We bought one, took it apart, and put it back.

1156 Parkwood Way is a 1950 Anshen & Allen house on a 6,030 square foot lot. Not a listing we took for a client — a house we owned, budgeted, argued over and sold.

Thinking about doing this? All the photographs About Atherwood

1156 Parkwood Way after renovation: a low-slope 1950 Eichler with grey board siding, a wide driveway, new drought planting and a redwood fence. — 1156 Parkwood Way, Atherwood, after completion. Photography commissioned by the Boyenga Team for the 2024 sale.

Acquired

[price]

Autumn 2023 [confirm date]

Sold

$2,300,000

17 September 2024 · MLS ML81974455

The house

3 bed / 2 bath

1,530 sf on 6,030 sf · marketed at ~1,600 sf

The work

Down to the frame, and back up.

The post-and-beam structure and the plan diagram are what make an Eichler an Eichler, so those stayed. Nearly everything that could be renewed without touching them was renewed.

New dual-pane glazing throughout. All-new electrical and all-new plumbing. New foam roof. Skylights. Insulation and sheetrock. A four-zone heating and air system. Then the finishes: a kitchen built around a Bertazzoni range with quartzite counters and custom cabinetry, a dining area with a George Nelson lamp and a built-in hutch, a smooth-finished fireplace in the living room, a primary suite with a tiled walk-in shower and dual sinks, and a custom front door with sidelights. Outside, new hardscape, a large entertaining patio and planting.

The plan was laid out to Vastu and Feng Shui principles at the client-facing level — which sounds like marketing until you notice how much of both is really about circulation, orientation and where light falls, and how naturally an Eichler plan already sits with that.

Scope

All-new dual-paned windows
New foam roof and skylights
All-new electrical, recessed lighting
All-new plumbing
Four-zone heat and air
Insulation and sheetrock throughout
Kitchen: quartzite, custom cabinetry, Bertazzoni
Primary suite: walk-in shower, dual sinks
Smooth-finished fireplace
LVT flooring
Two-car garage, new modern door
Hardscape, patio, planting, synthetic lawn

The decision we still argue about

We stopped using the slab.

The original heating in a 1950 Atherwood house is tube cast into the concrete floor. At Parkwood we put in a four-zone heat and air system instead.

The case for it is straightforward. It delivers cooling, which these houses have never had and which buyers on the Peninsula now expect. It is serviceable by any competent contractor for the next thirty years. And it removes the single largest unknown from the next owner's inspection report.

The case against is the one we take seriously. Radiant heat is not a feature bolted onto an Eichler — it is the reason the house has no attic, and therefore the reason the ceiling is the roof deck, and therefore the reason the walls can be glass. Walking away from it walks away from something structural about how the house was conceived.

On that house, at that budget, with that slab, we would do it again. On a house whose original system still ran cleanly, we would not. That is the whole answer, and anyone who gives you a general rule about it has not priced one.

What it looked like when we were done.

Photography commissioned by the Boyenga Team for the September 2024 sale.

The entry elevation at 1156 Parkwood Way, with the house number beside a new front door with sidelights. — Custom front door and sidelights. The beam tails carry through the overhang — original geometry, new material

1156 Parkwood Way at dusk, the clerestory and garage lit from inside beneath a low roofline. — Dusk. The roof plane is 1950; everything below the fascia was rebuilt

The living room at 1156 Parkwood Way: a linear fireplace in smooth grey plaster between full-height glass walls opening to the garden. — The glass wall is the whole wall. That is the 1950 idea, kept

The living room looking through to the dining area and kitchen, with exposed beams and a tongue-and-groove ceiling. — Beams left exposed, decking painted out. Clerestory above the fireplace mass

Living room and dining area under exposed beams, with sliding glass to the patio on two sides. — Glass on two sides of one room — why these plans read larger than the square footage

The kitchen with a stainless Bertazzoni range set into pale custom cabinetry under a quartzite counter. — Bertazzoni range, quartzite, custom cabinetry

The rear elevation of 1156 Parkwood Way in daylight, with a deep overhang over a concrete patio and a lawn beyond. — Rear elevation. The overhang depth is what makes the glass survivable in August

The rear garden at 1156 Parkwood Way seen from the corner of the lot, showing the L-shaped plan wrapping the lawn. — The L wraps the garden. No atrium here — the courtyard is on the outside of the glass

The rear patio at dusk, warm light behind full-height glass along the covered terrace. — The reason people buy these. Nothing else on the street does this at night

Dusk view across the patio into the lit dining room and kitchen through sliding glass. — Dining and kitchen read from the garden. One plane of glass between them

The full rear elevation at dusk, the roof folding down over the patio and bedroom wing. — Full rear elevation. Bedroom wing right, living wing left, patio between

What it is worth knowing

Why we put our own project on the site.

Most agents who describe themselves as Eichler specialists have sold some. Fewer have owned one through a full renovation, which is where you find out what these houses actually cost — not what the internet says they cost.

Things we learned at Parkwood that we now tell every Atherwood owner: budget the roof as a system and not a repair; test the slab before you plan anything else; replacement glazing has to match sightlines or the elevation stops reading as an Eichler; and the contractor's prior Eichler experience is worth more than their hourly rate is worth saving.

It also means that when we price a house on Parkwood, Cedarwood, Atherwood or Oakfield, we are reasoning from a project we paid for ourselves.

Talk to us

Weighing a renovation, or a sale after one?

Tell us what you are looking at. We will tell you what we would do, what we would not, and roughly what it costs — based on having written the cheques.