Palo Alto: McBuilder Family Home

The flyer on 750 Ashby calls this “an artful contemporary interpretation of the perennially popular Craftsman style,” but let’s get real — it feels like a builder’s spec house that was designed by someone who got his or her degree through the mail.

It certainly has all the checklist items you’d want in a family home: a quiet cul de sac location, four bedrooms, a private backyard, and a big kitchen/family area. But from a design point of view, it has no soul.

What’s more, Ashby Drive is a symbol of city planning at its worst. This loopy street of builder spec homes was once an elementary school, until some shortsighted city council members decided that the population of school age children in Palo Alto would never grow again. So they bulldozed the school and sold the lots to home developers for a short-term revenue gain. Today the city is desperately looking for ways to cope with overcrowded schools, and in some cases, children are unable to attend their neighborhood elementary schools. How could the city planners be so wrong?

Location: 750 Ashby Drive
Price: $2,295,000
BR: 4, BA 2.5
Lot Size: 4,500+ to 6,500 Sq Ft

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My Rating: 78 out of 100

Location: 7, bike to downtown, walk to elementary
Schools: 8
Noise: 10, on a quiet cul de sac
Layout: 7, functional, gratuitous use of cathedral ceilings
Construction quality: 7, Home Depot quality fixtures
Curb appeal: 8, nice windows & shingles, garage in front
Maintenance: 9
Style: 6, spec-ish, next to potpourri of spec homes
Privacy: 8, on a cul de sac
Function: 8, meets family needs

[Scale: 1=negative, 10=positive]
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