Noteworthy new listings….
The late interior designer John Saladino’s house at 2072 China Flat Road ($12.5 million), on one of Birnam Wood’s better culs-de-sac, makes visitors work. It’s barely discernible from the street, and then you have to pass through a dramatic courtyard, winding around the trees in the middle of the path, before you reach the front door. The interiors look better in person, with high ceilings and a lovely floor plan. As with any designer’s home, of course, the question is whether a civilian can ever decorate it as nicely; surely some of the furnishings are also available for purchase. Either way, the landscaping is perfect—I love the way the trellis posts are set into the pool and how the property is not visible from the golf course.
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While there are some very 1980s architectural touches at 320 Calle Elegante ($5.45 million)—e.g., the indoor planters, the raised kitchen, and the pinch-point staircase—the views are terrific, especially as you ascend to the primary bedroom; the pool area is extremely inviting; and the guest studio above the garage makes for a welcome retreat. Plus, it’s in Cold Spring School District.
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More vestiges of the 1980s show up at 2891 Hidden Valley Lane ($4.9 million)—the columns, of course, but particularly the windows shaped like wide arrowheads. (Why?) The current owner paid $2.5 million in November 2020 and made some changes, including to the floors (before photos), and yet I still think a buyer will want to update surfaces throughout. The layout is pretty solid, bearing in mind that—as at so many view properties—stairs abound; the primary is on a mezzanine level off to the side, with the guest rooms above and below. And the backyard pool, in the shape of a whatsit, benefits from a pretty mountain backdrop.
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Have we entered the era of $4.5 million for the Mesa with no ocean view? The main draws of the spec reno at 214 Via Sevilla ($4.495 million) in West Mesa—the seller paid $3.5 million last April—are size and and move-in-readiness. The common spaces—including a party room upstairs, off the primary, with a loft office above it—are indeed spacious, but three of the five bedrooms are rather tight (with small closets, but no room for a bureau), and two of the guest bathrooms have narrow vanities and no medicine chests. The fourth guest room, on the ground floor, is the former primary, and it’s huge (but its closet is in the hall). The main primary is also huge, with lots of windows, south-facing skylights, and glass panels in the door frosted some of the way up—so toddlers can’t see in, but teenagers can. And while a lot of the house feels new, it may not have made it all the way through the punch list: cracks in a living room window, a visible seam in the wall to the right of the fireplace, and so on. Pluses worth nothing: brick terraces, two upstairs decks, a sauna in the primary bath, and the amazing wooden bar in the party room.
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Coyote Circle is an appealing little development off oft-raffish Coyote Road, and 1907 Coyote Circle ($3.295 million) has three bedrooms, three baths, low-key Mediterranean charm, and access to the community pool. Unfortunately, it also has a neighbor not everyone will love.
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Donze Avenue is one of those adorable one-block streets downtown—between Laguna and Olive, and Anapamu and Victoria—and 421 Donze Avenue ($1.4 million) is aptly cute. Built in 1920, when everything was smaller, it’s just 1,059 square feet, shaped like a trailer, on .09 acre; the listing says there are two bedrooms, one of which “is currently used as an office/den,” which I think is the breakfast nook on the floor plan. (If so, it’s not much of a bedroom.) According to public records, the property sold for just $250,000 in late July, so I assume this is a spec reno. Too bad more period charm wasn’t retained, but at that price, there may not have been much to salvage.
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Also worth checking out:
••• 618 Anacapa Street #5 ($3.195 million): Tuscan-style three-level condo in the gated development behind the new police station under construction (below).
••• 2417 Calle Linares ($2.795 million): 1975 three-bedroom, three bath above Monroe Elementary School in Alta Mesa.
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