Tasteful friends, found us a beauty!

A real circa 1971 time capsule.

Like a time capsule.

Is that singer Connie Francis's home?

To grandmother's house we go!

I love how many of the rooms are arranged with the (hideous) furniture flush against the walls, providing what designers call "shouting distance" between guests when they are seated.

Please tell me it comes furnished!

Some grandma with aqua net hairdo and polyester pantsuits once lived here.

Gaudy.

That's actually a ton of space, especially for a time capsule home. Surely at least the amazing custom drapes come with the sale.

You could tell how tasteful it wasn't going to be from the garage painted like a store in Panama City, Fla that sells t-shirts that say suggestive things.

The living room has one coffee table in the Brasilia style and the other in fake Louis XVI. Yikes.

After deep state takes my job away, I know where I move! This place is wonderful! And luxurious! I’m sure this is a beautiful neighborhood with beautiful neighbors who mostly voted for me! 🤡

My eyes! 🤮

Nonetheless, kinda want.

Italians for sure.

That house needs to die in a grease fire.

For $160K quite nice and big.

I'd change a lot for sure, but the house itself looks pretty good for that price range.

Really in BFE though. Town of 21,000 people.

Damn, the property taxes are 733 a month. Is that typical for the state?

Do the hangers come with it? I like to hang up my caftans.

I like it.

R14: Johnstown has been greatly depopulated (1/3 of its peak 1920-50 population). lost its industrial tax base and over half the children live in poverty. So, yeah, someone has to pay to keep up the infrastructure and that's why the house will sell for a fraction of what it would take to build it.

Beautiful. I love house museums.

Every fixture, every finish, every color scheme is an assault on good taste. However, it is 5000 sq.ft. and can be made beautiful inside.

But the exterior... :-(

You know, on this one, I would buy it and not change a single thing. Then I would just go over to the house, clean it weekly, and let it stay in its current state. Can you imagine in 2040 someone walking in and seeing all this?

All of the ceilings look like the bottom of a microwave oven.

It may be tacky, but I love any house that is frozen in time. I'd not change a thing.

Is that a terrazzo floor in the garage?

I love the low ceilings!

Who do I blow to get a floor plan? 4 living rooms! 2 kitchens - one light, one dark!!

I feel as though I've just binge watched the entire run of The Brady Bunch, 100 times.

its a nice neighborhodd, It could be an MCM dream for someone

Oh, god. My stomach hurts.

The tiny crucifix over the couch.

Let's ignore how tacky it is and let's talk about the ratio of "art" to wall space.

Why does it have a big circle in the ceiling? Was something covered up?

Just ignore the urine in the luxurous wall-to-wall carpeting. A little club soda will get that out in a jiff!

^^That's where a polka band drops down for family get togethers

Booming Johnstown, PA! is a very hard sell for houses.

This one sold a couple months ago for $215K.

A bi-level nightmare! I think this is what is called a closed floor plan......

Do my eyes deceive me, or is that an 8-track player built in to the kitchen wall?

This house looks like the scene of a low-level mafia hit.

I love the bathrooms!

R33: That place is beautiful---lots of original detail with tasteful updates.

What is the panel with the handle above the built-in desk? Garbage chute?

I'm getting a Persian funeral director vibe from the place

R33 That's a pretty house with beautiful hardwood floors. I love seeing green trees outside almost every window. I did laugh at the toilet plunger in one of the bathrooms.

A local man painted his garage doors in a similar manner as a lovely tribute to his wife. He wasn't a great painter but it was a nice gesture.

Of course, everyone complained about it.

R38, that's a safe, I think. It looks 2D and like it's mounted inside the wall because of the angle of the photo, but it juts out quite a ways. Awkward for working at that desk.

I love the vanity area in the bathroom with the low hanging chandelier---elegant! I love the Fleur de Lys bathroom with blue tub and the rumpus room with wet bar and swivel stools! What fun!

R38 maybe that’s the intercom.

“TITICACA TO THE SINK CUPBOARD!!!!!”

R38--I think it's a laundry chute for sending kitchen towels down to the washer in the basement. The panel above that probably controls the intercom and house-wide sound system!

R33, that house is gorgeous. I love everything except the radiators.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I like it a lot...it has huge rooms, and has great potential. Just stripping the furnishings and draperies and carpets would improve it. I'd take it, especially for the price!

Love the house at R33; Johnstown appears to be an hour & 1/2 outside Pittsburgh - too far to commute & it's not far from Seven Springs, so I'm guessing winters are tough (as in "Overlook Hotel" tough). It's a step towards taming redneck Western PA, but just the pictures make me depressed

Only if they've fixed that flood problem.

Looking at wiki R17, looks like they've lost 10% since the last census alone.

As nice as the house R33 mentioned, I'd be nervous buying a place with no real expectation of being able to re-sell.

Johnstown, PA: Where dreams go to die!

According to Zillow, property taxes are $8285 per year.

$793 per month is estimated principal and interest, I believe.

Johnstown? Aren't they overdue for a flood?

TWO full kitchens (one with laundry facilities)?

Is that a Noguchi coffee table?

Hollywood producers should buy up places like this as film sets. It’s probably super cheap to film in Johnstown, and this would make the best 1970’s mobster house.

Not one redeeming quality. Not one. Not exterior. Not interior. Not bones. Not location. Not lot. Not interior "design". Nothing. Nada. That house was trashy when it was new.

R58: It was probably custom built for the buyer given the siting and the 2 kitchens. It's probably better constructed than most new builds.

The 2 kitchens is an Italian thing. I grew-up around a number of people whose houses that were like that. The extra kitchen was done for entertaining. Jews also do it as an easy way to keep Kosher, but with the religious stuff, I doubt that this belonged to a Jewish family.

^^ Yep, all Italians have a summer kitchen in the basement and a winter kitchen on the main floor or they used both as needed

No pictures of the back yard nor the patio. I’m also curious about the coffee table at the foot of the bed, in the master bedroom. Was there a television sitting on it. Did they relocate that table from the living room?

I need those 4 blue MCM chairs with the wooden sides. Everything else can go to Goodwill.

My time capsule 70's house had 2 kitchens. We ripped one out. It had a very sharp electric meat cutting disc thing in it, I could have kept it as it was great for slicing all manner of things. Horrifically dangerous though, no guard or anything to stop you taking an arm off.

I know it's a Proustian impact for some of us. I can't hate it. I would have not liked it in 1970 but now I find it bittersweet. So innocent. I want these lamps. I would switch out the shades for opaque black.

Built in 1957. I wonder how it was initially decorated.

[quote]It had a very sharp electric meat cutting disc thing in it, I could have kept it as it was great for slicing all manner of things. Horrifically dangerous though, no guard or anything to stop you taking an arm off.

The proves it: Italian Mafia house!

I went and looked up Johnstown and it sounds like one depressing place. I drove by it coming back from Pittsburgh the other day. I hadn’t thought about it other than the famous flood, but nowadays it’s a flood of fentanyl and meth. Also I saw a big trailer parked in a field adorned with Trump flags. The owner had scrawled “yes to fracking, oil, guns, God. No to Socialism!” I thought “I wish DL could see this.” Nothing like Gods country which we must travel through between the satanic big cities.

[quote]Italians for sure.

Downstairs and upstairs kitchens

Crucifix over the sofa

Organ in the living room

R67 You got the “tree” big ones right there! Also needs a nice pot of homemade sauce simmering on the stove.

Or maybe just some Cold Past for an low-ley evening meal

I love it too. So many stories come from this house. It's all brick with tons of garage space. I bet it was a showplace among the local set in '72. Probably threw lots of social gathering from Tupperware parties to key parties. R 43, you stoked my imagination with your comment, "the rumpus room with wet bar and swivel stools! What fun!" . If it was in the Brady's neighborhood it might have been home to neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Ditmeyer. How about that old school Sweeper in the basement. Passive agressive. She kept that place clean, I'll give her that. Looks like she was an excellent housewife and homemaker. I hope she's enjoying a nice evening on a lanai in Boca Raton.

Oh my goodness, that’s in failed sexpot Carroll Baker’s hometown!

I'm psychic and I'm sensing...

a LOT of farts have passed...in this room...

they're speaking to me

R71 Failed sexpot? Well, that can be anyone of us girls on DL!

It's in Westmont which is - wait for it - the rich neighborhood in Johnstown.

R74 in Westmont we buy Coach bags and drive brand new Buicks! And summer in the Poconos! It’s not for everyone...

It is in fact owned by Italians.

[quote]in Westmont we buy Coach bags and drive brand new Buicks! And summer in the Poconos! It’s not for everyone...

If I were a Bravo executive, I'd be all over this new show

Real Housewives of Johnston....

Can you imagine the shouting matches in the downstairs Rumpus Room?

While the slutty one makes out with someone else's husband in the bathroom with the Pieta sculpture

R77 “Dahling, dahling... he don’t wantchu. He likes my lasagna better.” “Good you can have him, not much to have anyways!”

I'm sensing the wife died young in 1982 of breast cancer and the husband kept it like this to honor her.

Can you believe her? She called that drapery fabric "green"?

They're so clearly "seafoam"

I showed her the sample, and she was like, "Yeah, those'll make nice 'green' drapes, Carlotta..."

Who the fuck dose she think she is?

Failed sexpot is the greatest thing I have heard in some time. I mean trying so hard to be a sexpot and then just being terrible at it? That's a story that has to be told.

^^^^ I would watch that so much. They need to do a series of RH in the rust belt cities.

R82 The Real Housewives of Steubenville. The theme song is Steve Winwood’s “Back in the High Life”!

I get the vibe that there are 20 teenage boys buried under that basement.

I love it, though I'm a little concerned about the corpse that was found in the blue bedroom.

Don't miss the World Famous Horseshoe Curve.

You just know that all of those drapes had to be super expensive at the time.

That carpet in the blue bedroom ! Is that piss ,or fluids from the body that laid on the missing bed undiscovered for 2 weeks / I went to an estate sale once where it was clear the old lady had an incontinence issue . Trails of urine all over the place. it was cold and they had all the windows open yet the smell of pee was nauseating . I didnt stay long.

[quote]R81 Failed sexpot is the greatest thing I have heard in some time. I mean trying so hard to be a sexpot and then just being terrible at it? That's a story that has to be told.

Well, Carroll Baker is most famous as briefly being a really manufactured sex symbol in the early 60s... and the mystifying thing is she’d come from Broadway and the Actors Studio a decade earlier, getting an Oscar nomination right away. In that early era she was paired with James Dean, Clark Gable, Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum...

Some of her tacky 60s movies made money, but others were just embarrassments. One critic called her “more bomb than bombshell.”

Read some comments thinking maybe I was too harsh.

Nope. Still completely awful. Every stick of furniture. Every molecule.

Burn it to the ground.

Holy shit, I think OP found the house that this immortal thread was a huge part of:

Let's be a suburban Seventies Christmas party

Link below

I LOVE IT.

I'll bet Cory is THRILLED about all the page views. "We had a LOT of on-line interest this weekend. You know, many people are just fleeing NY these days. Buying places sight unseen"

It's in quiet bad taste.

Looks like Cory the real estate agent didn't get most of what was on his wedding registry.

Maybe sometime we should do a "Let's be the quietly despairing life of a western Pennsylvania gay realtor" thread.

I’m finding it hard to believe that the house pictured is actually located in Johnstown. There’s not one visible Trump2020 sign anywhere.

R88, you reminded me of a story an exterminator told me. He would go out to this elderly couple’s house once a month. The old couple walked around the house with no underwear all the time. The woman wore a nightgown or some type of house dress every day, I don’t know what the man wore, maybe a caftan or bathrobe. They were both mildly incontinent and leaked all over the house all the time. I think he knew because the floor was sticky or stained.

R95 You're good. Looking and Cory and Christopher's Wedding Registry and then thinking about what they did get and didn't get is a rabbit hole I never could have imagined I'd so eagerly go down today. Well done.

Cory and Christopher received 17 items on the registry but came up empty on 47 items. Nobody chipped in on the group funds for the big-ticket items.

They didn't even get one place setting of their dishes!

This is tragic.

Walk in closet! Well la-di-da

I can't believe no one bought them the 17 dollar cum cloths. They're the perfect gift, you think of the person every time you wipe your dick.

They had a wedding party of 11 but only got 17 gifts?

You know most of those fag hags did not step up: "My presence and support is enough."

Tragic!

Nearby. Safe from floods. Safe from meth gangs. Some cute dogs. A Karen.

And if you've ever want to snuggle into two big balls and just set up camp there.

Every space in R103 is decorated like a nursing home.

My guess it's the home of an Arabic or Middle Eastern family. Persian, Turkish, Saudi maybe, a family from the Near of Middle east. Arabs have big gatherings and line up their relatives up around the room on chairs. I've also seen it in Greek immigrant families with all the oldsters, uncles, grannies, etc, circling the room each in their own chair. There was a family party like that on Shahs of Sunset, somewhere back east.

Real Housewives of New Jersey's Jennifer Aydin's house has a room like that (seen in the pic). Her parents are from Turkey.

R93 Cory is lovely, very attractive.

The house.... its a bit of an acquired taste.I do like this kitchen though, its... different

Also I saw a big trailer parked in a field adorned with Trump flags. The owner had scrawled “yes to fracking, oil, guns, God. No to Socialism!”

Every rural area is like these days: MD, OH, WV, PA, take your pick. The Yard Sign troll might have further opinions, but yes, put out your yard sign. But the Dump Shrine is scary & obnoxious (though I suppose that's the point)

That carpet in the blue bedroom ! Is that piss ,or fluids from the body that laid on the missing bed undiscovered for 2 weeks

Given the pattern of the stains (not random, as piss would be), I'm guessing it's some kind of water damage. Water bed disaster, perhaps?

And yes, while that house is wildly outdated, those custom made drapes were no doubt expensive. Carlotta was no doubt very proud of them & showed them off to her sisters from New Jersey whenever they visited

It's the spiritual home of the Cur'in Lady of Coventry.

I see this as being sort of the lower middle class Victorian home of its time. In bad taste back then but to be viewed through a filter of nostalgia in the future.

It's ugly without being offensive, at least to me. This is what most of the decade looked like.

R88, as embarrassing as this is to admit, it looks exactly like a stain I accidentally caused on a carpet once when a trunk with metal edging and corners got wet and rusted all over. Had no idea until we moved what was going on under the stupid thing, then when we tried to clean it, we spread the rust out further.

We will having a special open house for “family and friends” I want you all to know you are specially invited! You can make yourselves at home. We will be ripping out the carpets so don’t be shy about having a little fun if you like!

I wonder if it belonged to Cory, the real estate bottom's grandparents. Looking at that bridal registry, he seems pretty old fashioned himself---I mean who goes for Lenox china anymore. If he wanted that, he probably could get a nice set for nothing from some family trying to empty and unload their family home.

Westmont is a separate town (borough in PA-speak) from Johnstown, up the hill and in a different school district.

They were wealthy. That furniture cost good money back then & was built to last. Wealth in the 70s looked completely different than wealth today. Think about the Tate & LaBianca houses. And the Loud family. They lived in wealthy people houses. They didn’t build McMansions back then.

[quote] I’m finding it hard to believe that the house pictured is actually located in Johnstown. There’s not one visible Trump2020 sign anywhere.

I’m pretty sure the owners are dead.

Nobody can say there’s a lack of seating.

That’s a plus.

[quote] You know, many people are just fleeing NY these days. Buying places sight unseen

I want to be there to see the look on the person’s face who buys THIS site unseen.

I'd like to know why a gay couple would VOLUNTARILY live in Johnstown, PA. I'd think it would be like hell on earth, but they're obviously out, and maybe very happy.

OMG, so hideous but I wouldn't change one thing in it...I want!

Wow. That’s EXACTLY what my last Grindr hookup said.

It's a sad relic of what was once obviously prosperous times in Johnstown.

Depressing.

God, how I would love to buy that house and have a cocktail party and invite all Datalounge denizens. You would have to come dressed in 1970's attire.

R123 I’d attend but I have to wash my hair that night!

I think about that too - cashing out & buying a house in an area like this for pennies, but even if you are retired, living around the openly hostile (and heavily armed) takes it's toll

Tacky interiors aside, that's a lot o' house for 160 Gs.

I would do that [R125] if there was a coffee house within walking distance with some interesting regulars, which I’m not sure exists in this town but does in many others. Indiana, PA has lots of cheap beautiful Victorians and an actual downtown with numerous hangout spots.

I agree with R126. That's a great price and a great deal of space. Total gut job.

Who the hell hangs a crucifix in the living room? I'm Catholic, and I grew up with a crucifix hanging in my bedroom. I've never seen a crucifix hanging on the wall of a living room, unless that living room was in a rectory or convent. That's strange.

R128 SISTER MARY TO THE SINK CUPBOARD

[quote]R96 I’m finding it hard to believe that the house pictured is actually located in Johnstown. There’s not one visible Trump2020 sign anywhere.

This is another place in town Cory sold. Who needs yard signs?

I went back and looked at the drapes again...those would've definitely cost a small fortune when they were hung in the 70s. I do wonder if the barstools come with the bar downstairs...can someone be a dear and reach out to the gay realtor? BTW, it's the most DL thing ever that someone has found his wedding registry and all the gifts they didn't receive listed.

Yes, I loved the wedding registry and it seemed so greedy and unrealistic in this poverty stricken old steel town. He’s in a little fantasy world.

You know that house has 50 years of cigarette smoke baked into every surface. They'd have to replace floorboards and drywall to make it liveable.

Crushing on the officiant. Cookie smeller extraordinaire!

[quote] I'd like to know why a gay couple would VOLUNTARILY live in Johnstown, PA. I'd think it would be like hell on earth, but they're obviously out, and maybe very happy.

Usually it's either

(a) big families and lots of family ties

or

(b) They've decided to be big fish in a little pond

Or both.

If we weren't anonymous, I'd let you all Venmo me and we could send them a gift from their registry.

When the finest hotel in one's town is...yes, the Holiday Inn.

Now that I've gotten so invested in this thread - I'm sorry that we missed Cory and Christopher's wedding.

It could have been a nice weekend getaway.

I wonder if they'd be willing to renew their vows at this property for all of their DL friends?

[quote]Tacky interiors aside, that's a lot o' house for 160 Gs.

It's 160 Gs because of where it's located. Who the FUCK wants to live in this God-forsaken Republican neck of the Pennsyltucky woods?

They're the Johnstown version of Pete and Chasten.

Johnstown truly is sad and dire. I'm not being snarky or "oh, not enough trendy/shiny things there."

It's very, very sad in ways that are hard to even put into words.

Speaking of Lenox china, I was at the recycling depot last weekend in Lausanne Switzerland. They had bins for every kind of crap imaginable. It was on two levels of drive through and very busy. On one level there was a place with shelves where one can put "recoverable" stuff that maybe doesn't need to be junked. But it's all junk. There were two families of south east asian looking people cramming pretty useless crap into big Ikea bags. I went to that level to throw medicine into the medicine bin. On my level, there was a big bin for "pottery".

In that bin, someone had placed well over a hundred pieces of yet to be shattered Langenthal porcelain, our Lenox. I noticed it and looked at the pattern - perfect grandmother china. White and pretty. In perfect condition. Some gen x or gen z person DID NOT GIVE A FUCK and threw it in there to be destroyed. Its not the first time I have seen this. Meanwhile, the poor immigrant family on the other level was filling their plastic bags with used, silver-toned plastic party platters from the crap store. I shrugged my old shoulders and continued chucking my garbage into appropriate bins.

I hope this dish queen got his Lenox set. I applaud young dish queens who know the value of a good set of dishes.

[quote] takes it's toll

Oh, dear!

R142 When I was at the dump in Lausanne, Pennsylvania I tried to get some scrap furniture but the tweakers kept hassling me! No wonder why the houses are so cheap here. MARY. It’s for the birds...

Yes in Pennsylvania

Where they pronounce Dubois "Do-boyce" instead of "Du-bwa"

and

Versailles as "Ver-sails" instead of "Ver-sigh"

I think Pennsylvania is overtaking Florida as the most despised state of DL. They do have a lot of “animal husbandry” there in them hills.

It isn't possible to pass up Florida.

It just isn't.

PA doesn't have palmetto bugs or hurricanes. It actually has functioning water supplies and natural shade in the summer. It also has cities with culture and more of it a couple hours or less outside its borders. It even has themes parks, just like Florida.

[R148] Functioning water supplies until the fracking gets to it.

[quote][R123] I’d attend but I have to wash my hair that night!

Guurl, I'd leave work at noon and have mine set!

[quote]BTW, it's the most DL thing ever that someone has found his wedding registry and all the gifts they didn't receive listed.

New here?

[quote]Guurl, I'd leave work at noon and have mine set!

Can't you just drop yours off on the way to work and pick it up later?

I love it !

It was Bee, R151, not Bree. You're new too, it seems.

I grew up in a "raised ranch" like this. The roof appears shot. Didn't someone think to replace the candles?

I bought lamps like these living room lamps, in a Flatbush Avenue Sally's boutique in the 80s. Mine had small bulbs up the crystal layers on the post, so one could set different levels of mood. Oh yes, it was the bohemian look of the 80s. Then nightclubs of the "Dim Age" adopted it and also people got into the Mediterranean ethnic eleganza being in a cruddy grubby condition. I liked to find "like new" pieces. Rip off that 20 - 30 year old plastic and the fabric being impeccable.

living room pic

There is a ceramic "lite brite" style Christmas tree in the left corner. Why is this on display year round? I inherited my grandmothers. So cheerful - but they got HOT back then. Today's led bulbs would solve that. They look nice in small places, not lost in a big ranch living room. On a sideboard in kitchen, or by the vide poche in the vestibule.

The Italians in my suburbs in the raise ranches had 3 kitchens. The show kitchen upstairs, where coffee and dry Italian biscottis were put on platters. Guests could go in. Then there was the father's cooking area - outside on the terrace or porch. And the others cooking kitchen, downstairs. Across from the laundry room.

Italians always had impeccable garages, in addition to their houses and yards being impeccable. They had well maintained cars. They had Italian cars when nobody had them. A Spyder. Fabulous. The yards featured black or white iron ornaments. Roses. A well tended vegetable garden. The richer ones had daily maids but not live in maids. They hired local kids or gardening - paid fairly but man - they were perfectionists. Work for an Italian like this, you learn how to keep up to standards of appearance in everything.

Looks like a suburban funeral parlor crossed with a retirement home for whores.

This house is a bit strict, however. It's lacking a classic voluptuousness that the nice Italian families lived in.

[quote] It had a very sharp electric meat cutting disc thing in it, I could have kept it as it was great for slicing all manner of things. Horrifically dangerous though, no guard or anything to stop you taking an arm off.

[quote]The proves it: Italian Mafia house!

Or Saudi consulate.

Johnstown is a pretty but dying metropolis. 3 major foods have ravaged the city. The last one in 1977 killed 84 people. The population has been dwindling since then. The infrastructure of Johnstown is of a much bigger city, but the city now has a population of less than 20,000. People and businesses steer clear of locating there.

[quote]3 major foods have ravaged the city

Kale, cupcakes, and ?

This house is more interesting---very MCM stylish. Cory repped the buyer.

R164 that house has potential but:

1) open entry living room does not have a defined, welcoming sitting place.

2) how do flat roofs do in snow country???

R164 I think that house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wrong.

[quote] Johnstown is a pretty but dying metropolis. 3 major foods have ravaged the city. The last one in 1977 killed 84 people. The population has been dwindling since then. The infrastructure of Johnstown is of a much bigger city, but the city now has a population of less than 20,000. People and businesses steer clear of locating there.

With all due respect......no one has ever called Johnstown pretty.

It is known for its floods. But the one-two punch that really just demolished Johnstown was the flood in 1977, followed by the mill closing a few years later. Big chunks of downtown (including the Penn-Traffic department store) never reopened after the flood.

It had already seen its peak in the earlier part of the 20th century, when the area was yielding lots of coal and the mill was humming. The common narrative is that it all collapsed in the 80s but Johnstown was already losing jobs even in the 50s. Its location in the mountains made it more expensive to produce steel there. My family members from the area said they knew even then they couldn't expect for the mills to stick around forever. But some did - I had a cousin die in the last few years that hadn't worked a day since the mills closed in the 80s.

The main business now is healthcare, because most younger people leave (bless that Cory for staying around) and Johnstown has been a city filled with older people waiting to die for a while. I don't mean that to be mean. I am not from there but have family and family roots there. But it's the poster child for why business and people don't want to be there. It is "inbred" and I don't mean that in a strictly bloodline sort of way. No one new has come into that community in 200 years. Literally. They're small, hateful people who don't like anything or anyone new. They'll call black people N word in public still. 100 years ago the then mayor chased all black people out of town.

The entire town looks like it desperately needs to be scrubbed with a Brillo pad and then powerwashed. Anyone new would be treated like shit and ran out of town within a week. So no new businesses or family ever settle there. The remaining people are, sadly, their own worst enemies.

R164's find at least has some architectural interest, where the other dump is only interesting for the kitsch quotient of imagining it full of women in curlers, cracking gum:

[quote]Plus, they were all married to girls named Marie. And they named all their daughters Marie. By the time I finished meeting everybody, I thought I was drunk.

R164's house might be the nicest in all of J-town.

The owners:

John and Helen Gelormino

John died in 2019 at 93. His parents were Nikolas Gelormino and Alice Gelormino (born Maugaluso). Nikolas was born on June 18 1896, in Foggia, Province of Foggia, Italy.

That’s where Archie was during the war. He got his Good Conduct Medal there.

@ r164 I wonder who does the staging in Johnstown, Ace Hardware?

R170 well, THAT's a deep dive!

J-town is filled with immigrant families. Lots of people who either have one or twenty seven vowels in their name, all scowling about Those Damn Immigrants

Helen died in 2004, so John was widowed for 15 years. I wonder if any of the kids lived with them/him. Son John seems to still be in the area and daughter Marie has no spouse listed, although divorce comes into every family today. RIP.

Obviously they took a lot of pride in their house and updated it to the 1970s style from whatever it was originally in 1957, no matter who was the first owner. But it's such a good fit I'd like to think they built it.

GELORMINO - Helen P.

GELORMINO - Helen P., 77, Johnstown, died Jan. 26, 2004, at Memorial Medical Center. Born Oct. 17, 1926, in Revloc. Survived by husband, John E.; two sons, Gary, married to Andrea, and John and Marie, both of Johnstown; grandchildren, David, Nicola, Jennifer, Shawna and Justin; and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Joseph, married to Felicia Gelormino; Mary, married to Francis Westwood; and Lucy Gelormino. Also numerous nieces and nephews. No public visitation. Member of Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, where funeral Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m. Thursday, the Very Rev. Paul E. Turnbull, V.F. Interment, private. Funeral arrangements by Frank Duca Funeral Home, Westmont Chapel, 1622 Menoher Blvd.

The anti-Italian reflexes here are rather sniveling and crude. Surely the state of Johnstown cannot be blamed on the Gelorminos, God bless them.

[quote]The remaining people are, sadly, their own worst enemies.

In other words -- Trump voters.

I implore the universe to send an HGTV house-hunting, checklist-brandishing, mixed-orientation hetero couple for a viewing.

Cambria County, Pennsylvania, went for Trump with about 60,000 votes, to Biden's 30,000.

[quote] The anti-Italian reflexes here are rather sniveling and crude.

I don't see that in this thread. Listen, some stereotypes are funny because they're true. That doesn't mean we're being hateful.

I know several Italian families from PA that fit that description exactly, and had the same/similar decor!

I’m Italian and I find it funny!

[quote]I implore the universe to send an HGTV house-hunting, checklist-brandishing, mixed-orientation hetero couple for a viewing.

We'd tell 'em to go scratch!

[quote]BTW, it's the most DL thing ever that someone has found his wedding registry and all the gifts they didn't receive listed.

I know this on the website and not them, but to label the stuff they didn't get as STILL NEEDED is tacky as fuck.

*is* on the website

R158, my father used to say about Italian housewives that they'd crawl up and down the back stairs of their flats scrubbing them with toothbrushes. His business bordered North Beach in San Francisco. Between the Italians, Chinese, gays, and the wealthy of Nob Hill living nearby, he had some great stories.

I frequently shop at estate sales and see many homes like the one in OP's link. The owners had their heyday in the 60s and 70s and outlived their ability to update and maintain their homes. You see walkers in the garage and other signs of elderly dotage until they shuffled off this mortal coil in their late 90s. I always think of my parents when I see such home. Although scrupulously well kept, the house existed in homage to the 1970s, yellow kitchen counter tops and all.

They are the best sales, because as greasy and dusty as some are, you find vintage barware, mid century décor, solid furniture, and other fine items that can be sold online or at the proverbial antique collective where I sell. I went to a couple recently in wealthy Italian households that were glorious. Prismed lamps, crystal candlesticks, tons of barware, crazy decorative objects, much of it valuable.

Well, if you call mid-century ersatz Rococo valuable. The world doesn't need another modest mid-century Marie-Thérèse chandelier, even if it is lead crystal, and it is. Now, tell me you find some mid century Murano and we're talking. And it does happen.

R185, I've sold several mid-century Murano pieces, have two, now, a lamp and a centerpiece. They are very rare and gorgeous. Found the centerpiece in one of the Italian homes I mentioned. Old, dusty, hidden in a corner, but after cleaning, spectacular. A bouquet of vintage glass multi-colored flower petals and leaves with silk floss on the stems. So rare there is nothing exactly like it online, only sad ones, not so nice, but still valuable.

I just remembered another piece I sold this year, a Murano centerpiece with three candleholders. Gorgeous. Found it at a flea market, it's silk-covered glass flowers on leaves on wire stems in a jumble. Thought I'd use it for scrap until I cleaned it up and rearranged the flowers. It was stunning, at least 60 or more years old. Sold it right after I put it out, the rare pieces sell fast.

Chandeliers in the kitchens, acid green everywhere, no GFCI outlets, and the furnishings!

R183 I can believe the toothbrush story. In Pittsburgh, the old Italian, Polish and Eastern European grandmas all scrub their steps/porches with Murphy's Oil Soap.

Westmont was the high class area on the plateau above Johnstown. When I was a kid it was a big deal. It was where you "moved to". My family moved west to the Burgh for better economic pickings, but I remember it all so vividly. That house was a classic Italian mobster house. Mafia was strong in Western PA. Strangely, the neighborhood I lived in was mostly Austrian immigrants and decendents from a few generations. The steel mills were in full swing back then.

R178, I was referring to the sort of thing that reflects un-nuanced dismissal. And it's here in spots. NOTHING against enjoying the foibles and habits of Americans of southern Italian ancestry. I live in an area where buried-bathtub Madonna shrines and stone lions guard the tiny porches outside small houses, never missing a St. Joseph Day.

Northern Italians aren't so much fun.

R190 Yes - the Mafia was everywhere. Not big and obvious like in the movies or as ostentatious as you'd see in bigger cities. Johnstown, Erie, Youngstown, Pittsburgh....all huge Mafias cities. Anywhere you have Teamsters you have mobsters! LOL

I fooled around with some of those married mustachioed Mafia guys. Hot, in a gruff sorta way.

I prefer the deco and modern Venini and Barovier & Toso for Murano lustres and appliques, but I am a sucker for the charm of a Venetian fruit chandelier.

Had to point this out. Mrs Deceased Italian lady from Westmont, Johnstown, was born in Revloc.

Revloc spelled backward is Colver. Colver represents the two names of Weaver and Coleman, 2 mine owners,near Johnstown PA.

The town of Windber is named - for Edward Berwind- a coal magnate whose home, the Elms, is one of the summer homes in Newport RI.

I don't know if all three mines are attributed to Mr Berwind, but this should interest any history buffs. I never got the connection to Berwind until I toured the Newport mansions and put Coal and Berwind together.

If anyone else has knowledge of the Pennsylvania Coal Fields, please share.

[quote]2) how do flat roofs do in snow country???

I've never seen a flat roof yet that didn't leak, snow country or otherwise.

[quote] In Pittsburgh, the old Italian...grandmas all scrub their steps/porches with Murphy's Oil Soap.

What does a dago know from a mick’s soap?

R164 looks like a great house - some wonderful details - and for $250k

We all live in a bubble now anyway - I'm starting to think seriously about the real estate values to be had in some of these hidden pockets of the U.S.

[quote] If anyone else has knowledge of the Pennsylvania Coal Fields, please share.

Somewhat of a tangent but I'm sure many people know that all of the men who maintained the social club where the South Fork Dam was built were the big upper muckity mucks - Carnegie, Frick, Mellon, Phipps and Scaife. But they couldn't be bothered to pay to maintain the dam.

Johnstown is in many ways a toilet. I don't say that as an insult, I mean literally the low points of the city are the bottom of the bowl, and the hills ascend 360 degrees all around. So if you can imagine that much water pouring into the center of the city.....it's a miracle anyone lived.

(The "toilet" was also the cause of the 1977 flood, but more that the clouds in that storm system were so low they weren't passing east as usual, but stayed in the valley.)

Many more employment opportunities will open up that are taking people out of cities and toward telecommuting full time. This may be the time to take a look at some of these older towns all over the US. They have sturdy houses, made to last, on large lots. Get in on it while these oldies are still available. All you really need is to be commuting distance to an airport for a weekly or monthly "in the office" meeting.

I just looked at the pictures. Way too much green. The garage is great. The basement kitchen looks like it has not been cleaned since before the last flood. You would think a couple of hours of elbow grease would make that kitchen look so much better. If Scorsese was to do a "Goodfellas" remake we have a location for Henry Hill's home.

This is a delightful thread. Carry on.

I grew-up with a lot of Italian and Eastern Europeans in the Cleveland area. The yards were immaculate and more impressive than those in wealthy areas where people had landscapers (often Italian-American). The houses also were immaculate and often updated with quality materials. The style was not what we would have chosen--pretty garish, but I have no disrespect for the people and the way they kept property. I suspect the owner of the house was a prosperous small businessman--construction, landscaping. Maybe he laundered some mob money, but he did well at a trade until the mills closed and kept the business going afterward. The railroad also was important to Johnstown.

The mob in Youngstown dwarfed anything in region, even Pittsburgh. They were analogous to the Providence mob which eclipsed that of similar sized cities like Hartford, as well as probably Boston. Youngstown, as well as Providence was home to some of the largest mall developers of the 60s-80s. People are amazed to know that malls were mob-related money laundering in plain sight. Cleveland's was even more important and had a piece of Vegas along with the Chicago and East Coast families.

R195, my flat roof over part of my 120-year-old house has never had a problem.

Do you know the secret?

TAKING CARE OF YOUR FUCKING ROOF.

I still love the house but my partner, who has been looking for someplace to dump some cash on a property we could visit when we want to get away refuses to consider it.

And he's a 1970s freak with enough Seventies-Retro stuff to shake the dust off this place. He said he couldn't look at those curtains but couldn't bear to have them replaced, so it's a no-go. I keep telling him it's only three hours from DC.

You also know you are in a special area of Pennyslvania/Ohio if people refer to Italians as EYETALIANS.

Meanwhile, this was an important post in a PA community a few hours to the east, but very much in the same central PA mindset.....

"Many of you you may recall, I posted how shocked I was when I found out a Regular Hamburger at the Enola McDonalds was $1.59. I have never seen that HiGH a price on a small burger at any McDonalds.... So today, I went to the Mechanicsburg McDonalds on the Carlisle Pike and their price for a Hamburger is $1.29, just like most other Mc Donald around the country. In retail that is what is called “insult pricing”. In case you are wondering, the price of $1.59, in Enola, is 23% higher than Mechanicsburg or most McDonalds. I can see a couple pennies higher in order to pay your associates more. However, .30 higher to grow your bottom line faster is unacceptable. One person mentioned in my last post it was under new management, but I don’t know that for fact. They must be on the “get rich quick program”. Shame on the owner operator of the Enola McDonalds. You are trying to make money off the backs of the good people of Enola. Keep this in mind, many are just trying to afford to put food on their family’s table and pay rent during this pandemic. So if you go into the Enola McDonalds say something or take the short drive over to the McDonalds on the Pike. I will no longer go to the Enola McDonalds."

THE HORRORS!

It's like the forgot everything they learned from their Orange god, r206.

[quote]I implore the universe to send an HGTV house-hunting, checklist-brandishing, mixed-orientation hetero couple for a viewing.

The cable universe really could benefit from a DL-directed home-improvement or house-hunting show.

This should be the official DL headquarters, since if we’re going to be realistic, isn’t going to be in Paris, LA,NY, or even Sarasota. Call the little newlywed broker and make an offer. I only request a bocci ball court situated by the garage.

^^ I second the motion. It can also be rotated amongst members for bridge parties and other such bacchanals.

Fondue and key parties !

My wrists have been split. OP, you can have my stuff.

Twenty years ago I had an old Polish cleaning woman who came in twice a month to work her wonders. That woman was born to scour.

R159 seethes with jealousy over the glamor that [italic]is[/italic] the blood-orange crocheted toilet paper cozy.

r206, where did you find that quote?

R202 has no idea how racist his post is.

Because the man was Italian, he was mobbed up?

That’s like saying he’s from the Middle East, so he probably owned a 7-11. Or he’s from Asia so he must’ve owned a Chinese restaurant. I mean, what other ways can they make money?

Mangia la minchia!

In suburban DC, the 7-11s seem to be owned by Thai families.

EYE-talians is more of Indiana thing.

R218 them EYE-talians! Oooh daddy they work me so good! 😩

I love it, R164. The house I grew up in had the exact same bathroom tile except there it was about 60% pink and 40% white with a tiny handful of deep glazed dark pink tiles scattered about.

R215 a cousin of mine is in a Facebook group called Enola Community. I usually ignore the posts they share but that one just seemed so sad and petty

And apparently it was his second post about his sad ass hamburger. This is a tragedy of our times! LOLOLOL

[quote] EYE-talians is more of Indiana thing.

I grew up between Johnstown and Pittsburgh and lived all over western PA and all those spots use Eyetalian pretty heavily.

[quote]I only request a bocci ball court situated by the garage.

Oh, dear.

Bocce has made a comeback with young people. There's even a gay bocce league in DC. Keep up R223, you're probably as paleo as the late owner of this house.

Are you new here, r224?

[quote] There's even a gay bocce league in DC.

I really don’t want to know who the ball keep is between games.

Yinz still talkin about this haus?

I had a good visit to Johnstown. Remember the infamous 1889 flood that occurred there? I went to the Flood Museum, saw the remains of the dam that broke, and walked the entire route of the flood (there is a "Flood Walk"). Very interesting.

[quote] Remember the infamous 1889 flood that occurred there

It's really the only thing of note to ever happen there

Oh, I sure do remember it.

That area is also hateful to gays.

Yes, it is deplorable territory. Low income, undereducated, and bigoted.

Pretty pedestrian looking.

Is that a funeral home?

Johnstown's finest Eyetalian restaurant

R235 you have to like the breadsticks!

Oh, my r235

Now I just need to find a nice Eye-talian man

R237 who dat?

There is usually one or two nice restaurants in Johnstown, seriously. Press Bistro was surprisingly very good, but it had a short run, because of course Johnstown is a town where Texas Roadhouse is only for the rich folks.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have Coney Island.....which will give you the shits in a second.

Bump

Bump

was r241 really necessary?

was r242 really necessary?

Is this entire thread even necessary?

Go back to Pittsburgh, R245

Some of us are living for this thread

I, for one, am picturing myself growing old in Johnstown

with a sexy Marco (who only recently discovered he is gay)

with Friday night dinners at Anthony's restaurant

driving a new Buick and summering in the Poconos

[quote]R245 Is this entire thread even necessary?

Yes. Because as mentioned, DL icon Carroll Baker was born there.

[R248] And they try to put DL down (on Reddit) , but I tell you, where else on the internet are we going to remember, and celebrate, that Carroll Baker—-babydoll!!! was a daughter of Johnstown?

Some of the appliances if in good condition are worth something. That all in one unit off of the rumpus room is worth saving, and the GE “Americana” range with the glass door oven on top can bring good money. Love the 3 note door chime. He rumpus room should be felt as is. Everything else gut it.

Where exactly did Carroll grow up in Johnstown? House address, please. I met her in 2010 and she was very friendly and chatty.

Thank you all. One of the funniest threads in months. Needed the laugh.

R246 Pittsburgh! Well I never!

If I wanted to be fancy I'd be in Ligonier, playing with Kevin McClatchy's bat and balls.

[quote]R251 Where exactly did Carroll grow up in Johnstown? House address, please. I met her in 2010 and she was very friendly and chatty.

Where did you meet her?? OMG

I don’t know where she lived in Johnstown. Maybe some census records on ancestry . com or somewhere would reveal that?

Wikipedia says her dad was a traveling salesman and she moved somewhere called Turtle Creek at age 8.

Dare I ask if Turtle Creek’s even WORSE than Johnstown? (Or Tiger Tail County, for that matter?)

[quote]He rumpus room should be felt as is.

The mind reels.

Carroll Baker should have had a bigger career.... in PORN films.

Search Realtor for other homes for sale in Johnstown; there are lots of them & they are CHEAP compared to the DC area. There is nothing quite like this one, but several older homes that reminded me of Livia Soprano's home - good bones & some rather "eye talian" flourishes

[quote]r256 Carroll Baker should have had a bigger career.... in PORN films. — Miss Joan Crawford, unimpressed

You sent this man to Carroll’s home didn’t you, Joan?

R254 Turtle Creek is just a suburb of Pittsburgh. I think in the 50s and 60s it was probably just a half shade above standard middle class. It's probably deteriorated since, because Westinghouse was a big employer there and they've since all but ceased to exist (the name still survives but the company that Westinghouse used to be is long, long gone.)

I miss the Westinghouse sign.

They had a similar, but less complex/clever sign in a factory on the West Side of Cleveland. My guess is that they had quite a few variations on this.

This house is centrally located

1 hour from Pittsburgh

3 hours from Washington DC-Baltimore

3 hours from Cleveland

5 hours from New York, NY

I'm already picturing my life here

[quote] 3 hours from Cleveland

Probably a bit more like 3 and a half.

From Cleveland to the Monroeville stop on the Turnpike would be 2 ad a half. From there to Johnstown is another hour.

[quote]Let the Gays Gentrify & Save Johnstown!

And if we have to suck a few Eye-talian dicks to do it,

then so be it

[quote]Let the Gays Gentrify & Save Johnstown!

And if we have to suck a few Eye-talian dicks to do it,

then so be it

They're never quite so buff in J-town, but there's nothing like some fine Eyetalian dick.

Except a fine Polish or Eastern European cock that easily measures in double digits. As common in that area as oxygen, both types.

[quote]but there's nothing like some fine Eyetalian dick. Except a fine Polish or Eastern European cock that easily measures in double digits. As common in that area as oxygen, both types.

Thank you, R266, I'm packing for my move as I type this...

R267 I've been sitting on that secret for years! Literally and figuratively!

The men are "bruta bello", a little rough around the edges, no delicate model faces....but if you are a connoisseur of fine cock, there are many fine vintages as described in this area!

R260=Betty Furness

R269 LOL!

Who wants to host the first cocktail party after we take Johnstown?

For those of you who have gained a few pounds during the Quar

you may want to get out your Singer and let out those seams

Those are muumuus, nor caftans.

Lucille's has EVERYTHING.....soggy old drunks falling off their chairs, urinal cakes, bad drag shows taking up the entire opening hours of the bar on Friday nights.

Come for the hideous drag, stay for those married Eyetalian men who want someone to ride their hog.....and their Harleys.

[quote] Lucille's has EVERYTHING.....soggy old drunks falling off their chairs, urinal cakes,

You’re excited about urinal cakes? Oh, my.

Cheesecake I could see getting excited about, but urinal cakes?

More importantly Lucille's is in Johnston?

Johnston has a gay bar?

...where married Eyetalian men may want to get their dicks serviced?

And Polish men, don’t forget them!

Where the fuck is Johnston?

*Johnstown

Although we may consider a name change once the Gays take over

(Try using your context clues to improve your reading comprehension.)

[quote]And Polish men, don’t forget them!

Polish men whose dicks measure in the double digits...I couldn't forget them if I tried

Y'all think I was joking......underestimate me (and those huge slabs) at your peril!

What is it with bad drag shows in dying industrial town. 20 years ago I was in Decatur, IL on business. My trusty Damron travel guide listed a gay bar. Oh dear god. At first I thought the guy at the end of the bar was a burn victim and then it turned out it was a drag queen out of costume (it was early) who had only the foundation on and not the rest of the makeup.

I've seen drag shows in Erie, PA and in Ashtabula, OH.

You haven't lived - and by that I mean truly died - until you have seen a drag show in Ashta fucking bula, OH.

Did you gays get lucky at those gay bars in Decatur, Eerie, and Ashtafuckingbula? Well?

R284 Two out of three, yes

Did not score in Decatur. The only other people in the bar were 2 of the butchest lesbians you ever saw playing pool. They were wearing their union jackets from the tire factory. And a scrawny 20 something truck driver who thought I wanted to hear all about the load of Burger King beverage cups he was hauling. He hated the lightweight loads cuz the wind blew the trailer around. Ugh.

So will the rumpus room be the location of the glory hole for all these white adjacent cocks that will be surreptitiously flying in our faces once this house is purchased as the DL Commune/Timeshare/Retirement Home? Or should in be located in that spacious garage for drive in/drive out service?

The idea of a drag bar in Ashtabula is just funny to me. Erie, perhaps. There's much more of a tradition of small town drag circuits in the South. In fact, the association of drag with the South seems like a book or at least a Sunday magazine article waiting to be written. Given all of that honor and other macho bullshit down there, it really needs an explanation. I used to know someone from a small town in Georgia, where the men would dress in drag on weekend a year.

Better not dribble any jizz on that immaculate garage floor

R288 It was called the Leeward Lounge. Typical long skinny bar.

[quote] Better not dribble any jizz on that immaculate garage floor

If you’re doing it right, it should never make it to the floor.

Happy Jawnstahn Thanksgiving.

Many are no doubt celebrating by going to several of the 9,378,356 Catholic churches in the city.

[quote]Many are no doubt celebrating by going to several of the 9,378,356 Catholic churches in the city.

Well, if there are that many Catholic priests in "Jawnstahn" - we know it already has a Gay culture

Is Cory and his husband makin' turkey today, or some lasagna?

Mother in law is probably bringing the lasagna--thinks her's is better.

[quote] thinks her's is better.

Oh, dear!

And the mother-in-law is making conversation over her lasagna

"Guess who I saw last week, Marie Bianchi, you know, you remember her...her mother was Big Marie Ricci who grew up with me."

"Anyway Marie looks so good, you wouldn't believe it, she had that surgery...you know, that stomach surgery. (Her mother was always 'big', you know, so it was glandular, or genetic, or something.)

"And Marie is just gorgeous! I mean she looks like a whole different person...she always had such a pretty face and now she's so much thinner. "

"I told her, honey, you do something about that loose skin, Marie, and I'm going to marry you off to my boy, hahaha!"

Holy shit, r297, did you nail it!

Scary good.

Except Bianchi and Ricci sound almost too Nu Yawwk Eyetalian.

Here's some names from a FB page: Pribozic, Smetaniuk, Romanak, Dishong, Panaski, Langerholck. More like that flavor.

[quote] More like that flavor.

The flavor of an old man bar, with sixty years of stale peanuts and old man beer farts.

But what if the City Council tries to make everyone drink that KoolAid again?

Oh wait, that was Jonestown.

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me

12 inches of Polish dick meat

I'd take that house in a second for that price. Most of it would be fixed by ripping up the carpets (refinishing the wood floors underneath), replacing the rails etc, updating the kitchen and baths (Ikea and Home Depot would be fine) and painting every room. The main atrocities are the furniture and curtains etc, which would be gone. That's a lot of great space.

I’d turned the lower level into a roller rink.

R304 = Bryan Singer

"Teen boys get to skate for free!"

It is the town that hosted Slapshot, after all.

AND All The Right Moves

"On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Two glory holes, 12 inches of Polish dick meat..."

Those are very long beautiful white cocks

they are

I prefer white ankle or crew socks better than the long ones.

I would think the Drag Queens would buy this house

just for the drapery material alone

The tax value is only $58,000. They listed the home in 2014 for $370,000. I had not noticed those 2 details before.

[quote] Most of it would be fixed by ripping up the carpets (refinishing the wood floors underneath), replacing the rails etc, updating the kitchen and baths (Ikea and Home Depot would be fine) and painting every room.

Is there any info on what's actually under the carpeting. If it says hardwoods somewhere; I didn't find it.

If it was built in 1957, I'd say there's about 80 to 90% chance there is hardwood under the carpet.

I had a friend who got lucky and found Terrazzo flooring under the worn carpets in her remodel.

An old house is full of surprises - some good, some bad.

But in a house as well-built and well-maintained as this one, I'd hope there are too many bad surprises.

I've gotten irrationally attached to this house, and I don't know exactly why.

Maybe because of Covid, and I've enjoyed this thread so much.

I hope someone buys this house and saves it.

But for me personally, it would probably be too hard to decide what to preserve versus what to update.

My personal philosophy has always been one shared by expert renovator of historic homes years ago, "Each new generation gets to do their own kitchen and bathrooms."

Meaning you gut and update the kitchens and baths, while you try to maintain the original integrity of the rest of the house.

Even with that philosophy, it would be hard to work on a house like this where everything seem to have been so lovingly maintained.

[quote] If it was built in 1957, I'd say there's about 80 to 90% chance there is hardwood under the carpet. I had a friend who got lucky and found Terrazzo flooring under the worn carpets in her remodel. An old house is full of surprises - some good, some bad. But in a house as well-built and well-maintained as this one, I'd hope there are too many bad surprises.

The fact that the listing does not include that information worries me. It would potentially help move the house.

To be fair, though, would the RE Agent tear up the carpets to check that?

Honey, they do a lot worse for a lot less.

R314 Let's hope it's a nice family.

Is Cory making his husband some meatballs tonight?

Or offering him up some eyetalian cakes instead?

This came up on For the Love of Old Houses today. It was fantastic.

think of the parties they probably had in the 60s and 70s, I’m imagining mother whipping up Polynesian specialties while father is in charge of RCA phonograph cabinet (which is also a bar) serving up Don Ho and other exotic delights.

According to the Love of Old Houses post, this house had a fountain in the yard back in the day that would display colors at night.

The owners' granddaughter posted: "This was my grandparents home. It’s actually all original as it was built. My grandma was Polish, and my grandpa was Sicilian. No room in the house was off limits or covered in plastic. We played many games of hide & seek in this home, and I have such fond memories of getting in the fountain with all of its colored lights every summer as a kid."

R322 regardless I want to be one of those eyetalians who wears garish button ups with a fake tan who chain smokes in the house but all the furniture is still covered in plastic.

[quote] My grandma was Polish, and my grandpa was Sicilian.

Think of all the pierogi and ravioli!

And kielbasa and Eyetalian sausage!

Which reminds me....mental note, start a bathhouse in Johnstown

Too close to the road.

R321: The father probably drank Iron City beer but might make some Whisky Sours is the mother insisted. Meanwhile, the kids were making screwdrivers from the OJ in one of the refrigerators and some cheap vodka that was kept around for company. In the summer, the father would bbq some kielbasa and italian sausage with some sweet peppers and onions.

After our spirited discussion on this thread about moving to Johnstown PA in search of cheap real estate, I thought this book review was interesting about the author's research of his grandfather the mob boss in Johnstown

I wonder if the mob has all decamped to greener pastures...

unless they've returned to Johnstown for the Covid quarantie...

"Aunt Marie, nobody makes better lasagna than chu do."

The mob is pretty much a shadow of its former self everywhere.

I'm sure this handsome fellow has all the gays atingle in J-town.

The mob was everywhere in that area.

While there were certainly mobsters in Pittsburgh, they really got a hold of the smaller industrial cities like Johnstown, Youngstown and Erie. Erie had a mafioso mayor who was hiding in plain sight, so to speak, for 25+ years.

Especially as the industries started to fade a bit, and then collapse....it was easy for them to come in and move into various businesses.

I know the mob isn't what it used to be.

But are there still mob families in a small town like Johnstown?

Hard to say R333. I know they were still around lots of areas as mentioned in R332 in the late 90s.

I don't think law enforcement did much to stop them, but for the most part, the old guys have all died off and their children or grandchildren run their businesses legitimately, now that they're established.

I've walked the Johnstown Flood Trail. Awesome.

This thread is very enlightening.

R332: The Youngstown mob made Pittsburgh look like small potatoes. Providence was the East Coast equivalent.

R337 Yep.

And the Teamsters mobsters in Ytown didn't fuck around. They liked to blow shit up every chance they could.

Wow, the guy at R331 is stunning.

^You should see his cock and balls

R340 I wish they were in my mouth

I want to retire there; will lesbians be welcomed after gentrification?

I love it and wouldn't change a thing...I could pretend to be Teresa Giudice in my foofoo mini mansion