Property of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Shadd of Fayetteville | Willard B. Smith Jr., designer | Gilbert Ask, photos

Like so many young couples during the early days of our postwar housing shortage, the Edward Shadds learned a bitter truth-good modern houses were not to be had for love or money. Mileage on their old family car was mounting at a surprising rate when they decided to abandon the quest for a new home and concentrate on what was available, be it decrepit and plain. 

It took two years to really get the house into its present shape-embodiment of everything the Shadd family had actually wanted in a home from the start. They were among those thousands of up-and-coming young folks who like and want modern but, at the same time, admire the mellowness and softness of old things. To keep a certain nostalgic flavor, not one bit of the original planting was disturbed; hence, the house fits snugly into its site.

The living room was formerly several rooms, and the monolithic plaster ceiling is the result of an ingenious suspended truss in the attic. Old timbers were used, wherever possible, in all rooms, but made to fit into the positive contemporary design. Natural birch plywood acts as background for most of the interior walls and blends nicely with the specially made furniture, handiwork of the furniture-designing owner. Plum is the predominating color in the first-floor master rooms. An unusual note is struck in the front-hall treatment with its railless, open stairway. There's a built-in desk and bench at the foot of these stairs where a convenient telephone saves Mrs. Shadd many unnecessary steps during the course of a day's household routine. Another unique feature of the house is discovered when inspecting the basement heating equipment. Two small furnaces, in tandem, have been used. In mild weather only one is put into operation.

Beautiful view and no backaches- those are the first lures of the Shadd kitchen. As good to work in as to look at, it has a big picture window that makes daydreaming while dishwashing easy. Working surfaces were built to scale-Mrs. Shadd's. Even the bottom of the sink is on the same level with other surfaces.

The walls are covered with natural birch plywood as are the ample storage cabinets with which the old kitchen, happily, was blessed. To hide unsightly refrigerator compressor, they built a ventilated cabinet around it.

On an obvious guess, one would say this kitchen was designed, then built with everything brand new. Actually, it wasn't. New appliances being practically an impossibility at this time, the Shadds' "new" kitchen was built around the appliances they had. Too, they found space in the L-shaped kitchen for a breakfast nook. The finished product-a kitchen for contented working and living.