My H doesn’t like ivy because of rodents.
I would leave an area of the yard that the buyers could put in a play set or grass if they have kids.
The city of Santa Barbara just voted in a absolutely no lawn watering beginning Jan 1.
Good luck on the showing.
Artificial lawns are popular but that would be the new owner’s decision- not cheap. The new owner could also decide to put in a real grass lawn. But it would take a lot of attention to get it started because of the potable water restrictions. The owner could install a water recycling system for the house and use that water for irrigation. But obviously not something cb can do.
DH wanted some real yard; our house has a real front lawn and a nice strip of grass behind the pool out back. He keeps trying to get new seed established. It’s working out back- especially since we got the heads on our sprinkler system replaced - but the front yard is stubborn. Maybe it’s the soil; maybe the salt marine air.
Just found a quarter page ad in today’s real estate advertising section of the U-T - page 2! Large picture of the deck and smaller pictures of the house front at dusk, the living room, and the view of MB/PB. It’s advertising the open house tomorrow. I’ll save it for you.
Eager to hear how the 10:00 AM showing goes.
I think a lot of these thoughts regarding foundation plantings are climate dependent. 
The key thing I’ve heard about plantings next to the house are watering next to foundation…you want to keep all water away from the foundation
And then there’s the’security’ because criminals can lurk in bushes next to house
I’m not landscaping back or side yard because that is so personal what someone would want to do. I’m going to lay heavy layer of mulch if I ever get to it:)
We have not received any feedback from the 4pm showing yesterday
10am showing was a young newlywed couple. My Old Fart brain was thinking “how in the world do they have money for this house?” I spent 15 min showing major infrastructure stuff that noone will see or appreciate and then left. I think they were late for next appointment so they didnt stay long after I left (according to the guys)
Big advertising out for Open House tomorrow, including the large newspaper ads in San Diego paper that Marilyn saw.
We have another showing scheduled for Tuesday. They better hurry up or they might miss it:)
When’s your Sunset Soirée :D?
I may drop by the open house tomorrow and eavesdrop.
For some reason my agent begged me to be present for the Open House. I don’t think it is appropriate but she says it will be really valuable because there’s always a lot of questions and she doesn’t know all the details.
Plus, I can talk to all the neighbors and looky lous while she concentrates on the live ones.
We don’t have a For Sale sign in front of the house because I didn’t want to advertise “vacant” to all the people who park and hang out at the lookout.
I’m leery about a Sunset Open House because, just my luck, that would be when a bunch of kids would sit at the Lookout and start smoking pot:)
Im surprised today that there aren’t a lot of people peering over front gate or snooping around. That usually happens when we first go for sale. It might be a combination of higher price point and hard to find the house
You need to lurk with the serious buyers!
A For Sale sign wouldn’t help much because there’s not any drive by traffic. Presumably there will be Open House signs up and down at the main streets tomorrow to direct people. Especially for those hunting for the house at the base of the slope.
I think pot smoking kids would take off pretty quick if there was a bunch of activity at the Lookout. MIght depend how long they’d been there though…whoa dude, cool!
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Sounds intriguing. Maybe there is an offer in the works that can’t be discussed here.
No, no offer. I was just kidding
But when you do start getting interest/offers… no rush to tell us. It’s OK to keep that private, especially during negotiations. Thanks for bringing us along on the ride. It’s been so much fun to see the plans evolve. The house is really lovely. I remember wondering if all the trouble for vaulted kitchen ceilings would be worthwhile, but per the photos it is just perfect.
We are so proud of you and grateful for being allowed a glimpse into your exciting and sometimes glamorous life. Thank you! Please don’t be in a rush to share details of offers until things are signed, sealed and delivered and final. We want you to get full benefit of your exemplary work!
I wanna know all the gory, minute-by-minute details!!!
We finished the master bath vanity area in the nick of time for Open House today. The Open House is at 1pm and we are still going to be finishing details up to about noon. I told my carpenter I have to kick him out at noon because he is a Pig Pen and it is going to take at least an hour to clean up behind him.
In my humble opinion the master bath trim, sconce and mirror design is full of gorgeous drama. Its not exactly everyone’s taste, but the buyers can change out the sconces or mirrors easily. I loaded some pics to Flickr this morning. We nailed it on perfectly matching paint to the cabinets.
Garage handrail is installed and getting final coat of white paint this morning so that it will hopefully dry before people get here. We have most of the main staircase handrail installed but it is really tricky because of the large diagonal stairs turning the corner. These require the rail set at a straight angle for the turn and special cuts and installation. Painters applied one coat of white before my carpenter starting installing but I did not like the white on this staircase. Our white semi trim color is a pure white and the walls are a Spanish creamy white so it looked odd in this staircase.
Took them off and back down to garage for some black paint. They are much nicer in black
No further requests for showings as of this moment. But I will try to provide live updates from the Open House today
Master bath looks great! Is this the one where you weren’t sure about the cabinets and wall color? It looks great!
What did you decide to do about the sconces in the bedroom? We had a friend who had boxes like that…didn’t want the sconces…and found two really nice prints that went together…and hung them to cover those boxes.