We’ve got the rough plumbing, electrical in place (mostly!) and insulation has been stuffed in.  The owner chose to have all walls -including interior- to be fully insulated for sound absorption.   We’re using EcoBatt throughout, a formaldehyde/petroleum-free product that contains post-consumer recycled glass.   The holes are for blown-in insulation in the [very few] exterior walls that were not opened to the studs.  This bay is at the front that isn’t changing much.  At the rear of the house family room / kitchen we’ve opened up the walls with windows and doors coming from Sierra Pacific:

The lattice at the rear garden isn’t intended to survive this remodel…..The symmetrical windows will be above the kitchen counters with the range and hood in between.  These two windows are from Loewen.  The sink will be on the island across from them.   This window below has a spectacular view -

Actually this is just an old closet soon to be laundry room. . so no worries about the brick wall view!   Exterior below – siding removed at rear; side alley with new foundation / broken sidewalk out toward the street. 

Greetings!

Are you eligible for the $8000 “first time homebuyers” or the $6500 “move up buyers” tax credit? Read on…you may qualify but the deadline to act is April 30, 2010. Buying a home in 2010 may just fit in to your New Year’s resolutions.

The “first time homebuyers” tax credit is available for the purchase of principal homes costing $800,000 or less, meaning vacation homes are ineligible. The credit would be phased out for single tax filers with annual incomes above $125,000 and for joint filers with incomes above $225,000.

“Move-up buyers” who buy a new home don’t have to purchase a more expensive home than their previous home to qualify for the $6500 tax credit, but they need to have lived in their previous home for at least five consecutive years of the eight years prior to the purchase of the new home.

For more detailed information on this program and how to qualify,  email me and click on this link for answers. http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/ I can supply you with a list of condos and homes that would be available to you under these guidelines.

Happy Holidays to you!

Jenn Davis

Here’s a roundup of some current condos that have excellent Walk Scores:

1835 Franklin, #1103
Pacific Heights
List Price: $825,000
2BR/2BA
Sq ft: 1400
HOAs: $1,165/mo
Walk Score: 100
If you can get past the $1,135 per month HOA fees, 1835 Franklin could work for you. This 45-unit building is right at Franklin and Sacramento. There’s a master suite, and views. The seller has agreed to pay the HOA dues for one year.

155 Central
The Haight
List Price: $799,000
3BR/1BA
Sq ft: 1660
HOAs: $303/mo
Leased pkg only/$330/mo
Walk Score: 94
Fresh off a $50,000 price reduction, 155 Central is awaiting its Santa Claus. This is a big Victorian condo in a nice Haight location, and the unit has great period detail. The seller has agreed to pay six months’ worth of parking.

9-11 Tracy
Telegraph Hill
List Prices: $799,000 (top); $749,000 (lower)
2BR/2BA, each unit
HOAs: $150/mo
2-car pkg, each unit
Walk Score: 98
These condos are smack dab in the middle of Telegraph Hill/North Beach, on a small street. The building was just condo converted, and is located behind Molinari’s Deli. For those who want to fall out their door and into one of San Francisco’s most coveted ‘hoods, 9-11 Tracy fits the bill. Prior to its condo conversion, the building was on the market earlier this year under a 9-11 Kenneth Rexroth address for $1,650,000.

The Lyon Street Steps
Pacific Heights
Sunday morning

***

I bike here.

My daily life without my bicycle and my coffee would be like a Martin Scorsese film without the music of the Rolling Stones.

Riding a bicycle has done a tremendous therapy to the soul and moved my eyes through a myriad of wonderful evolving events. Roaming around every single neighborhood in this beautiful city, this machine has been attached to my hip in the last many years and has built many bike lane memories and great respect for the steep street grades.

My bicycle is a French frame made by Motobecane. A local Italian family of four generations from Cow Hollow (yes, there are a ton of old school Italians in the Marina) purchased the bicycle here in San Francisco in the 70s. I am very lucky that this was passed on to me a few years ago to become the second owner. I came across the bicycle in pristine shape, considering that it had been stored in the garage of the grandpa’s house for about 15 years. I was honored and beyond excited to ride. I’m sure the Frenchie (my bike’s name) has seen plenty of time go by in the neighborhoods of this charming city and is excited to see a new generation out there, riding and challenging those damn hills.

One of my favorite streets to wake up and shake every single one of my five senses is Polk Street. There is always something happening between Market Street and North Point. It’s always nice to see when the City Hall dome changes colors — my favorite was last year when the rainbow colors across the street at the War Memorial, displayed support against Prop 8. The steam from BART underneath around McAllister could make your bicycle feel like the horse in Sleepy Hollow galloping the dark winter night away. Late nights and being hungry are good combined reasons to ride northbound on Polk street. A cheesy slice of pizza at midnight, early mornings at the bagelry and Bob’s Donuts are there when you want them, Thai food at every other corner, Indian food, garlic smells dancing around you, then the smell of drunk jocks approaching Green Street are always there to greet you anytime. Nevermind the evolving smells of the Tenderloin, fenders on my bicycle are appreciated everyday…

Speaking of senses, it wouldn’t make sense to ride my bicycle without making various fuel pit stops. This bicycle machine and its qualified 14-speed pilot function on caffeine. Planning outings with friends depending on the coffee shop near by happens by default. Tell me any intersection in the city, and I’ll let you know which coffee shop is near you and what beans. Yup, it’s like that.

Coffee has brought many good things to my life. I begin the day with coffee and often finalize my dinner with a shot of espresso. Often times I plan my routes according to coffee stops, then hills, then a second coffee stop before I eventually get to point B. I do drink plenty of coffee and I’m the first one to admit it, so it isn’t really a problem, right?

The city is very small and there are huge hills, but there is always a way around them. Go get lost outside your neighborhood, visit streets you have not been to in years, and do it often. Wanderluster by nature, I often times decide to intentionally take the longest route, if time permits it. One of my favorite random coffee outings was back in the summer. One afternoon, my friend and decided to meet up in Hayes Valley for coffee. I was in North Beach, she was in Glen Park. Linden Street was our midpoint. We then rode around and got sandwiches in my favorite sub place in the whole city at the corner of Union and Steiner. This guy, a one-man show, makes the avocado in the veggie sub look like perfectly cut sushi art. You can’t go there in a rush, and it’s worth it. Anyways, we then grabbed our food and rode to Crissy Field to eat our lunch. After we finished, we decided that it was time for more coffee and we continued our venture up to Pac Heights, rode through Laurel Heights and headed to ride through Golden Gate Park, leading to coffee stop number two, this time in the Inner Sunset. I had recently discovered a coffee shop near 17th and we sat for some more good doses of caffeine and some more chatter. Eventually we made it out to the Outer Sunset to pick up her kid from preschool and we rode back around to the Panhandle, we then split up and went opposite ways. By the time we each had reached our destinations, we had ridden about 25 miles without even thinking about it.

As I’ve said before: My bike is my shrink, best friend, conversation starter, mood enhancer, and gym. All in one, every day.

XOXO.meligrosa

***

You can see the rest of Meli’s photo shoot here.

Meli’s blog is ♥Bikes And The City: http://bikesandthecity.blogspot.com/

SOMA/Misson: Hipsters, emos, artists, all live hand in hand here, attending art gallery shows, rocking out at a concert or just unwinding in a bar. A diversity of different styles all mesh together creating a cool, unique and urban style.

Haight Ashbury: Flower power, dreads, colors and freedom of expression all come together in this neighborhood where you will most likely find the most original outfits of the city ranging from flowy dresses to interesting patterened knit sweaters, harem pants and from time to time you will see people how nature inteded it: naked.

Marina: Quaint little shops and cafés attract a young and stylish crowd. Crisp shirts, and the latest of the latest of it bags and shoes meet here to enjoy a lazy afternoon strolling around  on union street enjoying a cofee at one of the many cafées.

Hayes Valley: Sunday brunches in this neighborhood makes for great people watching; goodlooking people wearing one of a kind pieces or garments from a brand most people havnt heard of yet all come here to mingle in this urbane and cozy neighborhood. 

Pacific Heights: Classy and upscale people in all ages reside in this slightly more sophisticated corner of the city.  This is the home of people with a classic style that never goes out of style and with an eye for real quality clothing. Regarless whether they are listening to jazz, eating at one of the many upscale resturants or enjoying a glass of wine at the local win bar; these people enjoy the good life.

These are my choices for the top 5 most fashionable neighborhoods in the Bay Area (#1 being the most fashionable).

#5) The Marina / Pacific Heights, SF

Photo from sfgate.com

Although these are 2 seperate neighborhoods, the Marina and Pac Heights style is very similar.  They can afford the more expensive labels, so they are very much in to following the latest trends.

#4) Fourth Street, Berkeley

Fourth st. brings all of the high-end boutiques together in Berkeley.  This area attracts the chicest people in the East Bay.

#3) Downtown Berkeley

On Shattuck and Telegraph avenue near the UC Berkeley campus, you can find a diverse mix of ethnicities, styles, and personalities.

#2) Lower Haight, SF

Photo from sfgate.com

#1) The Mission, SF

Photo from sfgate.com

The Mission district is hipster central!  Everyone seems to embrace an individual and eclectic style.  They aren’t afraid to try new ways to make their look stand out.  They wear vintage and shop locally.

Top 5 Most Fashionable Neighborhoods in San Francisco:

1. Mission District
The Mission District is mostly full of Academy of Art University’s students. A lot of them being fashion majors, really bring a voguish look to their everyday attire – street wear at its finest.

2. Haight & Ashbury
Take a walk down Haight street and you’ll find modern day hippies that carry themselves with a certain finesse-ish air.

3. Union Square
Known for having the city’s best shopping, no wonder there’s so many well dressed people roaming the streets. Whether they’re tourists or locals, most of the people cruising the streets of Union Square are absolutely chic.

4. The Marina
The Marina is packed with delicious boutiques and some lavish bars. The people that go to them are also quite the show stoppers. Being attractive is one thing they have, but also, most of the people at the Marina have a clean, posh sense of style.

5. Pacific Heights
The Pac Heights area has an elegance alone, but the people who reside there are mostly the tasteful, cultivated types and it shows in their wardrobes.

While I was in California over the break I went up to San Fran for a a couple of days to hang out with my sister and parents and ate some great food and of course some great shopping!

Pacific Heights

My sister and me at my parents' hotel

cute house in Pacific Heights

Fillmore Street Shopping

Motoring ahead with this project, we’ve gotten much of the walls, ceilings, floors opened up as needed.  The new concrete foundation has been poured.  This photo below shows framing that we think may be from 2 windows – and possibly the original front wall of the house.  Now there is a living room on the other side of it.  See the rectangles framed toward the sides of the image. 

You never know what’s behind the walls. . as seen below.  On the left is an old exterior door that was simply closed, boarded over and became part of the exterior wall for who knows how many years.  There’s even an electrical outlet and a duct carved through it!  On the right is the inside of a closet that was probably part of a hallway or room; why would a closet interior have wainscoting, picture rail and a door crown?

The view up the stairs, now that construction has started:

Old San Francisco houses with their deep, dark redwood framing:  when the finished plaster is peeled away, they remind me of barns.  There’s also a spooky appeal in seeing the nooks that haven’t been exposed or inhabited – in close to 100 years.

Here’s a house in Pacific Heights.  I’m collaborating with a designer friend Ian Stallings on this project.  It looks ok from the street, but a thorough study shows that it needs a new foundation, floor plan reworking, and upgraded interiors.  The blank area above the garage door could use something too.

The back of the house has a wall of ’70s sliding doors which is a great to capture light, but at the low standard 80″ height, the blank wall/gable above gives a top-heavy feeling.

The rooms seemed to be carefully set up – but much of this funky look won’t last through the remodel.  The dropped ceiling, the (smoke and) mirrors, applied wall brick…

Mustard yellow and dark brown 70s kitchen scheme – making a comeback?  Maybe, but this one didn’t hold up enough to stick around.

“Joni Mitchell’s voice and guitar wafted through the speakers as the plane landed in San Francisco…”

The young Joni Mitchell

How’s that for the opening sentence to a pulp thriller? At any rate, it was a nice way to arrive in California.

The mood turned Hitchcockian when I was unable to find the driver who had been sent to collect me by my host Dr SuHua Newton. Eventually we found each other—he had even walked right past me while I was sat outside in the sun reading David Frith’s Bodyline Autopsy, one of the best cricket books ever.

Of course, the drive into (or rather past) the city was for me thrilling, especially over the Golden Gate Bridge. I had been told that I would be staying at Dr Newton’s “hotel” in Mill Valley, a prosperous suburb just north of SF. I thought I was staying in her house, so I was bemused to learn that I would be parked in a hotel and one that wasn’t even in the city. When I arrived, all was revealed. The “hotel” turned out to be a splendid house that Dr Newton uses as her office. It was Friday so I would have it all to myself for the weekend.

We went for dinner that evening at a the Tong Kiang restaurant and drank a half-bottle of 2001 Newton Vineyards Merlot, which was mature, balanced and supple though rather short.

Mill Valley, looking towards San Francisco

On Saturday morning I woke up and gazed from the patio across Richardson Bay to the city, which was shrouded in thick fog. It was cool too, “a nipping and an eager air.” The climate of San Francisco and the Bay Area is extraordinarily capricious.

I caught a ferry from Sausolito to the city. Taking a punt on the sunshine that had emerged earlier that morning, I was in shorts and sandals. I froze as the ferry alternately bobbed across the water through thick fog or bright sunshine.

Dr Newton told me off for leaning out of her car window while she was showing me round the city. (She is a very impatient driver). Apparently some kid had his arms or legs sheared off by a passing car when leaning out of the window so a law banning such things was passed hastily. San Francisco’s weather is capricious but so is its legislation. In the city of Haight-Ashbury, the Beat Generation, hippies and the Summer of Love you cannot even lean out of a car window without breaking the law. This famously liberal city is bound up by legislation tighter than the bark on a Giant Sequoia.

It has a dark and disturbing underbelly, too. There is a magnificent and sombre film made in 2004 by Eric Steel that explores why so many people end their lives at the Golden Gate Bridge. The images captured by Steel of people leaping from the bridge into the icy water are shocking and linger in the viewer’s memory like a bad dream.

Pacific Heights, San Francisco

On a more cheerful note, Dr Newton lives in a Pacific Heights house with magnificent views across the city and harbour. We sat in her lounge eating, drinking, talking and watching the occasional container ship go past Alcatraz as it headed out to sea. The ships were rarely fully-loaded, their plimsoll lines usually visible. The shipping industry has been hit hard by the “crisis”. I visited some friends in Hamburg recently and they told me that for a couple of days last autumn the usually thriving shipyards there were eerily still. If local residents were spooked just imagine what it would be like if you worked in that industry.

On Saturday evening we went to a Thai restaurant called Yukol and drank 1982 Newton Vineyards Merlot. The nose was cedary and good but the palate was drying out and left acidity rather than fruit on the finish. Nonetheless, it was a rare treat.

A taxi was ordered at closing time to get me back to Mill Valley. Dr Newton was due on a nightshift in her role as a paediatrician. She is an extraordinary lady—a winemaker and doctor of medicine, with qualifications in every subject imaginable. She also paints well, speaks several languages and used to be a model. What a woman she is! I hope that somebody captures her remarkable life in words before it is too late.

In London, taxi drivers always know where they’re going. If they don’t, they consult a map or SatNav. I assumed my man would know where to go. He didn’t. Nor did I. It was late, it was dark, I had barely seen any of Mill Valley and I was tired. So we drove for at least an hour around Mill Valley to find the “hotel.” He had the courtesy to switch off the fare machine but I had been advised $40 would cover the trip from SF to Mill Valley. So that is what I offered him.

“You’re kidding?”

No, I wasn’t. This led to an earful of abuse. I pointed out to him that UK cabbies usually have a map handy. Why didn’t he?

He wanted to know why I didn’t know the way.

“Are you slow or somethin’?’”

Something, since you ask. And I’m too tired to argue and want to go to bed. More abuse. He sped off before I could note his registration plate. But, like Jerry Garcia, I believe in Karma.

"Captain Trips"—Jerry Garcia

Sunday was spent in a very warm Napa, the temperature hitting nearly 90 degrees that day. Dr Newton showed me her Carneros Vineyard, which supplies grapes for the Unfiltered Chardonnay. Lara Abbott, Domaine Chandon’s and Newton’s Australian-born but US-raised PR, joined us here. She took my digs over The Ashes in good humour. I had been reading about Bodyline, after all.

The Razi vineyard was also visited. The owner had a charming ticking-off (sic) from Dr Newton over various things, irrigation and burned grapes and so on. She explained to me afterwards how she turns on the charm to get the best out of people. A good lesson for life!

I joined a tour group at Newton Vineyards to have a look around the estate. It’s a long way up—the pine tree that is shown on the bottle labels is at 1,700 feet above sea level. Some of the vineyards surrounding Newton’s winery are at a 60-degree slope—nowadays, new plantings are only permitted at up to 30.

Lunch was at the Auberge du Soleil restaurant up in the hills at Rutherford. SuHua and Lara cooed at Colin, the boyish-looking and charming sommelier. It was very good, especially the cookies made to order for Dr Newton. Being a generous soul, she let me and Lara try them.

The afternoon was spent with John Caldwell at his estate in Coombsville. I had arranged to meet John after having had to request images from him for a brilliant Jonathan Swinchatt article that I edited in my previous dayjob.

John and Joy Caldwell

John used to sell his grapes to Pahlmeyer Winery and others but began bottling his own wines with the 1998 vintage, though production has remained tiny at less than 1,000 cases per year.

The red wines are big and fleshy, especially the Proprietary Red. Caldwell Vineyards’ winemaker is Marbue Marke—from Sierra Leone! But he hasn’t yet made a blend called “Palm-wine music.”

The Caldwell bottles with the “C” logo mould cost $3.50 each, John told me. Money is tight but “I love it too much to sell.” He and his wife Joy have a young family. He’s one of the good guys and deserves his successes.

Three days is hardly enough to see California but I was due back in New York on Monday night.

At JFK airport I was refreshing myself with a beer when a car ad appeared on the bar’s TV screen. It was subtitled “Do not attempt yourself. Professional driver on an enclosed track.” Only in America…

First listed in June at $3M, 2319 Washington was withdrawn at its last list price of $2,796,000 at the end of September after 105 days on the market. Seems no one was chomping at the bit for this 4BR/3BA home that was originally a two-unit building. So I’m guessing buyers aren’t appreciating what they might be perceiving as a choppy floorplan (despite the prime Pac Heights location).

But we’re getting closer to the end of the year, and that’s lighting a fire under some sellers out there. The Washington sellers have changed agents, and have dropped the price to $2.6M. Any takers?

In honor of Halloween, I’d like to consider three ghost tours as examples of ways that San Francisco neighborhood history can be presented.

SF Chinatown Ghost Tours have been led since 1994 by Cynthia Yee, a community organizer and nationally-recognized dancer. Yee’s maternal great-grandfather, Fong Louie, immigrated from China in 1885. His Chinatown stories were passed d0wn to Yee’s mother, Mildred Fong, one of the pillars of the 光明佛道研究會 (Quong Ming Buddhist and Taoist Association) in Chinatown. Yee has told me that her idea for the tour came after going on tours in New Orleans. To develop her performance, she has drawn primarily on two sources: stories she learned from her mother; and coverage in local English-language newspapers (such as the San Francisco Chronicle) about Chinatown events such as the 1977 Golden Dragon Massacre. Yee tells me that she keeps track of  current news coverage rather than research older newspaper accounts or use archival repositories such as the Chinese Historical Society of America. At the same time, she has told me that Chinatown residents bring her news accounts, providing material to further develop her ghost tour presentation.

Similar to Cynthia Yee’s experience, Jim Fassbinder’s participation in a tour outside San Francisco prompted him to create the San Francisco Ghost Hunt, which he has led since 1998.  To develop his presentation, he did research at the San Francisco History Center, reviewed online content from the California Historical Society, enlisted college undergraduates to provide research assistance in academic libraries, and conducted oral history interviews. In his comments to me, he singled out the staff of the San Francisco History Center as being especially helpful in directing him to primary sources such as historic maps. Fassbinder chose Pacific Heights as the site of his tour partly for logistical reasons - the relative quiet, safety, and ease of walking – in addition to the stories he had learned about the neighborhood. Fassbinder has commented to me about his tour, “my main goal is this: I want everyone on a Ghost Hunt to have a real supernatural experience in a safe way.”

Published playwright Kitty Burns has lead the Vampire Tour of San Francisco since 2001. Like Cynthia Yee, she was inspired to create the tour after participating in a tour in New Orleans.  To develop her presentation, Burns reviewed published histories – particularly Fire & Gold: the San Francisco Story by Charles Fracchia, founder and president emeritus of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society. Burns also reviewed published articles and online content. She told me that her most valued resource, however, came in the form of oral history interviews she conducted with persons affiliated with commercial establishments and other institutions along her tour. Burns also indicated that the ongoing input she receives both from participants on her tours as well as persons affiliated with her tour stops continue to provide material for the further development of her presentation. Like Jim Fassbinder, Burns related to me that she selected the site of her tour – Nob Hill – partly out of logistical considerations such as safety. She added, “Nob Hill was a perfect area because all the stops on the tour are well known and very classy.  I thought that would add to the humor of a vampire tour.”

Part of what is striking to me about these three neighborhood-specific tours is that despite the differences in how the three guides conducted research for their presentations, all three of them turned to oral history interviews with neighborhood stakeholders as a significant source of content. What is also striking is that whereas many other contexts for engaging San Francisco history involve encounters with artifacts, or architectural features, or primary source materials such as historic documents and photographs, these tours intimate the possibility (with varying degrees of seriousness) of encounters with persons from the past  in the form of the ghosts or vampires of today.

1967 Clay Street: 3bdr + Library/Office, 2.5ba

1967 Clay Street is a condominium in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco and is part of the HOA called 1963-1963a-1965-1967 Clay Street Homeowners Association. There are four (4) condominium units in our association — three (3) are owner-occupied. The dues are $492.61/month for this unit. This includes twice weekly trash/recycling pickup and every other week janitorial services. The HOA fees also include SF City water and a complete package of insurance plus annual bookkeeping and tax preparation services.

The owners purchased the unit in the August 2006 and completely gutted the interior in February 2007. All utilities and services are new including wiring and plumbing. The unit was occupied by the current owners in March 2008.

This condominium is nearly 1900 square feet and is nicely divided in public and private spaces giving a sense of elegance and livability throughout.

• Three Bedrooms (Master Bedroom, 2nd bedroom, 3rd bedroom)
• Library with floor to ceiling custom walnut cabinetry and bookshelves
• Two Full Baths plus Powder Room
• Formal Entry Foyer
• Coat closet + storage in foyer
• Eat-in Kitchen with Seidman custom cabinetry
• Living Room / Dining Room (24 x 15)
• Gas (or wood) Fireplace with Wall Switch
• Granite Fireplace Enclosure + Mantel (see photo)
• Central Hall Closet w/ double doors
• Laundry Closet w/ additional linen closet
• “Tree House” Deck off the master bedroom
• Deeded Garage Parking for one car
• Storage in Garage

In addition:
• All new copper plumbing and electrical throughout
• New walls and ceilings throughout to Level 5 finish (simulates plaster)
• New double-pane windows in the living room and throughout (but not every window replaced)
• All new custom-designed doors
• All Tile and Stone sourced at Walker Zanger & IRG; fabricated and installed by New Marble
• Custom-designed interior doors and mouldings throughout
• Floors either new or refinished
• Granite Countertop in Kitchen
• Marble Countertop in Library, Master Bath, and Powder Room
• Master Bedroom South-facing “wall of light” with French Doors to deck
• Master Bedroom Walk-in Closet w/ “his and hers” areas
• Additional 64 cu/ft storage in master bedroom closet area above closests
• Master Bath with two Barbara Barry sinks (“hers” model)
• Master Bath Shower Enclosure with two hansGrohe shower heads (one fixed and one hand shower) + Bench + 3 Recesses for Soap/Shampoo.
• Guest Bath has new Porcher porcelain over cast iron tub
• Guest Bath Plumbing Fixtures all new Kohler Pinstripe
• Rinnai on-demand hot water throughout
• Cable Television, Stereo, Telephone, and Internet in every room
• Living room is prepped for “5:1 Home Theater” 6 speakers (Two Front; Two Rear: Center + Subwoofer)
• Lutron Programmable Light Switches throughout

Complete custom kitchen
o Two Sinks/Two ovens + Microwave/Two Dishwashers
o Full height pantry with pull-out shelves
o Butlers Pantry with wine refrigerator and wine storage racks

All New Kitchen Appliances
o DCS 36″ 6-burner Range
o DCS 27″ Wall Oven
o KA Microwave
o KA 36″ Refrigerator w/ Freezer Below
o KA Wine Refrigerator
o KA Main Dishwasher
o KA 1/2 Drawer Dishwasher (Mftr’d by Fisher-Peykel)
o Maytag Front Loading Stacked Washer/Dryer
o Custom Main Sink (Undermount) w/ Insinkerator Disposer
o Prep Sink w/ Insinkerator Disposer
o Insinkerator On-demand Hot Water
o Insinkerator On-demand Filtered Water

There are some design ideas that you may have noticed:

• Counter heights in kitchen and baths are higher than standard
• Door heights are raised to nearly 8’ throughout
• Baseboards are nearly 11″ and are custom throughout
• Floors are espresso w/ semi-gloss finish

When I twelve I made a plan. I was going to be a writer and I was going to live in San Francisco. As far as plans for twelve year old girls who love books go, it was not an especially original sort of plan. I didn’t really know much about San Francisco literary culture or history, but I had a sense and I made the plan and, in theory, this plan has sort of worked out. I live in San Francisco, now, and I study creative writing and when I go home and my best friend reminds me, hey, you’re doing what you always said you were doing! I go with it. It feels good to have that sense of accomplishment, that sense that twelve year old me was really onto something, despite her poofy hair and leggings.

Only, it turns out that living in San Francisco and trying to be a writer is not nearly as romantic as it sounds. First of all, the muse doesn’t automatically show up just because I settle myself into a chair at a coffee shop with my laptop, even though I’m pretty sure that before I came, I secretly believed this would happen. Also, it turns out that even when you are living the life your youthful self imagined, you still have bad hair days, you still miss your family and you don’t great a break on the crazy rent your youthful self conveniently never factored into the equation.

Which is all to say, sometimes I don’t feel as though I live in San Francisco. Even in quintessential San Francisco moments I can be caught off guard, wondering suddenly if it is really me there on Muni, if this really is San Francisco or if I will, at some point, wake up and walk out of my apartment and find the city I imagined I knew before I got here.

And the cool thing about all of this? I don’t think I’m alone in this experience, or that any two people really know the same San Francisco. In a city of transplants, almost everyone has this story. It becomes a ritual, a familiar moment in every introduction. We trade our San Francisco origin stories along with our names and neighborhoods. We draw out the paths that led us here. Even the ones who have been here all along, the ones born near the bay, can tell a story about leaving and returning, or the moment they knew they couldn’t go.

***

You can see the rest of Margaret’s photo shoot here.

Margaret’s website is here.

]]> http://dwellsanfrancisco.com/2009/09/22/real-estate-downturn-turns-to-recovery/ Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:32:14 +0000 jenndavis http://dwellsanfrancisco.com/2009/09/22/real-estate-downturn-turns-to-recovery/

Have you noticed the shift in the topic on the real estate market?

Just 6-8 months ago the conversation about the market began with ‘How much worse can it get?’  Today, the conversation begins with ‘There are signs of a recovery’.

Earlier this week Bernanke said the deep recession that’s gripped the US economy is “very likely over at this point.” A recent survey conducted by the City Business Journals Network, an alliance with the Business Times, stated that over half of small to mid-sized business owners feel that their prospects will be a lot better in the next 12 months. That is a sizeable increase when just five months ago only a third of business owners felt optimistic about their prospects.

I took a look at recent sales in the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). In San Francisco, from January 1, 2009 through June 30, 2009, 1417 homes were sold or an average of 236 homes per month. From July 1 until now (less than 3 months), 884 homes have been sold or an average of 294 homes per month. That is an increase of 58 homes sold each month. Optimism fuels a recovery just as pessimism fuels a downturn.

I expect we will have a very active fall in San Francisco. Buyers are feeling that optimism and writing more offers. Serious sellers are more acclimated to the current environment and are willing to price their homes to meet the market. Of course, there are also sellers that quickly turn in to buyers as some are willing to take a bit of a loss on their current home and trade up into a larger home to recoup their investment!

Do you fall in one of these categories? Call me today to discuss your needs or if you want more detail about your neighborhood. Enjoy the San Francisco Indian Summer!

jdavis@mcguire.com

www.jenndavis.com

Looking for a home in a walkable, central neighborhood? Most of the prospective buyers I meet usually are. With that, I’m kicking off the Walk Score Winners series, which will spotlight trios of properties in specific price ranges and which also have high scores. I’m hoping this will be helpful to buyers who are trying to narrow down their neighborhood choices, and determining what they can get for their purchase power.

So here we go:

1701 Jackson #107
Pacific Heights
List Price: $599,000
1BR/1BA
741 sq ft
HOAs: $538
1-car pkg
Walk Score: 98
This is a great location for the downtown commuter who also wants an inground pool for those balmy Pac Heights evenings (not). The Polk Street strip is a few steps away, and the ambitious can simply walk downtown.

We now move a little to the west:

1521 Sutter #503
Lower Pacific Heights
List Price: $630,000
1BR/1BA
757 sq ft
HOAs: $331
1-car pkg
Walk Score: 98
This new construction building is in spitting distance of Japantown, and it’s a straight shot on the bus to downtown. It’s not the hippest location in the city, but it’s certainly central.

And finally, over to the Eureka Valley area:

734 14th St. #3
Duboce Triangle
List Price: $599,000
2BR/1BA
HOAs: $235
Walk Score: 97
This one is probably the most “neighborhoody” of the bunch, with the Castro nearby and the Muni street car going in every direction just steps away. Safeway is around the block, and there’s a good selection of bars and restaurants. No parking, but there is leased parking at $200 monthly nearby.

Readers: Please Leave a Comment below–tell me which one you’d buy. And which price range would you like to see covered next?

If the only thing you leave here is your heart, you didn’t stay long enough.

Container ship enters San Francisco Bay, probably enrtoute to Oakland.

My soul and the City of San Francisco are in a relationship. It’s complicated.

If you closely observe urban life for a living, you couldn’t imagine a better working town. The music, the art, the food, all of it from every culture and nationality. Crazy politics and crazier politicians. One part bazaar, other parts bizarre, all placed in a jeweled setting of hills, architecture, sea and bay.

Perhaps the most beautiful of American cities. If you’re a photographer, almost every shot you take here is a potential postcard. Few skylines anywhere burn their way more deeply into your memory than that of San Francisco from across Treasure Island on a fog-free night.

Apart from that, San Francisco just has the kind of urban sense of presence that Los Angeles and Phoenix and Dallas can only aspire to.

When my professional life as a writer and journalist began in San Francisco 40 years ago, I figured I’d spend my whole career here. It didn’t work out that way. But every so often, I have to renew my acquaintance with The City for a few hours.

First stop, the crookedest street in the world. No, NOT Lombard Street. It’s actually Vermont Street, in the working-class neighborhood of Potrero Hill, where O.J. Simpson grew up, not far from the Mission District.

It starts at the little McKinley Square park at 20th Street and wilds down seven serious hairpin turns to 22nd. Misjudge any one of those seven turns and you’ll find yourself in someone’s driveway — or their living room.

Vermont Street, San Francisco

You know that Kia automobile commercial, the one in which a friendly motorist offers a stranded cabbie a lift, then takes him on a wild ride down the tightest set of switchbacks you’ve ever seen in a city?

That’s Vermont Street.

Lombard Street has more turns and more hype. Vermont is steeper. The geeks will tell you that Vermont has greater “sinuosity.” Having driven both, I can tell you I wouldn’t take a skateboard down either one.

Today, it was just Vermont. Right-left-right-left-right-left-right. By the time I hit the bottom, I was grinning from ear to ear.

All those curves spun me toward dowtown, Market Street, still the heart of the city. I didn’t have a car when I started out here, but you could get around San Francisco surprisingly well on streetcars.

Apparently, you still can.

Nowadays, though, the streetcars can transport you in more ways than one. The city runs historic 1930s vintage PCC streetcars and antique trolleys from 14 American cities and countries as far away as Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan, each in their original colors.

!930s PCC streetcar in Phialdelphia livery on Market Street, San Francisco. Background right, antique trolley from Milan, Italy.

For train nuts like me, this is entirely too cool.

After that, it was off to the Presidio for a little game of historical “what-if?”

Back when the Presidio was a U.S. Army base, you only got the most fleeting glimpse of a few strange concrete structures amid the trees as you drove toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Presidio is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area, open to all, and you can see for yourself what all those wind-shaped trees were hiding all those decades.

A modern-day fortress.

Those bizarre structures were meant to hide coastal artillery, 35 gun batteries on both sides of the Golden Gate to defend San Francisco Bay from invasion, a very real fear after Pearl Harbor. Some of those guns were the size of a house, able to throw a half-ton shell nearly 20 miles.

Old gun position south of Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. A hug cannon once sat on the concrete turntable, foreground. A underground magazine fed shells and gunpowder to the gun.

Could these batteries have stopped a fleet of Japanese battle fleet, or would they have been shattered and their exposed gun crews slaughtered? The guns themselves are long gone, but the batteries remain, a curiosity for tourists, a magnet for taggers, a burning memory for the aging veterans who stood guard here against an invasion that, thankfully, never came.

There is one invasion that swept over San Francisco decades ago and never left — a horde of great places to eat. This is a foodies’ paradise. Whole streets and boulevards are devoted to restaurants of every style and ethnicity.

On one of them, Geary Street, you can practically eat your way from downtown to the ocean. Italian and Vietnamese stand next-door to Chinese and French, across the street from Russian and Thai and around the corner from Ethiopian and Korean, with a few steakhouses, produce markets and cigar bars thrown in here and there for flavor.

Cliff homes south of Baker Beach, San Francisco

All of them are local joints, not a chain resto in sight.

Whatever your taste in food and drink, if you can’t find it here, you might as well stop looking.

Not sure what to have, what you want? Just drive around with your window rolled down and follow the aromas. Ginger, garlic and sesame oil. Caybe it will be cardamon, chili oil, wood charcoal and lemongrass.

It was just a quick three hours or so, just long enough for a partial reminder of why I left my heart, soul and God-knows-what-else here. It’s a relationship I barely understand, and definitely can’t explain. To paraphrase a U.S. Supreme Court justice, I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I feel it — and I feel it whenever I’m here.

Sing it, Tony Bennett…

Went to a wedding this weekend, at the Flood Mansion, 2222 Broadway, in Pacific Heights. But there is also an “old” Flood Mansion, on Nob Hill, at 1000 California.This “old” Flood Mansion is now occupied by the Pacific Union Club.

Nob Hill: winners and losers in 1906

There was once a third and even more extravagant Flood Mansion, called Linden Towers, in Menlo Park (now Atherton), not far from the “farm” of Nob Hill neighbor Leland Stanford. The neighbors called it “The White Castle.”

Linden Towers

58. Robida, A. LA VIELLE FRANCE: NORMANDIE, BRETAGNE, TOURAINE & PROVENCE. Four volume set. 160 full page lithographs (40 per volume) plus text illustrations & designs by Robida. Bookplate of Flood Mansion, Menlo Park. Librairie Illustree, Circa 1890. Gold decorated grey cloth bindings. 4to, Over 1200 pgs. Shaken, rubbed, inner hinges cracked. Good. $2500.00

The glory of these books is fine illustration & handsomely produced lithographs. Text in French.

Linden Towers gate, Middlefield at Linden Road, Atherton