One of .J. Herbert Brownell’s homes in Tustin was featured in the OC Register a couple days ago. Brownell bulit Myford Irvine’s Hale O Pau Hana home in Corona Del Mar. Below is the story from the register along with before and after pics from the restoration of the Brownell home in Tustin. Anyone know where in Tustin this home is?
Thursday, October 1, 2009
My life as a house
BY CINDY MCNATT
The Orange County Register
Comments 0| Recommend 2
It wasn’t that we weren’t happy with our two-story traditional style home. We loved the five bedrooms, the pool, the used-brick floors and white wood accents. Our neighbors were like extended family. But as happens sometimes in long-term relationships, we fell hopelessly in love with another house.
It wasn’t for sale, but that didn’t stop us from pounding on the door and asking if we could buy it. To our amazement, the homeowner invited us in for a tour.
The 1954 contemporary ranch designed by famed architect J. Herbert Brownell is 5,400 square feet and single story. It had everything we always wanted in a house — a breezeway for climbing out of the car in a downpour, a guesthouse (with two bedrooms and living room), a three-car garage, tall ceilings and a flat, nearly acre of land.
Walls of glass that face the back yard are a Brownell signature. And like the early California ranchos that modern architects borrowed from, the south-facing living areas are protected from the sun with wide eaves.
According to Modernsandiego.com, Brownell built five homes in Tustin. One down the street and around the corner is nearly like ours. You can’t beat a Brownell house for quality of craftsmanship. We are still amazed at the features we find.
But the house we bought in 2002 was a train-wreck. Were we ready for yet another remodel? Once we closed our 10-day escrow (lest the prior owners change their minds), we had our doubts.
There were gas leaks coming up through the floor, no hot water in parts of the house, the back yard was waist high in weeds and there hadn’t been a landscape in years. The pool had been filled in just the year before.
Yes, we had an inspection with a contractor friend. His advice? No matter what was wrong, buy the house. “The architecture was to die for. “
And we nearly did. When the Gas Company shut us down (twice) because of leaks, we kept warm that first winter by burning wood in the fireplace.
There are advantages to buying a house that had never been seriously updated. We weren’t paying for someone else’s idea of an upgrade. The house had been lightly refurbished in the ‘80s, but that was an easy fix.
In fact, in nearly 50 years there had been only two coats of paint, ever. Door jams and other woodwork sanded down in seconds to the original colors — olive green and a dusty pink.
But size matters in a remodel. Because the house is large and single-story (85 squares for the roof and five truckloads of concrete for the driveway) there is no getting by cheaply.
We persevered. We survived. We took the kitchen down to the studs and started over, and we probably won’t do it again. Remodel, that is. Single stories are all the rage with boomers reaching retirement, but I’m not sure 5400 square feet is what I want to be cleaning when I grow old.
And here is something I didn’t think of when we were walking through those escrow papers — you don’t want to be a stickler for clean windows and live in a glass house.
I’m thinking double-wide in the woods somewhere. Something easy.
