HoltzLusiNation 

An Illustrated Journal
for Brian and Melisse

Last Modified 2000-01-21

Buying A House

On yet another Sunday whirlwind of open houses, we (and while we were there, about 20 other people) looked inside a 3-bedroom house in the San Carlos hills near Mike's place. Initially it garnered two strikes with its paved-over side yard and its kitchen open to the office/den instead of the living/dining room. But upon reflection, we realized that the side yard could be nicely unpaved and sodded, and that the tiny den would make a nice office. (This would have the bonus effect of making us live and dine in the living/dining room, instead of in the dinette and den that are second-class citizens in so many floorplans.) So Sunday night we arranged to join the realtor's tour of the house being given the next day (a holiday).

We liked the property even more and decided to make an offer. Not having committed to a buying agent, we got the selling agent to agree to rebate us 1% of the sale price out of her doubled commission. Since the seller was intending to take the first offer meeting the asking price, the selling agent worked feverishly that afternoon to present our offer before any others came in. Even though we had not finished setting up financing, she got an acceptance from the seller by late that afternoon. If we had been working with our own buying agent, it's likely that our offer wouldn't have been pushed so hard by the selling agent.

The house is at 23 Whitman Court in San Carlos. On a quiet cul-de-sac, the one-third-acre lot fans out down a hill to the NNW. The back yard has a big deck which looks downhill 150 meters to the backyards of the houses on Brittan Ave. below. The deck and back windows look out north over Brittan to the steep deer-inhabited hillside leading up to Melendy Dr., and also west over San Carlos to the bay. The deck and its pool are accessed by sliding glass doors from the living room and master bedroom, the latter of which is about ten feet from the diving board. In the living room there is a step-down coversation pit in front of the fireplace that it shares with the den/office. The two-car garage opens to the den/office, which has a 70's-style wet bar in the corner. In the front yard alongside the driveway is a basketball goal with an rim adjustable so that even Brian can dunk. :-)  The kitchen is nicely remodeled with Corian counters and paneled appliances.

On the negative side, the master bedroom lacks windows to the (currently ugly) side yard, and also has just a humdrum closet and bath area. The side yard is paved over, except for a planter with some ungainly fruit trees that are matched by a few in the front yard. The entry courtyard is made somewhat dark by excess vegetation, and has a little koi pond with no koi and not much pond. We'll want to sod the side yard and probably replace the fruit trees with something less likely to litter. The privacy of the deck is marred only by an angle from the east neighbor's window, but raising a short section of the deck's fence would restore total privacy.

We hope to close escrow by mid-February and move in soon thereafter.  We may have some things done shortly before or after moving in, but for now we're doing virtual remodeling using Punch 5-in-1 Home Design.  We used it to generate the 3D views of the living room and kitchen, and when we've entered the rest of the floorplan we'll link to it here.