Posted on 05/25/2014 10:26:28 PM PDT by lowbridge
A hot tip from reader Abigail lead us to this 5,153 sq. ft., impeccably maintained — and impeccably detailed — 1959 split level time capsule home, listed for sale in Kettering, Ohio. The home has an impressive collection of original bathrooms — three full and two half — filled with stunning mosaic tile walls, walk-in sunken showers, double vintage laminate vanities with colorful sinks and some amazing wallpaper. Throughout the house, stunning stone and brick walls seem to await around every corner, along with many other fantastic midcentury details, preserved and loved by the large family that called this house their home since the day they moved in — 55 years ago, in 1959. Wow.
(Excerpt) Read more at retrorenovation.com ...
The over-sized shower stalls are rare for a 1959 home.
Beat me to it. “Brady Bunch” was the first thing I thought of.
FMCDH(BITS)
Hmmmn.
Not a single wall anywhere in the “upstairs/downstairs” split part of the split level living areas. If one person DOESN’T want to listen to the same radio/TV/Stereo or playstation game that is running ... Where does one go for simple silence or study or reading?
Me too, if it's any consolation...
FMCDH(BITS)
For the '50s, this is pretty tasteful and sedate. I want '50s kitsch!
The step down showers are cool.
I detest that house,but it would sell for about $800,000.00 where I live.
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That’s not a true “split level” which has the main public areas on ground level, bedroom areas a half flight of stairs up, with den, rec room and garage a half flight of stairs down, built on a lot sloping to the two story end.
It was custom built, that much is obvious. Some very nice details and some very unusual ones. Got a little carried away with three kinds of stone (don’t like the black stone all that much, myself), two kinds of brick.
The baths are fantastic but the wallpaper is over the top, it overshadows the tile work which is the visual focal point and the high point of those rooms. The sunken showers are especially nice.
The kitchen looks to me to have been ripped out and redone. That eating bar or island, that shape was popular about 10-15 years ago. I’d be curious to see what the original kitchen looked like.
Exterior, the bands of siding and bands of brick haven’t aged well, owners of this style home typically use some sort of masonry stain or paint to unify the masonry and the siding to make it flow better. Horizontal bands of brick or stone held up better visually, vertical ones end up looking like an old office building and so are toned down now.
The lawn is awesome, park-like. The evergreens, hemlock or whatever they are, are beautiful.
Looks like runoff management might be a constant chore with the way the garage entry is below grade, grade sloping to the rear of the house with concrete up to the foundation, etc., need to keep a positive slope away from the foundation to avoid moisture beneath the footings which causes settling and cracks. Obviously the original owners did this, or spent a fair amount correcting it prior to sale. The area outside the garage surely has to have a sump pump. Better keep it maintained and in good working order, or you’re going to have water in the basement, including on those nice original parquet floors.
All in all, great house. Needs a few things, not all “mid-century” has aged well. Keep the good, downplay the less desirable.
The house we are in was built in 1978, We have been here 17 years and I am still working on it. lol
All the carpet was original Harvest Gold. The floors in the bathrooms and kitchen were cushy white vinyl with gold streaks through it. The kitchen was all done with a Harvest Gold Sink, Harvest Gold cooktop and Harvest Gold range hood.
Every single wall in the house was covered in awful wallpaper. n When I started stripping the kitchen there were 5 layers of different wallpaper.
The house looks absolutely nothing like when we first moved in. I started working on it immediately.
There are several Eichler neighborhoods near me. A great design IMO but badly in need of modern materials. The thinly insulated roofs, single pane windows and radiant heat systems are a problem on the original Eichlers.
From a 2014 perspective, they are “built like crap” but that is not to denigrate them; they have huge single-pane, untempered window area and as you say, outdated insulation and heating systems. Those were the standards (or maybe I should say lack of standards) extant at the time.
The problem(s) arise should you go to update them. Many local building departments—especially hoity-toity California ones where many of those homes were built—will insist you bring *everything* up to current code should you start fiddling around. There is almost no limit to the pain they can inflict upon you should you get so involved.
It'll look great in Avocado.
Yes! That's the color Avocado. Boy did my father hate it too. Said it reminded him too much of olive drab.
There are a TON of those in the SF Bay area -- like entire communities made up of 'em:
They look to be fast to construct and OK for snowless climes -- like SF -- but I sure wouldn't want one in snowy OH.
They also tend to be about 1/3 of the square footage size of the one in OH.
I’ve known about the west coast fondness for Eichler houses for years, and am amazed that there are abandoned former full service stations all over this state, that look very much like Eichler, and nobody wants them. Might have something to do with leaky underground tanks and soil remediation, but there is assistance for that. The earlier more art deco-looking ones that survived got repurposed. Maybe somebody on the east coast will finally appreciate these eyesores. The architecture isn’t bad, once you get past viewing the service bays as service bays.
They are all that-—the midcentury look-—but the genuine Eichlers tend to have 1: huge glass, 2: sometimes exposed I-beam roof supports, sometimes not and 3: radiant floor heat in poured concrete floors.
The wide-open glass walls with 4x4 supports are nowhere near code-conforming at this point, both in terms of tempered/non-tempered, non-insulating glass and the beam-to-column ties. But they are a big part of the look. So replacing those can be very expensive.
Additionally, if the floor heating system is leaky, it might be necessary to demo the whole thing and replace it with a modern system. It’s very dicey, of course, to cut the floor to install new utilities because you can easily chop into the radiant heat. In general, new utils have to be run atop the roof. An additional expense because now you have roof penetrations and outdoor conduit/duct considerations....and those can change the look and might not even be allowed by some local bldg codes.
There is generally no good way to run any sort of new electrical lines and a kitchen “island” is almost impossible without a tall vertical element to hide utilities.
Finally...the interior surface of the ceiling was, in Eichler’s, 8” nominal planks. Those planks are 7-1/4” today so it can be visually upsetting to “splice” such a ceiling to existing space for an add-on. Custom mill your lumber? No problem, just throw big money at it. A recurring theme.
I definitely like the open airy feel of the homes but they definitely present some serious remodel challenges.
My sister owns a California Modern but I don’t think it’s an Eichler. It has the open I beam ceiling and wall of glass to the backyard. The roof is thin but not flat. Hardwood rather than concrete pad and no radiant heating. It’s a nice, bright house.
Too bad it’s in that part of California that is being handed over to Mexico but that’s how the GOPe and comrade Obama want it.
Mine has a spigot also. With a stopper, the shower area could be filled with water. Up to the top step anyway.
The step down showers are cool.
Until you’re 85...my sweet aunt has one, in her early ‘60’s fab home, and can no longer use it :(
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