December 2011

This Modern Life

Crossing the Streams…

My other life as a design educator is a great one. The balance between it and home renovation seems to keep me honest, but I consider myself quite fortunate to be where I am most of the day.

Not unlike the content of this blog, I tend to send random missives to my students quite often. I've been very fortunate in the past few weeks to have some of these show up on Imprint.com and Salon.com

Screen shot 2011-12-26 at 9.37.25 PM

Renovation // Transformation, This Modern Life

Dan’s “Conquista-door” Replacement

Dan had a door in much need of replacement. I call it the "conquista-door" because of the heavy-handed carvings that would be more appropriate on a Spanish revival home… but it's ill-placed nonetheless.

A day later, he had something more Eichler-appropriate. Check out his blog, too, see what else is afoot.

One thing we've learned on our own door and this one is that yellow paint covers terribly and takes about 6 coats to cover completely (whereas a darker or more opaque color might cover in 2 coats)… something to consider when picking a color and looking at a time-line (or costs shoudl you be hiring someone to paint it).

Nonetheless, we seem to have gotten Eichler front door replacement down to a science. Drop me a line if you need a new one…

Dan1

Dan

Dan3

Pictorial Modernism, This Modern Life

Greg and Diane’s House

Greg and Diane's house is now on the market… sadly, they're moving to Seattle. We'll miss them, but hope to score some great new neighbors.

4094_50

The house is located at 4094 Sacramento Street in Concord and is one of the lesser-seen flat roof models. The house is in great original/original-esque condition. Some specifics:

  • Designed by A. Quincy Jones
  • 3BR, 2BA, 1367SF
  • Original kitchen in great condition: Working original oven and cooktop
  • New refrigerator and dishwasher
  • Original Armstrong flooring in great condition
  • Original paneling (also in great condition)
  • Original 3-wire, grounded electrical system — meaning that there's no real need to update internal house wiring as the Romex cable has a ground wire.
  • Working radiant heat
  • New(er) foam roof (2004)
  • Remodeled master bath (2004)
  • Remodeled guest bath (2011)
  • 2-car garage with extra storage space (the largest garage of the three models)
  • Wider yard than most in the neighborhood
  • Easily maintained and well designed landscaping

The house is offered at $330,000 … a steal for an Eichler home in this condition — it's one of the most original houses I've seen… the updates that they've made are either invisible (foam roof) or very period-appropriate (bathrooms). Contact Kevin for a look-see.

Kevin Eklund
925-362-1484 (office)
925-360-5169 (cell)
Kevin@kevineklund.com

Open house:
Sat, Jan 14th 10:30am – 1:00pm
Sun, Jan 15th 12:00pm – 3:00pm

Renovation // Transformation

Michael and Iris’ Master Bath: Preview

In additon to the guest bath, we completely gutted the master bath — boy what a mess. I'll spare you the photos, but the luan plywood behind the tile had seen better days.

We used the same 3X6 white subway tile hung in the same way. For the curb, I used the matte aluminum Schluter tile strip instead of bullnose for a cleaner edge on both sides of the matching 6X6 tile. The geometry is quite nice.

We used Dal-tile's "Charcoal" keystones blend for the floor with Delorean Gray grout and love the combination… I might even re-do our own baths in this combo.

We used Denshield tile backer and ran it along the wall behind the toilet and replaced the paneling adjacent to the toilet (scarred from old repairs). Previously, the entire room was wrapped in wood — a very bad idea for a wet area. Now, the paneing is just serving as an accent far away from actual water.

I finished up the grouting too late for any proper photos, so here's a few iPhone grabs.

Floor1

Floor2

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