On the ground
What we find behind the walls in Northwest Hills & Allandale
Northwest Hills and Allandale were built out mostly between the 1950s and the 1970s, and the houses share a look: long ranches and split-levels, a brick or limestone fireplace as the centerpiece of the living room, and in Northwest Hills a lot on a slope with a view. Many have been remodeled since, and the most common remodel is opening the ceiling to the rafters, which leaves a vaulted or cathedral living room with the fireplace wall running up to the ridge.
That combination is two of our specialties in one house. The fireplace is solid masonry and takes a sleeve or epoxy anchor; the TV often has to go above the mantel with a tilt, or on a motorized mount that drops to eye level. Where the owners want the TV off the fireplace entirely, the answer is sometimes a ceiling mount on an engineered plate tied into the rafters. Framing in these homes is generally solid 16 inch spacing, and the original electrical is usually adequate once an outlet is added behind the TV. Driveways are sloped and streets are quiet; access is rarely a problem.