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That article about Kathleen Haley complaining about her Eichler home is quite aggravating.

Any house, Eichler or not, that hasn't been upkept for 52 years is definitely going to be in need of repairs.

Poor insulation was a common problem with most houses built in the 1950's. If she thinks that is worthy of complaining, many houses in Northern Canada were insulated with newspaper in that era. (It's a little colder when you are north of Cali)

The "funky radiant heating" she refers to as "weird" is actually one of the more efficient ways of heating a home.

I hope that the house ends up in the hands of an Eichler fan who is willing to renovate instead of demolish. It's this type of quick-fix-convenience thinking that is spearheading the unsustainable future of America.

nils above speaks the truth. that was really one of the more anger-inducing design related articles i've read in quite a while.

Agreed, that article from that woman was infuriating. Poor thing lives for free in Palo Alto. Perhaps she should work to fix that house up herself to pay off some of that bad karma she's been building up. Or she could give the house to me. I'd love to live for free in a sprawling indoor/outdoor modern house with radiant heat rather than pay rent on my little one-bedroom. The nerve to write something like this in a city where even a studio apartment is outrageously expensive!

The Chron should be ashamed that they paid a spoiled brat for that whiney piece. I can't believe that she has the gall to complain about having to suffer the indignity of free rent in an area with some of the highest property values in the nation. Stunning.

Yeah, when I read that article on Saturday, I immediately wrote a letter to the editor saying essentially what Nils is saying here. Those McMansions won't function after 50 years with sub-par maintenance, either...

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that had a strong reaction to the Eichler piece. The picture of the linoleum was too much...regardless of the quality, did she really expect everything to last forever?

Having owned and lived in an Eichler for ten years, I can honestly say that even with some substantial improvements, they are not the most energy efficient houses ($300 monthly PGE bills each winter if you want to stay warm). With that said, I still feel that living in the clean lines of this architecture which create the sense that my main living area actually extends to the backyard because of those awesome floor to ceiling windows, to me, more than makes up for the thick socks and fleece I choose to wear a couple of months a year...

Oh, boo-hoo. Are we supposed to feel badly for the writer? She lived rent-free for months. Her family should sell the house--and hopefully to an Eichler preservationist. I understand the points she was trying to make, but why the Chron would bother publishing such a whiny diatribe is beyond me. I'm with laila on this one.

I loved the "original" orange sofa she was sitting on. Kills me that she's clueless and unappreciative, where so many would be very grateful.

That ungrateful writer has nothing to complain about. It isn't Eichler's fault that neither she NOR her family maintained the house. Let me know when you hear of an indestructable house that requires no maintenance over a 40+ year period.

The whiner must be related to someone who works for the Chronicle.

How annoying. She should feel blessed to have that old house.

Wow. Did the Eichler article not read like a freshman English paper to anyone else where the assignment was "tone."

I can't figure out if she's related to someone at the Chronicle or just knew the right person to smile all silly at (or blow) to get this published.

What a waste of space for the Chronicle.

UGH.

Seems like her grandmother had great style.
Anyone else thinking how easy a renovation this would have been---no need to strip off layers and layers of bad seventies and eighties updating.

The cosmetic stuff would be a cinch -- the structural issues worry me. Decades of leaking roof probably means some major issues with rot, plus there's the known plumbing problem, plus if those systems were neglected, the others probably were too!

There comes a point at which a teardown makes more economic sense because the house is so far gone that "rehab" involves essentially rebuilding it. It'd be great if the house found its way into the hands of an Eichler enthusiast, but I'd hope that enthusiast got a really good inspection and a resulting price break first.

It felt as if she was even whining about, or dismissive, of the fact that her grandmother left the furniture and lime cabinets as they were from the day she moved in. I can't imagine being so lucky as to have had such a stylish grandmother whose stuff wasn't given away or sold as soon as she passed away.

I'm in the process of trying to recover my grandfather's remains and art work from a friend who ran off with them when he died. I have no sympathy for Haley.

I understand bitching about the roof leaking. Nobody likes that in a place they just moved into.

But Jesus hoppin' Christ, how dare your grandma have not repainted as often as you would have. Oh wait, you don't paint either. Shut up, whiny woman.

If I was living rent free, and I didn't like the colors and furniture? I would re-do. Its not hard. Was Grandma supposed to know this was going to be a Pottery Barn kid and prepare? As far as I can tell your grandmother had more style than you do, orange couch and all.

LOL @ Shari's tone comment. The poor girl has some growing up to do. Hopefully the Chronicle has learned something from this experience.

I'll trade my inherited mid-cen home for the Eichler . I love floor heating.

The story was hysterically funny----she wasn't talking about style she was talking about living---obviously the family doesn't have the money right now to fix it up and maybe Granny was heavily in debt---and the family had to pay her taxes---since we are all making things up----some of these postings are absurd.

I didn't know that those who respect and honor the Eichler style were so personally offensive and rude. Try to toughen up that thin skin. Your gorgeous Eichler houses will still make you a fortune.

Hmm-Where have we seen this before? Young woman, ideal suburban setting, yet dissaatisfied. Sounds like a job for the Stepford Mens Association.

I thought the article was hilarious! I don't think it matters whether one has a generous relative or purchases a house on one's own. I recently purchased a home "worth" >$700,000, a bargian even in Santa Cruz. The granite counter tops and double paned windows fooled me. The previous owners Jo and Jo Fleming failed to disclose problems with the plumbing (we suspect it's the reason they decided to move on); we also discovered pinholes in the heating ducts, and that they'd painted over mold that had overcome the house due to a major drainage issue. Any working person, cannot buy/occupy a house where raw sewage ends up in the front yard, or as in our case the bathtub and flowing out of the shower in the master bedroom. We did pay a plumber to inspect the place before making an offer. I guess we should have chosen a more reputable one. At least Ms. Haley is fully disclosing the issues to potential buyers, making light of the major renovations that would be necessary for most people to feel satisfied with a million dollar estate, as well as those who would decide to trade the expensive overhaul in favor of building a modern home. If I recall correctly, it's illegal to charge rent for a unit with plumbing that doesn't work and probably roof leaks as well. Would you let your daughter live there? As an occupier of a sometimes unlivable home, I feel alot of the above comments are highly crude and inappropriate. Perhaps the article will inspire an eichler enthusiast to purchase the home. In the meantime, I hope I never end-up in a homeowners association with most of the posters. I thought home and garden enthusiasts could take a joke.

Miss Haley points out some very key flaws with the Eichler design that endanger the longevity of those types of houses.

The part that disturbs me the most is the heating system. That type of system has its merits and is a fantastic solution for heating prisons/penitentiaries; no large ducts leading away from the cells and no radiator apparatuses that prisoners can scavenge for weapons. Having a home heated by water means that you are leveraged to the cost of the energy used to heat that water. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to raise the temperature of one gram of water just one degree centigrade. How many outdoor swimming pool owners run their pool heaters during the winter? It’s very hard to find any home with this type of heating system built after the energy crisis of the late 1970’s.

Another problem with the design is obviously the plumbing. Houses older than 50 years start to experience structural problems with the materials used to construct the pipes that connect houses to the sewer services. Anybody who has ever had the pleasure/pain of restoring an older Victorian era home can attest to the financial burden it is to replace their sewer line connection, often made from kiln-fired clay, with more modern materials like PVC. Unfortunately, all pipes are susceptible to nature and Giant Redwoods were really popular in Palo Alto at the time the house was constructed.

If the sewer line were constructed or collapsed under the house and not the driveway, then the heating system will likely need to be torn up because the Eichlers do not have a crawlspace or basement due to… the heating system! I wonder how many of these houses survived the Loma Prieta of 1989?

In essence, Eiclers were really part the version 1.0 attempt at relatively affordable tract housing.

The most aggravating thing to me, after reading such an idiotic self-indulgent article (Eichler) and the other (how tacky we all are if we follow Pottery Barn's visual clues for displaying family photographs), was being lectured by Ms. Evans either through the articles or in letter retort. Granted, noone should be swearing at her (and I certainly did not), but neither should she be publicly lecturing dissenting subscribers. The paper is cynical and rude and, after her rant, my subscriptions for home and business are cancelled. Write about the housing issues we all face, how to repair, how to do it green, how to find affordable housing. That paper needs new writers and needs them badly.

I agree that this article reads like an 8th grade book report. I don't understand how it was ever published by a major newspaper.