JulieNachtwey.Blog

Home is Where the Heart Is

Diana Meckfessel has a new home.  And the home has undergone a facelift – again! 
The former kitchen designer purchased the property last fall.  She opened up the living room and integrated it into a spacious new kitchen and dining area.  An open floor plan lends itself to her love of cooking and entertaining. In the process, Diana incorporated the sun room and moved the fireplace.  Upstairs, she redid the bathroom, added laundry facilities and connected the master bedroom to a small bedroom, to be used as a dressing room.  The house now feels spacious, light and graceful by anyone’s standards.  In the spring she plans to enhance the already lovely gardens.  The general contractor Diana worked with  and recommends highly is Tom Ratcliff  ttratcliff@yahoo.com  who happens to be the grandson of the famous architect Walter Ratcliff.

This house in The Claremont neighborhood was designed by James Plachek in 1910.  At this point in time, it’s hard to tell exactly what  happened to the place.  Diana’s house was literally one with the house next door!  Both houses are sections of the large manor house that was subdivided in 1949.  The huge entry hall and front staircase were torn out and the walls closed up on both sides.  This created exterior space, separating the (now) two houses, where there once had been one. How creative!

Diana’s new home is adjacent to the historic stone pillars marking the main entrance to The Claremont neighborhood, at the intersection of Claremont and The Uplands.  These handsome stone structures were designed in 1905 by John Galen Howard and were landmarked in by the City of Berkeley in 1984.  Many of the architect-designed houses in the area have been featured in numerous books, articles and house tours, including the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assn  http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/

This entry was posted on January 28, 2010 at 5:34 pm and is filed under BUYERS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.