Early 1950s Eichler Brochure for Palo Alto's Greendell Development

 This brochure is one of the earlier Eichler neighborhoods in Palo Alto.  I would guess from the estimated 1956 completion date for the Cubberly High School property that this brochure is from 1954-1955

Greendell Brochure

1958 Sales Brochure for Palo Alto's Meadow Park Eichler Development

 My parents moved into Meadow Park in 1965, but they received some of the original sales brochures from the previous owners of the house.

I've scanned both a clean copy and a slightly marked up copy with prices and "sold" signs from 1958

Clean Brochure

and

Marked Up Brochure

 The latest Eichler Network / CA Modern newsletter highlighted a talented graphic designer who has a knack for Mid-Century Modern design.  Please check out his feature article:

https://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/art-tender-tribute

or visit his sites directly:

https://linktr.ee/foxfacedesign

Original 1950s description of Eichler Swim and Tennis Club

Gus Flach, a neighbor of my parents, gave them copies of some interesting original Eichler documents from the late 1950s.  Gus was the original owner of his 1958 home, while my parents moved into the neighborhood in the mid 1960s.

The first is a 1950s description of the Eichler Swim and Tennis Club in Palo Alto, CA

Once you fill the crack, you can never go back

This addiction struck over 15 years ago.  While visiting a neighbor's recently remodeled Eichler, my father looked up at the ceiling and thought it looked different somehow...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now we caulk every ceiling when it's being repainted.  Just a wet finger and some caulking is all that's required (and a strong neck).

You may never look at the your tongue and groove ceiling the same way again.   Sorry!

Some "Before" Pictures

Here are pictures of our current master bathroom, which had a low-cost remodel done 8 years ago after moving in.  The primary focus at that point was to expand the shower from the original 3x3 stall.  In addition, the original vanity and tiled counter-top (with huge grout lines!) had to go.

First, a shot from the master closet:

 

You can probably tell that the expanded shower pan is a standard sized fiberglass unit, which are a little too short for the space, so about an inch of gypcrete (?) board was added under the tile on the far wall to make it flush.  But otherwise it was easy to install, at least compared to our remodel concept where the shower floor starts level to the rest of the bathroom and slopes down to the drain (which may not even be feasible).


The main issue with this shower is that I should have raised the height of the showerhead, because we have to duck under to get your hair wet.

 

The vanity cabinet was actually custom built by a friend-of-a-friend that does mostly kitchen cabinets.  The countertop is a standard 48-inch Corian prefab unit that was relatively inexpensive.  This setup is very functional with lots of storage, but not very attractive, despite the cool drawer pulls I found.  Just too much white, and somewhat hulking.

Sweet Home 3D

This is an excellent software package for laying out room designs and then visualizing them.  Best of all, it is high-quality, free software that works on Macs, PCs, and even Linux.  Definitely worth checking out:

http://sourceforge.net/community/potm-200910/

Tom and I have been using this software for the last few months, and while it requires a bit of an engineer's mentality to take accurate measurements and adjust the furniture models to your exact dimensions, the end results can be quite realistic.

And it also prints out nice blueprint style documents:

Note that the Concept sketch a few posts earlier was done by our general contractor, who wanted to learn Google Sketchup.  Also a fine product, it emphasizes a different but also interesting visual style.