Neighbor changed the look of Eichler Home
I live in a small Eichler neighborhood in San Jose. One of the neighbors just put in a bay window and moved their front door. Needless to say those of us in the neighborhood are shocked. I cannot begin to even tell you how bad the bay window looks. I get chills when I drive by. Does anyone know of a diplomatic way to get the word out in the neighborhood that this kind of change to the Eichler design is frowned upon? We feel our neighborhood is now ruined. I am surprised an architect or contractor would even do the work. They obiviously know nothing about Eichlers.
unfortuate, but it happens all the time.
we live in mt. view and there are numerous houses that have been de-eichlerized. bay windows, horizontal siding, ugly second stories, etc... there's even one with a faux brick facade - yikes!!!
unless you have a home owners asso. that governs appearance, there's not much you can do to reign in someone's bad taste.
as for the contractors... puleeze! they'll do anything a home owner pays them to do.
Thanks for your reply. It's true there is nothing we can do about people changing the look of their Eichler homes. I may just send a generic letter out to everyone in our neighborhood saying we hope they will keep their Eichler homes intact.... and then keep my fingers crossed.
I do know of contractors who will turn work down. Contractors who respect themselves and respect the work they do will walk away from cheap designed jobs. There are good contractors out there!! You just need to find one who is more interested in keeping their good reputation instead of a fast cheap buck.
The inappropriate window was probably the contractor's idea to begin with. They probably got a commission from the bay window company. Very few contractor's understand the mid-century modern aesthetic and if the window, door, fence, etc. is not sold at home depot they don't even know it exists.
