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Now we come to the end of our tour of a fabulous mid-century home, made even better by the miracle of electricity. So far, I have shown you the kitchen, living-dining rooms, the bedroom, the basement and several special areas around the home. Now we combine all that with the backyard and explore indoor-outdoor spaces.

First up is a fabulous painting of the outdoors with a picnic area set up under the branches of the mighty tree. The brochure suggests that you permanently wire power to this outdoor space, so you could have easy access to any electrical gadgets you desire. For example, outdoor chefs are sure of mouth-watering results when food is broiled in a portable barbecue, with an electrically revolving spit. A deep fat fryer, blender and coffee maker make the meal complete for the whole family. Install a flood lamp over the table for after sunset dining. Don’t forget an electric insect trap, to keep your meal bug free.

An open or partially closed terrace makes an attractive, convenient extra living room for entertainment or relaxation. Everyone can have a wonderful, festive party with tables for games or space for dancing. You can even roll out your TV, complete with rabbit ears, on a handy cart. Also have plenty of outlets for a portable radio and record player.

Nightfall could put a damper on outdoor games and sports, unless you have planned for living better electrically. Lighting outdoor games is simple. The most important thing is to keep the light sources out of the players field of vision and for better visibility have lights coming from more than one direction.

For lawn and court games, six 150 W weatherproof flood lamps, mounted on two poles give ample light to playing areas.

If you’re into archery put three lamps on a pole behind the archer to illuminate the range and bull’s-eye.

Do you live in a normal house without an archery range? Then lights mounted under the eaves of your roof could provide light to the entire playing area, if pointed in the right direction.

It’s important to keep your outdoor areas in good shape. Here is where your electric helpers come in. Modern electric lawnmowers make it easy to keep stretches of your grass looking neat. Of course, you have to pull the extension cord behind you. Details, details. The brochure also says that for sharply sloping banks and those hard to get at tufts of grass between flagstones, a lawn trimmer is a good idea.

A scary suggestion, totally from the 60s, is that an electric sprayer helps control pests in the garden, by sending harmful chemicals everywhere. They didn’t know about the risks at the time, but we do, so skip this one.

Finally, a portable work light lets you use your electric hedge trimmer in the dark. The light can be clamped to a stake or pipe so you can do garden work during cooler evening hours.

After all your hard work keeping the garden shipshape, it’s nice to have some well-designed lights here and there to share the beauty after dark. Flood lamps, spot lamps, mushroom type reflectors and colored light sources are some of your living “painting” materials.

Your picture window becomes a frame to the attractive view of your garden. It can take on extra charm after dark with the right lighting enhancement.

Also, the correct front porch light can radiate a friendly welcome to any guest. This lantern lights the driveway and the walk. A flower box of stone can be lighted to act as a colorful divider at you approach to the door.

A door that leads inside our fantastic mid-century house, a home made all the better thanks to the miracle of electricity. I hope you have enjoyed your tour through the house, via this beautiful art. I certainly have. Some of the suggestions inside the pamphlet are practical, some not, yet all of the artwork is gorgeous. I’m so glad we are able to experience it decades after it was painted. All thanks to a little booklet called “Living Better Electrically.” A Glorious piece of Vintage Stuff!