Cape Cod estate in Valmonte

So I hinted at this home in an earlier post - it is one of my favorites in Valmonte.  It is large, well situated on the lot, and has loads of character: the Westley Residence.

(Source: Google Maps)

(Source: NJC)


Designed by Doug Leach and built in 2007/8, the 5,600 square foot home sits on a double lot that spans 18,270 square feet!  The original single-level ranch home and lot were purchased in 2004 for $1.8M by a Yale PhD/cell and molecular biologist and her husband, a real estate developer (himself, a Cornell & Harvard grad).

 (Source: Bing Maps)

(Source: Google Maps)

As you'll notice, the new home is sited in nearly the identical spot as the home it replaced - even the garage is in the same spot!  The lot itself, at nearly half an acre, is among the largest in Valmonte.  It actually spans two legal lots, each roughly 64x143.

(Source: LA County Assessor)

There's a ton to love about the home.  The wrap-around porch.  The color and texture of the exterior shingles.  The landscaping. The alternating roofline and mix of windows.  The size and substantial-ness of the porch columns.  The color combo.  All in, a very comfortable family home. 

The rear elevation is equally attractive and the back yard landscaping is elegant yet simple.  In fact, I think it looks as though it has some neat features like a NanaWall, which opens up the family room into a stone patio.

 (Source: Google Maps)

If I were to nitpick, here are a few things I would highlight: the windows in the garage door (which are actually a no-no in PVE and violate the Art Jury's guidelines).  I think having windows in a garage door detracts from the house - cheapens it, perhaps.  A paneled or solid white garage door would be better (an easy fix too!).

(Source: Google Maps)

(Source: NJC)


The front setback - well, here I'm on the fence.  On the one hand, the 30-foot front setback (or technically, "side" setback since its a corner lot) makes the home seem more comfortable, informal and welcoming.  At the same time, a deeper setback of maybe 50 feet would make the home seem a bit more formal, grand even,  in keeping with both the size of the home and the lot size.  Obviously something like this is a bit too much  (80-foot front setback)

 (Source: NJC)

All in all, a very well executed home.  Funny enough, I came across another home in neighboring Redondo Beach and Torrance that both have some similar features and a comparable design.  Curious: what do you all think of its Redondo Beach and Torrance doppelgangers (not sure who the architect is here)?

Redondo Beach:

(Source: NJC)

PV:

(Source: Google Maps)

Torrance:

(Source: NJC)


Which one do you think is more attractive?

KEY STATS

Location: Valmonte PVE
Style: Cape Cod
Year built:  2007/2008
Architect: Doug Leach
Square footage: 5,600f
Lot size: 18,270 (127x143)

A Tomaro home in Valmonte

Hello all!  Work has kept me away from here, so I apologize to all of you for being extendedly absent.  Today, I thought we'd switch over to an American/Cape Cod style home in Valmonte - just about done actually.  The Kaplan Residence.

(Source: NJC)


Designed by Tomaro and built in 2011, this home replaces a 3,546sf 1953 ranch style home.  The Kaplans bought the original home in early 2009 for $2.1M then proceeded to demolish and replace the original home with this beauty.

 (Source: MLS)

(Source: Bing Maps)

As you can see, the original house was not exactly what you would call a stunner.  It was dated.  The first impression of the original home was "Hi, look at my garage"  - the new home is all kinds of warm and comfortable.  Elegant.  Inviting.  Very well executed.  Indeed, even the garage, which sits perpendicular to the street, is masked by windows, architectural details and a strategically placed tree.  The doors face perpendicular to the street, drawing the observer to other aspects of the facade.

If we switch to the rear of the home, much has been improved as well.  While the original backyard was rustic and had the natural beauty/sylvan feeling, this one is admittedly more manicured, but still retails a feeling of casualness.  I do question the abundance of windows and angles here.  The trellis, columns, windows and alternating rooflines, slate patio, wood deck, etc. are a lot to take in - distracting to the degree where the eye is at a loss of what to focus on - I think less would have been more in this case.  Nonetheless, while not amazing, it is still attractive.

 (Source: MLS)

(Source: Tomaro)

(Source: Tomaro)

Phil Norman designed the interiors.  Tomaro and crew designed the exterior.  The home exudes casual California living and fits in very well in the neighborhood which is comprised of a motley of styles, from Spanish to French to Cape Cod and Ranch.

I know Valmonte is not the Hamptons - but this home would certainly feel comfortable and appropriate in either locale.

KEY STATS

Location: Valmonte, PVE
Style: Cape Cod
Year built:  2011
Architect: Louie Tomaro
Square footage: 4,500sf (just a guess)
Lot size: 17,870 (irregular')

A traditional home on the hill...

Today we're popping back over to PVE... where unlike the normal Spanish fare we see, I'm blogging about a Cape Cod home.  The Underberger Residence.

 (Source: NJC)

(Source: Don Thursby)


Built in 2009 and designed by Don Thursby, the 4,112sf home replaces a 2,661sf 1.5 story 1937 home.  The home sits on a cozy 9,600sf hilltop lot.  The owners bought the original home in 2001 for $1.725M.

 (Source: Bing Maps)

(Source: Google Maps)


The home itself, while quite nice aesthetically, does feel a little out of place.  For one thing, its surrounded by a host of red tile Mediterranean homes - in fact, it could very well be the only home in the neighborhood without a red tiled roof.

(Source: Google Maps)


Putting context aside for the moment, the home is quite nice.

 (Source: NJC)

(Source: NJC)

Great roof lines.  Wonderful garage doors.  White trimmed windows (and appropriately scaled!).  Once again showing that Mr. Thursby is a solid architect.  A very good example of the American/Cape Cod style.

But a home should fit in with its neighborhood - part of the fabric.   This  home, while itself very nice - does not fit into the Montemalaga neighborhood - it really belongs in Rolling Hills Estates or maybe the Valmonte neighborhood of PVE!

KEY STATS

Location: Montemalaga, PVE
Style: Cape Cod
Year built:  2009
Architect: Don Thursby
Square footage: 4,112
Lot size: 9,600sf (140'x70')

Where there was once, now there are two.

Back in the saddle today.  This post will focus on the Valmonte section of PVE, on two homes the replace an older home which sat on a double lot.

Home numero 1

(Source: NJC)

Home numero 2.

(Source:MLS)

My understanding is that both homes were developed by a spec builder (William Hess Development) and both designs were penned by Russ Barto.  I'm generally, as you all know by now, not a fan of dense development on the Peninsula.  Don't get me wrong - high density living does have its place in our ever-growing County.  But the Pensinula, just like Malibu and the Westside, is defined by its open space, its semi-rural, spread out feel.  Its an aspirational community - a place we aspire to live one day.   You want multi-unit 4-on-a-lot townhomes? North Redondo is for you!  Condos and apartments? Torrance! Closely spaced ranch style homes? The inner South Bay communities are all for you!  You want sprawling lots, with quaint, custom homes spread out from one another? Come to the Peninsula.

Each community has its spot on the socioeconomic ladder.  Gardena, Lawdale and most of Torrance will never have multi-million dollar mansions - nor should they aspire to.  They are solidly middle class communities that accommodate the majority of our blue and white collar workforce.  Redondo Beach is a hybrid of the Torrance and the Manhattan/Hermosa Beach communities.  Manhattan Beach and Hermosa are the high end beach communities, the Peninsula is the Holmby/Beverly Hills/Bel Air of our South Bay/Peninsula area.  But I digress...

So, you may ask, what was there before these two homes?  This:

(Source: Bing Maps)


Replaced by this:

(Source: Bing Maps)

Now the next question is: how is this possible?  How could the PVE Homes Association or the City allow the densification in the charming Valmonte neighborhood?  Well the short answer is that the original home sat on two legal lots.  In other words, the original planners that laid out the Valmonte lots had envisioned homes on each of these two lots.  It was the original builder of the home that bought two lots, adjoined them, and built his home in the middle of both.    The combined lot was 130 feet wide by 114 feet deep, roughly 14,000 square feet in total.  What I wonder is why no one else came forward to buy this lot for the $1.195M selling price in 2003 to build a home more like this .  Instead, a greedy developer came in and built two homes on these two adjoined lots to make a buck.  How much did he make?

Well, let's take a quick look at the math.  The lot was purchased in 2003 for $1.195M.  The first "Mediterranean" home measures 3,020 square feet and the second Cape Cod style home measures 2,930 square feet.  So the total built out square footage was 5,950.  At the time the homes were built (2007), construction costs to builders were in the $200/ft range (if you hired a builder, you'd pay more like $250-300/sf).  So on this basis, we could assume the cost of construction was around $1.190M.  Total investment, excluding interest costs for the construction loan or forgone interest on the cash used to pay for the land/construction, totals $2.385M.  The first home appears to have sold for $965K in May of 2007.  That seems incredibly low and other public records do not validate this sale record - so perhaps it was a related party transaction.  The second home, which was completed in 2008, was listed in September 2008 (the worst time in the market!) for $2.199M, and after several price chops, finally sold in January 2009 for $1.85M - not bad.  This looks like a more legit sale.  So if we take out 5% of realtor fees from that sale price, we're showing a net proceeds amount of $1.76M.  That means that if the developer or a related party actually occupies that first home, their effective cost of that home is only $625K ($2.385M minus $1.76M) - a great deal if you're the developer!  In today's market, that home would fetch $1.5M-1.6M, which would imply nearly a $1M profit for the developer.

What if the developer opted to build his dream estate? Well, I suspect the home would be limited to 4,500 square feet given the restrictions on size.  So let's assume construction cost of $900K, on top of the $1.195M lot price.  Total investment = $2.095M.  Now, in today's market, a home of that size on a comparable lot would probably sell for somewhere between $2.5-$2.6M.  A net profit of only $400-500K - half of what 'densifying'  returned.

In any event, let's talk about the design of the homes.  I don't like them.  Either of them.  I don't understand the Mediterranean home.  The curved entry is out of scale.  Why is the home painted peach?  I do like the alternating rough lines, the recessed windows, and the garage tucked away toward the rear.

The second home, its better, but the front feels very flat.  You notice this more in person than through the photos.  Its almost as if the developer tried to maximize square footage, so they pushed up the front living room, rather than have it set back a bit behind the garage.  It just feels tight and flat.

(Source: Bing Maps)

(Source: Bing Maps)

  

And they took away the trees!  The beautiful old trees!  Just seems unfair to clear nature's beauty for houses of such poor architectural distinction.  When you drive by that corner, it just seems so barren and naked.  It doesn't feel quite like Valmonte.  The absence of trees and greenery is noticeable on that corner lot.  Hopefully it fills in over time.

Anyhow, that's all for now.  What do you think?

KEY STATS

Location: Valmonte, PVE
Style: Mediterranean
Year built:  2007
Architect: Russ Barto
Square footage: 3,020
Lot size: 7,370 (72x114)

Location: Valmonte, PVE
Style: Cape Cod
Year built:  2008
Architect: Russ Barto
Square footage: 2,930
Lot size: 6,840 (60x114)

Whimsical Cape Cod in Valmonte

Back to beautiful Valmonte, PVE.  This home, a beautiful, whimsical Cape Cod style home - The Malit Residence.  Designed by Russ Barto in 2007, this 3,982 square foot home sits on one of the smaller PVE lots, totaling 7,800 square feet.

(Source: NJC)

(Source: NJC)

The corner home replaces an older, single-story 1950s home which occupied the lot.

 (Source: Bing Maps)

(Source: Bing Maps)


As you can see, the previous home was a modest ranch style house whose primary frontage faced in the same direction as the garage.  In general, a 60-foot wide lot doesn't give an architect much design flexibility - there's only so much one can do with 60 feet of length, when 17 feet of that is side yard setback, 16 feet of that is garage door.  In the new home, the owners and architect re-oriented the house so that the primary facade would enjoy a greater length along what was previously the side street of the former house.  This gave the owners/architect much more canvas with which to craft a beautiful house.

 (Source: Bing Maps)

(Source: Bing Maps)


The current home owners purchased the original lot in 2002 for $825,000.  While I was critical of Russ Barto's work in an earlier post, this is by far (in my opinion) his finest work on the Peninsula.  I know the owners of this home had a very strong sense of how they wanted the home to look - they knew early on they wanted alternating roof lines to create visual interest and at the same time give the house a unique character and sense of timelessness.  This is definitely not one of your cookie-cutter South Bay Cape Cods!  Even the garage, with two separate one car doors, are subtley placed beside a turret which acts as the primary south facing focal point.Without the home owners strong aesthetic sense, I'm sure this home would not have turned out nearly as attractive and special.  I will post soon  a home also designed by Barto in the Cape Cod style which is much less creative.  Stay tuned for that.

Back to the Malit Residence.  The home itself is stunning, outside and inside.  The owners also relied on the expertise of interior designer Phil Norman, principal of Norman Design Group, to craft a stunning interior, complete with finished basement.

 (Source: Norman Design Group)

(Source: Norman Design Group)

The layout of the house is also unique.  Upon entering the home from the side street, one is greeted with a nice entry foyer that is open the formal living room and dining room immediately on the right, and a home office/library and garage on the left.  Walking further down the hall, one arrives at the expansive kitchen/family room, which has a quaint breakfast nook as well.  The home opens up to a backyard that is on one of many Valmonte walking trails.  Overall, a very well done home!

KEY STATS

Location: Valmonte, PVE
Style: Cape Cod
Year built: 2007
Architect: Russ Barto
Square footage: 3,982
Lot size: 7,800 (60x130)

Time for a quick change - From Spanish to Cape Cod

While the Palos Verdes Project was initially envisioned as an American version of the French Riviera - an oasis for the well-to-do, dotted with magnificent Mediterranean homes along its majestic coastline, it didn't ultimately end up exactly that way.  As a result of the Great Depression and a number of other factors, strict adherence to certain architectural styles was relaxed and the PVE Art Jury allowed additional styles including Cape Cod and American Colonial in certain areas of the Peninsula.  Fast forward 80 years and here we are with the present day Peninsula, a mix of homes both in size and in style, ranging from beautiful 1920s-era Spanish estates to more modest 1950s-era ranch style homes and everything in between.

The Caslin Residence. Perched on the bluffs above Lunada Bay, lies a very nice 5,467 square foot Cape Cod home designed by Doug Leach and built in 2007 on a generous 18,880 square foot lot.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, Leach is one of the more prolific architects in the region and is known primarily for his Mediterranean and Cape Cod style homes.

(Source: NJC)

The home sits well on the lot, although I generally prefer the garage be hidden from view or at least more appropriately camouflaged with the rest of the facade.  The home replaces an older single-story home, likely built in the mid-1950s as evidenced from earlier aerial shots.

(Source: Bing Maps)


As you can see from the image above, not much has changed in terms of the layout of the home and its position (driveway and front door) on the 100x197 lot.  In fact, a later aerial shot shows the pool basically untouched in the new home.

 (Source: Bing Maps)

(Source: Bing Maps)

Home records indicate the current owners purchased the house in 1987 for $540,000.  The house is quite a nice example of Cape Cod, but the PV purist in me feels this style is out of place on the Peninsula.  I long for the original designs of the Palos Verdes Project planners that envisioned a truly unique retreat for the well-to-do residents of Southern California - a place unique in its identity and feel.  The sort of sensibility you get from a place like Carmel-by-the-Sea.

KEY STATS

Location: Lunada Bay, PVE
Style: Cape Cod
Year built: 2007
Architect: Doug Leach
Square footage: 5,467
Lot size: 18,880 (100x197)