Bunk Loft and Bed Design in Tahoe

I've spent more hours looking at bunk beds than I probably should admit:)

After looking at many many options, what’s below is an idea for my ideal plan.

To start with, here's a photo of a 'bunk loft' I saw in another house in Tahoe... this is the inspiration for most of what I'm looking for. 

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In Kaia’s bedroom, I’m imagining a twin loft bed perpendicular above a queen bed. It’s a really tall ceiling, so this should be able to be seven or eight feet high. It can serve as an extra bed, but also a fort/den for Kaia.

the bunk would be fixed to the wall, with only the ladder (ideally black metal) connecting it to the ground.

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Downstairs, in the games room, I put a bunk loft across the entire length of one wall. Here, I've drawn everything out in 3D, to scale, on top of to scale floor plans.


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On a 9' 6" ceiling, I think you can have that bunk loft at say 6' 8" high from ground, and have ~30" head clearance (accounting for depth of the material). Steel or wood ladders on each side (there’d be two twin mattresses up there)

Then in the alcove, a built in Murphy bed, with shelves either side, and above. filling out the rest of the alcove and extending a bit beyond, is a built in seat. The murphy bed folds down over this seat:

Murphy Bed Up

Murphy Bed Up

Murphy Bed Down

Murphy Bed Down

One more view, with pool table marked out for size too:


Pool table is marked in green, ideal cueing area is in blue

Pool table is marked in green, ideal cueing area is in blue





Some inspiration images I took this from...

Murphy bed folding down over a couch (click to scroll through three images):




But imaging it coming down over more of a built in seating bench instead of couch, like this.

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Or maybe even done to match the seat around the fireplace in great room.

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Either way, it would be useful to have storage integrated underneath. There will be a bunch of bedding to stash somewhere in this room.

And, to add a bit more complexity… I'd want power on each side of the murphy bed...and in the bunk loft...:)









Al

Beware: Do not use Eichler Solutions

Wanted to share our most recent experience with Eichler Solutions so that other people don't suffer the same fate. 

We've used this company before to replace an original Arcadia sliding door with a new one. They were a little slow, and horribly uncommunicative - but ultimately showed up and did a good job of the install itself, so we forgave them their foibles. 

However, in our most recent encounter with them, it's been very significantly worse. 
- We are still waiting for the install, or even *any* kind of communication 4 months after submitting the order
- The originally scheduled install was two months ago, which came and went with no communication. I have emailed Roman, Sergiy (the owner) multiple times to no avail. I've called him and he just said 'it will be a lot longer' and basically hung up on me. I called the previous admin Tamara, who said she doesn't work there any more. Apparently most of the install crews also left. 

After three emails chasing for an update, three phone calls, and three text messages, I'm left with no option but to assume they're going out of business and I'm going to lose my money from the deposit. 

There are some fantastic contractors out there. Eichler Solutions are not one of them. Do not use. I'm not normally so black and white - I don't know the full story of what's going on with them. But the total lack of communication I find rude and unacceptable. 

If anyone has any better recommendations for a contractor to order and install new Arcadia doors, I'd love to hear them.

Eichler Renovation phase one complete: before and after photos

After about 18 months of work, we've completed the first phase of our renovations on our 1959 Eichler. We wanted to keep and respect the soul of the original Eichler design, but bring it up to date. Balancing a contemporary take on mid-century modern with the original, pure mid-mod aesthetic. 

All photos on the left are the 'before', and the 'after' is on the right.

Above: we changed the kitchen from a closed off U-shape to a more open design with two parallel islands. We moved the main entrance into the house over to the right, so that the tall appliances were up against a wall. This also means when you walk in you see the view of Mount Diablo, rather than walking straight into the back wall of the kitchen.

 

Above: another shot of the two parallel islands.

Above: this is now the view from first entering the house from the Atrium. That's Mount Diablo in the background. In place of hideous fake brick we have reclaimed wood, and in place of those tiles we have polished-concrete style large format tiles from Porcelanosa. (We went with tiles rather than actual polished concrete so we can get access to repairing our radiant heating underneath if we need it). 

Above: The problem with renovations: they call attention to what you haven't done. Landscaping is next (see the planned designs here).

Above: the family room. In most places we kept the mahogany paneling where we could, but the paneling here wasn't in good enough condition - too many big holes and water damage. We kept the pieces and used them to reskin doors to keep the mahogany feel elsewhere. 

In the photo on the right you can just about make out our flush reveal baseboard with a metal channel indented. If you were ever thinking of doing this: don't. It's vastly more complicated than it's worth for something you never look at. 

Above: another shot of the family room. 

Above: view from dining room and down to living room. We re-oiled the mahogany panels but otherwise kept them untouched. We removed the brick hearth in front of the fire, but haven't yet converted it to gas. We also stripped the cross-beam, which took forever - but haven't yet decided what color to stain it. 

Above: view from the atrium. Previously you entered in the door on the right and walked straight into the back of the kitchen. Now you enter on the left and look at Mt Diablo.

(The new pipe sticking out from under the orange chair is for a future gas firepit). 

Above: view from Atrium to what is now entryway. We are planning to tile the atrium in the same tile and at close to same level as interior, to make it feel more indoor-outdoor. So this is a little unfinished for now. 

First round of landscape designs

First phase of landscape designs complete! Lots of good ideas and plans in here. Designer has presented two different options, for us to pick and choose the elements we like (or tweak) as necessary. 

Common points about all designs:

 - Far corner of garden has raised deck with recessed hot tub. this is the corner that gets the last light of the day and you can also see over the house to the sunset. 

 - There is an 8'x10' space left marked as 'studio by owner' on the left hand side - this is the idea of adding an additional space by building out a studio space that can function as flex-space for office/play room/guest room. We're not yet sure on whether we'd do this but we asked him for now to assume we would.

 - the right hand side of the house is mostly a path front to back, but with addition of bamboo outside fireplace windows so you dont just stare at fence

 - bamboo is also used in entry way at front of drive on the outside of the atrium windows facing the driveway, and along the front side of the house

 - the front landscaping is mostly drought tolerant planting but with some retaining walls to break up the space and provide interest. the material of the walls and layout differs with each option.

 - The inside of the atrium is raised a little and tiled with same floor tiling as inside

 - on your way out to the back yard, immediately as you go out either patio door a small section there is also tiled with the same indoor tile to help bridge indoors and outdoors together

 

Option A.

 

Key points about this one:

 - outside the main kitchen window is a long wall with a water feature flowing into a trough. behind that is various foliage and a random shaped path providing an alternative path to the hot tub. 

 - the built in barbecue wraps around to an island for outdoor bar seating near the hot tub/bbq.

 - shade would primarily come from the existing under-eave space, a new tree near the studio, and umbrella over table.

  - at the front of the house the fence is brought forward to bring the tree 'into the backyard' - and close to Kaia play area, so could have playhouse etc underneath it. a pathway from the driveway then takes your through a gate so you can get around to the back garden (say if people were meeting us out back for a BBQ) or around to the bathroom back door without needing to go through front. 

 - the long strip of green is for kaia to play in - though whether that's actually grass or some other material is a choice

 - to the left of that is a nice material wall with a fold-up washing line against it. 

 - between the play area and the studio are a few veggie planter boxes

 

some 3d views:

From kitchen:

 

 

From outside our bedroom, showing water feature:

 

 

Closer to bbq/hot tub:

 

 

 

Option B:

 

 

What's different in this option:

 - The water feature is the key here. From the garden - a raised rectangular pool plunges into a pool beneath it, and then has the appearance of going 'under' the patio to another pool right by the window (the water would genuinely circulate between the two). This gives an impression of walking over a bridge over the water between the two patio spaces. This line is continues in the atrium to give a continuous sight line of water from atrium through to garden. (main function of being in atrium is for slight bubbles to give sound of water when you enter). 

 - the long wall and winding path behind it from option A is sacrificed to have play area near the main outdoor living space so its within sight of adults

 - the rectangular shape of water pool is mirrored in shape of planters.

- A shade structure is built out from the existing eaves, extending over the dining table and then down to footings into the ground (see rendering)

 - in this option the barbecue is more minimal and does not have an island

- a small water feature is placed by the driveway to set the aquatic tone before entering

 - Drying racks are parallel with the other fence, which is not moved

 

images:

water flowing with the appearance of walking over the water:

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side view of the shade structure:

 

view of shade structure and water:

Neolith Countertop...attempt one (cracked)

We've been waiting for months to get our Neolith countertops installed. Neolith is a spanish made sintered porcelain slab. It's theoretically as liquid resistant as quartz, more impact resistant than granite, and incredibly heat resistant. The product demo was very impressive - beating the Neolith with a screwdriver hard enough for sparks to fly everywhere, with no scratch to be seen. Tempered only by the fact it made our daughter scream in fear. 

Here's what happened as they install the countertops we've been waiting months for. 

Eichler Closet Doors

For some reason, all our closet doors had been removed from the house some years ago. I looked around for replacement doors to buy online from the likes of Home Depot, but Eichler Closet doors are a somewhat unusual size, so there was nothing off the shelf, and custom options were many hundreds of dollars.

I am always looking for justification for buying power tools, so I decided to build some myself. I probably spent $500 on power tools (the same price as getting someone else to build me custom doors) - but the actual materials were way less than $50. 

THE LAYOUT

The image below shows the basic layout of what I built:

Each door has three luan panels

Each door has three luan panels

In order to make these, I needed for each door to make three luan (plywood) panels, which would fit inside grooves in the frame. The grooves in the frame look like this:

The best way to cut the grooves in the frame would probably be with a Dado blade. However, I bought a cheap table saw that can't take a dado blade. Plus they are illegal in my home country, which didn't make me feel super confident in my newbie ability to operate one safely. So instead of a dado blade, I used a regular blade on a table saw, and just made multiple cuts. 

This takes a lot of accuracy to get it to all line up properly as you put it together:

I then measured out three even panels of luan, and ripped them with a circular saw. I made a rough jig to make my cuts straight, but I should have done more as my luan panels were not perfectly square, and that made it harder to get everything to slot together as I assembled it.

Once I had all my pieces, it was time to start joining them. I used dowels to give my joints strength. Drilling holes for dowels through my table-saw cut grooves was hard though. I clamped the piece where I was drilling to avoid it splitting, but it was hard to get the drill location really accurate. Eventually, I got to here:

At this stage, I then had to file down the non-square panels to get the final piece to fit. Slot it in, and clamp everything tight while the glue dries in my joints:

Overall, we were really really happy with these doors. They do exactly what they needed to. Photo of the final version coming soon.

LESSONS LEARNED

  • I made too much of an assumption that my timber would be straight. I should have known better. I should have jointed the timber to be square and flat first.
  • It was really hard to get my dowels to line up exactly. A doweling jig from Amazon would have probably helped me tremendously. Or cheat and use Biscuits instead of dowels which have a wider margin of error
  • Carpenters glue doesn't dry clear. I wanted to varnish these doors instead of paint, but (partly because the doors took time to fit together) there were drips of glue down the wood that are hard to sand off and may mean we have to paint the doors instead.
  • Table saws are awesome. Circular saws are tricky. I'm still not quite sure how to rip a large section of plywood to be 100% perfectly square. 

Atrium Roof

Our Eichler when we bought it had the atrium roof filled in. Sort of indoors, sort of outdoors, we felt it was a nothing space. Our goal is to make the atrium part of our living space, indoor/outdoor and genuinely usable.

The first step was to remove the roof.


Our Eichler Design Master Plan

When we first bought our Eichler, before we even moved in we had an exact model of what we wanted to do all planned out. We knew exactly where we were going to move everything. After living in the house for a few days, we quickly realized that everything we'd planned was wrong. (Thanks to our parents for persuading us to live in it for a bit before making major changes).

Here's the original Eichler floor plan for our model, and the original images from the real-estate listing. Ours was completely untouched and original, save for some of the mahogany panels being painted over

THE ORIGINAL AS EICHLER BUILT IT

So we started drawing out a lot of different design ideas. This started on paper. We also got an architectural consult from a renowned local Eichler-specializing architect (though we didn't find it to be particularly useful - definitely wouldn't do that again).  

Eventually we graduated beyond what can be conveyed through poorly drawn pencil scrawls, so we built out the model in a 3D modeling program - SketchUp. SketchUp is free to use and makes it way easier to quickly iterate on designs. 

Our desires with the designs were:

  • To make a truly functional kitchen (we like to cook)
  • To change the original design where opening the main sliding door leads you straight into looking at point blank into a wall
  • To maximize the view of Mount Diablo we have from our yard
    • To make it more open plan so we can see our daughter wherever in the house she is, and so that the back of the kitchen wall was not so imposing on the dining space
  • To keep two discrete living spaces - this was not originally our plan when we bought the house, but after living in it for a few weeks we came to really like having a separate "family room" from the living space.

Our original intent with the designs were to move the kitchen over to one wall, so there was a tall wall to easily put the cabinets against, but this lost our separate family room area.

What follows is the iteration of our designs, in 3D model format. (You'll see my Sketchup capabilities also got better over time). 

OUR EARLY DESIGNS

Here was our first design (as if looking at it from yard). Inspired by our neighbor's kitchen design which we loved, this kept one of the original tall walls of the kitchen, but replaced the original 'U' shape with just a tall wall and a parallel island. Extra storage was added on the family room wall to make up for lost storage from original. 

We knew we liked this design (because we'd seen it done and it looks great!) But there were a few problems with this design specifically for our property/needs:

  • Our radiant floor heating still works, and we didn't want to trench through the concrete to move the sink
  • We still couldn't see through to the dining room, and we really wanted something more open plan, whether for entertaining, or to be able to see our daughter while cooking wherever she is
  • The space in the "family room" area was really tight to fit enough furniture in.

 

So here's the second design:

The main changes here are to try and not have to move the sink. However, in doing so we lost almost all of our tall storage, other than on the family room wall.

Next up, we toyed with keeping the concept of a U design, but modernizing it.

This design we liked, but again had the same issue with sink plumbing. We also didn't love that it was a long walk around from the living room to get into the kitchen, so we looked at inverting the U shape to make it more accessible:

In all of these designs, we had moved the tall wall 'forward', so that it no longer encroached into the dining room space, which we felt looked weird from the living room and felt overbearing when sitting in the dining room.

However, we started thinking it wasn't leaving enough room for the family room space, and made the plumbing harder, so we did a new design keeping the tall wall in roughly the location it originally was:

GETTING TO THE FINAL DESIGN

Then I saw an image on Houzz of an Eichler renovation that had two parallel islands. We loved the design, and started wondering if there was any way we could get a similar design. The approach we came up with was maybe a more radical change, but achieved our goals and we felt stayed true to Eichler design principles. 

This design involves removing the main sliding door, and making it solid to use as the back for the tall cabinets/refrigerator. 

From the Atrium side, we felt this should look fine as we'd cover the new wall in Eichler siding, which would match the wall on the other side of the corner:

THE FINAL RENDERS

From our kitchen designer, after a bit of tweaking to optimize cabinet space, here's the final renders:


Hello World

Welcome to Eichler Nut. We are updating an Eichler in Walnut Creek ("the nut" - see what we did there...?!) . We bought it in original 1950s built condition, with very little done to it. It was an atrium model, though the Atrium had been roofed over.