New Listing - Two Story, 2 bedrooms in Prime Silver Lake

Terrific Silver Lake starter home. This classic two-story, 2 bedroom 2 bath home awaits your decorator’s touch. Formal living room and dining room, with original 1921 built-in, a floral-covered pergola and patio, and lovely landscaped yard highlight this home. Elevated above the street on a street-to-street lot. Located in the heart of Silver Lake, close to all that this exciting neighborhood has to offer. Property is commercially zoned (buyer to investigate). For more photos and a downloadable flyer Visit: www.1108westerlyterrace.com
Listed for $499,000

How to convert a garage…

In today’s lending environment a great large number of loans are denied because of garage conversions that don’t past appraiser's muster. It used to be that no one cared whether or not a garage had been converted. It was seen as value added. But now, as banks become more conservative, underwriters are reticent to approve loans for homes where a garages may be used for other purposes. Mainly the red flag goes up when things like plumbing and kitchens are installed in garages. It makes appraisers and underwriters squeamish when additional “living space” is bootlegged into a property.

But let’s face it, here in Southern California many, many people’s cars never see the inside of their garages, and garages often become the family storage locker. Some homeowners, in an effort to create extra space, succeed in adding the much needed office, sauna, or bathroom. However, when it comes time to sell they find that the investment in their property pays no dividends. In fact, they may end up paying more by having to undo their project and restore the garage to its former state.

By contrast, some homeowners get it right. My clients Jeff and Frank who I helped purchase this gorgeous 1930 Spanish, recently completed a brilliant conversion on their detached 2-car garage. 

Frank is a Pilates instructor and massage therapist. It has been his dream to have an in home studio where he can teach, workout with Jeff, and treat clients. They called me a few months after moving in and asked my opinion on how they could convert the space while not jeopardizing a possible future sale.

What I basically told them was: to make sure that whatever you do never takes away from the functionality of the space as a garage. Don’t get too ambitious and add a bathroom or anything that will make it look like living space. Leave the garage opening available. Even if you remove the garage door, do yourself a favor and make it easy to pop a garage door back on when it comes time to sell.

Granted, I don’t think they will be moving from this great home anytime soon, but they have certainly avoided any future headaches.

Here is the how the garage looked when they purchased the house:

Inside, they installed drywall and enclosed an area that still serves as storage for yard and garden tools,

and hid it behind a mirrored wall.

And in what I think is a great choice, they hung the ceiling leaving a portion of the support beams exposed instead of covering the entire ceiling with sheetrock.

They added handsome sconces on the walls by Troy Lighting. On the floors they laid a rubber gym surface that comes in four foot rolls, made by RB Rubber from Linoleum City. It’s a great surface for their Pilates equipment.

Frank and Jeff removed the old solid wood door and replaced it with Marvin glass sliders from Benchmark in Culver City. The wood accents around the doorway are Oak with Mexican-style “clavos” for effect. They “hatchet-distressed” the fir lintel beam to give it some age. The lantern above the door is made by Artistic Lighting and Designs. All lighting was purchased through Capital Lighting and Wholesale Supply in Culver City.


They now have a terrific Pilates/massage studio/home gym. It is still essentially their garage, but as you can see it’s a hell of a lot more.

A Midwesterner’s Reflections on Southern California in February

It’s funny how the brain collects its data by way of the nose. It was fourteen years ago almost to the day that I drove the long and sometimes treacherous 1,800 miles from my former Chicago home to Los Angeles. I escaped the Midwest during a snowstorm and then nearly drove off a mountain road in an Arizona blizzard. But I made it.

Over the years, February and the emergence of the flowering pink Jasmine and aromatic Victorian box trees would bring back the memories of my arrival in LA. Back then, I mistakenly attributed the gorgeous perfume in the air to the ubiquitous bougainvillea plants. It would be some time before I knew from where it came. My impressions of this city in my first months here were a world away from the smoggy LA that I had expected to find.

After last year, the aromas of February will forever be attached to a far greater arrival than my own. My daughter’s birth February 12^th coincides with the sweetness that welcomed me to this beautiful part of the country. And her sweetness has reassigned those smells in my brain’s hard drive. She will grow up a “California girl” and will probably take for granted what makes Southern California such a special place to live.

Now I hate to sound like the chamber of commerce, but why would you want to live anywhere else? While nearly half the country braces for another arctic blast after the latest pile up of snow, our preparations for bad weather consist mainly of remembering where that damn umbrella went, and will it still work after 10 months of hibernation; or is this a “sweater day?”

Yesterday as I went out for my run I was brought to a screeching halt by the breathtaking views of snowcapped San Gabriel Mountains. I paused, and after saying a few private words of gratitude, thought: “Where else in America can you see this and still be just a twenty minute drive to the ocean?”

I don’t know, but I’m glad that our home here in LA is one of those places.


Oh yeah and there’s this good news:
Luxury home sales jump 21% in California
Homefront Los Angeles Blog: Feb 10th
Homefront Los Angeles Blog: Jan. 19th

Los Angeles, San Fran, San Diego and Washington D.C. region post gains as home prices still falling in most U.S. cities

While this article paints a dismal picture of the national real estate market, there is some good news for our region…See below and click the link to the article.

Of the 20 major metropolitan areas tracked by the Case-Shiller index, only three regions aside from Washington posted year-over-year gains: Los Angeles, San Diego and San Franciso.

Washington region posts gains as home prices still falling in most U.S. cities

        

Homefront September Newsletter is now available online

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HOMEFRONT SEPTEMBER 2010 EDITION