A recent article about an Eichler renovation brings up a good point and something to keep in mind when planning a renovation, especially of a vintage home. While it is wonderful to update and modernize, it's equally important to keep what still makes sense from the original design. For example...
The owner, Loni Nagwani, (whose kitchen is shown in the photo) was ready to gut the original kitchen and put in a full, modern Italian kitchen. According to the Atomic Ranch article, before the work began, she started to have nightmares - she says, "Every time I tried to make the layout work with the fridge and other things moved somewhere else, I’d end up putting them back where they were in the first place. It makes you realize that actually there’s nothing wrong with the design, that maybe you’re the problem.”
In the end, she and her husband developed a new kitchen that retained the best of the old, like the original "zolatone" cabinetry (which apparently is unusual to find these days) and the vintage cooktop while updating what needed work.
Add this to the list of renovation stories to remember when planning a job of your own - aside from potentially saving money, it can also preserve history and help celebrate what most likely made you love your home in the first place - its history and roots.
Featured in the currently available Summer 2009 issue of Atomic Ranch.
Image: Jim Brown/Atomic Ranch
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Shaw's Original Fir...
How To Make Perfect Bacon in the Oven
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
I love Loni's kitchen. Her home was featured on HGTV and you can view the episode on her website. Just google her, she is a real estate agent who specializes in Eichler Homes. This kitchen haunts me as I absolutely wish it was mine. The original stove and paint, OMG, heaven. Such a treasure!
I'd love to see more stories like this about how to make existing spaces work with less drastic renovation measures. Imagining the amount of time, effort, and resources wasted because someone gets a bee in his/her bonnet about the necessity of 'gutting' is truly sickening.
I bought this issue last week and really enjoyed this article. Those cabinets are stunning, imo. Obviously this kitchen was well planned, and Loni realized she couldn't improve on it.
Check out that peninsula on wheels - love it!
It's hard for me to want to click through to read an article when there is a grammatical error within the first 4 words. However, my love for Eichlers won out. Beautiful kitchen remodel. How I wish I had an Eichler! I grew up in one and I'm SO bummed my parents sold it when I was four years old. Perhaps some day I will be so lucky.
Wendy, you can't say you "grew up" in a house if you left it when you were four!
I've seen too many Eichlers with new country kitchens and some that were completely "tuscanized". So it's a good thing that people finally seem to get it. Don't rush into renovation, but live in such a home for a while. It may grow on you the way it is. And if it doesn't: please leave it alone and buy a style that's more to your liking.
My husband and I were just discussing the other day how glad we were that the kitchen in our Eichler was not original when we purchased it. We were able to demo it with a clear conscience. We have neighbors with original kitchens and they are falling apart but they don't have the heart to replace them. And I don't blame them. The original kitchens are great.
YES! "Updating" a classic ranch, California Modern, Eichler/Alexander house should mean going back close to the original design, NOT adding awful granite countertops and Tuscan cabinet trash, IMHO>