My wife and I have long had an interest in the Craftsman-style homes of the Arts and Crafts architectural movement of the early twentieth century in America but it wasn’t until a stay at Disney’s California Grand Hotel in Anaheim that we made the decision in earnest to remodel our 1980s suburban track home into an arts and crafts revival.
We started with some furniture pieces and then painting of the interior. The work was (and still is) to be done in phases. The first phase was to install floors, doors, windows, and trim in the living room, dining room, downstairs, and hallways. The second phase was to complete the bathrooms and bedrooms. Finally, the kitchen would be the last stage. Current work as of the end of 2021 was the second of the three bathrooms.
Most of the interior painting was completed by Bob Zerby and his crew. Doors and windows were supplied by Dolan’s Lumber of Walnut Creek, California. The exterior doors and windows were installed by Billy Alcantara and SafeShield Construction. I installed the interior doors, trim, and stain. Trim has been provided by The Moulding Company of Concord, California. The Floor Store in Concord handled the flooring. The bathrooms have been outfitted with Kohler products and tile from Floor and Decor in Pleasant Hill.
All of the vendors did an excellent job. Any errors or mistakes are mine, although, to be fair, the overall concept is an arts and crafts revival from an era more than a hundred years removed and I therefore consider any imperfections to be the result of “planned incompetence” on my part.
And then life happened. My father-in-law passed away in February 2021 and in 2022 my mother-in-law decided to sell their house and move in with her other daughter. So we bought it. Just 3.1 miles down the same street we have had the luxury of not having a hard move-out/move-in date. We have also had the curse of not having a hard move-out/move-in date, so as of April, 2023 we are still in the process of moving. The goal is the same — an arts and crafts revival — but we are also downsizing. The place also comes with a swimming pool, and since any body of water surrounded by land is technically a lake, we have named it The Lake House.
Click on the images below to launch a larger, full-size image and caption, and be sure to come back as new images are being added on a regular basis. Be sure to check out the sidebar feeds specifically tailored to the restoration and revival movement. You are also invited to post your comments below.
The Old House …
After
Before
IMG_1277
IMG_1278