Lighthouse Interiors: The vast majority of lighthouses have only a spiral staircase going up and up to the lense and mechanical area.  The living quarters are located on ground level nearby  usually.  In some cases, the lighthouse itself is located some distance away from the quarters making the keepers keep in shape with long walks!

      If the quarters are located inside the tower, there are usually one, maybe two rooms on each level.  These towers are naturally much wider to accommodate rooms plus the spiral stairwell, as well as the central "tube" where the weight that turns the lense was housed.  This was wound up every few hours - now I'm talking about 'the old days."  There are two lighthouses still using this method in the Bahamas.

The Old Spanish Lighthouse (Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, CA) is a good example of rooms in the tower.  This style had two large rooms on the ground floor (plus basement) plus two rooms (bedrooms) a short distance up the stairway.  Hope this helps and doesn't confuse.  From your friend, the lighthouse keeper's daughter (in CA) 

Lexie

Lighthouse Interiors:   Most lighthouses don't have much inside them except for the "miles" of stairs to climb up to the light.  My sister and I climbed up the Cape Hatterus Lighthouse. I only made it halfway up, but she made it all the way to the top!  When I made it back to the bottom, I stood outside with our father and waited for her.  She stood on the walkway around the light waving to us.

  There was several other buildings there also.  The house for the keeper and family, plus storage buildings.   We also, went to several other light houses along the North Carolina coast, and they had similar arrangements.

  Several years later, we went back to Cape Hatterus, when they were getting it ready to be moved down the beach and a little further inland. It was very interesting to see how they prepared it, then put it on rails to move it, then resettled it in it's new home.  We followed a lot of the move on the internet. 

Gabrielle

DVD research: This may be old news, but I have found that my DVD player is a wonderful research tool for mini projects. I used it a lot for the X-Files box and have already been renting 50s teen films for the new idea. Movies have been made about practically every historical era and many have been exhaustively researched by their design teams. Using the pause button and the zoom feature on a DVD player's remote, its possible to stop the action and really see lots of wonderful period detailing, props, foods, etc. Plus, who doesn't like to watch movies?

John in Yonkers

There are several websites for locating out-of-print and rare books--

http://www.bibliofind.com

http://www.abebooks.com

http://www.alibris.com

Posters: There's a neat website put up by Duke Univ. with advertising posters from earlier in the 20th century (almost said "this century" oops!) with lots of ads for health and beauty, radio/TV, and WWII. The TV and radio ads are particularly good references for decorating styles of the 30's and later, since they often depict families intently listening/watching in their living rooms.

It's at: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/

Bonni Backe

Gone With The Wind - http://www.myfavoritethings1.com/shelias.html (very slow loading)

Sheena

Costumes - I just found a neat site with some life sized clothing for Victorian right to the Flapper...gave me some good ideas on dress etc..the site is http://www.premierclothing.com/

(unknown)

Southern Plantation House - Check out http://www.DollHouseDesigns.com just released a six column southern charmer. Grand foyer, split stairs, balcony.

Jon

Historic Southern Houses - http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/links/hist3.htm This is a list of various historic homes that survived the Civil War that have other info and descriptions too especially of slaves quarters.

(unknown)

Dovecotes: A dovecote was a combination of an old-fashioned chicken coop, with all the little nesting boxes, and a hollow square or circle. The outer wall had openings for the doves to come and go. These openings were generally rounded on the top; you will sometimes find cotes with square bird doors, but they were most often used if the dove cote was built into a barn wall or other brick structure. The inner wall had narrow hinged doors, allowing the farmer or his wife to stand up inside the cote and reach in and grab a squab off the nest. The insides of the nesting boxes were painted white, to duplicate the natural nests, which were coated with, um,...well, if you live near a pigeon coop, you know!

In general, only the squabs were eaten. Not only were they easier to take off the nest, but never having flown, they were very tender. At a month old, they were at their peak. Older birds were only eaten when the nests were culled once a year. Pigeons are notoriously hard to digest, and are only fit to eat when they are stewed for a long time. Such meals were strictly for the lower classes - servants and slaves.

Doves were raised not only for the squabs (nestlings), but for the eggs, down, and fertilizer. The pair of doves had four to six broods of two eggs a year, which take about eighteen days to hatch. Within a month - - six weeks in the winter - the young were ready to eat. In a time without refrigeration, such a steady supply of fresh food was vitally important. Dove guano was considered by many farmers to be the absolute best available.

The down side to this, of course, was that the parent birds thought the crops in the field were planted for them. Turn about, and all that.

Anyway, a dovecote would be a proper addition to any rural or semi-rural setting from the middle-ages right up to late Victorian times.

Dani

French house: I've been visiting southern France quite a few times in the past few years since I've been "adopted" by a French family from a small village near Bordeaux. In the village I stay in a 300 year old house with amazingly thick walls which are, yes, stone covered with stucco, which has broken away in spots to show the stone, which is made up of all different sizes. The roofs for the most part there are red tile, and there are tons of wrought iron - on the doors, windows, the hardware, the little hand door knocker, etc. And flowers everywhere. In the wine country roses are rampant. Don't know about northern France, but I've just decided I really must make a mini of this house! Maybe two, one as "was" and one as "is." Wow.

Patricia LeBeau

Beacon Hill: The house is actually still the original 3 story Beacon Hill, but is also a "basement" so to speak or a separate roombox section built into the base of the table on which it sits. I did this after realizing I wasn't going to have enough room to do all of the things I wanted to with the house, which included a larger kitchen and dining room. I had my dad build the roomboxes into the base of the table, and the electricity is actually run off of a bridge connection between the main house and the basement.

While researching this addition, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that basement kitchens were very common in Victorian times because cooking in a basement kept the smells and odors from wafting onto and attaching to the heavy draperies and wall fabrics of the time. It seemed an easy bridge to place a larger dining room right next to the kitchen.

The table on which the main house sits is landscaped for each season. I have a collection of fall, winter, and spring/summer trees and plants to complete the landscape. The house resides in Colorado in my mind (loosely based on the Maxwell House in Georgetown, CO), hence the changing of the aspens with the seasons and lots of snow in the winter. It's a lot of work to change with the seasons, but the visual eye candy when done is well worth the time and effort each season!

Kathy in TX

Christmas Stockings: One way to get a variety would be to use needlework catalogs (Herrschners, Mary Maxim) and make decals out of stocking pictures. Coat suitable pictures with layers of decoupage medium, drying well between layers (5-7 layers, till it's fairly thick), then trim to stocking shape, soak and gently rub paper off, leaving color picture on back of medium. Tacky glue to fabric with good side of picture facing up, whip-stitch on a fabric backing, and make it look more realistic by embellishing with tiny lace, braid, beads, sequins, etc. and a hanging loop. To give appropriate credit, this is another great JoAnn Swanson idea from an old Nutshell

Loretta Sniarowski

Sites for Ceramic Art Tiles: There's Serious Inspiration here for anyone wanting to add authentic period detail or some contemporary flair. This is just a sample.

The first constitutes a great quickie lesson in differences among Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, etc. Also just a delight to look at: http://www.derbycity.com/michael/tiles.html

The second includes examples in style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh plus much else:http://www.artontiles.com/

Finally, here's one with contemporary-quaint-country-type designs - charming:http://www.saltillotilecompany.com/mural.html

Mary in Oregon

50's kitchen: My favorite 50's kitchen was the usual. I painted the walls pale mustardy yellow and inside the cupboards I painted the turquoise! Really, inside. Of course the wall oven and cook top and sink were all turquoise. The floor was that inlaid linoleum that looked like small squares of brick. Loved that floor and I think it is still manufactured.

And yes, the Westinghouse roaster oven. Actually quite a lifesaver for me. Got mine in Japan, at the PX and it worked as my only method for cooking for my family of 5.

Earlene Lane

50'S FRIDGE/Stove: Haven't read a post yet about the fridge with the Y shaped handle. You could open it from either side, depending on which way you pushed the handle. My parents still have one in their backyard bungalow they rent out, AND IT STILL WORKS! We used to have to clean the house for the next renter coming in and Mother said she would take all 4 of us girls back there to help. My job as the youngest was to push the handle to open it when someone needed a snack or drink. Mom said I used to tease my older sisters by opening it the opposite of the way they asked, I thought I was in full control back then!

Believe it or not I still use my Caloric stove that was in this house when I bought it. Not sure when it was made, but this house was built in early 50's and don't think the previous owners ever bought any replacements. It is gas, very wide and has a covered griddle in the middle. Also has two oven below, one regular size and the other vertical. Everything is still in working order but the vertical oven, which is now used for the storage of pans.

And YES, I still have the boomerang yellow counter tops, but was very fortunate to have wooden maple cabinets.

LISA L, MARTINSVILLE INDIANA

50's Kitchen: I grew up with a 50's kitchen and have enjoyed the reminiscing by everyone. Thinking back I recall many things already mentioned and some others.

Mom kept a little covered pot on the stove to store left-over grease. Her favorite cooking pot was a pressure cooker. She favored the old iron skillets (it made some of the best cornbread and fried potatoes anywhere). Mid-summer to late summer was canning time when our garden's beans, tomatoes and locally available produce were "put away".

There was a back door with a screen door - a must for pre-air conditioned homes - which always slammed shut. On the wall was a calendar from a local funeral home and whatnots on a shelf (mostly decorative salt and pepper shaker sets that was labeled "Souvenir of .. " wherever someone had been on vacation).

Leftovers were stored in dishes with a plastic elastic bowl covers. Ice trays were metal with a lever to release the ice - not to be handled with wet hands when frozen. The toaster and mixer were dressed with fitted covers (no naked appliances allowed). Sandwiches for school or work lunches were wrapped in wax paper and packed in Davy Crockett and Howdy Doody lunchboxes or a plain one for work.

TV with its little rounded screen was brand new to our home and its "blonde" cabinet was a source of pride. It was so alluring that some meals were served on TV trays in the living room (a serious departure from custom). Thanks for the memories!

Pat from Romulus

50's Kitchen: Meat grinders weren't necessarily used for meat (although my mother chiefly used hers to grind ham for "minced ham" ). They were cast iron, clamped onto the edge of counter or table and were evidently indispensable from the early thirties on for making, among other things, all sorts of ladylike dishes involving ground nuts and fruits mixed with cream cheese. ( I love 1930s cookbooks and recipe booklets for both their illustrations and the incredibly inedible recipes. Raisin cocktail, anyone? Mix raisins with ketchup, heap in lettuce-lined sherbet cup, serve. And then what? Would you eat it?) Anyway, these grinders were used to do a lot of the work that has been taken over by the food processor. And as a side note, they were used by all housewives, not just those in the country. My mother and mother-in-law, women as urban as it is possible to be, each had and used one of these grinders. My mother-in-law, who loathed cooking, almost broke her foot when she clamped the grinder to her ironing board (don't ask) and the whole thing overbalanced and toppled. She was about 80 at the time and was probably making some little delicacy for the "girls" in her bridge club.

Margaret in Texas

50's Kitchen : meat grinder, my mom had one of those old type meat grinders. They work better than anything on the market today. If anyone wants one for their kitchen (mini of course), I make and sell them. Give me an email if you are interested. minilorrie@yahoo.ca

Lorrie

50's Kitchen: I've enjoyed the 50's memories so much. One item that comes vividly to mind as Christmas approaches is an automatic potato peeler my dad gave my mom one Christmas in the 50's. It attached to the faucet and the pressure from the water was to cause an abrasive action in the machine and remove all the peel. We all stood around the sink once the gifts were exchanged, inserted the potatoes and watched the action begin. In a matter of seconds the skin was off those potatoes but so was half the potato in the process. We laughed till our sides ached. I found the box with the machine still in mint condition while moving mom. I have made a printable of it and an old drinking straw box and some 50's tiles like the ones we had in our kitchen.

Under printables 50's items at

http://jdayminis.com

Jean Day

50's Kitchen: Someone mentioned a step ladder chair that had 2 steps that pulled out, with a chair on top. In my parent's kitchen, it was right next to our black wall phone, we only had 5 digit numbers at that time. Also we had a chrome, swing out, towel bar next to the sink, which could hold 3 towels or dish cloths. Some of our glasses and dishes came from boxed detergents, I believe one was called DUZ.

Mary Schreck