When Bhargavi contacted me last week about consulting on some design decisions for her home in Lafayette, the last line of her email was: "Our house is not a Eichler. I am sure when you see it you'll have a better idea what it is." … After "Hello", my first words upon meeting she and her husband, Devin, were… "This is fantastic". And it is.
It's also the start of a new type of service for us: Consulting (Design-consulting? Pre-build-consulting? … name forthcoming, obviously) — which we hope will be fantastic for MCM homeowners. Typically, folks contact me for design-build services because they have a specific project in mind. However, if you've just bought something and you don't even know where to start, who do you turn to? It turns out that cracking open a dozen MCM homes in the design-build process also give me some insight on that very topic. What-goes-where, what-should-be-there? or where-to-start? are elusive questions that I can help to answer.
In Bhargavi's case, her house was built in 1964 by Ralph Carlson. Whether or not Carlson was the builder or architect is still unknown, but the house definitely takes inspiration from the modernists of the era. Not much in the house has changed since 1964. Bhargavi and Devin replaced all of the single pane windows with perfectly finished dual-pane inserts (unlike mass-market retrofits, these are block fit as the originals for a seamless look); they refinished the wood flooring; solved an exterior drainage problem and have done a few spruce-up projects like painting… but otherwise, it is as the original owners left it. It seems that a wood stove and wallpaper were installed in the 80s, but otherwise, it's almost a time capsule with wonderful built-ins, paneling and laminate-counter kitchen.
Take a look.
The wrap-around deck is in need of repair, but really sets the house off well. In this neighborhood, the homes aren't well signed/numbered and when driving up, I thought to myself: "Wouldn't it be great if this was the house?". It was…
The cold December light isn't the best for photos. Hopefully come springtime we can re-shoot some "after" photos.
The kitchen features beautiful walnut cabinetry in great condition considering the age. Each drawer and knife-hinged door are made to fit like a piece of furniture. Some settling due to drainage issues have them a tiny bit tweaked, but nothing that can't be massged out. There is terrible soffit lighting that can be easily retrofitted to something more pleasant. And yes, that's a built in grill.
The 80s were bad in many ways. #47: Wallpaper.
A look into the formal living room shows immaculate walnut paneling.
Walnut and limestone details around the fireplace.
Looking into the very "Mike Brady"-esque study from the entry hall.
A look from the study back into the home.
Closets abound in this home… almost every hall has built in closets that run the length of them.
Devin's office will eventually be moved into the study and this will become a bedroom.
A second master suite of sorts adjoins a shared bathroom with very large built-in sauna. The big decision here is: keep the sauna or convert to ___. The question is, what? There's already penty of storage and the bathrooms are already large enough.
A view from the master bedroom to the main hall past a dedicated laundry room.
The master bath might be the first project: wall paper removal and re-tiling. The mahogany built-ins, however, are in near-perfect condition. These are in addition to a large walk-in closet.
Oddly, the bath-vanity doesn't have a built in mirror.