9 years later...

Wow, it's been a while.  A few photos of changes.  

Guest bath before.  Still had the original plastic shower surround.  Original Kohler cast iron tub.  We could not even replace this tub, the room was built around it and the doorway is too small to fit anything through.  Considering reglazing but still on the fence.

Guest bath after.  New tiles, fixtures, quartz countertop.  Need to redo the acid-stained floor.  I did that when we first moved in and it needs to be redone and resealed.

Went with a clear shower curtain and funky hooks from Quiet Town.  This bathroom is pretty dark with all of the wood and we needed to get light into this alcove tub/shower.

Master bath before

Master bath in progress.  Apparently I never took After photos.   Love that we were able to use authentic terrazzo tile from Wausau Tile.  Quartz counter, rebuilt vanity, Toto toilet, Kohler and Hans Grohe fixtures.

We had some more reno plans that were thwarted by the necessity of two new A/Cs.  Hate spending money on something I cannot see but a high performing air conditioner is a non-negotiable in Arizona.  We went with Bosch variable speed heat pump inverter units.  So far, so good.

The Article

In reviewing my much-neglected blog, I realized I never did post the article. So here it is. All about Fred Griffin, Architect.

Frederick Griffin; The Forgotten Modernist

New Details!

I was researching like a mad woman this weekend and found out there has been another owner of our home. I was completely floored that I could've missed that!

Fred Griffin 1959-1962

H.S. and Barbara Lauer: March 9, 1962 – January 27th, 1966

L Edward Eisele Jr: January 27th, 1966 – April 26th, 1993

Harmona Conradine Ugard (and Bruce Ugard): April 26th, 1993 - February 28th, 2002

Us: February 28th, 2002 - until death do us part :)

I have an unhealthy attachment to this home, I love it so much and feel so strongly that we are meant to be here.

We found this house by accident. We had an appointment with our realtor, who was late. We were supposed to be viewing the little house across the street with the retro screen block.

We were parked perfectly next to the "For Sale" sign of the Griffin House, such that it wasn't visible. Jeff noticed a crazy black wood fence, really funky design. He walked over to look at it and noticed the For Sale sign and flyers. In reading the flyer, we knew we had to have this house. Our agent phoned as we stood outside hoping to get in. They told us no, it would have to be another day.

The wait was awful, I think it was several days, before we were allowed to come back. We wrote a full offer within an hour of leaving.

Even with all of the problems and money sunk into this place, we love it and feel so lucky to be here.

Finding Fred

We spent last weekend in Carefree looking for information on Fred Griffin.

On Saturday, we drove the winding desert roads looking for the "Weekend House" we have a clipping about. We were also hoping to find the commercial property advertised as The Andre Building. After striking out, we went to the Sundial Plaza listed on the matchbook to poke around. My husband wandered into a real estate office and showed them the articles we had printed out; the gentleman working said we should come back on Sunday, that surely the owner knew him.

We returned on Sunday to look for the residence that Fred lived in at the time of his passing. I was really hoping for his piece de resistance. Not to be. It was a burnt sienna stucco home.

We drove over to the real estate office again and met a great gal named Tara. She knew Fred! I was so excited to speak to someone who knew him! She gave us leads on a couple homes that she thought were his designs and suggested we come back at noon to speak to Harry, who knew Fred better.

We drove around some more to burn a couple hours. Jeff used to work for Paul & Jean Lipman, it was his first introduction to fine art and contemporary architecture. He still tells me stories about that amazing house built into the boulders, we found the driveway but it's tucked up into the rocks and thus not visible.

We finally headed back over to speak to Harry, he had some good stories but emphasized he didn't really know Fred personally, just as a business associate. Tara shared a fabulous round design of Fred's that they called "The Carousel House". We drove by that one as well, it was built into a depression so was somewhat difficult to see from the street. The aerial is much cooler.


View Larger Map

It was a very exciting weekend, but somehow melancholy as well. I wish I could've met him.

This home *with potential* will be going on the market soon. The way we discovered our house was by visiting this house when we were home shopping. So I kinda credit this cutie with setting us up with The Griffin House. Love the screen block - they need to make a glass wall to the right of it, it appears a garage was enclosed at some point?

The lot directly to the South of this home is on the market fo $24,500. It would amazing to purchase both and have a big private yard. :) http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2705-N-26th-St_Phoenix_AZ_85008_M13271-47046

This home has brand new solar panels too.

It's been a while. Every time I head over to add a post, I look thru the recent history, end up bawling and leave the site. It's still extraordinarily difficult. I have to pay close attention to not dwell too long on memories of Leonard or I break down.


So, here we go.

Frederick Kirkwood Griffin was married to Ann J. Griffin


Mr Griffin was born July 16th, 1914 and passed away in October 1998 (I think).

Back in 2007, I sent a letter to a man I located through the internet, Frederick Griffin II living in Chandler, AZ. I sent copies of the newspaper articles I have about our house and asked if he could be related to the designer but alas, never a response.

I spoke to a local realtor who had met Mr. Griffin years back and this is what he shared, "I met Fred about what, 15 years ago??? Wow time flies...he's long passed away, I think it was about 2000.

At the time he owned Carefree Realty and was living up there. He had a little office near the Post office that Al Beadle redid. He and his wife worked together and I sold a house he designed and built: a really cool Hogan inspired place in Carefree ranch highlands, sadly now demolished.

His office was filled with drawings and renderings of his houses and designs, built and un-built. As nice a guy as you could meet. He was thrilled that I had interest in his work. I don't suppose his wife is still alive, but I'd love to get a look at his drawings again."


I wish I could locate Mr. Griffin's family....

On another note, have been documenting the MCMs in our neighborhood today.


Built 1959

Built 1955

Built 1975 (by our neighbor, Mike, who now lives up the street)

Built 1954 (cool transom windows in the carport)

Built 1955

More Griffin Homes

I have been unsuccessful in finding much info on Fred Griffin but have come across a few of his other houses in the valley here and there. I need to compile the info so what better place than here?
A local blogger sent me an article about a home built by Mr. Griffin in Tempe. Recent photo
here. The article was from Arizona Days & Ways and originally identified the home as 1114 Okley Place, Tempe, AZ but according to Google Maps, this home's addres is now 1408 S. Oakley Place.

I was sent another .PDF with a photo and caption only of a super modern triangular fireplace flanked by large built-in speakers, this was attributed to Mr Fred Griffen (sic). I know this is our same architect because he also built-in floor-to-ceiling speakers here, flanking the sliding glass doors.
My home-hunting friends recently came across a great listing for only $235 in Encanto! It is falsely advertised as an Al Beadle. As my friends researched tax breaks for historic properties, they discovered this gem was also by our own Fred Griffin! We drove by it tonight and it's a stunner! Love the pool! This one was apparently built in 1953 as Mr Griffin's residence as well. It is located at 2201 Encanto Drive NE, Phoenix. Pictures from the real estate listing and tonight's drive-by are seen below.

So far, this is what I deduce: lot placement of the home is imperative to Griffin. All of the homes I have identified have somewhat unusual placement of the home on the lot to maximize yard space. That is one element of our home that I **love**. We are built on the far north side of our lot and our home runs from the front of the lot (far east) all the way to the back of the lot (far west). So our yard is really maximized and the entire home has glass windows that look into the green yard.
The home pictured above and our home both have unusual decorative elements on the entry door and sidelights on one side. He builds his homes long & skinny :)
Geometric and linear elements are integrated into the design, whether in the wood construction or the block construction. The Encanto home was built in 1953, our home was in 1959. I am surprised to see the nice glass sidelights above, as our home has white plexi. It is quite possible, however, that a homeowner along the way upgraded those windows.
I have a few other .PDFs I will try and get converted and onto the blog soon...

Working on the the sliders again this weekend. Decided to also take on the glue lam beams that are in serious need of resealing - they are splitting... Noticed a little pine-needle bird's nest at the east side of our patio this morning, mentioned it to Jeff. Was walking around a ladder on the west side of said patio and screamed as I stepped on a baby bird. (Birds terrify me, they used to dive-bomb me at college all the time - it was a conspiracy amongst them).

So, Jeff picked up the baby bird and nest and carried it down to Mike, our neighbor who rehabs and saves all the birds we find in our yard. He told Jeff he's not doing rehab anymore, gave Jeff a cage and a cup of Science Diet with instructions "Soak the kibble in water and feed it with an eye dropper". HUH? Crap. So, now we have a baby pigeon to take care of.... It actually loves me and chirps at the sound of my voice. We tried to feed it then set it in the yard and waited...hoping a responsible parent would show up. No such luck. But I called "Little bird, little bird" and it walked across the yard to me. :)

Anyways, I sanded my booty off today, even with 50grit - it took hours. I am going to be SO SORE for the next 2 days and I've got sawdust snot.

Punch List

Our five sliders have been hanging over my head since we had them installed, like SIX years ago. They are Pella's and they were only offered in raw wood. I thought "no big deal, we can do this". Well, we did one and it was a total pain so the other four sliders have sat unstained.

When I quit my job in 2005, the first thing I did with my new-found time was start working on them again. I got all of the stationary stuff stained on three doors but never got around to removing the doors and actually doing the slider. The one in our bedroom still needs to be done in it's entirety. It's just such a pain with all of the prep work. So, my resolution is to get these done. Baby steps. One per weekend. So there it is. In writing and published. I have to get it done now, right?

Here's door #1/4. Before, after 1 coat of stain, and before sealing. I did three coats, alternating between dark walnut and cherry. Will seal with Tung Oil tomorrow.

I also resealed the concrete floor in the bathroom... Finished Tung Oiling the walls and ceiling... (old sink below, the disgusting rusted out overflow drain is not visible in this shot)

Ocho enjoying the Toto.

Busy with the house the past two weekends. Jeff was wonderful and cut down two Palo Verdes and one dying Bottlebrush two weekends ago, while it was raining. Then the following weekend, he brought home the come-along and pulled the stumps out. As you can see, Trigger helped on the stump end by digging :) He was a muddy mess but had so much fun being so true to his doggie-ness.

Jeff's bloody noggin, the Palo Verdes are nasty with thorns.

We also replaced the sink in our guest bathroom, finally. We intended to rebuild the vanity and get a new countertop at the same time but hell's bells, I cannot wait any longer. The plumbing and holes in the wall under the sink are ridiculuous but we'll fix that when we replace the vanity. I cannot even put into words how happy this makes me.

My little bean wondering what's with this chick hogging up his couch.

Crashed out...