"Its Concrete" examples of a Bay area concrete artists work

love this sink

adorable planter idea- do cacti drink any water?

connected concrete pavers or stand alones with black river rock? hmm.

forget the pepple floor, might be useful for shiatsu foot massage but its too busy, like the bench and glass door

The circular cut out in island for stool storage is wonderful

love the Lamp...

I really like the concrete work here, and since we won't be doing any major revisions to the kitchen or baths til springtime- if then, I have decided to put some favorite images here to remain inspired and get feedback.

http://www.agapedesign.it/prod_cat.contenitori

great stuff-modern neato housegoodies

http://www.gnr8.biz/categories.php?cPath=1_23

Glass Doors and Birds

http://bit.ly/6D2tV

you must see this video, its worth the cut and paste just to see it. we have been through this , only husband walked right through the glass after out friend closed the door for him unbeknown -

400 bucks later and new glass for the door.

the Longest Chamber of Cold

The hallway is just so strange. It is the narrowest of any Eichler hallway. The mistlite panels are pretty neat to look through when the moon is out and shines through making kaleidoscope images and sparkles but this passage way is so narrow, its a good thing that we are smallish sized folk. And when it is cold outside ( below 43 degrees seems to be the magic number...) this hall smply sucks cold air into the entire guest bed/bath and spare rooms wing. I feel like I am suiting up to get down to the end of the hallway- big fluffy wookie robe donned.

I have decided that this model was intended purely for little short people.

oh, and no, those hall lights aren't original- someone stuck those up before we came onboard and they are the cheapest and ugliest available. Anyone have the short arm ball lamps for sale??? we need atleast 2 maybe 3 would be best.

sink or trash art?

well we had to say goodbye to ths gem, the old metal stripping that I am so fond of was not salvageable after replacing the basin...sadly, the undermount sink will have to wait until we have new countertops and we can't decide between cast cement and paperstone. Corian is always nice too.

We encountered some problems getting the old faucet removed from the sink porcelain mold holes which had great copper tube pipes stuck in there. The object was to not damage the pipes as we lifted them through a much too small hole . I wrestled them out using a silicone hotpad as a hand grip- my husband was impressed because he had failed in his attempt earlier but I was determined to not go the hardware store for the 4th time that day.

woodwork yum

mmm. nice cabinets and woodworking joins

Who would do this?

Well, it took a dremel tool with a wire brush circular attachment and paint thinner- and 5 hours... to remove this old paint that had been sunbaked onto the mistlite panels. what a mess.

Out with the old!

first project. The toilets are leaking and destroying the doors. You can geta small rebate if you switch to low flow, so here are the ToTo toilets with fancy additional seats.

The house untouched for 50 years

We bought this house. Actually, it is a model E-111 (I think). The only difference is that the washer and dryer are piped in the garage, the master bath layout is slightly changed and the guest bath is one space moved towards the rear of house-oh and square footage is 120 sq. feet less. The architects Anshen and Allen do not have available blueprints available online. I may have to drive over to their office and start begging. ( Eichler was a developer, not an architect). Cosmetic needs abound. Save for an icky yellow basic paint job, and removed ancient vinyl tile flooring then coated in blah grey porch paint- it is as original as they come. Lots to do. I think that having something with so many original surfaces intact actually creates fear of renovating, in losing something pure. Unfortunatley , most of the surfaces do not have any visible pure charm left, so we embark upon the transformation

It's Raining

I remember the original closing documents. "some small pooling in backyard..."
I have been repeating this to myself 100 times a day all week as the yard becomes a new swimming pool. I checked the water line which is now level with the slider doors for 2 hours before trudged out there in my wading boots and started digging trenches .

Atrium love

well, new cocoa shell mulch smells like... CHOCOLATE, you step inside atrium and immediately think of coffee and dark chocolates. hmm. Cocoa shells seem to catch some spores during the rain and grow a touch of white mold. It does have a lovely deep color and composts well.

Removing Juniper

Many Eichler renovation purists and preservation boards say to "try and preserve all original landscaping" but the Juniper behind our house which covers the entire hillside reminds me of some overgrown and scary spider hiding muppet hedge. It has to go. I opened my front door after "The Tree Man" was here with a crew of 4 for 6 hours and here is what I saw... the neighbors admit that they were all worried the front yard would remain buried in juniper stums and brush for months, but the Tree Man showed up on time and chipped it all! yeah.

It will be quite a project to rebuild the retaining wall which is currently mere rotten woodboards housing numerous ant farms and repalce with some sleek concrete wall bench and terrace out the hill for more enjoyable landscaping- I would like a meandering pathway up the hill.

What do you do with original cabinets?

Before we tear the kitchen apart, we decided to try living with it for a year, just in case we didn't want a brand new Henry Built cabinet system or gorgeous woodworking to replace our redwood and masonite 1959 cabinets. Actually, with multiple layers of white paint , panels of cherry veneer from the local hardware store at $ 80 a 4x8 panel with waterbased stains applied ( to replace the icky molding masonite), and some mid level stainless handles- it is working for now.