Golden Gate Real Estate is back to Blogger

Well friends, since I am a full time realtor, not a full time blogger who speaks HTML and can fix things like redirect loops, Wordpress and I were not a match made in heaven.

So now I'm back to wonderfully functional, if not as hip, Blogger. Thanks for
sticking with me. I'll be back soon with thoughts on noisy buildings, but here's
a sunset from our "winter" to hold you for now.

Holiday time in the San Francisco microclimates

Poinsettia! Full grown! In the Mission! 

The cheerful resident said its been here at least 20 years.

Yes, those red "petals" are actually "bracts", the little yellow things are the flowers. 

You can use that little fact to impress people at your holiday gathering, tell them you got it from your microclimate nerd realtor.  Ooh, and here's a cool microclimate weather forecast, (whole Bay Area) and here's that great app (SF only) to help you dress in the morning.

And then there's these guys...

Prickly pear and Bougainvillea. 

And on the west side of town, where these things will not grow...

Times are not easy and there is much suffering in the world. In lieu of more news about bidding battles I offer a little San Francisco Beauty as a tonic and as nutrition...  with my wishes for blessed holidays for all.

I know you are busy, but get thee hence to the Botanic Garden!

If you have never smelled Edgeworthia, you are in for a treat. Amazing.

And the magnolias are going OFF!

You can get a magnolia map at the kiosk, or just follow the blooms around- they are hard to miss.

So grateful for this beautiful city and it's beautiful flowers, and parks in which to decompress. So happy to be a busy realtor, but sometimes I get a little stressed out, and scheduling a meeting here turned out to be a genius de-stress move. 

I swear you will feel so much better after a walk in the park, and then you can go back to all those urgent matters with a clearer mind and a happy heart. Happy Valentines Day everybody!

P.S. The pink flowering currant is going off too!

Foggy Foggy Foggy

SF Gate- Solar panels and fog

It's that time of year in San Francisco again, and even though I've lived in and out of the fog all my life, and blogged about it ad nauseum, it is still a shock and a clothing challenge every time I go from summer to winter, or winter to summer, in the same day.

SFGate

At a recent open house there was much discussion of where the fog line is. One man who'd lived on Schrader for years thought that was the line, others Masonic, and still others lobbied for Divisadero. As the marine layer expands and contracts the line moves, so it is hard to make accurate generalizations.

For you house hunters, here's one attempt at mapping the fog lines:

EnergySavvy

I'm also partial to this "super scientific" one from HeyNeighborhood:

Adrift, the magical fog video that went viral a few weeks ago is lovely if you haven't seen it.

Bernalwood Karl Eats Bernal

Spring Winds A Blowing

North Wind Fables - Wikia

Personally, I find the wind wearysome. Must get up early before it blows if you want to get a good walk in, keep a shawl and layers handy everywhere you go. Ugh.

SJSU SF Bay Wind Patterns

I tell myself this heinous wind has it's place, even as I hide from it. It allows for upwelling that brings cold, nutrient rich waters to the surface, which is why we have such awesome and diverse marine life here. Also the wind keeps the air quality so fresh. 

Ocean Upwelling Boostdam

Spring is a little like winter, in that it's a good time to get a realistic sense of how windy it is at the property you are considering buying. When I lived in Sausalito you could walk three houses down and be in a completely different climate, and same is true in much of San Francisco and Marin. Also, the ocean gales can be a nice breeze in the hotter parts of Marin and San Francisco. I'm addicted to the ocean and must weather the gales, alas. Perhaps you are less so and can shop for property further inland, or find a special little microclimate withing the coastal zone.

Windy Golden Gate - allposters.com

Beautiful Walkable City

As fascinating as the sewer system is, today I am looking forward to a walk date with a dear old friend, and feeling the joy of our fair cities Walkability. I am not the only one. In this article about "Bruce Almighty", the Giants manager,  he attributes much of his relaxed style to long rambling walks he takes after games, here and away. I love that his wife "is a fast walker, so she keeps (him) at a good pace".

Walkonomics

Dolly Lenz, real estate queen, was here last week, and was raving about how beautiful it is here and how "you can just walk for miles and miles". There's a not so new app called Walkonomics, which "uses ‘Open Data’ and ‘Crowdsourcing’ to rate the pedestrian-friendliness of over 14,000 streets in San Francisco". I don't always agree with the rankings, or criteria, but the data is interesting so it's worth checking out if you have an iPhone and like to walk.

It's a great day for a walk, and if you go briskly enough, you'll have time to smell the roses...

What's Underneath the City and Why You Should Care

As a renter you can blithely assume the obvious parts of the home you live are all you need to know about. As an owner, if there are issues with the flow of your household plumbing, including the line to the street, you will be dealing with them. And paying to repair them if necessary. These are not repairs that can be postponed without consequence.

The city (San Francisco Public Utilities Commission- SFPUC) is doing a lot of sewer repair work on the city lines, but property owners are responsible for their lines ("sewer laterals") from the building to the city lines, and for replacement of the sidewalk squares that have to be removed for repair and/or replacement.

Old clay pipes shift as the earth does in our seismically alive neighborhoods, so if you can actually pull off an inspection contingency in this market, (or better yet, pre-inspect) a sewer lateral inspection is a really good idea. It's kind of cool, they run a tiny video camera down the line, and you can watch if you are not squeamish. Though as a buyer you don't have much leverage for repairs or credits these days, it is so much better to know up front what you are getting into. Sewer line and the corresponding city sidewalk repairs can range from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars.

Mission Creek

I'll be holding open a junior 1 bedroom condo at 888 7th Street on Sunday, 2-4. Since a segment of the Mission Creek Greenway and Bikeway is located on the site, and just for the sake of watershed awareness, I took a look at site on the super cool watershed finder put together by the Oakland Museum. 

Oakland Museum

DeeDee posted this about the new park, under some of which the creek still flows. Here is the big picture to come, and if the freeway actually comes down, wow! The unit I'll be holding open faces the big curve with the mural on the Cal Train tracks. You've gotta like trains, and I do. It's a cool curvaceous industrial view, sparkly at night with the Bay Bridge view. Come by and see me Sunday, and then take a walk in the park.

True Mosaics

Postscript: In chatting with my sister, who works at Adobe, whose SF headquarters is right next door, we got curious about the Baker and Hamilton building.  She came up with this this link, which has lots of fun links, explaining, for example, why the train track curve is there.