An MCM 'Dream' Come True

John Hayes and Cookie Apichairuk were ready, in 2013, to leave apartment living and become homeowners—mid-century modern style.

"I definitely wanted something with clean lines," said Cookie, explaining that they weren't specifically hunting for an Eichler, but that's what ultimately fit the bill.

They found a 1970s-era Eichler in the Bell Meadows neighborhood of Mountain View that she said "was pretty well maintained for how old it is." They loved many aspects of their find, including a wedge-shaped, cul-de-sac lot backing up to a creek.

"It was even the model we wanted," Cookie said happily. "I really like the double gable, but I also really like that they [the ceilings] weren't painted."

Other aspects of the four-bedroom, two-bath fell short of their vision for their first house as a married couple.

"They wanted to open up the space in their house," San Francisco architect John Klopf said of his marching orders from the new homeowners. "You knock out a few walls, do some structural tests, and then you have one big space."

"It was a gut remodel, so everything was stripped," he added. Overall, the effect was to "take what was a production home and make it a custom home…Her goal wasn't just to have a nice house. She wanted a nice Eichler."

"Most of the houses in our neighborhood are painted, and we wanted a natural wood look," Cookie said of the exterior siding, which had been covered with stucco.

"The contractor took extra care to line up the boards," Klopf said of San Jose-based Flegel's Construction Co. and its installation of cedar siding that starts at the home's front and runs inside, through the center atrium, concluding in the backyard.

While different than most houses nearby, he said, "It's the idea of the original look…We tried to use the usual Eichler 'vocabulary.'"

"We wanted to tie the indoor-outdoor together a little better…[though] we love the continuity that was already there," said Cookie, a knitwear designer who specializes in socks.