An eclectic 1930s house wasn’t what these homeowners were looking for—but it ended up being just what they wanted.
Jim McClintock is good with numbers. By the time the retired marketing executive and his partner, Richard Graves, found this French Eclectic– style house in Los Angeles’s Toluca Lake neighborhood, he tallied they had visited some 252 properties. “This house was the happy ending to our sixteen-month search,” Jim says.
But while the couple loved the 1939 three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath house the moment they saw it, it was not at all what they had set out to find. “In our mind’s eye, we kept seeing that typical L.A. Spanish-style house: red-tile roof, bougainvillea and a palm tree in the yard, situated on a hillside,” says Jim, who now works as a yoga teacher and is a trustee of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. “But then we saw this and recognized its potential.”
One of the features that captured the couple’s imagination on their first walk-through was the one-story house’s level yard, with a pool in the back, which would allow them to easily meld indoor and outdoor living. “So many hillside houses we saw required having to go down a flight of stairs to get outside,” says Richard, a website developer. “We wanted a home where you could be outdoors immediately, with no effort.” Once theirs, “the series of dark, choppy spaces with small windows” would require a lot of work—in two phases, over eight years—to fulfill that goal.
Esta historia es de la edición September 2018 de This Old House Magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición September 2018 de This Old House Magazine.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Mobile kitchen island
TOH DIY expert Jenn Largesse shows how to build a rolling kitchen cart with a butcher-block top
Bathtub tray
TOH general contractor Tom Silva and TOH host Kevin O'Connor construct a slatted zebrawood caddy to hold grooming essentials, a book, and even a glass of wine, for those who like a long soak
Navigating the rise in mortgage rates
Looking to buy—or refinance—and feeling frustrated by lenders’ sky-high interest rates? Here’s how to get the best deal
Graceful grasses
With dramatic foliage and distinctive plumes, ornamental grasses come in sizes to suit virtually any garden
A better asphalt driveway
It's long-lasting and recyclable, and it weathers extreme temperatures. You can repair small cracks and divots in asphalt, too. Here's what you need to know to get-and maintain-a great-looking asphalt driveway
Modernizing a mid-century house
A family turns to TOH to renovate a 1960 house that had been awkwardly expanded over time. Their goal: to create a contemporary, energy-efficient, open-plan home that is fully accessible for a son with mobility issues
Making a house her own
Renovating in stages over nearly two decades, a homeowner transforms a once forlorn bungalow into a cozy, very personal space
A little house that lives large
A reimagined interior and second-story addition double the living area inside a narrow shotgun house, while respecting its historical roots
Before & After: Bath Fit for a Queen Anne
Classic meets modern in this primary-suite retreat
Before & After: Kitchen Moving a wall makes it work
Grabbing a few feet from the adjacent dining room yields major layout improvements