751 Widgeon Street
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3
Beds
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2
Baths
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1,595 sq ft
Home Size
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6,674 sq ft
Lot Size
Overview
Joseph Eichler Home Masterfully Renovated for the 21st Century
Enjoy this mid-century modern Eichler masterfully restored to preserve and enhance what architect Joseph Eichler called “boldness, change, and optimism through indoor/outdoor living.” Eichler’s revolutionary style of an open and flowing floor plan takes center stage combined with 21st century engineering and lifestyle options thoughtfully added in the renovation. The home celebrates signature details like radiant-heated floors, entire walls of glass, vaulted ceilings, and original Philippine mahogany paneling. The clean lines of the design have been opened even further for a free-flowing floor plan that connects with the outdoors at every turn opening to courtyards and gardens that wrap around the corner lot.
Unifying the entire home are large subway-set porcelain tiled floors beneath wood-paneled ceilings with exposed beams and numerous skylights. Vertical wall paneling recalls the home’s original details and much of it has been restored, including the mahogany that defines the dining room. The focal point of the design is the central gallery with its towering cathedral ceiling crowned by a skylight and four mid-century modern George Nelson cigar lights. At each end, floor-to-ceiling glass with integrated sliding doors looks out to newly landscaped gardens and sun-swept patios for outdoor living. The rear of the home has been fully opened with a spacious dining area and modern all-white kitchen – all lined with floor-to-ceiling glass and sliding doors to the inviting and private rear yard. Another George Nelson light, a signature saucer bubble pendant, defines the dining area while a tremendous skylight fills the kitchen with brilliant natural light. Swedish lacquered cabinetry is topped in quartz slab, including a waterfall-wrapped island, for a sleek modern finish with integrated stainless steel appliances.
The home’s 3 bedrooms and 2 baths are thoughtfully arranged for the utmost in privacy. The master bedroom suite benefits from a seamless connection to the rear yard, a walk-in closet, and en suite bath with ceiling rainspout shower. Secluded in their own wing, two additional bedrooms are served by a full bath and adjacent laundry area. New finishes of penny tiles in the bathrooms and kitchen combined with period globe pendant lights in the bedrooms and hallway honor the home’s heritage while updating it for today. Behind the scenes, all new plumbing and electrical along with a new TPO roof add the finishing touches for 21st century living.
Rounding out the appeal of this remarkable home is its excellent location on a low-traffic cul-de-sac just one block to waterfront Gull Park with sandy beach, close to schools (two blocks to Audubon Elementary), and one-half mile to the Bay Trail for miles of walking and biking. Major employer headquarters like Gilead Science, Visa, Sony, and Oracle are minutes away and San Francisco International Airport is just a 15-minute drive. Plus, with Foster City’s easy access to commute routes and its midway convenience between San Francisco and Silicon Valley, this is indeed the perfect place to call home!
For more information about the restoration and additional photos, see the section below,
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Built in
1965
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Listed
4 years ago
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Neighborhood
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Schools
Audubon Elementary, Bowditch Middle, and Hillsdale High School (buyer to verify)
Amenities
- Circa 1965 original Joseph Eichler home with a just completed “down-to-the-studs” whole home renovation
- 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, including a master suite
- Approximately 1,595 square feet of living space
- Covered courtyard entrance, with expansive to-the-sky opening for natural light, precedes the front door flanked by opaque side lights
- Porcelain tiled radiant-heated floors throughout blend in harmony with the central gallery’s vertical paneled walls matching the home’s exterior paneling, which emphasizes the home’s indoor-outdoor connection
- The central living room features a towering cathedral ceiling of wood paneling with exposed beams and trusses, a center skylight, and 4 George Nelson cigar light pendants; at each end of the room, to-the-floor glass rises to the cathedral ceiling and integrates original sliding glass doors
- The kitchen and dining room combination has been fully opened, spanned by a wall of glass overlooking the expansive rear yard and all beneath a wood-paneled ceiling with exposed beams
- The dining area features two walls of original Philippine mahogany and a mid-century modern George Nelson saucer bubble pendant light
- The all-white kitchen has sleek lacquered modern Ikea cabinetry topped in quartz slab with backsplashes of white penny tiles; a large island features a waterfall-wrapped counter with seating on one side; a tremendous vaulted skylight fills the space with light
- The appliances, which include a smooth-surface electric range, microwave, cabinet-paneled dishwasher, and stainless steel refrigerator, are a matched set and offer a cohesive, custom look
- The master bedroom suite features an entire wall of glass with sliding doors to the rear yard, a paneled ceiling with exposed beams and two original globe pendant lights, plus a walk-in closet; the en suite all-new bathroom has a skylight, suspended vanity with integrated storage, and a curbless shower with linear drain, partial frameless glass enclosure, ceiling rainspout, and walls of penny tiles
- A separate sky-lit hallway begins with a large storage closet, stacked Asko Energy Star washer and dryer, and folding counter
- Two bedrooms in this wing each have a wood-paneled ceiling with exposed beams and 2 globe pendant lights, closet with sliding doors, and expansive side window; one bedroom also has a narrow opaque front window for added light
- A newly finished bathroom features a suspended vanity with built-in storage, skylight, and tub with overhead shower surrounded in penny tiles with integrated glass shelf niche for storage
- Attached one-car garage plus additional one-car parking, if desired, in the covered carport
- Wraparound fenced and fully landscaped gardens
- Lot size of approximately 6,674 square feet
- Just one block to waterfront Gull Park with sandy beach and picnic areas, one-half mile to the Bay Trail, and minutes to major employer headquarters including Gilead Science, Visa, Sony, and Oracle
Foster City
Bay Vista
T. Jack Foster used the same three builders – Kay, Duc & Elliot and Eichler – for Bay Vista initial development, which spanned from 1965 to 1969. The area’s multi-unit complexes are newer, with construction continuing into the 1980s. Bay Vista real estate has a wide variety of prices, with condo units available for as little as $1.3 million and waterfront five-bedroom single-family homes getting as much as $2.3 million on the open market.
It only makes sense that Foster City, a planned community, would improve upon its product with each new phase of development. Bay Vista has three city parks within its boundaries where Treasure Isle has only one, for example. It is also the home of Audobon Elementary School, a perk whose 1968 completion boosted the young district’s popularity. Prior to that, students from both Neighborhood #2 and adjacent Neighborhood #3 (with streets named after saltwater fish) attended far away Foster City Elementary School.
Bay Vista is one of a few Foster City neighborhoods with San Francisco Bay frontage. The bay makes up the entire western border of Bay Vista, with homes on Beach Park Boulevard enjoying not only water views but also access to the Bay Trail, a paved pedestrian/cyclist trail that hugs the shore between San Mateo and Redwood Shores as part of its 500-mile route around the bay.
Proximity to Highway 92 and airport flight patterns make Bay Vista slightly more affordable than some other Foster City neighborhoods (and Neighborhood #1), but its combination of spacious homes, recreation space, well-regarded schools and convenience to commute corridors are consistent with the original aims of T. Jack Foster.
To view a detailed google map of the Bay Vista neighborhood, click here. The MLS area is 397.
Foster City’s namesake is due to T. Jack Foster, a real estate magnate who owned much of the land comprising the city and who was instrumental in the intitial design. The land originally was Brewer’s Island and was developed over a twenty year period, and previously was the site of dairy farms and the Leslie Salt Company. Foster City is the proud home of Visa International, The Picture People, and the Dummies book series.
In 2008, Foster City was named by Money Magazine as one of the country’s best places to live.
- Unique planned community oriented around waterways
- Great canal front properties
- Large, post-war housing inventory; average home size 2000+ square feet
The Evolution Of An Eichler
Andrew & Drewry Wolf love rescuing Eichlers. After first hearing about Eichler homes and what they represent, they immersed themselves in Eichler and mid-century modern research. They finished restoring their first Eichler in Burlingame in 2013, rescuing it from the despair of its previous life as a worn-out halfway house. They’ve lived in that double-gable atrium model since then, and can’t imagine not living in an open and airy, yet private Eichler. They were honored to receive the 2015 Remodel of the Year award from Fine Home Builder Magazine, and have been featured in Dwell, Houzz, and HouzzTV. The house also starred as the "VIP Home" on the most recent Eichler Home Tour.
The remodeling experience was so rewarding they decided to save another dilapidated, under-appreciated Eichler from potentially being torn down. This time they set their sights on a neglected gallery model Eichler in Foster City, transforming it back into a breezy, light and airy sanctuary. Partnering with Eichler experts Klopf Architecture and Keycon Construction, their goal was to respectfully restore this modern classic while meticulously bringing it up to today's codes (including new electrical) and today’s standards for a turn-key occupancy. They poured their hearts into this labor of love. They adore the design aesthetic and worked hard to faithfully embrace the mid-1960s time period. They saved everything that was salvageable down to the smallest detail, including the original mahogany paneling in the dining room, vertically grooved paneling in the living room, reinforced A-frame and exposed post and beam architecture, even the original natural unpainted ceiling. New period-appropriate details are important for an authentic, cohesive space, and the details have been thoughtfully considered. Carefully selected mid-century modern details were added like seven globe lights, four authentic reproduction George Nelson 'cigar' pendants in the gallery and a Nelson 'saucer' pendant over the dining table, eight new atomic-age perforated silver outdoor sconces, an atomic starburst doorbell and front door peephole on the deep teal front door. The kitchen continues the light and airy feeling with modern, clean lines and efficient layout, all new appliances, and a massive skylight directly over the entire kitchen island. The indoor-outdoor blend was fully embraced and enhanced with new twin patios on either side of the great room tiled to match the inside, and eye-catching landscaping designed for good aesthetics and practicality. The Wolfs treasure the unique Eichler features like the soaring, gabled living room ceiling, radiant heat, and all the sun-filled natural light provided by five sliding glass doors, enormous floor-to-ceiling walls of windows, and upgraded skylights throughout the house. The Wolfs are faithful Eichler enthusiasts with high standards who wanted to bring this home back to life through a thorough, careful restoration that would make Joseph Eichler proud.
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