Location, Neighbors, Craftsman.
My house is the most beautiful place in the world! Windows in every room. I love my house. A koi pond, one black and white like a moo cow. Two baby fish!!
Look at these gorgeous pictures.
But don't get too excited. It needs a second bath, and closet space is minimal. It is expensive to add on a master bath (though that will also double two bedrooms' closets.) I super-want to build a porched back exit into the garden, new stairs beneath, which will cost as much as the 5" house extension.
But It's on a 7,000 square foot lot! So there's room for a hot tub, but where? Perhaps a small dance floor out back, in the most darling garage you ever saw! I have the world's tallest maple (though I suspect it doesn't turn red) and a street canopy of healty trees!
I love my garden.
There's also a side porch, the prettiest place, it demands a a late breakfast; I feel compelled to have a weekly Sunday brunch on that dear patio.
But... there are bees, and it's hot, and the price is astronomical. It's far from Papa, an hour from Berkeley. I will leave my heart in the Berkeley hills.
OTOH I can always move back.
Meanwhile, neighbors welcome me to the Rose Garden, saying, "I moved here 17 years ago from Rockridge, and never left," and, "people leave here feet first" (which gave me pause. "How soon?") Kathy is two blocks away, Cin, six. I met the "Holy Toledo" couple by chance; they live in the Spanish house behind the Rosicrusian Museum.
And there's Renaissance dance fifteen minutes either direction, TechShop twenty minutes away, and not far to Friday Night Waltz and Contra and so forth.
Location, Neighbors, Craftsman.
Eee! I still have three days to back out.