Appliances!

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This past week/weekend Evan did an amazing job finding appliances for the house. On Friday he drove to Concord and picked up a stackable washer & dryer. We will be putting those in the closet below the master closet and hopefully adding a laundry "chute" (more like a trap door in this case)! I am very excited for that bit. Evan carried these past the first entry stairs all by himself on Friday and then on Sunday I helped him move them into the house. Here they are waiting to be taken in. 

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On Saturday we drove to Redwood City to pick up a 32" wide refrigerator that fits perfectly into the original space for a refrigerator. Evan had been thinking about widening that area into the laundry room to allow for a bigger one, but decided this would be best. So instead of widening it sideways, he will be making the space deeper. The original design calls for a counter depth appliance, but this way, there will be more room for storage within the refrigerator. The closet he is taking space away from behind it will still be useable. But as perfect as it is, moving it in was a bit of a pain...

Fairytale

I remember going to the open house at Mountain house fairly clearly; I parked my car, saw too many people also parking and walking towards the house, took one look up at the house and fell in love. A smile instantly formed on my face and stayed put the rest of the day. And then again every time I think about it. And now every time I step foot on the property. Anyways, walking through the house was a mixed bag of feelings. I was bewildered by the beauty of it all, confused by its complicated plan (I have a very good sense of direction and this house did fool me), critical of the structural flaws and irritated by the amount of people also looking at the house. I wanted it to be Evan’s and only Evan’s. As we walked through it, we started our hypothetical plans for what we were going to do with each space. We would obviously redo the linoleum flooring in the kitchen, level out the very crooked dining room, add a clawfoot tub to the master bath, raise the shower heads to an adequate height (I’m 5’-11” and Evan is 6’-3”...), create a kickass music room, disco ball included, and so on. As I left the open house I was thankful to have seen such a space and saddened that I would not see it again… So I thought!


That house had obviously generated a lot of interest and I did not think that Evan would be able to snag it. Not because I did not believe he was capable of doing so, but because of the insane housing market in Oakland these days. It would be the luck of the draw and I do not do too well with disappointment. Nonetheless, the Redfin listing was continuously open on my work computer for the next few weeks; I would look though the pictures about six times a day, maybe more.* Then came the offer day, where the owners were going to look at all the bids at once and make a decision. I was a nervous wreck at work. While eating lunch with coworkers I had my phone on my leg waiting for a message from Evan. As soon as I got one I called him, he did not answer, I started sweating and then he finally called back and told me he had just written a “love letter.” He emailed it to me and I got teary eyed and knew he would get it. This was probably the first time I really felt that. And he did. And then came the longest two weeks of waiting for him to get his keys.

*The pictures may or may not be available anymore, but here's the original listing: https://www.redfin.com/CA/Oakland/1526-Mountain-Blvd-94611/home/1975748

 

Research Unloaded (post is in progress)

Below is the garage that was built before May, 1 1941 as a permit lists it as “Pres. Garage” or something like that. It’s hard to read. The last Rowland and Rowland permit was 1939 but does not include a garage. I believe the 1939 permit was built by Rowland based on a sketch by Maybeck as it has distinct Maybeck features but does not have the depth of design of the original house. The plugged redwood hinges match the front door and the door arch is gothic in shape. The stone facade is similar to a faux stone foundation detail in the music room (from the 1939 addition). The fenced balcony over the garage is very similar to the same type of structure featured in his Wallen house #1, 1933.

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The entryway is perpendicular to the street as a way of giving a sense of privacy, I believe. Other Maybecks share this feature. On the left is the music room addition (‘39), with the aforementioned faux stone foundation detail and decorative metal grate.

Something interesting to note is the little birdhouse type feature. The yellow glass can be seen in the steel double casement windows and above and to the left. The yellow pane glass, imported from Belgium for $1.50 a piece, is only featured on the original 1927 house. The additions have steel windows with clear glass. The bathrooms have obscured glass. The black slate you can see in the walkway appears the same as several other Maybecks from the ‘20s. The building permit says the original house had a slate roof. I’m assuming it was this same black slate. I believe the Wallen #1 house has a black slate tile roof.

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Though the above picture represents a Mediterranean house and not the Swiss Chalet style, there are some important connections. The steel windows, mini balcony, black slate walkway, side entrance, fireproof materials and Venturi chimney. The stucco above is raw like my Kingsley house and other Maybecks. After the Sep 1923 fire, he became focused on using fireproof materials after many of his creations in the La Loma area burned up, including his own home. He experimented with fireproof materials, most notably he built his own home with burlap sacks dipped in concrete for a type of easy fireproof construction. The house is still considered quite odd by many today and the thin concrete on the sacks would crack and expose the sacks to moisture so they began to decay. To Annie’s ire, he would rip off little samples of the material from the house to give to visitors interested in his experiment. A few years after the sack house experiment, he was building most if not all of his projects out of traditional fireproof materials. He liked to use raw stucco which was unusual as you can see in the above house and the Kingsley house. He had a predilection for materials that were exposed as a way to let nature shine through the house. For roofing, he eschewed the standard cedar shingles (very flammable) or tar and gravel of the time in favor of clay or stone roof tiles. He used clay mediterranean style like above, or black slate, or red terra cotta. The Kingsley house says it was originally a slate roof, then heavy split shakes (rustic cedar shingles) for the next two additions, and finally tar for the last addition. I think this hints at the diminishing guidance he was giving over time. In 1926 he would have been 64, at the peak of his design ardor. He would have designed this house with detailed drawings - he had given up drafting in 1924 in favor of design and getting paid a flat rate for “art work” as he called it. But the design shows all the wonderful attention to detail he was known for. He probably drew every element, down to the hand carved wooden handles to the custom made “electric sconce” light fixtures. For the next two additions, also with V. Rowland, and likely done sequentially because they are very much the same style, he would have been in his seventies and the designs were probably based on loose sketches. I don’t think he designed the light fixtures or fireplace - I would guess he sketched these out and left it up to his friend Rowland to interpret the design as they had worked together for a few years in the late ‘20s.

The orange glass is featured in the front door and back doors. The decorative grill has an Art Deco fish scale design that is repeated in a vent between the stairs going up to the master bedroom and the baseboard area of the master bedroom.

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Below you can see the mini “Swiss Chalet” balcony. Maybeck was interested in the Swiss chalet style. A painting of Swiss chalets from ‘26 shows his interest around the time this house would have begun to be designed.

The small board railing with cutout designs can be seen other Maybeck works.

This small garden area has what looks like an old well. It shows Maybeck’s whimsical, old world style.

This is a classic Maybeck living room. Lots of light, tall ceiling, balcony (like the Reid house),  built in corner cabinets, and a board formed concrete chimney with Venturi vent. The chimney was dressed up by 1951, when Rowland came back to the house to visit, he mentioned he liked the way the fireplace had been improved. One of Maybeck’s odd design choices was to always make a board formed concrete fireplace. Some were quite decorative, using an odd “bubble concrete” with air bubbles in it to make the often large concrete hood less heavy. On this average work of his, it could be as simple as a cube hole with a slanted concrete hood. Many people find this off-putting to this day as it seems to clash with the warm, detailed wood trim that it accompanies.

The galley kitchenette features more yellow glass and a small balcony accessed by a door in the window that goes to the floor. The corner cabinet, arched entry, and the position slightly elevated over the living room were classic Maybeck touches featured in another rumored Maybeck, the Reid house. Not show is to the left, originally would’ve sat a large, 40 or so inch electric range, which was a very unusual feature for the time. In 1927, it would’ve been more likely that people would be switching out their old wood stoves for gas rather than electric.

It’s unusual to see an almost untouched Maybeck kitchen (save the vinyl countertop, linoleum floors, and florescent light fixture, and ‘70s electric range), as the kitchens are considered by most too small for modern tastes.

Here is something funny to see…

The breakfast nook, built sometime in the ‘30s has one window, and you can see it was “pushed out” from the area where you enter the nook. Recall the original windows were yellow glass while the additions, done with less care likely by a Maybeck sketch, are plain glass. The wood is pecky redwood. “A poor man’s carvings” he said somewhere (citation?). The roofs for the pecky additions are heavy cedar split shingles. After the fire of ‘23, Maybeck only specified fireproof materials so it’s unlikely he specified this roofing. It was probably done by Rowland as it was the most common roofing shingle of the time, especially for cottage, arts and crafts, or tudor houses. The light fixtures in the additions look off the shelf. Maybeck designed the light fixtures in his best works, as you can see in his neat drawings for the First Church of Christ, Scientist. The light fixtures for the original house were custom made by “Otar - The Lamp Maker” of Santa Cruz.

Here again you can see the pecky redwood, from the other ‘30s addition besides the breakfast nook. Again the glass is clear now. The grand piano seems to be featured in every project Maybeck did in the mid to late 30s. I think it’s more likely it was one of his touches rather than he exclusively worked for piano players during this time. I believe the music room was done in 1939. Maybeck had switched to only drawings, no drafting in 1924. By 1939 he was 77 or 78 and about to retire in ‘40. At this time he has been documenting sketching out little free design sketches for people.

Another grand piano in the Wallen Maybeck house #2

Here you can see an odd feature I assumed was added by someone in the ‘60s - a modern looking clerestory. On the permit it says to be made of “wire glass,” what most would call security glass. More on this later.

The red shelf below is on hinges and a wheel and it rolls open to show a closet!!! So very cool.

The fireplace may have been specified in the sketch by Maybeck but it’s not a Maybeck fireplace. It looks to be made of river rock.

After thinking the clerestory was home-made by some “amateur modernist”, I was shocked to see something like it in the 1940 Aikin house.

Much is in common between the Aikin house and the Kingsley house. Check out the living room too - very similar to the Kingsley house but with copious use of pecky cypress as he seemed to be using a lot of it from 1926-1940, and especially in the late 30s to 40 it appears… those are the original furnishings as well!! See the huge bubble stone board formed concrete hood to the left.

The master bedroom is absolutely delightful. That’s pretty much all you need to say about that. The walk in closet had been altered poorly at some point with another clerestory. It currently has a tarp over it. To the left, a sloped form apparently used to be for a tree branch that traveled through the house.

The master bathroom has what looks to be an original white dal-tile 4&¼” square tile shower. I’m hoping that under the linoleum is red square terra cotta spanish style tiles with Tunisian tile accents like the other two baths. A large, rustic redwood desk sits next to the window. I may have to put an era-correct clawfoot here. Don’t tell BAHA, OK?

Regarding the materials:

Windows of tinted Belgian glass

Walls in studio and dining room made of wood from General Grant Park - Sequoia National Forest

Wrought-iron electrical fixtures by the late “Otar - The Lamp Maker” of Santa Cruz. Figured tile in bath-room from Tunisia

“Original owner Mary Kingsley, Widow of President of Union Trust of NYC” from a letter included in the disclosure documents.

Regarding the small bedroom, it was built by Albert A. Haskell & Sons. John E. Dinvuddie (?) in 1941 and bears no resemblance to the rest of the house. The walls are covered in 4” clap board. I highly doubt Rowland or Maybeck had anything to do with this bedroom. The third bedroom has a lot of wood paneling. It was likely built around the same time as the little bedroom as the roof is shaped to include both. The green slab doors and ceiling look ‘50s to me, as does the master bedroom closet cabinets, which are a similar color and also done without permits. The wood room has a door that matches the other back doors, being 3” thick with orange glass in it, and was probably moved from the area where to bedrooms start, where it would make sense to have a back door, to the wood room opening to a concrete patio that is unlikely original. I haven’t seen any Maybecks with concrete patios.

 

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Books on books

After my offer was accepted, I was able to gladly focus my obsessive energy towards research. I got down to business with the three main books about Maybeck and looked for any clues linking the house to Maybeck.

 

Bernard Maybeck: Artisan, Architect, Artist. Kenneth H. Caldwell, 1977:

“In 1947 I had the good fortune to acquire an old Berkeley house reputed to have been designed by Maybeck although it lacked any obvious design signatures such as large fireplace, a venturi chimney cap, colorfully stained timbers, or beam ends carved as dragon heads. For several years I was uncertain of its authenticity; it was on no list of Maybeck work that I knew. I later invited Bernard and Annie Maybeck to tea… Much to my delight Mr. Maybeck assured me he had designed the house.”

 

Bernard Maybeck - Visionary Architect by Sally B. Woodbridge:

"This chronology of Maybeck’s work is based on the list compiled by Kenneth H. Cardwell for his monograph, Bernard Maybeck: Artisan, Architect, Artist, published in 1977... the possibility remains strong that he designed more buildings… than are listed here. Some of the houses for which drawings and other records exist have not been located…”

 

The Reid House, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Daniella Thompson

“Intrigue surrounds this beautiful Mediterranean-style house. Was it designed by Bernard Maybeck? The building permit of 1926 lists both the architect and the contractor as the father-and-son team of Rowland and Rowland. The firm is the documented builder of other Maybeck houses. The house displays the essential characteristics that identify Maybeck’s buildings: innovative planning, beautiful spatial relationships, and the creative use of structure and materials. Other clues are… industrial sash in the windows, and Maybeck’s signature Venturi chimney. If these observations are not convincing, a former neighbor, whose early 1950s paper route included this house and who is now vice president of the Berkeley Historical Society, said that way back before the 1950s, his father knew 24 Northampton was a Maybeck."

“The house is approached up a wide stairway to the sheltered side entry, past the twin-chambered chimney, invented by an 18th-century Italian physicist to increase the upward draft…. The low tiled porch roof. The wide, heavy, plank front door was sandblasted for texture, and the grilll over the centered window…

“Beyond the door is… an arched door inviting entry into the light-filled living room…

“The massive fireplace anchors the north end of the living room, and a room-width balcony, reached from upstairs, crosses just above the fireplace. The great… windows of industrial sash fill the room with light and look out on mature trees that partially hide the stunning views beyond. The… living room floor… continues into a small former dining room with low, beamed ceiling and built-in corner cabinet. This room opens to the central patio, which is surrounded on three sides by dining room, kitchen…

“Tucked behind a door near the entry is a… shower. A right turn at the top of the stairs leads to a compact half bath. The bedroom’s cast-iron curtain rods and their rings… are original to the house, as are the electric candle sconces. At the bottom of the stairs… floor-to-ceiling windows looks out to the patio… Just down the hall is an original bathroom, including fixtures and four walls of blue and tan flower tiles. On the right is the third original bedroom, with beautiful beamed ceiling; it faces the patio.

“Leaving the house by the dutch door, which opens to the rear garden…

“Enjoy the lovely garden and the classic tile roof.”

 

Inset: The Rowland-Maybeck Connection

“For a few years in the mid-1920s, Maybeck collaborated with the contractors Volney Hart Rowland (1874-1958) and his son Hermon (1900-1975). Originally based in Visalia, the Rowlands arrived in Berkeley c. 1923 from Bakersfield where Volney was a rancher. Indeed, throughout his working life, Volney alternated between farming and building.

It appears the Rowlands met Maybeck as soon as they arrived in Berkeley, for all their early Berkeley houses were constructed in Maybeck’s neighborhood. These included the Maybeck-designed Giesler House (1924) at 2577 Buena Vista Way. In 1926, the Rowlands worked on Maybeck’s home (the “Sack” house) and his “Cubby” house.

In its unsolved mystery”