What Stays and What Goes?

It's a common question, what stays and what goes with the home when it's sold? For this home, all the common items stay. The refrigerator that matches the rest of the kitchen appliances, the stackable washer dryer (Maytag Neptune), and the window coverings all stay. The window coverings include the blinds, shades, and valances. Our daughter has asked us to keep the Disney princess valance in her bedroom, but the rest can stay with the house, and we're happy to replace the princess valance with another appropriately colored valance for the room.

There's a standalone IKEA closet system in the upstairs bedroom. It too stays with the house. The large shed in the backyard stays.

The home theater screen and projector are negotiable as is the pool in the backyard. If there's anything else you'd like to inquire about, please do, as almost everything else is negotiable as well.

Windows and Doors

The windows of 23 Linden Drive were all replaced in 2007 by VGV Windows of Burlingame, CA. The windows themselves are manufactured by a company called LBL windows out of Oregon, which provides a lifetime warranty on the windows to the purchaser of the windows. For anyone who buys the a home installed with LBL windows, they do allow a limited time transfer of the warranty.

In the front of the home the windows feature a Queen Anne style grid. Almost all the windows in the home are single hung windows (they open up and down, not side to side), as was the custom for homes built in the same era as this one. The sliding glass door in the dining room is also an LBL door, and has the same warranty as the windows. The windows and sliding glass doors are vinyl, double-paned, energy efficient and argon filled.

The windows themselves are retrofit installed, which means that the new vinyl windows are installed in the existing frames of the original wood windows, which gives them an original installed look. Retrofit installed windows also do not require a permit for installation because they do not require any stucco work on the exterior or change to the building's structure.

The original window in the kitchen was a garden window, and was replaced with a modern retrofit garden window from LBL.

All the windows and the sliding glass door, have custom trim work on the interior of the home. The custom trim was installed to match some of the original trim found in the home when we bought it. Every window in the home now has this matching trim work.

Where required by code, tempered glass is used in the windows (next to doors, in the sliding glass door, bathrooms, etc). We also had tempered glass installed where it wasn't required by code, in the two front upstairs bedrooms, because we knew they would be occupied by children, and we wanted the rooms to be as safe as possible.

The doors throughout the home were all upgraded to six panel molded doors. This was an upgrade from the flat slab doors that existed when we purchased the home. This also meant all new casings around every door in the house. The front door and the side lite for the front door was also changed out to one with a stained glass and caned window. The door and side lite were custom ordered. We had the same contractors that installed all the other doors install the 10 panel french doors to the den in the ground floor. These doors have been stained a light pecan color, but have not yet been coated with clear covering, which is why the plastic is still covering the windows. A buyer can decide to coat the doors or leave them as is, and remove the plastic immediately.

Feng Shui and 23 Linden Drive

If you live in the Bay Area, you can't get away from the concept of Feng Shui in real estate. Feng Shui is a Chinese belief that talks about the way things should be in order to have harmony in your life. Some people believe parts of Feng Shui is superstition and some of it is just common sense. If you're buying a home in the Bay Area, you want the home to have good Feng Shui, so if you need to sell it later, you'll be able to attract the large base of Asians in the Bay Area.

So you may be wondering how good is the Feng Shui of 23 Linden Drive in Santa Clara. Overall, the home has some pretty good Feng Shui. Many of the common things that are pointed out as negatives don't exist at this home. For example this home is not at the end of T-intersection (considered one of the worst possible locations in Feng Shui), and the when you open the front door it does not lead directly to the staircase (the staircase opens to the back hallway, an ideal facing direction).

Also among the positives, this home's lot has a slightly narrower front than back, and the road curves inward at the front of the home, both considered auspicious characteristics. Also the power lines are in the back of the home not the front, another good sign.

Another concern many Asians have is in regards to when there's a death in the home. It's a common mis-perception (even among Asians) that you shouldn't buy a home when there's been a death in the home. In actuality the superstition is that you shouldn't buy a home that has had a violent death in the home. A peaceful, calm passing, like my mom's passing after a 12 year battle with cancer, surrounded by family, is considered normal, and not a negative. The other myth that many people don't understand is in regards to disclosing deaths in a home. California only requires that a seller disclose if there's been a death in the home in the last 3 years. If there's been one prior to that, there's no requirement for a disclosure. So unless you're buying a home that's built in the last 3 years, you really have no assurance there's not been a death in that home prior to the last 3 years.

Is there a negative? Yes, there's one minor negative, and that's the guide wire that goes from the telephone pole to back yard. It intrudes only in the easement area in the back. The folks from the SVP (Silicon Valley Power) which is the Santa Clara Utilities company, have said we could have it removed and redone, so it doesn't intrude so far into the property. We could either pay to have it done or petition the city to have it done. Cost if we paid would be around $1000. It's actually not much of nuisance and doesn't really affect the feng shui of the property.

Flooring and the Level of the Home

Most of the ground floor has engineered oak hardwood flooring. Engineered oak hardwood is real wood, with manufactured wood as the base. This particular oak is called "Valley Oak" and is made by Trafficmaster and comes with a 15 year warranty. Usually you can get one or two additional sandings from engineered hardwood flooring. It's glued in place, and installation was done by a professional contractor. This hardwood runs through the living room, dining room, master bedroom, secondary bedroom, halls and den on the ground floor. There's Italian travertine in the entry way, the same travertine that's in the kitchen.

The bathrooms have marble floors, in a light shade of coral. The staircase is covered in the same berber carpeting that is in all of the upstairs (except the upstairs bath which also has marble flooring). The berber carpeting is 100% nylon, a more expensive fiber, recommended for use on stairs because of its durability.

All of the flooring was installed in 2007, and remains in relatively good shape. The fireplace surround and floor tile is also marble, specifically black carrera marble.

Most rooms of the home are relatively level. We did contract with Gingerbread Construction of Los Gatos in 2009 to help level the floors of the home. While they did a good job in most of the rooms, there are some rooms where it would have been more damage than was worth it to improve the level. That includes the two ground floor bedrooms, where there is a little bit of a slope towards the outside walls. For the most part it's not noticeable and could be corrected, but would probably damage the tile in master bath and stucco outside the home.

As part of the leveling work, Gingerbread replaced many of the posts below the home, used in the post and pier foundation (you'll notice the foundation report talking about what good condition these posts are in). Gingerbread also installed some foundation anchors, but as you can tell from the foundation inspection, they are recommending some additional ones be installed (see the blog posting on the foundation)

The Roof and the Skylights

The house was entirely re-roofed in 2007 by Daystar Roofing using CertainTeed Landmark asphalt shingles with a 30 year warranty. Mark at Daystar guarantees his work for 5 years against leaks, so there's still two years left on the warranty. At the time Daystar re-roofed the roof, there were actually 10 skylights on the home. You can see them in some of the older satellite photos of the home.

In effort to keep the bedrooms darker (so we could sleep in if we wanted to), the skylights over the upstairs bedrooms were removed. In addition there was a hip skylight over the center staircase, which was cracked and leaking. It was difficult to find a suitable replacement for this skylight, so in the end, it too was removed and roofed over. In the end 4 skylights were left in place over the large shared use area on the second floor and one skylight was left in place over the attic crawlspace. I had at one time considered extending this skylight down into the master bedroom on the ground floor for additional light into this bedroom (and then add a shade so it could also be covered), but we never got around to it, so for now, it provides light to the storage area.

Since these are plastic bubble skylights I've also considered replacing them with Velux dual-paned glass skylights. (I should also mention the existing skylights are in perfectly good condition, and have no leaks.) Velux makes a direct retrofit replacement for these bubble type skylights and they run less than $200 a piece. There's no re-roof work necessary to install these, just unscrew the existing skylight from the curb mounting, and screw in the replacements. Here's a link to one that should fit and talks about it being a replacement for these bubble skylights.

The Kitchen

The kitchen was extensively remodeled in 2007 as you can probably tell from the photos. If you're interested in the details, read on. The flooring is Italian travertine tiles, 18 x 18. I've been told by my brother-in-law (a granite and stone specialist at Eurostone in San Leandro, where we purchased the tile), that it's fairly high-end travertine. It's laid over a spread concrete base (not wonderboard). The kitchen cabinets are from Maki Cabinet, and are made of solid maple with plywood sides and shelves (not manufactured wood like particle board). The solid slab granite countertops are blue tiger's eye granite (named because of the specs of blue throughout the stone), and come from Union Stone of Santa Clara.

As for the actual remodel, no plumbing, gas or electrical was moved, so no permits were actually required for the remodel. New fixtures were used and we did replace the outlets and switches so they would match each other.

There was a little bit of a splurge on the kitchen cabinets as you can probably tell, since there are 3 pantry cabinets, all with roll-out drawers, as well as glass front cabinets.

A lot of people ask about the sink, it's actually made of a composite material that has real crushed granite as part of the composite. The sink, as well as the kitchen faucet (single handle pull out) are made by Pegasus.

The appliances have a "stainless-like" finish. What that means is that it's supposed to look like stainless-steel, but have none of the drawbacks of stainless steel. For example, the finish is fingerprint-free, so little kids can touch it, and you don't have to worry about the smudges that get left behind on real stainless steel. It also has the advantage that magnets work on this finish, unlike stainless steel which does not work with magnets. The refrigerator stays as does the other kitchen appliances.

The closet in the kitchen houses the inside laundry, and includes a stacking Maytag Neptune washer and dryer that stays with the house.

The Foundation

If you've read the inspection reports, you may be a little concerned about the foundation on 23 Linden Drive. What's great is that there are actually 2 different reports on the foundation, so you can be well-informed. In addition there's been work done on the foundation, and there's supporting materials for it as well.

Let's start with the property inspection. The property inspection states:

Slightly greater than typical foundation cracking and/or movement was observed in the older section of middle crawlspace. The amount of movement does not suggest a serious structural problem. This area should, of course, be monitored. The rate of movement cannot be predicted during a one-time inspection. For additional information we recommend a licensed structural engineer be retained.

Okay so we know that there was movement in the foundation in the past (not surprising since this is California, and there are earthquakes), the inspector points out there is some cracking, and recommends a licensed structural engineer be retained. In fact one was (by a prospective buyer), and a foundation report was produced. The foundation report did find a few recommendations and repairs, but had this overall conclusion:

I conclude that the house has a relatively stable foundation. The structure is in generally fair condition considering the age and quality of construction, foundation design, soils conditions in the area site drainage conditions and seismic activity in this region over the period of the structure service. I find this foundation to be in Fair condition and advise that if the above additions are installed to the house that an effort be made to follow the above-mentioned guidelines. I believe the foundation is fair condition at this time and should remain at this level with the completion of recommendations as well as implementing general maintenance procedures regarding site drainage and moisture controls.

So the building inspector believes the foundation should last, and does recommend a few corrections which included:

1) Improve drainage around the home (not exactly foundation work, but a preventive measure to help keep the foundation from getting damaged)

2) Cut exposed rebar and paint the steel (there was one section found that had steel rebar that was exposed - extremely minor issue and was only a $250 correction)

3) Some foundation anchor bolts were found, recommended adding additional ones (for a home of this age, it's not unusual the foundation was not bolted to the home, this is a common retrofit for seismic protection)

4) Cracks should be filled with epoxy (as the first inspector found, there were some cracks, these should be filled with epoxy as a preventive measure to help prevent moisture from entering - you'll note in all the inspections concrete cracking is fairly common in California and not considered a structural problem).

So overall the foundation is relatively stable. There is some recommended work in the foundation report. If you're concerned about it, you can request that the work be completed during escrow. You should of course adjust your offer price based on the foundation report or ask for a credit back in closing to cover the cost of the work. As a seller I'd find any of these options acceptable.

Note: The picture above was taken by the foundation inspector to show the cracks he found in the foundation. I can barely see the crack, can you?

Update 6/30/2010: All the recommended foundation work has been completed (during the week 5/17/2010) and has been paid for by the seller. A completed clearance is available for any buyers.

The Schools

23 Linden Drive is in the Santa Clara Unified School District. The home schools are Westwood Elementary, Buchser Middle School and Santa Clara High School. As mentioned in the initial blog post, the house is actually closer and within walking distance of Washington Open Elementary. Washington is one of the top rated schools in Santa Clara (receiving a 9 out of 10 rating on greatschools.org).

Washington Open is a lottery school. That means that anyone in city of Santa Clara can enter the lottery to attend the school. Of course if you get in, it's much more convenient to live near the school. If you have kids that go to Washington or you want your kids to go, this house is ideally located. If you don't get picked in the lottery, you can re-apply the next year. If you already have one child going to Washington, any younger siblings automatically get to go Washington.

5 bedrooms / 3 baths

The more astute readers, will note that the house is listed on the market as 5 bedrooms and 3 baths, but that the county records list the house as 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. The county records do match in the square footage (both the MLS listing and the county agree that the house is 2520 square feet). What this means of course is that the house is permitted and approved for 2520 square feet (it was added to in the 1980's), but when the addition was originally planned, the architect only included 3 bedrooms. That meant there was a lot of open space in the house.

What was interesting about the addition, is that it added a second floor to the home, and one bedroom and one bath was placed upstairs. Since the upstairs is almost as large as the ground floor, that meant everything else in the upstairs was open space. With a center staircase, the open space was divided evenly at the front of the home, where there were two front facing windows. It was a perfect opportunity to add two walls to create two bedrooms at the front of the house. And that's exactly what happened. Two walls were added (which can be easily removed) with doors to create the two upstairs front bedrooms. While these were built without obtaining permits, a new owner can apply to the city for permits; remove these walls and go back to 3 bedrooms / 3 baths; or just keep the house as-is. (Note: The wall separating the two bedrooms is part of the original plan - it was necessary for structural reasons and is legal and permitted).

For those needing 5 bedrooms, this floor plan is ideal as a 5 bedroom house. There's a ground floor master suite (could be used as in-law quarters), another ground floor bedroom and another full bath downstairs. The remaining open space in the upstairs serves as a play room, family room, or office space.

23 Linden Drive, Santa Clara, CA

Welcome to 23 Linden Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95050. This home recently came on the market in the South Bay (SF Bay Area), sold in a matter of weeks and went pending, but unfortunately the deal fell through and the house is now back on the market and available.

This 2520 square foot home with 3 bedrooms, 3 baths was built in 1948. It has the possibility of converting two bonus rooms to bedrooms by adding closets (more on that in a future post). It's on a large 8,247 square foot lot and has been extensively remodeled. I'll go through in separate posts the different changes that have been done to this house, as well as talk about some of the reports available, so that you have all the information you need if you're interested in purchasing this home.

This home is located in the south east corner of Santa Clara near the Rose Garden section of San Jose. Because it's a city of Santa Clara home, the house does have Santa Clara utilities (renowned for being extremely low cost) and services, and is in the Santa Clara Unified School District. (You do need to be careful here, because many homes in the city of Santa Clara, specifically those south of Pruneridge and east of San Tomas Expressway are in the Campbell Union school district and not Santa Clara Unified. The home owners in that area recently petitioned to move to Santa Clara, but were turned down.) Specifically this home has a home elementary school of Westwood Elementary. But if you look at a map you'll notice that Washington Open Elementary is within walking distance. Washington is one of the best rated schools in Santa Clara, and is what's referred to as a "lottery" school, meaning anyone living in Santa Clara Unified's boundaries can enter a lottery to get their kids enrolled here.

I'll explore more on the school situation and other topics in this blog. You may get more information than you'd ever expect. But the way I look at it, an informed buyer, is the best buyer.