Broken Household Appliance National Forest

Yeah, I know. Its been awhile since you've heard from me.

I have a lot going on in real life, more than usual, and I'd prefer to put my time there instead of here.

However, there's always something worth posting. Here's something.

Yesterday at brunch, my friend G-ma was telling me about her roommate's insatiable appetite for hookers and crack (seriously). This has caused her to consider moving out and buying a house.

An important thing to remember is that G-ma is very interested in all that is Art Deco and Modern. She's a full-on collector.

She kept referring to the house as a "White Castle house" and it took me awhile to understand what the fuck she was talking about. In the late '40s, a man named Carl Strandlund had what he believed to be the answer to the post-WWII housing shortage in this country: quickly and cheaply built durable homes that could be sold just like automobiles out of a dealership.

Ultimately, Carl Strandlund's Lustron Corp set out to mass-produce homes. In the end, Lustron had manufactured 2500 homes and many are still standing. The homes are still standing because they were made out of stainless steel with a baked-on porcelain enamel finish. Just like the old White Castles (or Tel-Way or Hunter House or whatever regional burger joint in a little white building you can think of). You could buy the homes only in seven or eight different colors, and there were only a handful of floorplans to pick from. This cut down costs.

The design in the homes was very Art Deco with a 'home of the future' vibe. The dishwasher can double as a washing machine, all of the cabinets are built right into the kitchen, and the walls are fucking porcelain!

I guess there's a Lustron home in the Detroit area that's on the market right now. I hope G gets it. That'd be cool. I didn't know anything about them until now. Go here to read more about Lustron and the homes they built. Interesting side-note, the company was subsidized by the US government and ultimately forced into bankruptcy. Despite doing very well, many people believe that Carl Strandlund was the victim of politics and labor unions unhappy with how he chose to do business and what his mass-produced homes would do to the building contracting industry.