House Hunters: Lingwood Edition (Season 2 Premier)

Last year’s House Hunters posts were and still remain some of our most visited posts of all time. In light of their popularity we’re bringing back House Hunters: Lingwood Edition for a second season!

Kristen arrived in Walnut Creek on Monday evening with her mom in tow for help and support. Starting on Tuesday, she and her mom began the hunt in earnest with Mark helping remotely via phone and internet. Mark arrived on Thursday night and the couple spent Friday viewing their top contenders and making a final choice.

The real estate market in the area has really shifted in the last month or so. Inventory is low and homes are not staying on the market for much more than ten days. Often homes are selling at or above asking price with several offers. Some sellers are even dictating which days they will review offers and other sellers are limiting the viewing times to only one or two open houses. In fact, two of the homes Kristen and her mom viewed on Tuesday and Wednesday sold before Mark could view them on Friday.

Kristen and Mark decided to narrow their search to the areas of Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, and Lafayette. From the beginning, they knew that they would have to make a compromise between commute, price, square feet, and condition of the house. Unlike most first time buyers, the couple is determined to buy a long-term family house where they can settle down and someday raise a family. Here are their three finalists!

House number one is located in one of the best neighborhoods of Walnut Creek and is at the top of the budget. It has three bedrooms, two baths, and a sparkling pool and hot tub. There is a shed in the backyard that could easily be converted into an office. Although it needs updating, the house is in pristine move in condition and has gorgeous curb appeal in a family orientated neighborhood. Mark’s future commute would clock in at about thirty minutes. The neighborhood is fantastic and has wide streets and great sidewalks. The pool would need a fence and there isn’t much space for the dog to run around, though parks are nearby.

Great curb appeal with cute coordinating brick inlay in the driveway and front walkway
Clean but outdated kitchen has a window overlooking the backyard and good bones but limited storage.

Living room has good space and good light but an unfortunate fireplace mantle.

 Dining room has nice French doors out into the backyard and connects to both the kitchen and the living room

Beautiful pool is in perfect condition, but would need a fence around it while our children are young.

Because the pool is large, there is not much grass or play space in the yard. The shed is in great condition and is already wired for electricity. We would just need to add insulation, drywall, and flooring.

Laundry room has great storage and convenient access to the garage.

Family bath is spacious but not updated.

Bedroom 1 

Bedroom 2

Master Bedroom

House number two is priced $55,000 less than the first house and can be considered a true “fixer.” It is a bank approved short sale, which means the selling bank has already approved the sellers as short sale candidates and they have approved the sale price. The asking price is under market value and somewhere around one or two hundred thousand (yes you read that right) less than the entry home price for its neighborhood. However, as a short sale, the home would be sold as-is and could potentially take a long time to finalize the sale. The house is in a fantastic neighborhood in Lafayette and is located only four minutes away from Mark’s new job. There is a park, an elementary school, and a community center all within walking distance. The running trail is also down the street. At only 1388 square feet, the home is quite small and has three bedrooms and two baths. The entire house needs work and updating but is full of charm and loads of potential. The lot is on a hill and needs major re-landscaping work but there is plenty of space for the dog and future kiddos.

The front has potential for cute curb appeal. As it stands now, the front yard needs to be re-graded and have a new retaining wall put in.

Good flow, with a small but cute living room. Hardwoods are original to the 1954 house but they need to be refinished.

Dining space is right off the kitchen and flows into the living room.

 Charming kitchen is livable as is, but the footprint is there for Kristen to upgrade to her dream kitchen.

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

The master bedroom is good sized and has two closets and attached full bath.

The family bath is original but in remarkably good condition for its age and for a short sale.

Master bath needs to be redone but is connected to the master bedroom and has space for the shower, sink, and toilet.

The garage is about 1.5 stories and there seems to be potential to expand the living space out into a FROG (finished room over garage) or possibly a master or guest suite.

The backyard has a large hill with mature trees. It needs a fence on one side of the property and a lot of sweat equity.

House number three is located at the edge of the Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill border. Mark would have a twenty minute commute. The location has easy access to BART and the freeway, is close to a nice park and community center, and close to running trails. It’s at the end of a cul-de-sac on a large lot with a well-maintained front and back yard. Listed at about $16,000 less than house number two, this house has four full bedrooms and two bathrooms. The house is fully updated with nice carpet, new kitchen, and laminate floors. This is a truly move in ready house, though there is some suspect drainage problems and the crawl space would have to be totally cleaned out. Parking is limited on the cul-de-sac and one street over is very industrial with a mix of businesses and apartments. Inside the house is quiet but the 680 can be faintly heard from outside. The lot is the largest of the three lots and boasts plenty of flat lawn space for playing with the dog or someday playing soccer with future kids.

The front has a nice yard and cute entrance. 

The entry opens right into the living room.

The living room and family room are divided by a brick fireplace

Dining connect kitchen and family room, and has easy access to the garage.

The kitchen is fully updated and has a window viewing the front yard.

Other side of the galley kitchen

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Master Bedroom

Family bath is fully updated 

The backyard has a huge well maintained lawn and a great patio complete with ceiling fan and outdoor space heater for true indoor/outdoor living

So, which one did they choose?

Pristine Pool with Commute

House 1

Short Sale Fixer in Prime Location

House 2

Move-in Ready Cul-de-sac

House 3

Check back tomorrow to find out!

**Feel free to let me know if you want any information on the listings or want to see more pictures. 

***For the fun of our readers who don’t know which one we picked, please don't post spoilers in the comments! 

Antici...

After a relatively calm couple of months, Mark and I are looking forward to a five-six month time span of absolute insanity. We're nervous, excited, in a state of disbelief, and thrilled. It should be a really fun time in our life, and we're so ready for it. 

Here's what's coming up. You can consider this a little preview of the future blogs to come.

1. San Diego/Oceanside/Disneyland/SLO/East Bay. 

Ok, if that sounds tiring it shouldn't. It should sound FUN AND AWESOME! It'll involve science (ACS conference for Mark), family, my niece's 3rd birthday, and house hunting. But most importantly-- family. 

2. Thirteen Point One

I'm going to be running a half marathon and at the same time Steph and Julia will be visiting! Training is going great so far, just gotta keep at it. 

3. Australia. 

What can I say? Opportunity comes within sight and we chase it down. Another conference for Mark, and a ton of sight seeing for both of us! CAN. NOT. WAIT. 

4. Another Trip to Cali

We figure we're going to have to make at least one more trip out to house hunt, and/or take care of closing and other house business. You might be seeing a reprise of House Hunters: Lingwood Edition. 

5. Moving

Not quite fifteen months after moving from California, we're going to pack everything up and move back. This time we'll have a dog and reasonable assurance that it'll be a one way trip. 

6. Santa Barbara Wedding

Some friends of ours from grad school are getting married in Santa Barbara shortly after our move. We hope to make it to the wedding and to spend some time in a town we thought we'd never miss. 

7. Beginning of Fall Semester

Mark starts his new job, with hope that he'll be working there for a long, long time. 

So with that, I'll let you breathe a sigh of relief that you're not the one logging in tens of thousands of miles on cars and planes, collecting cardboard boxes, committing to a 30 year relationship with a bank, and running until your toes bleed.

(pation)

New York City

A couple of weeks ago Mark and I stole away for a weekend to explore New York City. We celebrated our 5th anniversary and took the chance to check out NYC while we're living on the same side of the country. At just a two hour flight, it was so easy to get away for the weekend.

We stayed in a wonderful hotel right by Central Park, in the middle of Manhattan. It turns out that hotel rooms in NYC (or at least in Manhattan) are... small. Nice, but small. This was our room: 

We didn't let the room size bother us though as it reminded us how grateful we are to no longer live in a one bedroom apartment.

We landed on Friday afternoon and went on a run through Central Park. It was so fun being out in the park and running with so many other runners. I've never seen that many people running the same route who weren't running an official race of some sort. After our run (and showers) we went out to dinner, then headed to the MET. We were expecting rooms and rooms of canvas art (which they did have) but we were pleasantly surprised at the wide variety of stuff to enjoy. Everything was extremely well put together and it was a really pleasant experience.

One of the exhibits displayed musical instruments from around the world and from various points in history. Of course I especially liked the clarinet exhibit!

On Saturday we went to FAO Schwartz, the Apple Store, and some other shops. No pictures from shopping, but it was really fun to explore the huge stores! We spent a ton of time in FAO Schwarz, wishing we could buy the fun toys and play with them. After shopping through most of the day, we made it to Times Square. It was freezing and windy but a really neat experience.

We spent Saturday evening at dinner and a show. We saw Avenue Q, which did not disappoint. We laughed and laughed and we're still quoting funny lines from it and singing random songs we remember. 

On Sunday, we headed out to Battery Park so Mark could attempt some pictures of Lady Liberty. It was so bitterly cold and windy though that I hid behind a building and Mark just took as many pictures as he could before his fingers froze. But, we can say we saw the Statue of Liberty now.

Next we headed over to the Brooklyn Bridge. The wind had died down (though it was still freezing) so we decided to walk across the bridge. It was an absolutely lovely walk.

We spent the late afternoon at the Top of the Rock, aka the top of 30 Rockefeller Ave. As much as I wanted to see a taping of something, we opted to just spent our money on the view. We were tipped off by our guidebook that this view was just as good as the empire state building, and there were no two hour waits. And it turned out to be good advice. They had three levels of viewing, one inside and two outside, and no wait times for the elevators. Because it was so windy and cold, I mostly stayed inside. Mark, of course, was determined to get some good shots and his determination paid off. You can see more pictures in our Picasa albums but here are some of the highlights.

We had such a wonderful time in NYC and we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate 5 years of marriage than with another adventure!

Aloha 2012! Days 5, 6, and 7

On our fifth day of vacation, we took the morning to find a white sandy beach and went boogie boarding. As you know, I'm a Californian who grew up quite near the beach, so I've boogie boarded plenty of times as a kid. And I've body surfed when I couldn't be bothered with a board. But, just as a reference, Avila Beach has cold water. Not so cold that a brazen kid can't handle the surf in a swimsuit... but cold enough that our moms would call us back to shore every 15-20 minutes to warm up.

Hawaii, however, has warm water. All I can say is... wow. I boogie boarded as long as I could, despite being pretty tired. Again, no pictures, but it was so fun to boogie board and hang out in the surf with Mark, Steph, and Julia. And the surf was INTENSE! No baby waves you can jump over. You either ride the wave or it gives you a ride on the sandy floor. If I lived near surf like that, I would certainly pick up surfing. Take the cold out of it and it is amazing!

The next day we went and toured a coffee plantation., Greenwell Farms. I LOVE COFFEE. You see how many choices we had? We were encouraged to try them all. What can I say? I did! YUM. My favorite was the chocolate macadamia nut blend. I bought two pounds of it to bring home, and even with the strict rationing my k-cup allows, I am sorry to say it is now gone :(

Considering how much I love coffee, I was surprised by how little I knew about it. I didn't even know the "beans" are actually little cherry pits. Silly me, I thought Jack grew them on a beanstalk because they are so magical!

I highly recommend a coffee plantation tour to anyone visiting Kona. But I especially suggest it for coffee lovers, and I especially suggest Greenwell Farms! Seriously the coffee was so good I drank it black. I never drink black coffee!

On our last day in Kona, Mark and I were on our own as we had a red eye home. We toured the town of Kona, watched a football game at a bar (with some incredibly potent mai tais...) and had a dinner date. And so our great Hawaiian adventure ended! We're already dreaming up what we would do on a future trip, probably to different islands, but for sure to include snorkeling!

You can see all of the pictures we (Mark) took on our trip by viewing our Picasa albums, dated 12-28 thru 1-2. And if you check those out, you can get a sneak peak of our NYC trip! 

Aloha 2012! Day 4

At the time, I wasn't really able to pick a favorite day or favorite thing we did. And honestly, every day and everything was amazing! But now that it's um... later... (cough nearly two months cough) I think I'm ready to pronounce Day 4 my most favorite! We had a snorkel cruise scheduled and a laid back evening at our vacation house for New Year's Eve.

This was our ship. Yes, those are slides. Mark went on them but I was having too much fun snorkeling! I was one of the last ones out of the water. Steph and Julia were THE last ones out!

We didn't take any pictures of us actually snorkeling. Not much to see but butts and fins and snorkel tubes sticking out of the water! We had inner tubes which were nice to start with but I ditched mine pretty quickly.

On the way back, grinning ear to ear, we had two more surprises for us. The first was that a pod of dolphins decided to escort us. This is the only picture we got but there were several, all playing in the wake of the boat. As a Californian, I've seen my share of dolphins, seals, and otters. But this experience blew me away.

And just when we thought our trip couldn't get any better, that we couldn't possibly see anything else more amazing than what we'd seen in the past few days, we found two whales breeching and waiving at us. 

The captain didn't want to get too close out of respect for the whales, and Mark wasn't exactly traveling around with a telephoto lens, but he still grabbed this shot (above.) Probably a bigger testament to the experience is how enthralled all the humans were (below.)

Everyone was silent, besides cheers when the whales showed themselves to us. And at the end, when the whales waived, we all waived back.

And here we are, post snorkel cruise! Exhausted, but clearly happy and having a fantastic time!

As a finale, 2011 ended with one last sunset. I can't say 2011 was a good year, despite the fact that some really good things happened. But it was a full year, and one that, at the very least, we can say we ended with family, love, and a gorgeous sunset.

Aloha 2012! Day 3

On our third day in Hawaii, we finished up the Volcano/Hilo side of the island and then headed over to Kona. Before driving over to Kona though, we took one last tour through Volcano National Park. Taking advantage of the early start and low crowds, we hiked through a lava tube. This isn't actually a tube of lava, but rather a tube created by lava. But no one wants to call it "big gaping tunnel that the lava made and is sorta tube like."

After the lava tube we walked through the sulfur flats. These were amazing! The trail was paved an elevated, and apparently the ground was so hot it could burn you. Or at least there were unpredictable pockets of heat that you could get burned by. No ROUS sightings though. 

As one last stop in Volcano National Park, we drove back to where Mark took the picture of the active part of the Volcano. This is what it looks like during the day! Amazing! If anyone wants to study light, I highly recommend a trip to Hawaii because every time we turned around, the light changed and challenged us to rethink what we were seeing.

After a yummy lunch, we started our drive towards Kona. We stopped at Black Sand Beach Park, where the sand was indeed black and the sea turtles let us gawk at them.

Dragging ourselves away from the sea turtles, (they really were awe inspiring) we drove a bit out of our way to South Point. South Point, aptly named, is the southern most point in the United States.

And Mark took one of my all time favorite pictures ever. I think this one is going to end up on our wall!

We finally made it to Kona, grabbed some grub, and went to sleep. There were even more adventures awaiting us on the other side of the island!

Aloha 2012! Day 2

Quite a bit belated but it is what it is!

Our second day was a Volcano day for us. We started by heading to Hawaii Volcano National Park. I think we're unofficially collecting pictures of ourselves standing in front of national park entrance signs.

After hitting up the visitor's center and driving through the park a bit, we headed out on a hike to get a good idea of the landscape. The prevailing theme seemed to be "Life Beats Lava." Which, heck, considering the year we all had in 2011, sure is a relief to find true! It was so inspiring to see the different levels of habitat growth throughout the area. This lava bear was also pretty amazing! The hike itself was on a little bit of slippery ground... I wanted to run part of it but quickly decided that running on loose uneven ground was a bad idea.

From parts of the hike we could see the volcano spewing. It wasn't erupting, just active in the sense that stuff was coming out. I would call it smoke. Pretty cool stuff!

The light throughout the day stunned us at every turn. We truly began to feel that paradise feeling. So many times we'd turn a corner or crest a hill and find ourselves looking at varying bits of sunlight sprinkling the landscape. Gorgeous, breathtaking, and in a way, healing.

Ok, obligatory "couple with a view" pose. I thought I was being so clever by standing on ground a bit higher up from Mark, but alas he's still so much taller me.

 A bit later in the day we hiked out to where some lava flowed right over the road. Lava beats road.

After watching a gorgeous sunset, we headed back to our rental house for some dinner and rest.

Finally, before we were all completely tired out from the day, we headed back to the park to check out the volcano at night. Let's just say my illusion of smoke was dissolved! I couldn't believe that what I thought was smoke earlier was this:

And with that Mark has declared that if it ever truly erupts again in our lifetime (which it likely will), then we'll be on the first flight to Hilo that we can catch.