Monday’s Mansion & Shack

I think I will call today’s high-end home a Modern McMansion, as the photos don’t seem to define the home in the traditional way. When I think of a mansion property, I think of architectural elegance, maybe some fancy stonework, meticulous landscaping. But today’s feature at 168 Isabella Avenue in Atherton is the updated version, suitable for a younger laidback web entrepreneur and his family, rather than an older traditional CEO with trophy wife. The property does have the requisite land (1.8 acres), a tennis court and pool, and a 2200 sf gatehouse. But the house is surrounded by a huge lawn, more suitable for touch football or volleyball, with no rose garden or fancy hedge maze. The house, from the exterior, is your basic traditional home, maybe something you would find out in the country, with a big porch. It doesn’t appear to be 7000 square feet and there is no hint of ostentatious at all. The interior has large rooms, soaring ceilings, large windows and lots of French doors. There is nothing architecturally masterful, the walls are basic stucco with picture or crown molding. It’s a suburban home on steroids. On the market for over 400 days, the listing price is $17,900,000.

Less than two miles away, on the border of Atherton and Redwood City lies our lower-end fixer-upper of the day. 197 Alexander Avenue is a 780 square foot flat-roof home on a substandard 2500 sf lot. (Looks like someone took a 5000 sf lot and put two homes side-by-side.) Listed at $550,000, the home could use some help: refinishing hardwood floors, paint, dual pane windows, heating upgrade, bathroom remodel, dual panes, kitchen remodel. I imagine that this home looks very similar to the way it did when it was built in 1953, and in fact, given the county records on taxes paid, one might think that it is the original owner doing the selling! Listing price is less than Zillow estimate, and under the low-end of Zillow value range. The home is the smallest in the neighborhood and might be a good starter home for the right handy person or couple.

Recent Bay Area Sweet Digs Posts:
Musings on the Silicon Valley Housing Bubble
Contractor’s Custom SJ Home: For Sale By Owner
Berkeley: Back To School In The Elmwood
Spotlight: Orion School in Redwood City
SF: Reduced Properties in SF and Daly City
Cupertino School District Stays on Top
They Call Him Flipper
Redwood City Sales Rebounding
Oakland: For Mid-Century Fans An “Untouched” Home
Fremont: Shake It Up Baby
Price Reductions Taking Place on the Mid-Peninsula