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Summer “Adulting” in Santa Barbara County

As I type this and get ready to schedule this to go out tomorrow, there are only 5.5 more days in this school year and then my 1st grader will be a 2nd grader and my youngest will be a Kindergartner!  What this also means is that Summer is here and we will have 75 days of Summer vacation filled with camps, books, travel, wrestling, complaining about being bored, going to the beach, begging to watch a show on the iPad, trips to the library, gardening, bike rides, popsicles, hikes, boogie boarding, watermelon and all things Summer. Oh to be a kid again!

Meanwhile, us adults will still be “adulting”. Which to me means looking at houses, helping clients prepare their houses for sale, discussing pricing, whether or not to stage the property and so much more. My “adulting” will also consist of previewing properties for my buyers to assess whether it is worth their time to view them in person, what it might cost to remodel aspects of the home, the neighborhood school boundaries and how much to offer when drawing up a contract.

My Summer will also be filled with educating my clients about the residential purchase agreement as well as the residential listing agreements, both of which seem to get longer in length as each year goes by.  I will spend time answering client questions about filling out or getting clarity on Seller disclosures. Time will be spent talking about sewer lateral lines and having them scoped with a camera (my sons love going with me to this appointment), having roofers weigh in on life expectancy, trailing behind and soaking up all the knowledge from physical inspectors sniffing around homes and pointing out every detail (why is there never a damper on a chimney or a wrench chained to the gas shut off?).

I am about to celebrate my 16th anniversary in residential real estate here in Santa Barbara. Learning about the new trends in home design is always a thrill for me. See below for a few tips I recently heard from a new construction builder. I am constantly learning in my profession, which I love. This Summer will be great for me, since I love my type of “aduliting” and I know it will be great for my kids too. I hope that you have a wonderful Summer too!  #75DaysOfSummer2018

The fridge: We recently had a builder of new construction properties speak at our office meeting and she updated us all about trends. Having all of your appliances, fridges, dishwashers, even the vent hoods above the stove blend in with the cabinetry is the hot trend. A kitchen should now look like any other room in the house since it is where people do most of their entertaining. For the uber weåalthy, service kitchens (a hidden kitchen) are now a thing again because heaven forbid, any guests would see dirty dishes! Oh and the hip things is for the interior of your fridge to be black…apparently it shows off your food better!

 

The kitchen sink with the window leading outside: I saw this kitchen sink window at a property on the Riviera and it reminded me of what we did at my house. Although in this case the window opens up, ours fold to the left and the right. This idea worked for this particular house since there is a narrow path outside of the kitchen and opening to the sides would block access. I love that this idea really connects the yard to the kitchen, although I constantly splash waster on mine when doing dishes!

 

The king of all bathrooms: I walked into this unassuming house in Bel Air Knolls and wandered around a bit chatting with the listing agent. Then I made my way into the master bedroom and peeked into the bathroom. Then I took another look as this bathroom is huge and very nicely done. Gray tile seems to be the favored look these days. We did our bathrooms with white tile but gray grout which I highly recommend! I also like how they chose so many different, yet related tiles to tell the story of the separate bathroom areas.

 

Bocce Ball Court: This house on Alameda Padre Serra (APS) is super cool! In fact I told the listing agent that he should buy it! This is an agent that only ever has gorgeous listings…I wonder what some of these agents do when asked to list a less than gorgeous home? Refer them to a colleague…a professional mystery! Complete with fantastic views of the whole city, a very spacious floor plan with modern touches, a pool, pool house and then completely separate on the side of the property, this incredible bocce ball court that was just begging for a tournament. I have walked by this house many times in my life and never knew that this bocce court was nestled in on the other side of the fence!

 

 

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