That Elusive 70’s House

As anyone who has read this blog knows, I like the 60s and 70s. I collect things from that era and even looked for a house in that era…I just didn’t know how many houses we would visit.

In 2004 my wife and I thought it was time to move from our starter home. We were learning to jump from the hall to living room to kitchen because we were getting crowded with our small home with a 4-year-old son, a mutt and a Saint Bernard running about.

We didn’t know what we wanted and were totally naive about house hunting. We only had so much money when we bought our starter home so it was easy…the second house we saw we bought. This time we had options and wanted to find our final house…THAT house…  We found an agent and she said: “I’ll show you 6 houses but you need to pick one of them and that will be it.” We didn’t like any of the houses she showed us that weekend.

We told the agent to forget it and started to freelance and ended up looking at 11 more by just going around and making appointments to visit houses. Ok, we are up to 17 now. But by this time we knew what we wanted. We wanted a 1970s style house…split level if possible.  An open floor plan with some land…and some room. My wife would not go for shag carpet (dang it) or an avocado refrigerator but she did like the older designs.

At the 18th house we looked at, we found an agent as crazy as we were named Naomi. She was new at being a real estate agent and said she would stick with us through the complete process. We kept going when we could and the number kept rising. I then got laid off my job in May of 2006…and it slowed us down but in July I was working again and the adventure continued.

Naomi could not understand why we would want an older house. She would try to dissuade us. She would try to slip in a new townhouse…we would arrive and say no…but she said she had to try. We looked in multiple counties to see if we could find what we wanted. We found nothing that was remotely close to my work.

We found many houses that we wanted. But it never failed that something would happen. The house would fail inspection, someone would beat us and sign first, at one house someone paid cash and got the house, or they would not take a contingent contract on our house selling…one time the owners changed their minds.

The total kept climbing but Naomi stayed with us…and we reached the 50s…We became really good friends with her and still are to this day. She still invites us over every year to her July 4th party. Namoi was learning with us and enjoyed looking at houses and actually started to appreciate the older houses.

Then it happened in 2007…We found a house (insert angels singing here)…the 55th house we looked at! We got there and drove down the driveway… I knew this was the one… the driveway was shadowed by the top of the trees hanging over it. It was an A-frame (with a 60s  vibe) with five bedrooms and surrounded by green everywhere…trees and woods…For some odd reason “Uncle John’s Band” kept playing in my mind. We got there and found out it was built in 1992. We were shocked… We thought it was older.

We talked to the man and wife who owned it. They were two public attorneys (Jim and Diane) and both were so nice. They talked with us a little and said the house was not on the market yet but Diane said we had good “Karma” …and if we wanted it…it was ours.

She bought the house when it was a 900 square foot A-frame on three acres. She then met her husband Jim and had a child…they built a wing and garage on one side…had more kids and built another wing on the other side. It is one of a kind with an open floor plan…and we bought it for under market value because they wanted to live near their work in Nashville and had already bought another house. They were offered more money by someone else but stuck with us…I was surprised but our “karma” must have won out. The inspection passed with flying colors…and nothing went wrong.

So we moved in…The Wife, the son, the Mutt and our Saint…and me of course…The irony of it all? We had searched all over for 3 years and even 60-100 miles away…and this house was 2 miles from where we were living. It’s hidden from the road and we had never laid our eyes on it.

After we bought the house Jim and Diane invited us to dinner at their new home. Turns out Jim knew Bob Jackson…if you don’t know Bob Jackson, he was in Badfinger right before Pete Ham passed away (see I tied pop culture into this). He had some interesting stories and they are great people.

The house has been a great investment…it’s climbed in value but we want to stay here till the end. I don’t have another search left in me…

By the way…We made it up to Naomi…we referred her to two of our friends who bought and sold their houses through her as the agent. She still calls us asking us if we want to go with her at times and visit houses. She said she misses going to see houses with us.

Since it wasn’t a seventies house I thought I would bring the seventies to it… the corner of my music room where I read.

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I still hear Uncle Johns Band when I come down my drive…it doesn’t get better than that

 

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

20 thoughts on “That Elusive 70’s House”

  1. 55 houses- that is a lot of patience but it certainly sounds like it was the right way to go. It is interesting looking at houses- the good, the bad, the ugly. We saw a couple houses that make you think- why in the world would a house be built THIS was- and who in the world would buy it? I like your reading area- and Uncle John’s Band- The Dead’s best song by far.

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    1. It was a learning process that is for sure. We are not that picky either…I agree with you some of the houses they would take pictures of the house at different angles and hide a bunch of things.
      My reading area is my little part of the past that I get away in…My wife got a room she could do anything with and I got a music room. We were fortunate to find this place…

      It was worth the search…very peaceful.

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      2. It worked out perfect for us. Our bedroom is the original loft up stairs. I was afraid of the electric bill being an A frame but its not a big difference.

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    1. We live in Cheatham County that is right next to Davidison… pretty much Mayberry. My commute is not that bad at all to Nashville.
      We are staying here for good…God Willing.

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      2. It has grown like crazy. I was raised here and back then we had no chain restaurants or anything. Ashland City has really grown. it’s worth the drive to me because it is so peaceful.

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      3. beautiful area! I must admit I’ve never spent real time in Nashville but took Greyhound en route to either Atlanta or Texas and ended up in Nashville 4 or 5 times- looks like a very cool city and the surrounding hill country is awesome

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  4. OMG- we had that exact chair in the photo, except ours was a slightly brighter mustardy yellow color! My dad and I both loved it- we called it “the lounge”, it was in our living room beside built in bookcases! Wish I still had it- or at least photos of our house from that era. Luv that 70s furniture. we also had puffy, yellow couch with all rounded corners, the likes of which I’ve never seen since nor even seen online pix of.

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    1. This stuff is getting harder and harder to find. I was lucky on the daisy table…I got it for 10 bucks at a yard sale. Looked online and people are wanting 200 or more for it.
      The Chaise Lounge chair I love. It’s so comfortable. It’s the only one I’ve seen out.

      That yellow couch sounds great…I go to flea markets etc…they ask me what I want and I say… If you were a teenager in the 70s…I want what was in the bedroom.

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      1. I spent some time in Atlanta back a few years ago (another great area I might add)… there was a suburb to the NE called Chamblee, it had an “Antiques row”- there were a couple of large flea market style stores that had some of that vintage 60s/70s furniture, lamps, collectibles etc. I didn’t have money to buy any , but it was cool to walk through and relive that era. If you ever get down into that area, might be a town worth driving to

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      2. It just so happens that the company I work for has another corporate office there and I go quite a bit. Thank you for that information. I will check that out.

        The thing about Atlanta is the traffic. Just terrible traffic because of a poor design…but a lot to do…
        I will check that place out because just finding it at all is hard.

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      3. hope those stores are still there. ! Yes, Atlanta traffic was quite bad, but I came from Toronto area which is horrendous for that, so it didn’t get to me that much. Loved that it was such a wooded, park-like area

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  5. Great story on the house. There is something to be said for patience. It feels so good when everything falls into place. Not sure if I’ve seen a lounger like that or not. What’s that green thing next to your lava lamp? 45s case?

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    1. Yes a 45 case. I got it this summer at a yard sale. Thank you… It took every bit of patience we had…but it all paid off.

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