A Rebuilt Eichler Comes Alive in Orange

What began as a tragedy turned into a bit of an architectural triumph – and a neighborhood party – with the unveiling of a brand new Eichler home rebuilt after a fire destroyed the original.

The home, at 1789 North Shaffer Street in the city of Orange’s Fairmeadow tract, burned in late 2013. The longtime, popular homeowner died in the blaze.

Real estate broker Kelly Laule and business partner Bryan Ross, who had teamed before on Eichler renovations but never before on a from-the-ground-up recreation, determined that the replacement home would be a real Eichler – updated for the 21^st century.

The home was unveiled to the public in March, with two events, an evening reception by special invitation, and a public open house the next day.

“We did everything we could in our power to make sure an Eichler was put back here,” Laule said in a short talk during the evening event. "This was something no neighborhood ever wants to go through,” she said earlier, of the fire.

Several dozen people, many of them neighbors but also fans of mid-century modernism from other neighborhoods, enjoyed the event, marveling at the house – which looks just like an Eichler.

It might not have turned out that way, though. Several would-be buyers of the lot had plans that did not include rebuilding an Eichler. Neighbors watched warily, hoping their largely intact and lovingly cared-for neighborhood would remain intact.

Laule warned those who were interested in building something other than an Eichler, “I’m going to tell you right now, the neighborhood is going to make a huge stink, and the neighborhood is going to fight you on this.”

“That’s when I called Bryan and I said, we’ve got to get some money together. We’ve got to buy this house.”

“Everybody was completely paranoid,” Ross said of the neighbors, in an interview while construction was underway. “ ‘Is anybody going to try to build a big monster that doesn’t fit?’ It was a huge concern. It’s on a major street, so people come by all the time. They rubberneck – people jogging, women pushing babies in strollers. ‘Is it going to be an Eichler?’”

It was challenging to build a glass-walled home while meeting all current building codes, Laule and Ross have explained in interviews.

Walking into the home today, any Eichler fan would feel right at home. Yet the home has significant updates, including an insulated foam roof, commercial grade dual-pane, coated glass, and bamboo kitchen cabinets.

It has a few aesthetic changes as well, including drywall interiors, not Eichler’s Philippine mahogany. The fireplace is entirely different too – an artistic see-through model that attracted much attention during the open house.

“The fun of doing something like this is, your creativity and imagination can run wild,” Laule said. “You have 31 different flavors. There are so many things you can do."

”Look at the house in Palm Springs,” she said, referring to a new 'Eichler' that was recently built there and sold very quickly. “Our houses are night and day, completely different, and both went really fast.”

“The sliding bathroom doors, some people said why would you do that?” Laule said, referring to the Orange house.  “Some people loved it. Not everybody is going to love everything you do.”

The engineering proved challenging. “Most houses today require a lot of solid sheer walls” for seismic structural concerns, Laule said, “but with all the glass in an Eichler that isn’t possible. So there are big straps on top of the roof that kind of pull things together.”

“These [Eichler] houses don’t come even close to current standards,” Ross said in an interview during construction. “I’m making it look exactly the same, yet it will perform like a 2015 property.”

Structurally, Ross said, during the construction process, “This property is going to be a thousand times better than it ever was.”

The home sold quickly – even before it was completely done and before it hit the market, Laule said. The buyer was a friend. The cost was $925,000.

“This one was done a little harder, a little colder [with the] surfaces,” Laule said about the look of the house. “The next time we might do more of a walnut-faced door or wood slider door for the bathroom and closets.”

Yes, Laule and Ross are thinking about building another Eichler, maybe several. And they won’t wait until an existing Eichler burns down.

“If we can find land and it makes financial sense, we would like to do more. It would have to pencil out financially,” she said. “There would be demand for it almost everywhere in Orange County.”

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