Where we begin

Our story begins like most Silicon Valley tales: with the vesting of stock options. Not enough to self-fund the whole remodel project, mind you, but enough to make us think that maybe we could actually make this thing happen.

We bought our house in San Carlos in July of 2016 after renting in town for six years. To give you a sense of our price range in those days, two of the houses in which we expressed interest were immediately razed upon closing. At the time, snagging this house felt like a major coup; we got a livable (if not large) 3-bedroom/2-bathroom on a great street for a mere $52k over asking.

Our house currently clocks in at 1,320 square feet. About 160 square feet of that is located in a room over the garage that is best described as “unwarranted.” If a permit for its existence was ever granted, it pre-dates electronic records. We’re talking microfiche territory here. The staircase leading up to it is steep and approximately two feet in width. Despite central air conditioning AND a portable unit, temperatures regularly hit the high 80s around 3pm. A few years back we attempted to have insulation pumped into its walls, foolishly assuming it surely must lack such basic protection; one hole in the wall later, we learned that it indeed had insulation - of unknown composition - now in crumbly piles on the floorboards. We call this space the Hot Box, and it’s where my husband has spent every work day since the beginning of the pandemic.

But…the backyard. It’s magical. It’s as park-like a space as you’ll get on a 5,500 square foot lot. We have a coastal live oak and a giant redwood that has absolutely no business being in a residential neighborhood. We’ve added a couple of planter boxes where I grow tomatoes well into November. It’s everything two New Englanders could have imagined when we decided to move to California nearly two decades ago, and it’s the primary reason that we’ve decided to remodel and not move.