The Mandeville Canyon house and its remodeling are totally misrepresented in your article, unless it was intended as an advertisement for a contemporary interior designer. The home was always in an English country style. The beamed ceiling in the living room is original, as is the dining room with its fireplace and Dutch door. The designer may have willfully altered things, but he did not improve them. The home was a potential historic resource, possibly an early work by the architect Gerard Concord from 1936(?) It is to be hoped that a responsible home owner will buy it and restore t to its original beauty and historic significance.
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The LA house belonged to our aunt, and we often house-sat for her during the 1970's and 1980s. It was a Tudor-style home with a wood and brick exterior, and it was absolutely beautiful, inside and out. It was a gem, and an historic Mandeville Canyon home.
Most of Mr. Callaway's changes were not for the better. The new stone facade is especially unfortunate-- more evocative of the Brady Bunch than the Cotswolds.
Contrary to the article, the dining room was always fully enclosed and is almost entirely unchanged, other than having a different Dutch door. The living room is also much as it was, although the so-called "half-timbered" walls of that room and the entry way are different and cheap-looking. Happily, the lower woodwork in both rooms appears to be mostly or entirely original. The library, which was a cozy den when we were there, is the only room that is greatly changed and expanded, which is not to say greatly improved.
It was a wonderful home, and we loved staying there. It is a shame that subsequent owners seem not to have fully appreciated its charms or history.
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Not to nit-pick, but it’s impossible for the San Francisco property to be both in the Marina and “within two blocks of Muni rail,” unless they are referring to a cable car which is hardly the same thing.
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The San Francisco house demonstrates that housing prices have peaked and will likely go sideways or decline over the next decade. It’s a good house in a nice neighborhood, but almost $5 million, and $60,000 annual property tax? This is an upper middle class house and neighborhood, not luxury. The price is based on the bigger sucker theory and can’t imagine a bigger sucker than somebody who buys this house and neighborhood for this price.
I do not understand why the country's newspaper of record wastes its time on something more in the lane of the late, yet aptly named, Robin Leach. Might as well bring back the Society Pages in this and every other metropolitan newspaper, so that the appropriate denizens can engage in yet another round of self-congratulation and those who vainly aspire thereto can resume those wishes-and-dreams.
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Whoever thinks the first one looks like a Cotswold cottage has not been to the Cotswolds.
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@Abby Pretty on the outside, but overbearing inside.
"The kitchen has an extraordinarily expressive hood" is an extraordinarily expressive phrase for an extraordinarily large and bizarre waste of kitchen space and money.
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I look forward to these every week, but this week, these were some pretty ugly homes, especially the Los Angeles and San Diego ones. Blah.
Thanks for the column, though!
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The open kitchen in SF looks modern and attractive. But can you imagine cooking fish there, while the smell disperses and clings to everything beyond the kitchen?
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@Someone That's the issue with any open concept design. I prefer a bit of privacy and separation for the kitchen and actually much prefer defined rooms.
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My first thought when I saw the Marina District home was "...but it's built on landfill" and the next sentence I read was a non-liquefication certification. I didn't even know that was a thing. I hope that 4 million is reimbursable if the house falls during the next quake. The Marina was the worst hit during the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. I guess if your home is fine who cares if the neighborhood is gone? At least it isn't a corner house. Those were more likely to be damaged.
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@Sasha I lived in SF during that earthquake and was grateful we weren't living in the Marina District. That it is non-liquefication certified wouldn't make a bit of difference to me; give me bedrock any day.
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OMG are those suggested property taxes, or taxes for something else? Yikes!
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@LucianoYYZ In California, property taxes zoom up when a property is sold. If you hang onto it, they only go up 1-2% each year. Roughly.
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A dovecote as a charming folly; yes, I am definitely charmed. The house was mighty nice too. The 1930s were good years for architecture.
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I can't imagine living in any of these houses...especially for over 4 Million. They were showy. But comfortable or inviting? no. Last weeks $350,000 homes in Kentucky, Florida, and Michigan were much better houses that you could see someone making a home in. Granted, California prices are inflated, but even taking that into account, these homes were great for architectural magazines, but as a family home... no.
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@cz I like looking at homes on Zillow and here at he Times and I, too, am amazed at how little good taste the very well to do demonstrate on a consistent basis. They think houses are for showing off wealth, not creating a warm and inviting space. That said, I did think the San Francisco row house has some charm - maybe not $4 million worth of charm -- but the other two were strictly for show and not living. Maybe its why the top one percent actually report a lower level of satisfaction with life than we hoi polloi.
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@cz yet all you can talk about is the price.
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@Andrew actually my point is money doesn't buy taste, nor does it make a home. The places were just too overdone for me and lacking in their "inviting" factor. And yes, I found the lower priced homes having much more charm and they felt that someone had taken care of them, they had stories to tell, and people had actually had lived in them. That's all.
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Having lived in SF, I immediately knew the rowhouse was in SF, and was pretty sure it was in the Marina, though I wasn't sure exactly where from the photo, though I could triangulate based on the description of the location.
A lovely area, and a quiet part of the Marina
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