The Mid-Century Modern Deck House

It's funny, when we first looked at our house with our realtor, Ernesto was totally underwhelmed. What is going on with this place?  Little windows on the front, traditional kitchen remodel, original bathrooms with "upgraded" granite and horrible light fixtures.  All those things stuck out to me as well, but my mind started racing immediately to all of the things we could do to improve the mix matched style.

We decided to go for it though because it was UNIQUE and although not exactly what we THOUGHT we wanted, it was a good size house, in the location we were after AND fit the "mid century modern" criteria we had been hunting for. (built in 1963)

It wasn't until MONTHS after we moved into the house that we discovered what style it was.  We knew it was a POST AND BEAM...because, that was obvious from the ...wait for it...post and beams.

BUT! I literally stumbled upon a house that looked like ours while searching Google images and found out it is called a DECK HOUSE which was designed and built by a company called....wait for it again...Deck House, Inc.

A ‘Deck House’ is a pre-fabricated Mid-Century house developed in 1959 by two architects who studied under Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. They formed the Deck House Company in Acton, Massachusetts, where it still operates, now called the Acorn Deck House Company.

Deck Houses were/are widely popular, but more so in the northeast, not Georgia.   The architectural basis for a Deck House is post and beam construction, which uses large and solid timbers to hold up the roof. These eliminate the need for supporting walls and allows for an almost unlimited amount of glass.  How cool is that?  Renovations should be easy then right?

Ceilings are exposed Douglas fir beams and tongue-and-groove vaulted ceilings.  (Sadly ours were painted) 
The exterior could've been stained at one point as well....which I LOVE! 

Many of the deck houses I have seen have a front carport or a side deck off the kitchen/dining area.

Like most mid-century modern homes,  the goal of the deck house is essentially combining form and function.  With all the glass, deck houses are almost always used in a natural setting.

It feels very exciting to now know what our house could (and SHOULD) look like.   I even found a FB page called "Deck House Owners" and they have let me in even though it's quite possible that our house was not actually BUILT by Deck House Inc.  (I called the company, and they could not verify by our address but said "that doesn't mean we didn't build it because there were many houses built in the 60's that we don't have records for.")

 A "deck house" has become an all encompassing name for this style of house (like kleenex for tissues) Our house is definitely in this style, though, and honestly I don't care WHO built it, I am just happy to have been enlightened about our homes' history.

My mind is in overdrive after looking at other Deck Houses (inside and out).  But that is the case with me and houses.  Inspiration and ideas are always flowing.

More importantly, Ernesto's inspiration has been sparked and he is excited to make changes and possibly sit back and enjoy this house for longer than he initially thought.  ("2 years and we sell" is what he was saying when we moved in)

As you can see with the other houses pictured here, the windows are not aluminum single pane. (notice the dark ones above)  And hopefully sometime this Summer, ours will not be either.  I love how many of the houses have different sized windows on one side of the front door than the other (I have always loved asymmetrical design.)

Also note they all have transom windows above the doors.  Yep. We are going to follow suit with that too.  I can't wait.  How awesome is this entry??

So much to share with you in the upcoming months/years.

New exterior paint color choices are being mulled over.  We were considering these two colors and I posted on Insta for opinions.  It was about half for Tricorn Black and half for Urbane Bronze.

We have pulled some other samples since this photo and are leaning towards SW Sealskin which looks like black/the darkest brown.

Also, a front patio is in the beginning stages...I'll have a separate post with our "plan" soon.

One of the front landscaping beds is ALMOST complete.

All this (and more!) coming to you right here on VivaCindy.....right after we spend a month in San Diego this June!!!! Woot woot! 

See you back here soon!!