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2013 Decorator Showcase at 2800 Pacific Ave.

May 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Yesterday evening Zephyr hosted a private party at the San Francisco Decorator’s Showcase 2013 home. The home is in Pacific Heights at 2800 Pacific Ave. You can see us in the photo below at the entrance on Pacific Avenue. The home is on a corner lot at Pacific Ave. & Divisadero.

Curious about what to wear to a designer showcase? The popular answer last night was “black!”

Here we are, ready to decorate!

Important Disclaimer: 2800 Pacific Ave. is currently for sale. We are not the listing agents for the property, it is listed by Patricia Lawton with Alain Pinel. Any mention of the house is incidental to our experience of this year’s decorator showcase. If you are interested in the home and don’t have an agent, we are certainly happy to chat with you.

The view towards the bay from 2800 Pacific Ave.

If you aren’t familiar with the designer showcase, it is a fundraiser for tuition support at University High. They divvy up the house – each decorator gets a room, and every decorator then goes wild. Depending on your perspective, the results are either cacophonous or inspiring.

My favorite rooms were the bathrooms on the second floor. The master bathroom has an awesome living wall that is behind the bathtub and an absolutely gorgeous shower. The elysium guest bathroom off of the “teenager’s bedroom” was also a personal favorite. Bonus points go to the designer – Alfredo Gregory – for once being a Zephyr agent! The tiles were custom-made, as was the water closet. It’s a very sweet bathroom!

Honorable mention goes to the 1/2 bath on the main floor. I liked the materials and give it bonus points for removing the bathroom door! (although in fairness to this 1/2 bath, many of the doors in the home have been removed for the showcase. It just helps with traffic flow. A lot.)

I also loved the “spa” concept on the top floor, as you can see from the above picture the home has a pretty amazing view from the top floor rooms and roof deck.

The decorator showcase is open through May 27 of this month. If you haven’t attended and are looking for some design inspiration, we highly recommend it!

 

Filed Under: Blog, For SF Buyers, For SF Sellers, Pacific Heights

Castro Street Design Open House

May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

SF Planning has been hard at work on an updated plan for Castro Street between Market and 19th St.

Castro Street Design. Source: SF Planning Dept.

Castro Street Design. Source: SF Planning Dept.

If you aren’t familiar with the proces so far, last fall the development of a draft conceptual design informed by community input and staff analysis started. In January and February of this year there were public workshops to get feedback from community members, neighbors, and local merchants on the draft design.

Based on that community input, SF planning went back to the drafting boards, and is ready to present their final conceptual design for the street.

Coming up on this Thursday, May 14 from 7:00 – 9:00pm the SF planning department will host a public open house at the Market and Noe center (2278 Market St. between Noe and Sanchez) to get feedback on the final conceptual design for Castro Street.

While I’m looking forward to the details of this proposal, the draft concept (6MB, pdf file) is big on increasing pedestrian flow and traffic calming. While a variety of solutions are proposed, the net result seems to be wider sidewalks for better pedestrian circulation, sidewalk bulb-outs at 18th and Castro, and the potential addition of several “mini-parks” that highlight various neighborhood locations of historic note.

Generally speaking, I’m all in for the proposed changes. The Castro neighborhood is an incredibly popular pedestrian destination, particularly with tourists, and I fully support almost any proposal that will make The Castro a more walkable location, particularly at the very busy intersections of Market and Castro and Castro and 18th Streets.

How would you like to see the Castro neighborhood change? What are your traffic calming ideas? How would you highlight neighborhood locations of historic note? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to show up at the community open house this Thursday!

Filed Under: Blog, The Castro

Hello Golden Gate Fog

May 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Last Saturday morning I found myself in The Presidio. Not in a kidnapped and wake-up-in-a-strange-place-kind-of-way but more along the lines of the pretty domestic and boring. As in: I need some clean clothes tonight so I’m picking up my clean clothes from the most awesome dry cleaner in all of San Francisco.

While I was looking for the dry cleaners (nothing is quite as much fun as navigating construction detours in The Presidio), I happened upon this awesome shot of the fog melting away beneath the Golden Gate bridge.

The fog sneaks out underneath the Golden Gate bridge

The fog sneaks out underneath the Golden Gate bridge (click to enlarge)

If you’ve ever wondered why people will pay millions of dollars for a home in Pacific Heights, the above photo will hopefully answer the question for you. And if it doesn’t, I’ll offer you a hint: The homes in Pacific Heights that have Golden Gate Bridge views have everything awesome in this photo, and none of the construction fencing or other heavy equipment.

San Francisco is an incredibly gorgeous city to live, work, and play in. When talking about how expensive it is to live in San Francisco, I often find myself joking about the “culture tax.” I define it as the premium we pay to live and work in San Francisco, one of the world’s most awesome cities. It’s awesome because 1) it is filled with sharp and interesting people and 2) it is one of the world’s most beautiful cities and 3) because I said so! Although I guess I could also rename it to the “beauty tax” given what a gorgeous city San Francisco is to live in.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the picture of the fog slowly creeping back to the Pacific Ocean underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. I also hope you enjoyed your Saturday, mine was excellent!

 

Filed Under: Blog, Only in SF, Pacific Heights

29th and Diamond in Noe Valley

May 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Who owns the land at 29th and Valley in Noe Valley? This was a question that I found myself asking on a recent broker’s tour…

The city owned land at 29th and Diamond St.

The city owned land at 29th and Diamond St.

It turns out that the land is owned by the city, and the property is APN 7536-018. While it doesn’t have an official name, you can just think of it as the 29th and Diamond Open Space.

The lot is fairly large, and is also fairly steep… from looking at city records, it appears the grade on the site exceeds 20%, which probably explains why the city still owns this land in Noe Valley and it hasn’t been snapped up by a developer.

What are your thoughts about this patch of green at 29th and Diamond? Should the city keep it as is, consider selling it, or otherwise improve the property to be of more benefit to the neighborhood?

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Filed Under: Blog, Noe Valley

A Tale of Two Markets in Bernal Heights

May 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

505 Anderson in Bernal Heights is a single family home that has been on the market and off the market for the past several years. It provides a great perspective on how the San Francisco real estate market has changed in the past few months.

505 Anderson in Bernal Heights

505 Anderson in Bernal Heights

The home is small – about 750 square feet, doesn’t have parking, but does have two bedrooms, one bathroom, and is a single family home. So, in other words, it has some upsides – single family home. And some downsides – on the small side, no parking.

It was listed in 2010 for $489,000 and then withdrawn after about a month on the market. 2010 = No Sale!

The home was listed for sale again in 2011 for $489,000 and sat on the market for about 3 months before being withdrawn. 2011 = No Sale! 

The Bernal heights home was listed again in the spring of 2013 for $499,000. It was the same house, with only minor changes made since the last two sale attempts (new windows and siding in 2012), and plans had been drawn up showing how you could make a larger bedroom and add one car parking.

In 2013 the home was on the market for about 3 weeks, and after listing for $499,000 it closed for almost 125% of the asking price, closing just over $620,000. 2013 = Over Asking Sale! 

In a nutshell, I think 505 Anderson is a great indication of how the market has changed in San Francisco. Homes that languished on the market in 2010 and 2011 are now being snapped over for substantially over their previous listing prices. And the only substantial difference is that the market has changed – not the house.

What are your experiences with the San Francisco market this year? Can you think of other homes you saw for sale in the past few years that didn’t sell but ended up doing phenomenally well in 2013? Leave a comment below, I’m happy to do some more research and share what I can about the sales.

Filed Under: Bernal Heights, Blog, Single Family Home

Noe Valley Town Square Update

April 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Yesterday I received some great news from the San Francisco Parks Alliance about open space in Noe Valley. If you aren’t familiar, there is a lot on 24th street – 3861 24th St – that is currently owned by a church. The lot is located between Sanchez and Vicksburg streets. If you aren’t familiar with Vicksburg, it is between Sanchez and Church streets. From tax records, it appears the lot belongs to the Noe Valley Ministry, and they’d like to sell the lot to allow them to rebuild their building (which isn’t on 24th St.).

 

Noe Valley Town Square. Image Source: NoeValleyTownSquare.com

Noe Valley Town Square. Image Source: NoeValleyTownSquare.com

The goal is to create a permanent open space along 24th Street. For the past 8 years or so the space has been home to the Saturday Noe Valley Farmer’s Market.

According to the NoeValleyTownSquare website, the estimated cost of the projet is at least $4,000,0000. Yesterday, the SF Rec and Park Commission unanimously recommended the purchase of the lot so that it can finally become the Noe Valley Town Square.

What happens next? The recommendation from the SF Rec/Park Commission goes to the Board of Supervisors now. In the past, the city has suggested they would be willing to spend about $2,000,000 of city funds for the purchase of the lot, which means that for the project to become a reality, private donors need to raise at least another $2,000,000.

If you’d like to make a donation to the Noe Valley Town Square, or learn more about some of the design concepts, I’d highly recommend you visit the Noe Valley Town Square website, which has a ton of background and information about the project. You can also make a financial pledge to help support the project. What are your thoughts about the plan to create a permanent open space in the heart of Noe Valley? And have you made your financial contribution yet?

Filed Under: Blog, Noe Valley

Where Exactly is Cow Hollow?

April 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Not to get too existential on everyone, but where, exactly, is Cow Hollow? This might sound like the dumbest question in the world, but even dumb questions can lead to interesting answers. The reason I bring it up is that our fair city has about as many neighborhood definitions as it does neighborhoods, and the groups defining the boundaries rarely speak to each other… Take, for example, Cow Hollow!

According to the San Francisco Association of Realtors, the Cow Hollow neighborhood is defined as:

The north side of Green street, north to Lombard (including the homes on the south side of Lombard, but not the north side). The east/west boundaries are Van Ness and Lyon. Below is a picture of the SFAR map for Cow Hollow, showing the boundaries with the Marina district to the north and Pacific Heights to the south.

SFAR Cow Hollow Map and Boundaries

SFAR Cow Hollow Map and Boundaries

 

The Cow Hollow Association, though, has completely different neighborhood boundaries, which are shown below:

As you can see, the Cow Hollow Association neighborhood boundaries begin further to the south than the SFAR, but do not run as far north. The Cow Hollow Association also uses Lyon as the western neighborhood boundary, but uses Pierce Street (instead of Van Ness) as the western boundary for the neighborhood.

Screen Shot 2013-04-09 at 10.19.57 AM

Cow Hollow Neighborhood Association – Different Cow Hollow boundaries

And while all this might seem to be just some guy with too much time pointing out how two maps don’t match, the reality is that the mis-match has some implications for homeowners, buyers, and sellers.

The Cow Hollow neighborhood is subject to neighborhood design guidelines,  which means that you could buy a house that is marketed as being in Pacific Heights only to discover that the property is part of the Cow Hollow neighborhood design guidelines. What are your thoughts on neighborhood boundaries and definitions in San Francisco?

Filed Under: Blog, Cow Hollow, For SF Buyers, For SF Sellers

Welcome Back, Giants!

April 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I’m not a baseball person. My father is. My business partner is. If I’m being really honest, I was always the kid in the outfield looking at the flowers in the grass when a ball would unexpectedly come my way and interrupt my flower or sky gazing. But I live in San Francisco, and we are the World Champions of Baseball!

SF Giants, image from SF Giants

SF Giants, image from SF Giants

At least, for the moment.

While the first home game isn’t until this Friday, the first SF Giants game is today. Somewhere. Apparently, Los Angeles. And we got our hats handed to us and then some, losing 4-0. Kinda makes ya wonder if Buster Posey feels bad about taking the $167 million contract extension. But hey, we all have our bad days, right?

If you happen to live in the South Beach or Mission Bay neighborhood and you are a Giants fan, then you probably greet the beginning of Baseball Season with a mixture of dread and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm because it’s time to go hang at the stadium, enjoy a cold frosty beverage, chat with friends, and – oh yeah – watch a baseball game.

Dread, because a home game bring in an incredible amount of traffic and visitors to the neighborhood. Which can make getting around a bit of a challenge. On the flip side, let me assure you that our parking enforcement department is thrilled that you love baseball. In fact, they are so thrilled that you’ve come to support the Giants that they will be absolutely sure to ticket your car if you are parked in the wrong spot or parked in an expired meter.

There is no such thing as cheap beer at a baseball game, and there is no such thing as cheap parking for a baseball game in San Francisco. You can pay through the nose at a surface lot, or you can take your chances and then (most likely) pay through the nose for a parking ticket. Go Giants!

 

Filed Under: Blog, Mission Bay, South Beach

Benches of the Inner Sunset

March 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

Have you ever walked down Irving St. in the Inner Sunset and wondered where the benches came from? Well, wonder no more! Neighborhood resident C. Duderstadt is the genesis of these comfortable and beautiful neighborhood benches. If you want to bring a bench to your own neighborhood, they’ll probably make one for you at no cost.

image2

Public Bench in Inner Sunset neighborhood along 9th Ave. at Irving.

We had a few questions for Mr. Duderstadt about the benches, and his answers are below:

1. How did you come up with the idea?

Back in 1976 a friend asked me to design and make wall mounted seating for his veterinary clinic–so he could easily mop the floors. Since then I have studied benches, literally all over the world, and the contour refined to make it as comfortable as possible.

In 1978 I put one on the front of our house on 10th Ave and have lived with a public bench since then. In 2003 I approached the SF Rec and Park Dept with a offer to make and install benches at the skating area at 6th Ave. They demanded that I use 2 x 4′s rather than the 2 x 3′s and the current contour was refined and 4 benches placed in Golden Gate Park. In January Adam asked if a freestanding bench was possible and using a structural design I found looking at old images of the Park I developed the current bench.

2. Do you plan to expand beyond the Inner Sunset?

There are benches in San Rafael and overlooking Muir Woods as well. I’m always interested in good locations.

3. Do you make the benches yourself?

Adam has made three, I taught a 5 year old friend to make one, but to date I have made 20 more.

4. How long does each take to make?

It takes ME about 1.5 hrs, actual labor, to make one bench. Paint and collecting materials, about another hour.

5. If someone wants a bench, how do they go about getting one?

The benches are only available to be placed into the public realm, in front of private homes or businesses. We first ask that they be “fostered” and if there are no problems, they then are “adopted” and custom paint is possible. People can contact me (via the website) and I will check out the location and put them in the loop when a bench is available, depending on how busy I am, I do have other pursuits.

6. Anything else we should know about you, the benches, the feedback you’ve been getting?

These benches are my retirement plan. I’d like to have them as common as Starbucks. Where ever you are sitting on one you can see the next one to walk to. Adam has put up a website with pictures of most of the benches.

The one in front of Le Video in the Inner Sunset made it through fostering and I painted it such that it is now always sunny on 9th…

image

Golden Gate Park Benches. Image Source Unknown.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Inner Sunset

Lombard St: Cow Hollow or Marina?

February 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Boundaries are arbitrary, but does it make sense for two different sides of the same street to belong to different neighborhoods?

District 7 SFAR Map

District 7 SFAR Map

For example, in District 7 of San Francisco, there are four neighborhoods (according to SFAR):

The north/south diving line between The Marina and Cow Hollow is Lombard St., which makes perfect sense. Does it make sense, though, that homes on the north side of Lombard are in the Marina while homes on the south side are in Cow Hollow? Given what a busy street Lombard is, I kind of have to agree with the boundary.

What about the north/south dividing line between Cow Hollow and Pacific Heights, though? The north/south boundary between the two neighborhoods is Green St., which means that homes on the north side of Green St. have a Cow Hollow MLS designation, while homes on the south side of the street have a Pacific Heights designation in the MLS. This one seems a little less obvious to me, since Green St. isn’t a particularly busy or commercial St. (that would belong to Union St., one to the north).

California St.
California St. serves as the north/south boundary between Pacific Heights (District 7) and Lower Pacific Heights (District 6). However, when the boundary line was drawn they (they being SFAR) put both sides of California St. in Pacific Heights, which means on the south side of the street the boundary runs along the fences in the backyard, not the street out front.

However, as soon as we get west of Presidio St., the north/south boundary goes back to the front side of California St., with homes on the north side belonging to Presidio Heights and homes on the south side belonging to Laurel Village/Jordan Park.

Clear as mud, right?

What are your thoughts about the SFAR map boundaries? I’ve only highlighted a few neighborhoods, but the list could go on and on…

Filed Under: Blog, Cow Hollow, For SF Buyers, For SF Sellers, Marina, Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights
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