Renovating our East Bay Mid-Century Home

We looked at each other, filled with cautious anticipation mixed with a bit of terror as I reminded myself to breath slow, deep breaths, and said, “Okay. It's for real. I guess we're really doing this!” We were staring at our 75-year-old home that needed updating everything. Now, we weren’t novices to renovating a home but we hadn't lived through one for several years. 

Despite our hiatus from embarking on the wonderful and crazy world of renovation, our prior experience included several flips and a complete overhaul and renovation of a home we lived in through all but one month of a massive renovation—a 3-story-plus-a-basement-100-year-old-home on two and a half acres when our three oldest children were 6 and under! That home had knob-and-tube electrical, cast iron pipes, no central heat or AC, and several interior walls that were brick making modernizing interesting to say the least!

It was such a big undertaking that we didn't share it with my parents—my developer-father and interior designer-mother. 😨 Thankfully, it turned out beautifully, according to, even, my mom and dad! 😉 But in that home we preserved most of the original floor plan, whereas this one we recognized that we would need a completely new interior floor plan.

To say we were adventurous is perhaps an understatement. But our now older and wiser selves (at least we like to believe we’ve earned some wisdom in the 30 years since then!) were getting ready to do it again on perhaps an even bigger undertaking, and we really knew what we were walking into… or at least we thought we did…

We’ve decided it’s finally time to tell the story and share what we’ve learned, so others might learn from our hard-won-wisdom, mistakes, and everything in-between. So whether you’re considering a renovation, remodel, or simply cosmetic updates, we hope you enjoy and learn from our journey!

Our home is a fairly average—sized home in Lamorinda (the colloquialism for the three towns—LAfayette, MORaga, and ORINDA) in the East Bay which is about 20 minutes east of San Francisco—4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and about 2500 square feet, built in the mid-century. If you walked into our home now, you would probably appreciate the high ceilings, open floor plan, and sweeping views, but it didn’t start out that way in 1949, or when we purchased it in 2021.

Lamorinda experienced the height of its residential growth and home construction in the mid-20th century, benefiting from the initial urban sprawl toward the East Bay area from San Francisco after the Caldecott Tunnel opened in 1937 and the following post-World War II boom. By the time of the last town’s official incorporation—Orinda in 1985, (Lafayette was the first to incorporate in 1968 and Moraga, second, in 1974), most of its housing had been completed. 

As a result, new homes in Lamorinda are fairly rare—the most recent large-scale development was the Wilder planned community at the southern end of Orinda encompassing 245 home sites on 200 acres, now mostly completed as of 2024—and updated homes are popular, accompanied by a higher price tag and competition. 

Those looking to purchase a home in Orinda, Lafayette, or Moraga find themselves touring homes that may or may not have undergone updates or changes throughout the years that often don’t make a lot of sense by today’s standards. 

Ours had been modified over the years to accommodate a growing family, resulting in such things as needing to access a bedroom through another bedroom, interior access to the garage from a bedroom, and a dark and narrow interior staircase to the lower floor whose walls were covered in dark paneling and ceilings made of office acoustical tiles. In 1949, kitchens were designed and built primarily for utilitarian purposes—meant to be hidden away rather than a central part of living. This one was no exception with its small galley kitchen, updated in the 1970’s. Nevertheless, it was evident the home had been well taken care of and had serviced the two previous owner’s families well. We wanted to honor the integrity and history of the home while bringing it into the twenty-first century, showcasing its best features.

When we first visited the home, we were taken by the location situated at the end of a court with hardly any neighbors, the spacious lot and the sweeping view of Mt. Diablo from the large living room with it’s beautiful wood-beamed ceiling, along with its charming white exterior and bright blue shutters, featuring a commanding and rare cork oak in the front. But despite having remodeling, construction, and interior design in my blood with a dad who was a land developer and my mom an interior designer, as well as our own previous real estate and renovation background, trying to reimagine the floor plan so that it made sense for today’s family caused me quite a few misgivings. Were we biting off more than we could chew? Perhaps…

Here are a few of the original pics -

The cottage vibe was rather captivating with its blue shutters, which our Swedish friends would have appreciated.

The entryway led to the kitchen on the left, a closet straight ahead and the large living room to the right.

Here I am standing at the front doorway threshold looking into the entryway and living room.

Because of the lighting, Mt. Diablo isn’t showing up in this pic—we loved these beautiful wood windows looking out to it!

This pic was after the demo work, but shows the view of Mt. Diablo from the same windows.

The front of the living room off of the entryway to the far right looking out on the street. Notice the large overhang blocking the light. We believe it was added sometime after original construction to protect from the afternoon sun. There was no A/C in the house so it must have gotten hot without it and the cork oak seen on the far left outside the window was probably also much smaller at the time. The pine wood floors were revealed after taking up the green carpet. We toyed with the idea of sanding them and re-staining if possible but weren’t sure at the time if that would be advisable. 

The paneling on the far wall was interesting and is a testament to the different trends throughout the decades. It has a beautiful mid-century character, but turned out to be the only layer between the room and the exterior wall as there was no sheetrock or insulation behind it. It was a grand and beautiful room with its large picturesque windows on either side, central fireplace and wood-beamed ceilings giving off lodge vibes. Not pictured, as it had already come down, was the opposite wall with matching wood built-in cabinets… I was sad to lose those flat-faced, hidden latched built-ins, but there was no way to keep them and take down the wall. That being said, we thought carefully how to best modernize this room without destroying its beauty.

The hallway off of the kitchen leading to three bedrooms and two full bathrooms, neither of which were ensuite. You can see the interior access to the garage from the bedroom straight ahead. The carpet was actually in very good shape—we were told it was installed when carpet first became available.

The galley kitchen cabinets sat on a shared wall with the family room. Our first hope was to open this up, but it was a large wall and definitely a support so it would require a good structural engineer. Although the living room had those nice vaulted ceilings, the ones in the kitchen were a standard 8 ft. height.

The cabinets in the kitchen had been updated in the 70’s with cabinets from Montgomery Ward if anyone remembers that once-mainstay of American life. While the entire kitchen was well-maintained, there wasn’t much counter or cabinet space. Soffits were a prominent feature in the 70’s, apparent here above the cabinets—I could hardly wait to open those up and make use of every available space. The view to Mt. Diablo was also visible from the kitchen but because of its galley shape it was almost an “oh, yeah, there’s a view if you look carefully,” rather than the feature it deserved to be. The door leads to a small deck which overlooks the property, local area, and beautiful view.

I'm standing in one of the bedrooms that was added on over time, with a view toward the even later added-on bedroom, now being used for storage, both with acoustical ceilings giving off office vibes. We were anxious to see what was above those!

The large downstairs bonus room, which we believe was originally only accessed from an exterior staircase. Although the flooring wasn’t practical for today with its “classroom” style asbestos tiles, I appreciated the artistic design, along with the faux beams overhead. The large wall on the right is opposite more space under the house, as well as a bathroom just outside of the picture on the right shown in the next pic.

The door on the immediate right leads to the staircase. The little cubby in the wood is not a fireplace, but just an opening with a closet to the left of it. The one stair on the far left side leads to the downstairs bathroom and door on the right to the two adjoining bedrooms. Just outside the picture on the far right was exterior access to the lower deck and land. Reconfiguring the entire downstairs was both fun and challenging!

In tackling such a large project we weren’t sure if it was better to do a bit at a time or tackle it all at once, which seemed rather daunting.

Join us next time for Part Two as we look at our options and how we ended up approaching the entire remodel, including how we created a design that worked for our family.