New Eichler Owner
Hi everyone,
My wife and I just purchased and Eichler in Walnut Creek. One of my coworkers mentioned this website and I was astounded to see such a large following on the internet which really makes me proud to join everyone here as an Eichler Homeowner. The house is a "fixer-upper" but I think we'll be able to restore it. Seeing that there is a good list of material suppliers and contractors on the Eichler Network site gives us a good starting point (insert sigh of relief here)..
We are also expecting a new addition to the family in January (our first child) and so I will be racing against the winter rainy season to upgrade the roof, insulate the exterior walls, and replace the siding...(the previous owner had not maintained the building since 1955). But despite the amount of work that needs to be done, I have a sense of pride about this Eichler and the neighborhood that it is in.
Before our purchase, we had read a recent article in the SF Chronical about a journalist being uncomfortable about an Eichler that she had inherited from grandmother. It did not make us budge on our decision. We are both in the architecture profession and when we walked through the house for the first time, we fell in love with it...the paint was peeling, the conrete slab was busted in one location, and dry rot/termite damage was in a few of the bedrooms. But we saw the potential of it, the great floor plan, and the natural lighting that you would never see in the newer tract home developments...
Many may have seen it as a lost cause-but we see it as an opportunity
Sounds like you have a fun project ahead of you. We went through a similar process with our "fixer upper" that we bought last summer in Sunnyvale. We also just replaced our roof this week, and should be completing a major re-landscaping project by the end of this month. If you need any bay area contractor info, we'd be happy to share our information. You can get my email address from my profile. Good luck with your project!
SA, welcome to eichler living! good luck with your renovations, keep us all posted! It's always good to have another eichler land in the hands of appreciative owners. -L
Congratulations, we have been waiting a long time for someone to fix up this house. I'm pretty sure your going to be one of our new neighbors on San Antonio Way
Feel free to email me so we can meet up. You'll find this is a great neighborhood
[email protected]
Jeff Sheldon
Rancho San Miguel
Congratulations on your new home and new child.
Rancho San Miguel is a great neighborhood and is
an amazing place to raise a family. You will be Happy!
I am on the Homeowners board and we are getting ready
for our October Homeowners "Steakout" Dinner / 50th Anniversary
Celebration. You should Come on Oct 14th at the RSM Swim Club.
Please contact me for more info on this.
Anything more we can do. just let me know. We just put up a ton of new siding and are about to tackle a new Eichler Sided Garage Door to replace the Roll Up.
Gerald Turetzky
RSM Homeowners Assc.
Los Cerros Ave.
925-938-3560
Thanks!
My wife and I have been doing a lot of preplanning. We've already started on drawing up the as-built construction documents. This weekend, we'll be going on a tour of Eichlers in Marin to get some ideas although in driving through the Rancho San Miguel neighborhood, there are a lot of well-done/maintained houses that have already given us good ideas. It seems as though we will not be able to get a foam roof in before winter so we'll be concentrating on the interiors for a while until spring arrives.
We'll try to make it to the 50th anniversary party. It sounds like a great opportunity to meet the neighbors and perhaps get some tips as well!
Welcome to Rancho San Miguel.
Me and my wife sheila were had fears about that house being sold as a tear down and a Mcmansion going up in it's place.
if there is anything you need just let us know.
the October Stake out is fun you should try and make it, good way to meet and greet.
Hay Gerald let me know how that door goes, it that the rollup door with the eichler siding ?
Michael C Ford
Michael,
I am going to use "Scissors" style lifts on each side of the beam like Rich who is the last house on San Antonio before it curves south.
Much cheaper than the $4200 quote for the roll ups and you only need 4 1/2 sheets of 4 x 8 siding.
I'll keep you posted.
New Blomberg windows came in today so we'll put those in this weekend.
Gerald
I'm curious what is meant by "scissors style lift"--is that a reference to the style used originally?
I replaced the worn original hardware on my single car garage slab door with Holmes E900 hardware. It cost around $700 and included installing a automatic opener with keypad (labor included). I didn't need to replace the original door itself, just add weather stripping.
Jake
Hi Jake,
The scissors style door openers are also called a
"One Piece Tilt Up" and are the Old School Door openers
that alot of Slab Doors use for their lift.
We will simply be taking the Plain front off and
installing Eichler Siding from Jeff on the frame.
Should be great!
