you’re downsizing, but actually you’re upsizing. You’re changing what your house needs to be exactly and well, I mean, you’re again, not alone in that at all. It’s something I’ve been seeing more and more in my remodel projects. Is that people aren’t asking for more bedrooms for more kids or more bedrooms for more guest space, but they need, like, more space for two people to work from home separately and both be able to have private zoom calls at the same time, right?

Susan Halla

Well, I think COVID definitely changed that paradigm.

Della Hansmann 

I have seen people actually taking out garage space to put in office space, which is such an interesting reversal of the like, more and more and more garage is what people desire when we were trying to, like, keep a fleet of vehicles, to keep a family moving in, out of the house. And now it’s like, everyone wants to stay home, but they need their own zones, right? So you Okay, so you found some good realtors. Word of mouth searching.

Susan Halla

When I take Kate in Chicago was interesting, because back really early on, when we were in business, one thing we were doing was doing interviews with mid-century Realtors around the country. And Kate was the one that I interviewed back in the day from Chicago, and that’s how I knew her, and I knew she got it so and reached out to her immediately, exactly.

Della Hansmann 

That’s nice, yeah. And so you know, finding the right person, someone who gets I think it’s it is absolutely necessary, someone who is an excellent communicator, who doesn’t share your vision, can try to see what you’re looking for, but if they don’t know what you find mid-century cool, they’re really going to have a hard time identifying those things. And again. You. And for anyone else who’s looking for original mid-century charm. To anyone else, it’s going to look shabby. It’s going to look like it needs it to redo.

Della Hansmann 

And right? Honestly, I mean, the best, the best situation, is you get matched with a realtor who knows exactly what you want, and then the house is sold by someone who does not get it and doesn’t really see the value of what that is, and then you have a little bit of a tipping of the scales mismatch but, but that person who’s selling doesn’t know how to put in keyword searches to help you find it. They don’t know how to give good advice to the owners’ kids, if that’s the situation, yeah, it’s easy. We lose so many great mid-century houses, sort of to the flipper ethos, but also just people who feel like they should make some changes to a house before they sell it, instead of

Susan Halla

just right, like HGTV has told you that this is what you’re supposed to be doing. You don’t keep the original features. You’re constantly updating. And if that, if you’re not a weekend warrior, then what are you really doing with your life?

Della Hansmann 

And I think it’s one, oh god, I have in the past, contemplated this, and I have realtor friends who are like no other realtors won’t listen to this, but I’m like, could I please, just like Lunch and Learn proselytize my way across America, advising realtors to tell people not to fix their house before they sell. How can we prevent I feel like it’s a really dangerous time for a mid-century house is the moment when it changes hands, not even because of what the new owner will do, but often because of what the seller will do to the house the year or the like six months before it goes on the market, to get it market ready.

Della Hansmann 

And I’m like, just, just let it go. Just let it go into universe. The new homeowner can ruin it if they must, but they might not do that. Leave it alone, please.

Susan Halla

That’s the other thing that we’ve done is the realtors that we’re using are actually favor shell. And I know them from modern STL. So the st louis modern group, they’re realtors that work, that work specifically on not specifically, but they do a lot of mid-century Realty, and they both live in mid-century homes, or have lived and so they know, yeah, they know how to market that. And so I have faith also that we’re going to find a new steward of this home that we’re in now who’s going to love it.

Susan Halla

And so the things that they were asking us to do, it’s interesting, like we have a finished basement and a, obviously, a finished upstairs, but the stairway in between to get into the basement just had this old, crappy carpet that I had never changed, and was there when I bought the house, and they said you really need to update the carpet or do something that, because, like, the downstairs is beautiful, the upstairs is beautiful, but the you know this, how you get between the two, isn’t beautiful.

Susan Halla

So, you know, we put in matching red oak stair treads to the red oak floors that are around the house, or, like, we know the floor needs to be changed in the kitchen, we had already put in a new floor at one point. It just, even though it was a good brand, the quality wasn’t there, and it has, it shows its age.

Susan Halla

So we’re going in with a really cool VCT floor, which, if somebody wanted to change it, we’re not spending a ton of money on that, because VCT you can get for about $1 a square. And so vital composition tile, in case you’re wondering. And it’s pretty do it yourself friendly. And so there’s, like, minimal things like that, or like our bathroom. Upstairs bathroom is all very mid-century. It has a beautiful turquoise tile. It really needed some grout rehab. So I’ve been doing that, taken out a bunch of old grout, and we’ll put some new grout in.

Susan Halla

Unfortunately, the time the it was a turquoise bathroom with a pink tub, and the pink tub has been re glazed, and so it needs, it needs to be re glazed again now, but we’ll just, we’ll go ahead and replace it. I mean, the turquoise tile stands on its own. It is still a beautiful mid-century bathroom. So they, they knew the little things to tell us to fix and not, like wholesale, like you need to tear out your bathroom, or anything like, like you need to tear out your because we have the original metal cabinets in our kitchen. They’re like, these are great.

Della Hansmann 

So, and they are. They are. They’re such a fine and so, yeah, matching the cool features of your house with a buyer who’s going to appreciate them is so important. And I think it actually is interesting to think about, what should you what could you do to the house that you can see right now that you want to, particularly as a homeowner who loves their mid-century home, and hopes to see it maintained, to take out a question mark, so that a new owner who likes it but doesn’t quite know all the details doesn’t say, Oh, the tile needs Rerouting. I’m going to call a tile guy and get advice, and the tile guy comes in and says, I could do new tile in here. Subway tile is nice. And then our heads explode.

Della Hansmann 

So, yeah. So you get to do the little things that will prevent there from being questions right away, that allow right early mistakes to be made. Because that also, I think, you know, from like a there is darkness in the world perspective, in a mid-century house, way the it’s sort of horrifying when, like, uh. An elderly person’s adult kids tear out their kitchen and put in something awful to help it ready to go on the market. But then there’s also the honest mistakes that a new homeowner will make a lot of times when they’re just sort of taking advice and they’re not quite sure exactly what they need to know about a place.

Della Hansmann 

And so the more maintenance issues and little tweaks you can take off that list at the start, the more they can just move in and like it for how it is and get used to it and start to appreciate its features, rather than feeling like there are fixes to be made and then mistakes to be made in those fixes. Right?

Susan Halla

Agreed. And I will say I have been there, and I’ve done that too. My very first house was also a mid-century house, and there were things that I did like I threw in a Pergo floor. That was in the 90s. Pergo floors were big, so I threw in a Pergo floor in the kitchen. I wouldn’t do that again. I know so much more.

Susan Halla

I did keep I had original metal cabinets in that house. I kept those original metal cabinets. There were things that I but there are things that I did do to the house, the I redid the floor in the bathroom, and the floor itself was beautiful. And I I’m sorry that I did that, but,

Della Hansmann 

yeah, I think it’s inevitable a little bit. Everyone has to sort of feel their way. I do. I think there’s, there’s two ways you can approach a house, you can dive in and make some mistakes early on, or you can pause and wait, and that’s probably the better plan, but it can also lead you into a mistake, which is just waiting too long to fix the things you that don’t work for you. About a house. And I help people in mid-century master plans who are in both situations.

Della Hansmann 

But I do think when you jump in and start changing things right away, you’re always going to make a few mistakes. I was just chatting with Aletha van der muss, who whose Instagram you may know, and we were both commiserating about the mistakes we’d made on our house the first year after we moved in, enthusiastically wanting to improve things, fixing problems and taking too much advice from mainstream internet, remodeling. And for both of us, it’s just kind of like a checklist of things to do again now, because we’ve got to, we’ve gotta unfix the fix.

Susan Halla

Exactly. And I know, I think you and I have talked about this on a previous interview, and that is to live with your house for a little while, there’s things that you have to do, like, for example, in this house that we’re purchasing next week, all of the floors were covered with carpet from day one. And so they’ve never been finished, but they are original Red Oak top nailed, which is a Philly kind of specialty floors. And so we’re going, we’re having somebody come in and refinish all the floors before we move in, because that’s one of those things that, like it is so hard to do if you are moved in.

Della Hansmann 

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That’s refinished the floors is maybe, unless they’re in perfect condition. It’s the thing to do before you move in the house and just spend anyways, imagine, though, using red oak two inch two and a half inch strip as a sub floor. That’s the 50s for you. I know exactly. What did you say the house build date was 5456 56 Okay, so they were really, like, jumping on the bandwagon with the wall to wall carpet that was pretty new material. Yes, in that moment.

Susan Halla

Yes, especially because, you know, that was still like post war GI movement, lots of still, lots of houses being built. And so it was either something that they could quickly put down, like, carpet or something, they could quickly put down, like, that’s why this is, like, a top nailed floor. I’ve been once, I found that out from my flooring refiner. I’m like, I knew this floor looked a little bit different, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was that made it different. And that’s what my flooring guy said.

Susan Halla

He’s like, its top nailed floor, so it doesn’t have any tongue and groove at all. It’s just, it’s just individual slats of, like, two inch strips of wood interesting and so just, you know, finding out these interesting things about your house and, like, how they might have done it back then. So they did that those top nail floors were very specific to some areas, but especially booming areas, because it was fast to do. So it’s

Della Hansmann 

going to be so fun to learn the intricacies and the specifics of all of the history of that micro region and how it boomed and things like that. Anything else you figured out already, even in this first research process, what else is really exciting or cool or specific about your Philadelphia, your Philadelphia neighborhood?

Susan Halla

It’s, it does have a number of mid-century houses around, but it’s Philadelphia. Is pretty interesting, even though St Louis is, I mean, St Louis was founded back in the 1700s with the fur trade. Still, there’s not, like, there aren’t houses from that early on that are still in the St Louis area, at least. And there was also the whole Mississippian culture, the mound builders back in, like, early, early days. But Philadelphia has a lot of old, old houses, what we would consider old, like in the 70s and 1800s American, old, American old. I like that.

Susan Halla

And so it’s interesting, because you’ll get an older house here or there, and then there’ll be, like. Pocket of like these newer, newer ranch homes, or newer mid-century homes. And so it’s, it’s a little bit different it than where I am currently. And so that’s been really kind of a treat to watch that. And then also regionally, and I have a little small swath of it on my house. Regionally, there’s a specific type of limestone that is mined.

Susan Halla

There’s actually some mines not far from the house that we’re purchasing. And so you’ll see this particular Philly stone, like everywhere on a lot, and some houses, like the whole house exterior, is this Philly stone. And so just seeing these regional variations is really kind of interesting.

Della Hansmann 

That is, I mean, it is so much fun, and I feel like it’s one of my favorite parts of traveling around the US is to sort of see how, in some ways, the cookie cutter the mold of a mid-century house, particularly an early 50s, a late 50s and early 60s, mid-century house, shifts with different weather conditions and different materials that are most prevalent and, you know, and also the mix, as you get out to the East Coast, there’s, they still had a building boom.

Della Hansmann 

There was still a lot of mid-century neighborhoods, but there was also a lot more, how there was more density already, right? I think there’s a little bit less. This will be interesting, and maybe you’ll find this more as you go on. I get a lot less clients from the East Coast. Even though we work nationally, a lot of our clients come from the West Coast, a lot from the Midwest, some from the south, but very few from the east.

Della Hansmann 

And I feel like even today, there’s not as much of an appreciation of the mid-century buildings that there were and there were less. The mid-century buildings that were built are more they were more Cape Cod style. They’re less likely to be a ranch. They’re less likely.

Susan Halla

to be more mid-century, Colonial Revival, very traditional mid-century,

Della Hansmann 

They’re trying to blend in with a housing typology that was already there, which makes a lot of sense. And also, I think they were just less enamored of the sort of new future, forward vibe of the mid-century era. They were like, yes, well, but we’re East Coast people. We don’t, we don’t like new things, but it is really interesting to see all those regional variations.

Della Hansmann 

And there’s also, by the way, not to not get there’s some really cool high end, mid-century architecture on the East Coast, and there’s lots of great branch houses. But I do find that people don’t always know or appreciate it quite as much there. So I’m curious to see what kind of mid-century community you’re going to find that restore and the and the people who are excited about it there?

Susan Halla

Yeah, I know that that’ll be really interesting. Yeah, I know they’re there. And I have, I’ve been there’s a couple of great mid-century furniture stores, like restoring stores that I have been there before, when I’ve been out there visiting my kids and things. In fact, my son’s boyfriend for his college graduation, I got him his first piece of, like, real nice furniture, this beautiful, like, side table for the bedroom that is this beautiful mid-century piece, and I wanted to start him off right with the right stuff.

Della Hansmann 

Do your kids like mid-century, or do they stubbornly want some other style?

Susan Halla

It’s funny, they like, they like older styles, like 1800s they’re both more into that, but they appreciate mid-century. They don’t, they’re not on. They don’t, they don’t, not that does. I’m double negative myself. They understand where I’m coming from, and they love this house that they grew up in, too. So well, it

Della Hansmann 

is interesting. I mean, I think it’s true generationally that we always kind of gravitate to the grandparent era rather than our parents’ era and I’m fascinated to know if Gen Z is going to come up and be like mid-century. I don’t know. I mean, I believe there are always people who will find it. People who will find it cool. But I had, I had to educate my parents about this. They were like, you want to live in a house that looks like our parents’ house? I know. I know. And I literally chose a house with like my grandpa; my dad’s parents front door is exactly the same as mine. And I was like, oh, nostalgia. And they were like, Oh, why? So it.

Susan Halla

I know I’ve been looking to start collecting the everyday dishes that my grandmother had, which I absolutely love. Now, I’m not gonna remember the name of them, but I’m like, I have so many dishes already do. I really need to be collecting more. But I’m like, it’s, it’s a nostalgia thing for me, because it’s, you know, it’s we would go visit her out in the country where she lived, and these were the plates that we used every day. And, yeah, so

Della Hansmann 

it’s, I mean, I think it’s a nostalgia thing. There’s also a certain availability quality that, as grandparent age group downsizes their house and has yard sales and estates that, like, the stuff comes onto the mark. But it’s interesting. I have noted, like in in in my youth, my parents were really into, like, farmhouse Victoriana, and it was all oak, and it was all like carbon things and flocked wallpaper and stuff. And now that seems so musty and fusty to me, but I don’t. Know, maybe the next generation will like that.

Susan Halla

I know, yes. I mean, I grew up in a 1904 for like 1910s four square. So, yeah, that’s kind of

Della Hansmann 

very fashionable when we were young. Yeah, exactly, right, exactly. Well, it is interesting. And ironically, the house that I remember first was actually a mid-century ranch house in rural, well in northern Indiana, and it was all done up in like a farmhouse style. They had, like, wallpapered it and whatnot. But I’m like, Oh, the things I could do with that house. It had two floor to ceiling, wall to wall, field, stone fireplace, walls in different places. I could. I could make that house shine. I have no idea what’s happened to it since we moved on, but my mom thought it was boring and bland and didn’t like

Susan Halla

it. Uh huh, I know. Well, we all have different tastes. But, and I know we’ve talked about this before, I’m always a firm believer too, that while this is your house, while you’re living in it, you are really just a steward of this house, because these houses, by and large, or if you live in an older house, it’s going to outlive you, it’s going to go on to another person who’s going to live in it and love it, and it will be their home. But we have to remember that stewardship.

Della Hansmann 

Yeah, and I think we do. We personalize houses. They should be your home but thinking about what’s going to work best for that house is so valuable, because you’re never going to turn a mid-century house into a cottage, no matter how much you remodel and no matter how much you put shaker cabinets in the kitchen, it’s not going to look like a cottage. If you love a cottage, that’s great. Get a cottage. They’re great houses. They’re very charming as well. But you don’t need to turn a mid-century house into a cottage, and also you can’t So, yeah, thinking about leaning into the bones of your house, whatever that is, is always a good idea for its own longevity. And to think about it like, yeah, the stewardship of it. If you do too many weird things to a house, you’re going to a house you’re going to make it hard for the next person to love. You may actually do damage to it structurally as well as character wise. And it’s just yeah, it’s just frustrating to see that kind of disconnect that people so often do when they try to apply fast fashion trends to houses that were built in a moment and are kind of from and for a particular moment, exactly,

Susan Halla

and you will get me going on the whole cabinets, kitchen cabinet, so in you must have seen some things I have seen. So I am scarred. Let me tell you. I’m scarred for life. But if I see another Shaker Cabinet in a mid-century kitchen, I just I’m going to flip my lid, because I they’re just so ubiquitous. So they’re easy to go to the home store and purchase, but even like places that I would see online that had been more meticulously renovated, not restored, that had these shaker cabinets that couldn’t have been inexpensive, but they’re they like were so wrong, and they looked so wrong. It’s not hard. You can find a flat face, flat panel door, right?

Della Hansmann 

And, in fact, most of the shaker it’s not like the Shaker Cabinet style today is structural. It’s a slab door with a brim glued around it. You know, it’s not actually composed of five pieces, like an original Shaker Door would have been

Susan Halla

right, exactly. So

Della Hansmann 

what are we doing here? No, and I’ve actually, bless their hearts, I’ve had clients come to me and say, this new slim shaker style. Have you seen it? Is this? Is this a mid-century shaker? And I’m like, No, it’s just the latest trend. It’s just trendy shaker. It’s right? It’s just 2025, happening.

Susan Halla

Please have a slab cabinet Exactly. I’ve been doing a lot of research because I will say, out of this house we’re purchasing, all the bathrooms are original. A lot of original wallpaper, all the original floors, some original light fixtures, some great original light fixtures. But the kitchen was redone in like, the 90s, and so it’s going to be a complete gut okay, but so I’ve been doing all this research, and I had a lead on a set of metal cabinets, and I was like, an hour too late to, like, make the purchase.

Susan Halla

It was, like, heartbreaking at first, but I’ve been doing more research, and, like, trying to find a cabinet maker that can make a birch cabinet. So finding somebody who works with birch, because that would be a very mid-century material, and finding somebody who can do eased edges, because even though flat panel doors would look perfect in like a really high end contemporary, more mid-century, the mid-century cabinetry that you would see in more of the kind of every man’s kitchen often had, it was face frame, and the doors would have, like little bit of eased edges on them, and they would be perch and, you know, have a kind of reddish, kind of like the hue of the door behind you.

Della Hansmann 

So, yeah, well. Then probably back in the day, they would have been pine, but modern pine doesn’t behave like birch. So, or at least in this region, we would have, we would have found this all in time. And I have my original kitchen with cabinet doors that match, and they are plywood with these edges, and they’re lovely. They’re beautiful.

Della Hansmann 

And the grain is continuous from the top all the way to the bottom there. I can never remodel that kitchen. I can’t change the layout of it. Because, actually, I have been considering if there’s a way that I can steal a few upper cabinets and arrange but, like, I, I want to die in a house with these cabinet doors in it. Like I can’t, I can’t possibly sacrifice them. So, yeah, so I mean, it is a challenge, and I don’t I will be very curious to hear what your journey has been. Have you found someone that you already know can do this, or are you still hunting for that person?

Susan Halla

I found some place that I think has the ability to do it. I haven’t reached out yet. That’s kind of one of the next things on my list. It’s just a matter of, you know, the start,

Della Hansmann 

that’s step one. No cheap,

Susan Halla

that’s it’s a lot, it’s a lot of money anyway. And so whether the kitchen gets redone sooner than later, but I still, I’m going to reach out and find out some more information. I’m lucky in the fact that I do run and have my own business, because there are vendors that will carry this, this company’s products, but I think I can reach out and work directly with the manufacturer, because it would be a business to business transaction, nice.

Susan Halla

So just and it and so believe you me, everybody will know about this manufacturer if it does turn out as well as I think it could be expected, because it could be a really good find for people looking to put old looking cabinets in their kitchens,

Della Hansmann 

like I yeah, that’s an amazing resource.

Susan Halla

It seems like you can find, I mean, not a lot, but you are able to find metal cabinets at a fairly regular basis, on eBay, on Facebook, marketplace, Craigslist, whatever, because those you have to just, but

Della Hansmann 

they’re so sturdy, like you can’t. I mean, you could landfill them, but they’re so chunky that I think people understand what they are

Susan Halla

well and then. But wood cabinets, though, people just come in with sledgehammers and take them out that way, so you don’t find vintage wood cabinets that you can put in your kitchen

Della Hansmann 

well. And also, my understanding is that I mean the metal cabinets obviously are units, but a lot of mid-century kitchens that are wood were site built, and so they don’t. You can’t remove them from the wall. You really only can get them out of the house by smashing them up.

Della Hansmann 

And if you want to salvage something from like you could kit. You could take all the doors, right? I have cried over a set of cabinet doors from a neighborhood mid-century kitchen in a landfill, thinking, Could I do anything for them? I can’t. I could climb in this dumpster and get them all back out again. But what could I do with them? I have

Susan Halla

been known to climb in a dumpster or two.

Della Hansmann 

Yeah, I was, I was sorely tempted, but you can’t like, it’s not like the boxes exist, like a modern cabinet install, so, but for a metal cabinet, yeah, those exist. They would be costly to put into a dumpster. And so I think people do sort of say, Does anyone want these? List them on eBay, on Facebook,

Susan Halla

marketplace, although people have realized that there’s now, they know it’s worth something, yeah, because there’s some crazy ones out there right now on eBay that are in terrible shape, um, rust filled, whatever, and people are asking, like, $5,000 for three cabinets or, I mean, but then there’s some People that are reasonable. So those are

Della Hansmann 

just gonna go faster. I mean, my dream is always to find, like, a GE wonder kitchen that has its original upper wall refrigerator in it. And then, yes, I love those. Then what do you have to build a house to put it into? Or, you know, find the perfect match of house in that. But yeah. Are you still in the hunt for metal cabinets? Is that your ideal choice because you lived in now two houses with metal cabinets?

Susan Halla

Yes, I have. I will have to. I want to. I want to try and see what these wood cabinets would be like. I think I mean the cabinets that I found that I missed out on by an hour. My problem was I was; I was catting it all up because architect, I can’t stop that.

Susan Halla

To try to see if I could make them fit in this kitchen, because they were made for, like, a three sided kitchen, and my kitchen is more of a galley kitchen style, so like trying to make it work. But anyway, they were like $3,500 whereas a full kitchen of right, made wood, all wood cabinets, I imagine, are going to cost me upwards of that. Yeah, yeah,

Della Hansmann 

they will, especially because all of the simple, you know, I wanted to be plywood. I just want nice, routed edges, you know, all these. Pieces that should make it very simple and nice are actually so unexpected these days that they are custom special offers hard to get right but, but you know, you are a purist, and you want something that’s going to fit the house and feel perfect for it, so I have confidence that you’ll eventually find the right solution, even if it takes a little

Susan Halla

I may not be a complete purist. I may surprise some people. We’ll see, but

Della Hansmann 

Well, I’m so excited to see how it turns out. Did you I already know you mentioned before we started recording, that you’re thinking about documenting your process of this house. Yes,

Susan Halla

if you’re on our mailing list, you’ll know I wrote about this last and our last mailing list on May 1. But we are planning, I do have a YouTube channel for make it mid-century. It’s just at make it mid-century on YouTube, and there’s just two files up there now. One is just our introductory what, who is making mid-century? How do we how are we formed?

Susan Halla

And the second one is actually a how to installation guide that we did for vintage camper trailer magazine about how to install plastic laminate or how to make plastic laminate countertops. Oh, useful information. And so those two are on there, but the goal is to then work with this house and be able to show you all the progress from start to finish. And it’s not going to be, you know, just a couple months.

Susan Halla

It’s going to be several years, because not only there’s room in in the house right now for us to both run our businesses, but my business, part of it’s going to have to be in the garage for now, and my goal is to build another building on the lot that we’re going to call bebop the shop. We already have a name, because here in our house here, we built a shed, but it’s only eight by eight, but it’s just regarding implements, but it’s a really nice shed, and his name is Fred.

Della Hansmann 

Fred the shed. It’s adorable.

Susan Halla

Read the shed. So we renamed, we’ve named this new one that we’re thinking about bebop the shop, so it will go as far as eventually making bebop, building bebop,

Della Hansmann 

well, that’s really fun, and I think such a resource to people, because there’s a lot of how to video out there, and there’s even some good how to make mid-century choices for your house video out there. But for the most part, people who are documenting their home improvement process are making a lot more HGTV choices and also, often it’s the sort of energy that you often bring to a remodel when you’re doing your first remodel, and therefore, part of what you document in that process is your mistakes.

Della Hansmann 

And certainly I didn’t video document, but I did a reasonably aggressive blog documentation of my process of getting into this house and making changes to it. And then I have scrubbed some of that information from the Internet, and some of it I haven’t scrubbed yet, but I sort of think about it all the time, because I don’t want people to do what I did. I did. I want them to do better than what I did. I want them to do what I would now advise them to do. And so you get to be in this position of having really steep yourself in the lore and learn from your own mistakes and now come back and do it. Do it right? Do it over. That’s really satisfying,

Susan Halla

right? And I think it’ll, it’ll be interesting because of the fact, like, for example, the white bathroom that we have, it’s white tile for four and a quarter by four and a quarter tile with the gray, brown speckle in it. And you even, I can’t get that I have been trying to get that you just can’t. Nobody makes it anymore, but the shower is leaking, and that’s one thing that we need to do.

Susan Halla

So I’m going to have to take the entire base of the shower out, but I don’t want to have to take the walls out. So, you know, can I very carefully remove the tile at such a way that I can either reuse a tile or remove them only up to a certain height that then I can replace it with something complimentary that would work with it. That’s also mid-century. So I think there’ll be some interesting stuff in there, real world scenarios, like, what am I going to do? Somebody else, the flipper that we’re purchasing this house from, he would have gone in there and ripped the entire thing

Della Hansmann 

out. Oh yeah, started with a sledgehammer, absolutely right. And so how do I do this?

Susan Halla

I can’t think of the word, but how do I do this really thoughtfully and preserving as much of the original mid-century characteristic as I can now, I can add back in mid-century, and that’s what the kitchen is going to have to be, because it’ll be, it’ll be new mid-century. But I want to preserve the mid-century that’s there

Della Hansmann 

well, and you’re in a great spot to do that. I would, I would love to be able to show people your example, because these days, and you know, depending on what contractor someone chooses to work with, when I have clients, if we have major plumbing issues in a bathroom, I have to warn them that we’re probably going to lose the tile, not because it’s necessarily you. 100% a certainty that it must be lost.

Della Hansmann 

But because to find someone who’s willing to go to the effort to preserve it while making the changes that are necessary is sometimes an impossible task. But it would be so good, even for someone who’s gonna hire someone, to be able to say, look at this YouTube video. This is how it was done. It can be done. Can I pay you to do this for me, and also to let people, I think there is so much actually that if you’re careful and you’re thoughtful and you have a good example, you can figure out how to DIY and so, I mean, of course, you know this. You sell kits to people who want to be careful and thoughtful and have an example and DIY something, this will just be one more way you can build that world of people.

Susan Halla

Exactly I went to empower people. I think that’s the thing I did a whole, a whole blog post all about the DIY movement was like a big thing in the 1950s and I want people to channel their inner 1950s DIY person. It was because, like, back in the day, you were working on a farm, you worked Sunup to sundown. You didn’t have time for these, like silly things, like renovating your home.

Susan Halla

And once people, people came home for the war, people weren’t working the same hours. They were working more office jobs, things like that. They had this spare time on the evenings and weekends. That’s when DIY really got to be a thing, and that’s when you got, like, power tools for the everyman handyman person. That’s when the rise of DeWalt and all of those brands really happened.

Della Hansmann 

That’s fascinating.

Susan Halla

It’s, it’s really quite fascinating. And so I like to encourage people that they too could channel that and really, you know, take on some harder things, but maybe start a little bit easier, reupholstering the seat of a chair for your dining room, something like that. But I want people to know that it can be done. Finding a realtor is one thing but finding a contractor that’ll actually work within your specifications is incredibly difficult. So

Della Hansmann 

yes, yeah, yeah. And that that that is the real challenge. I think also,

Susan Halla

though there aren’t crafts people anymore, I mean, I think that’s a sad truth is that it’s about it’s about the money. It’s not about doing a good job. I don’t know if anybody else was, for some reason, on my feed, on YouTube, I’ve been getting a lot of home inspectors that are inspecting these like 600 700,000 million dollar homes, and they are so bad, so bad.

Della Hansmann 

I mean, this has been true. This is as an architect. I mean, I love mid-century style, but part of the reason that I work in mid-century buildings and remodels was because I think that was kind of the last moment, going into the maybe the 70s, that we had a combination of the kind of quality of building materials and the quality of craft, universally, or typically. I mean, I would agree, growing up in the Chicago suburbs in the mid 90s, I was watching a huge building boom of McMansions going in.

Della Hansmann 

And I would go over and visit my friends’ new houses that their parents had purchased, and be like, that corner is not square. There’s a hole in the drywall there. This is a, this is a brand new house. What? What? What has happened, you know? And I would like, I didn’t know. I would didn’t know I was a tiny future architect, but I was just blown away by how but you knew it was wrong. Yeah, it was, like, the most expensive house in our community, and it was completely made of ticky tacky, and I just didn’t understand what was going on.

Della Hansmann 

So I think that’s just Yeah. And I don’t, you know, I don’t want to tar all contractors with the same brush, but I do also think that it’s we. We have a lot of fast gathered materials. There’s a lot of premanufactured stuff, and there’s not a lot of incentive to have people learn the kind of craft and spend the kind of time. Labor is expensive, materials are cheap. We just Yes, get cheap well. And I think

Susan Halla

Willie now, as a parent, parent, I’m also, you know, subject to this, like it was very important for me for my kids to go to college and get an education, whatever. And so we’re not putting the same emphasis on trades and on learning actual physical skills that you do with your hands than we used to, and I think we’re losing there are still people out there that have these very special gifts and abilities, and unfortunately, they aren’t able to find people to Yeah, to pass it down, yeah,

Della Hansmann 

yeah. I mean, my sister just remodeled her kitchen and bathroom, and as it happened, the contractors that did the work, they are not mid-century people, but she managed to sort of bully an example and show them and ask again and again and get quite a nice mid-century modern update kitchen out of them.

Della Hansmann 

But one of the things they were able to do is they had a guy who did hand plastering, so he did the. Clamshell pattern across the ceiling, which he had in the rest of the house. And he was about to retire. He was like months from retirement when he did that project and had had an apprentice who was working in the process, who had then quit and wasn’t doing it anymore. So no one was going to replace him, and it was just lost. Yes. KJ said he was a little crusty, so maybe it was a little bit his fault. He lost his apprentice.

Della Hansmann 

But all those like, we don’t, we don’t have the system anymore, and it’s so frustrating because, yeah, and but you’re right, there are bigger social movements. Afoot. AI is not going to build a quality mid-century kitchen for you. Nor is it going to design one, frankly. But I’ve been, I’ve been really getting into, I just traveled to England recreationally, and I got really obsessed with the public housing projects that I was seeing there from the mid-century, which is amazing and stunning. And so I was like, Well, how did this happen?

Della Hansmann 

And where did these come from? And why don’t we have this? I’m getting the social movements and like the history of the Labor government right after World War Two, and the combination of the National Health Service and the welfare state. And what we were doing right after World War Two, which was a little bit of a movement of public housing projects, but it was really we just our Puritan work ethic, just like couldn’t help shaming the idea of needing any assistance whatsoever if you couldn’t bootstrap yourself well, bootstrap yourself, well, then F you.

Della Hansmann 

And then we lifted up all of these GI Bill White individual, single family, homeworkers, and suppressed everybody else. And we just put all of our money into property rights and not into keeping people fed and sheltered and making spaces for kids to flourish. I don’t know. I find it really it really frustrating, but it’s so tied in with sort of social opinion and political movements and who won and lost some election that we don’t remember.

Susan Halla

It’s fantastic, because if you don’t, if you, if you, if you don’t learn history, you’re doomed to repeat it. Now I hated history as a subject in like, high school, and I never took it in college. But like now, I find myself, like, super interested in the history of stuff, and that’s one thing that I want to do with this YouTube channel. Is like, not only like in redoing this kitchen. Well, historically, what were kitchens in mid-century?

Susan Halla

How did they evolve throughout come from, like, the 40s to the 70s? What were the changes, what kind of like down to like, like the differences in cabinets, or like, what kind of faucet you might have seen there? So I think historically, it’s really interesting to kind of understand how and where things came from. Um, my examples weren’t nearly as intricate or socially aware as yours, but still, I think the history part is something we can’t as being big, big, mid-century enthusiasts is something we can’t ignore.

Della Hansmann 

It all ties in. And there are, there are dirt, there’s, I wouldn’t even say, dark pockets. There’s a lot of darkness in the background of the mid-century housing movement in the US. And as much as I love I love a cute little single family home on its cute little island of grass, it’s also probably, in my professional opinion, the worst possible way that you could house a family.

Della Hansmann 

We should be closer together. We should be closer to social services. We should be, you know, taking up less space, having more green space, but it is fascinating to think about how we got here and knowing that what do we want to do from here, like, how can we advocate for changes or returns to different zoning policies. How can we bring more density into our existing communities? How can we take care of the mid-century housing stock we have that’s smaller and better and denser than what came after? And you know, how do we make the world a little bit better than it is right now? It’s always

Susan Halla

right one step at a time. Della,

Della Hansmann 

it’s a process. It’s a long process, and I guess it’s both positive and scary, that history is fast and slow, but keeps happening.

Susan Halla

Yes, I always say, somehow the sun rises in the morning every day just always happens

Della Hansmann 

every day, and it’s about to rise on you in Philadelphia. So when, when do you make your move? Well,

Susan Halla

we close next week, but we, we will not physically move. We’ll start to move some of the things out of this house so that we can stage this house for sale. Um, because I things mid-century, furniture just finds its way to me. I don’t know how it happens. We need

Della Hansmann 

obsessive. I mean, I think we just turned into, like, we get a little magnetic. And

Susan Halla

I feel like, just to start to accumulate in my living room, I have found three chairs just in the alleys just abandoned that are beautiful. So, like, I can’t not take it with me. Okay, so we have more furniture than we have house right now, so we’ll be able to decant some of that to the new place, to be able to make this house look a little less cramped. And then we’re thinking hopefully end of, end of summer, August area that will make the permanent move.

Susan Halla

But until then, we’ll be going back and forth and all that kind of stuff, which is why I have to put my business on hiatus. Because not only am I moving my personal life, but I’m also moving the business. And then I have to also register it with the state of Pennsylvania, register it with the township that I’ll be living in in Pennsylvania, get all that set up before I can start selling again, and all of that. So there’s a lot of work on the horizon.

Della Hansmann 

Right? All the eyes dotted, all the T’s crossed. So when this, when this podcast goes live, you will already be offline, um, but hopefully people will be able to get great kits from you again soon and shop your website,

Susan Halla

yes. So I’m thinking somewhere in the August area will probably be, will probably be down for about three months.

Della Hansmann 

Here’s what to do. Make sure that you get onto the make it mid-century email list. Are you still going to send out your monthly emails?

Susan Halla

Still send out a monthly email on the first of the month? So hopefully we’ll have things to talk about, since we won’t be working, but I imagine we’ll still have news. You’ll have news.

Della Hansmann 

Yeah, you’ll have house updates. So I cannot recommend enough Susan’s wonderful first of the month emails, which are always chock full of really good advice and fun stories from some of the people who’ve used your kits, and just great bits of history and mid-century features, they are highlight of every month. So if you’re not on our email list already, I don’t know why you’re not but go do it. Go do it right

Susan Halla

away, and then come follow us on YouTube so that you don’t miss when we start posting about the new house. So that is at make it mid-century.

Della Hansmann 

I am looking forward to seeing that. Oh, fantastic. Well, congratulations on finding a house that’s going to be just right for you, and I’m so excited to follow along on this endeavor and see how it goes. Thank

Susan Halla

you. I am super excited. I am already tired.

Della Hansmann 

I bet, I bet that that is a feeling you’ll have in common with a lot of people who’ve been through this experience. And if you’re looking forward to this experience, anyone, if you’re planning to buy a mid-century house, you know this is what it

Susan Halla

is that’s right, there’s highs and lows with everything. So

Della Hansmann 

all right. Well, marvelous. Thank you again for coming back onto the mid modern model podcast, and we’ll have to do this again once you’re more settled to hear how it’s all been going

Susan Halla

along. Yes, when I actually have my own office so I can have a discussion with you, with, like, cool things in the background. Yes,

Della Hansmann 

can’t wait to see how you set it up. That’s gonna be really fun. And that’s all the time we have to chat with Susan. We are going to have to do that again very soon, but next week, I’ll be back with a roundup of some of the recent projects on the boards here at mid mom, Midwest, and some of the lessons or useful design things you can take away from them yourself.

Della Hansmann 

So if you are in possession of a time capsule house you want to be very careful about updating. Or if you have a house that’s had bad things done to it in the past, like Susan’s kitchen, we’ll talk about how to make the right choices for those homes inspired by a couple of these recent mid-century master plans that I’m grouping together, because in each case, they had a host of great mid-century features already intact, and a few poorly chosen past remodeling items that we wanted to remove from the house and then make the most of that opportunity to even better tailor the house to its new occupants. So I think you’ll find that really fun, and I will catch you with that next week.

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