Are we moved in? you ask. Um. No. Unfortunately not.
As I mentioned before, we love the house as is, and quite frankly, I'd move in tonight if we could. But it is a 54 year old house that has had no updates. And if we're going to tackle one big thing, we might as well try to tackle as many as we can at one time.
Big Thing #1: Removing the floors. Yes, I really do like the original tiles, however, as with a lot of construction during that time, the glue they used to stick the tiles down contains asbestos. Yup. We've been told repeatedly that we can just leave it and as long as it's not disturbed, it'll be fine. But my response is, "Didn't we find out that it's not great to live with asbestos?" Especially with a child! Also, we're trenching through the floors for a gas stove and other electric/plumbing needs...which I consider disturbing the asbestos. So yeah, it's going.
Big Thing #2: The kitchen with the amazing mid-century cabinets. Oh how I love you...but you gotta go. We're taking both of the kitchen walls out to completely open up the space. The current living room (where the fireplace is) will become the dining area, there will be 2 long islands in the kitchen (with the fridge, etc recessed into the utility room wall), and this area you're looking at will become the living room.
Big Thing # 3: Again, while we love the original wood panels, there's no insulation behind them. Anywhere. Even the exterior walls. Which, I know we live in California, but we'd still be bleeding money trying to keep the house either cool or warm. So down come the panels (don't worry, we'll put some of them back up) and up goes the sheet rock, insulation, and of course, earthquake retrofitting. While they're in there, we'll also be upgrading all the electrical, as well as installing split AC units. Yay!
Right now our architect is finishing up the drawings (for the kitchen area and for a laundry/mudroom area) and then we'll be able to get permits and get to work! We're hoping to be in the house by late summer. Fingers crossed.
A few years back, when this Eichler dream started forming in our minds, Herman came across this Eichler in San Rafael. Now, while there are some things I don't like about it (why oh why would you cover up the post and beam ceiling?! Why?), we LOVED the openness of it and how the long islands didn't have any uppers. After we purchased our place, we revisited that photo and realized it's the exact same floorplan as our house. So basically we took this photo to our architect and said, "We love this. Can we do it?" And that was that.
There are a few things we wanted to do that we just aren't able to at this time. We really wanted to add more windows in the atrium/hallway, but it got way to complicated and expensive so we axed it. Hopefully at a later date, but you know we'll be happy with it as is. And I'm sure our daughter will be forever grateful that she can exit her bedroom and bathroom without looking into the atrium.