Michael's Blog

I had a slow but productive open house at 857 Alma Place this sunday. Good quality homebuyers some pre-approved and some heading that way.

It was quite interesting to note that I got busiest after the posted 5pm closing time.  I had just finished closing up the second floor when a family came by the house and wanted to see the house.  I let them in and had a great conversation with them.  This family was unfortunately represented by another agent.  If I weren't showing the home for another agent to find buyers, I wouldn't have been bothered as much.  I feel as If I am giving the sale to their agent for them.  They loved the house and even wanted to go to Beckett's Irish Pub also by the same architect W.R. Yelland.

As that family was leaving, a second family came by and wanted to see the house too.  No problem, this time they were  not represented by another agent.  I can help these folks out.  They have pre-approval, but not for the level required for ALMA place.  They got my handout paperwork at the open house and in it I have 5 pages of client gallery houses for sale in the general neighborhood.  They are interested in a home on Calmar.

So this morning when I got to the office I printed out the agent sheet on the home and arranged with the listing agent of the home on Calmar to do a previewing of the home their interested in.

So next step is to find out when they are available to see the home with me and.....write the contract.

I as a new agent, I never want to place a price reduced sign in front of a listing of mine.  It's my name and my reputation on that sign out in the lawn.

What ever happend to pricing the property correctly from the begining?  I certainly can understand changing markets and moving price points.

Let's take your potential listing clients on tours of the competition, show them the homes that are in good shape, bad shape, staged or not staged.  Have them tour the home in the competition that are priced high and that have been on the market for a considerable amount of time.  Have them tour the homes that are priced fair and will likely sell quickly.

We all know which agents to watch for "quick sale pricing".  We need to make sure that we are in that circle of Realtors.  Not only should we be in that elite circle of smart Realtors, we should be the price value point in the market.  We need to make our properties irresistable to buyers.

I simply do not understand the rush to place these hideous rider signs on the listing signs.  What a perfect way to ruin a reputation.  What does this say?

I didn't do my homework?

I have sellers who are un-realistic about the pricing and have a dream price?

I'll take any listing and don't care about my reputation.

Let's banish these horrible "PRICE REDUCED" "NEW LOW PRICE" riders from the world we live in.  Let's all take a pledge, not to ruin our reputations, or our company's reputation with these nasty signs.

And what's with the "NEW LOW PRICE" rider, does that suggest that the old one was "OLD HIGH PRICE", why don't we print up hundreds of the "OLD HIGH PRICE" riders and have them on our signs at the time of the brokers tour..........Not!

Okay here I go again with my opinion, another of my pet peeves.

Houses that have been flipped to the point of destroying any character that the home originally had.  What makes some people think that they are more creative than the professionally trained architect who originally designed the home in the first place.

I have seen homes that have been altered to the point of not being recognizable to the other home of the style in the neighborhood.

When you have a neighborhood of 1950's ranchers and all of a sudden you have an over-stuccoed generic box with foam moulding around the windows and vinyl double paned windows.

I Herby propose that we permanently ban the foam moulding from all home improvement Big Box stores!

Great to serve at open houses

What you need:

• 3 tablespoons of Butter.
• 1 small can of sweetened condensed milk.
• 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
• small pot
• 9x9 backing pan

First

Melt the butter in a pot on warm. (never get temperature above warm)

Second

Add the sweetened condensed milk

Third

Add in the chocolate chips, melt together.

Fourth

Pour into a 9x9 baking pan

Fifth

Chill, cut into bite sized serving portions.

When thinking of what to blog about today I was thinking about this service I came across a while back.

Film location scout Scott Trimble has GoForFilming.com, where you can register your property as one that would be okay with the owner as a possible filming location.

A minor fee is charged to enter your information in to the database.  He also offers to have the home professionaly photographed.  Location scouts for the studios and production companies use databases like Goforfilming. com to find locations in the area where they will be at.

All areas of the country and all types of properties are needed.  It's not like Real Estate photo shoots where everything has to be perfect or updated. In fact all states of repair or condition are needed too.

If you have a Victorian, Loft, condo, store-front, restaurant, bar, office, contemporary, all are needed.

I was thinking about what to blog about today and it did not take too long to think about what I would write about.

I was searching the MLS today during floor time and I saw one of my pet peeves.

When photographing your listing for photos to use in the MLS.  Do not photograph the toilet!  Do not photograph the toilet with the seat up!

Having been a stager before becoming a Realtor, I had to take good photos to promote my business.  Please do not take photographs that look like a person with clinical depression to them.

• Open all window blinds, shutters and let the light in.
• Make sure your photos have a horizon.  That is, please focus on the middle of a wall and not the baseboard of the wall.
• Don't focus your photographs on the staged furniture.  Take a couple of steps backward and tilt the camera up and photograph the room.  You're selling the home, correct?
• Imagine that you would be getting your first impression of this house through your photographs.  Do some cleaning before photographing if necessarily.  Please do not photograph the dirty dishes in the sink.  Pick-up the children's toys.

If your client has the house in a bad condition on the day of the photographs, have them clean up and come back later.  It is critical that the photos look great.  If your clients have the house in a mess on photo day, I can just imagine what the home will look like anyday during showings.  The house must be clean!!!

If need be, hire Molly Maids or Merry Maids to stop by the home once a week.  It will be money well spent.

Hire a gardner while the house is on the market to do the gardening.  Remember Curb Appeal, If the perspective buyers won't stop their car, they will never buy the property.

Declutter the property and have your listing clients pre-move from the property.  Connect them with the people at Portable On Demand Storage P.O.D.S. to get the junk out of the house.

Getting back to the point.  Take good photos.

• Please no toilet shots, No open lids.
• Raise the focus point of the camera to mid wall and not baseboard level.
• Turn on the lights and open the window treatments.
• Get the house clean, including the yard.  Declutter the property.

You only get one shot at making a first impression.......do it right.

If you're going to have the home staged do it at the begining of your listing not out of desperation later on.  You want the home priced right and looking great from the very begining.  The home has to appear to be the value in the comps from day #1.

That feels better, no that I got that out.   (stepping down of Soap Box)

My San Leandro based home staging company

The East Bay is a Great Place to live.  I want to address in today's blog some of the restaurants that have been around for decades and have become institutions in the East Bay.

In Alameda, It's Ole's Waffles on Park Street.  This little restaurant is always packed.  It's small about 20 feet wide with a cooking kitchen and counter service along the left wall.  Down the center of the restaurant are tables for two from the front to the back.  Along the right wall are a series of 4 person booths.  Toward the back of the restaurant are some larger booths.  A smaller room was added behind the shop to the left of Oles to add additional seating.

Another location in Alameda,  It has to be Acapulco Mexican Restaurant.  It's on Lincoln Avenue and I am sure there would be riots in Alameda if this institution ever closed.

http://www.acapulcorestaurant.net/

In Oakland, One cannot do a list like this without mentioning Fenton's Creamery on Piedmont Avenue.  Even on a cold winter night this eatery will be crowded with families and groups of friends enjoying an ice cream sundae.

http://www.fentonscreamery.com/

It started in Oakland and now there are locations around the East Bay.  Kasper's Hot Dogs.  Like the Neon signs say Legendary Hot Dogs since 1930.  Don't even attempt to compare this Hot Doggery to Der Weiner-schnitzel, no comparison.  These buns are steamed to perfection as are the dogs. There is another Casper's Hot Dogchain of restaurants that was part of the same company but a feud in the family split the company in half.  Both variations of Kasper's and Casper's have been around since the 1930s.  The residents of the East Bay are lucky to have both.

http://www.originalkaspers.com/home.html

http://caspershotdogs.com/

Save your appetite for dinner at Banchero's Italian Dinnersin Hayward. We're talking Soup, Salad, Anti-Pasta, Spaghetti & Ravioli, the main entree and then desert.  Most patrons leave this establishment leave with a doggie bag that is grocery shopping bag sized.  You will have left overs to last the whole family for a second meal the next day.

http://bancherositaliandinners.com/

When asked to look at the horizon and describe what they see:

A liberal will mention that they see, trees, hills, buildings, power poles and other landmarks.

A Conservative will mention that they see the edge of a vast planet and the solar system beyond that.

Looking at the numbers of the Earth's size.  The planet is roughly 7900 miles in Diameter at the equater and roughly 3950 miles in it's radius.

The tallest mountian on earth is Mt Everest at 29,035 feet above sea level.  That's almost 6 miles.  So using the radius and Mt Everest a fraction for the height of Mt Everest would be 6/3950ths.

To Relate this to you if we use a model of the Earth the size of a common basketball, Mt Everest wouldn't even be a dimple bump on the surface of that  planetary basketball.

Now with that said.  It certainly would be tragic in our human scale if Mt Everest would be bulldozed down to sea level.  I certainly do not advocate that.  On a planetary scale, it wouldn't make a difference to the planet.

So Now we get to the size of the 6 billion humans that are on the planet.  If Mt Everest doesn't make a difference to the planet, microscopic humans, cities, cars, pollution would make even less of an impact.

So what about all of this global warming?  Brought to you by Al Gore, the very same person who took credit for inventing the internet.

Let's take a look at the documenting of the Global warming.  300 A.D. and  the Roman Empire was not documenting the retreat of glaciers. 1400 A.D. the Rennaisance, Art and Painting of religous icons and portraits of the nobility. 1860 A.D. Photography slowly begins to make an appearance during the Civil War and photography focuses on soldiers in uniform about to go off to Battle. 1960 A.D. the Space Age brings us the first satelite views of our planet.

So just who was documenting the past retreat of the glaciers before Ansel Adams began photographing natural scenes of glaciers in America's West?

Oh let's just blame the industrialized world for global warming.  Once again, the numbers just don't add up.  What we have here is a geo-political scam to shame the industrial world into sharing resources and technologies with the developing world.   Let's just hamper the industrial world and let the developing world catch up.

Real Estate tie-in to this converstation.   It's a Big Planet and Oooodles of Real Estate of the  face of the planet.  Enough for everyone.  Go, build, develope and enjoy.

Hello Fellow Prudential Bloggers,

I am new to Real Estate and have put in time on floor time and mastered it so it feels natural to me.  I am now looking to get some time out in the community.  I am in the Oakland California (EAST BAY) area.

I can do the entire walking farm thing,.  I would like to find an genuine way of getting out to the community and getting opportunities to get the business card out.

Volunteering in the community is a good way to get involved.  Most volunteer agencies prohibit advertising of your business while with them.   I have volunteered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for years.  I have volunteered with the Dunsmuir Historic Estate for years.  I have also volunteered with the Save the Lorenzo Theater Foundation.

So. The reason for today's blog is I am asking this group, to create and share ideas of creative ways of getting out into the community and getting business contacts/cards out there.

10. The Pink Storybook Castle on Callan Avenue. Why:It's position on the corner of Santa Rosa and Callan.  It's Classic W.W. Dixon Storybook design.  It was known locally as the Pink Castle because of it's original rose colored tinted stucco.  the home is undergoing major renovation and promises to be a beauty again.

9.  The Mirror Image Art Deco Houses on Glen Drive. Why: These two art deco houses on Glen Drive just West of Superior Avenue are Hollywood Glam art deco at it's best.  Both Homes are mirror images of each other and play off of each other very well.

8.  The Grey Victorian on Estudillo. Why:  A very rare example of Italianate design in San Leandro.  Just the vertical scale of this house alone on Estudillo makes it rank high on my listing.

7. The Craftsman on Dutton Avenue. Why:This home exudes craftsman details.  This home has a twin on Alameda's Fernside Drive.  Most people think that this house is a one of a kind, not so.

6. The Earl Derry House on Superior Avenue. Why: This French Provincial Tudor is one of the largest of it's kind to be built.  Home of San Leandro mayor Earl Derry.  This home has a mirror image twin located on Cherry Way in Hayward.  The possibilities of this home being a Yelland are high.

5.  The Judge Bruner House on Lee Avenue. Why:This large Tudor is possibly the work of William Raymond Yelland.  Similar homes to it on a smaller scale can also be found in Berkeley's Brittany Village (directly behind Normandy Village)

4.  The Mission Revival House on Beverly Avenue. Why: This mission revival villa along with it's own private greenhouses are being faithfully restored.  When it was for sale the blue prints from a famous architect (Not Julia Morgan or John Maybeck) were on display.  I wish I had taken note.  It has an extremely dramatic living room ceiling and a central atrium courtyard.

3.  The large Tudor on Glen Drive. Why: This home by Derry Brothers, has a presence on the street that just cannot be denied.  It has been photographed  and placed on many documents representing the city. It's San Leandro's ambassador to great homes.

2.  The three peaked 70's home in Bay-O-Vista. Why: 1970's Bay-o-Vista architecture at it's best.  Built to take in all of the views possible.  This home is noticeable from all parts of the city.   A landmark.

1.  The Art Deco Home in Estudillo Estates. Why: This home was featured in the newspaper as being at one time the most advance home in the nation.  It's Art-Deco Streamline with no apologies.

********* OF SPECIAL NOTE *********

The Mildred Cook Residence designed by William Raymond Yelland.  The blueprints for this home are in the collection at UC Berkeley.  It has a mirror image twin at 816 Alma Place in Oakland.

 San Leandro's official W.R. Yelland.

 Mirror image twin in Oakland.

Be sure to enter daily for your chance to win this 2.2 million dollar dream home in the Florida Keys.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dream_home_2008/text/0,,HGTV_30596_65579,00.html

The link is provided above, so there's no excuses.....  Starting tomorrow on January 1st the contest begins.

Good luck to you all.

On the topic of HGTV, my home was going to be on the television show "Curb Appeal" back when they were filming in the San Francisco Bay Area.  I was selected to be in a grouping of 8 homes that designer Pat Wagner would have done.  She left the show before being able to do my home on the show..... As Homer Simpson would say   D'oh!

Well, here it is New Years Eve.  Tomorrow is January 1st 2008.  I think everyone is glad to see 2007 go away.  For me it was a huge year of transition for me.  I went from full time caregiver back to a working professional.

And it feels good.   Bring on 2008.... Let's make it great in 08.

Today's blogging post is about something that has been bothering me since starting to work here in Alameda.  Alameda is a highly desirable city on the island here in the San Francisco Bay.  It is a nice place to live.  It can also be a very expensive place to live.   Can we also talk about the limited numbers of bridges and tunnels in and out of the city.

I have a co-worker here in my office that was listing a home in Alameda's Fernside District.  It was listed for over $800,000.oo.   It was on the market for a long time and did not sell.

The home was not unique and identical ones to it could be found in San Leandro for $200,000.oo less.  San Leandro's "Estudillo Estates" and "The Broadmoor" are areas very similar to Alameda's Fernside, but at a fraction of the cost.

The area of North San Leandro around Dutton and Bancroft has some very nice restaurants, a Safeway grocery store and a very special community based Zocalo Coffeehouse.  The area of Mac Arthur Boulevard between Dutton and Estudillo has just been renovated by the city and is very nice with restaurants and shops.  On the Corner of Estudillo and Mac Arthur is the Estudillo Center and a very nice Rite-Aid pharmacy and shops.

Within a healthy stroll you can the Main Branch of the San Leandro Library and the Downtown San Leandro Plaza Shopping center with Long's Drugs, Safeway and many shops and restaurants.

Bayfair Mall has been undergoing some dramatic renovations lately also and has become Bayfair Center.  The company that owns it, Madison Marquette also owns "Bay Street Emeryville" and has really been upgrading Bayfair into a nice place to shop.

Not being isolated on an island, San Leandro's North Area is just seconds away from Interstate 580 and minutes away from interstate 880.

The Oakland Airport is just down San Leandro's Doolittle Drive.  The regional transit agency B.A.R.T. has two stations in San Leandro, downtown and at Bayfair.

The elementary school for Estudillo Estates and The Broadmoor, Roosevelt Elementary school is the premiere school in the district.

So for anyone considering Alameda's Fernside, You can get a similar home in San Leandro, for less and have better traffic. Give San Leandro a look see.   you will love it.

I am working on my next blog posting.  I need to do some homework first.  It's in draft mode at the current moment.

I am doing a posting of San Leandro's top  10 houses.  If you have a house that you would like to see in this list please let me know.  If you want to add one to this list please just respond to this posting with a picture and why it belongs on this list.

Tomorrow on Saturday I will be driving around the town photographing all the subject houses.  I think that I have picked houses that everyone who drives around the town would recognize as being "the houses".

I think that this will be a fun thing.

Next up Alameda's top 10 houses.

Here we are December 27th and it's my 44th birthday.  I am here at the office today and I am havin a great time.

I was thinking about what to blog about today.  I think that today would be a good day to blog about "The Secret" and the power of positive thinking and the universal law of attraction.

When I saw the video I was skeptical about the whole thing.  I continued watching and I started to agree with what it was saying more and more.  Towards the end of the video I was saying "sure why not" and "hey, this is good stuff".

I picked a special rock out and made it my gratitude rock.  I keep it in my pocket all the time.  Here are some of the things that I am grateful for;

• My Health
• My Home
• My Family (Mom and Dad)
• My new career as a Real Estate Agent
• All my Friends
• Being the caregiver for my parents and being there for them.

What is it that I want the universe to provide me.  Well, I am sending out good vibrations :)  to for the followings.

• Carefree finances
• Sale of 857 Alma Place to the best matched people who love that home.
• Many more years to enjoy my parent's company
• Enjoyment of life
• Good Health
• Humor in my life
• Travels to interesting places
• That New Taurus X Cross over for taking clients out.
• Sucessful and Plentiful Real Estate transactions.
• I want to find my long lost friends Liz Rasche and Steven Plouvier (giving a shout-out)
• I want to have fun on my historytours.
• I want to find the missing links that document the Derry House as a Yelland design.

I sure have a new outlook on life and I want to wish all the same thing.   If you have not seen the video "The Secret" or read the book, please do yourself a favor and do so today.   It's available from Netflix and Blockbuster.

Wow, This is turning out to be one of my longest postings yet.  The words are just flying out of my fingertips and into the keyboard.

May everyone have a great, productive, positive 2008,  I am turning 44 today and I intend to make 44 the year for me.....Wooo Hooo

I'll put this out the Internet.

Here's a blog posting for the San Leandro Group.

Back in early 1980s when I was attending San Leandro high school, one of my best friends was Liz R.  Over 25 years later little does she know that she holds the key to confirming that Derry, Weaver & Derry homes were designed by W.R. Yelland.

I am looking for her to help confirm this information.  If anyone knows how to get a hold of her, please let her know that I am trying to get a hold of her.  Even better maybe one day she will google herself and find this and get in touch with me.

So the Story is.   Back in 1981 when we were in our junior year, Liz's parents sold their beautiful storybook Tudor on Lee Avenue.  It was a big deal back then.  It was featured in a fine homes magazine and sold for a quarter million dollars.  That was a big deal back then.

I remember asking Liz what the big deal was about.  She said that the home was designed by a famous architect.  I kinda recall her saying that it was W.R. Yelland.  I recall saying "who".

(The Bruner Residence)

The home she lived in was built as the Judge Bruner Residence by builders Derry, Weaver & Derry.  Tom Derry married into the Bruner and Lee families here in San Leandro.  So, the home was built for Tom Derry's in-law relatives.

It's quite amazing that the Bruner/R. Residence is very similar to homes found in Berkeley's Brittany Village.  Brittany Village is directly behind Normandy Village by W.R. Yelland.  It makes me think that Brittany Village could also be by Yelland

(Brittany Village)

So the homes in Leeland Heights, The Broadmoor, Estudillo Estates by Derry, Weaver & Derry and the later Derry Bros. could very well be Yelland too.

Merry Christmas to all.

I have to say that we had some excitement this Christmas morning and it wasn't because of opening presents.  My parents are both elderly handicapped and we really don't do much for Christmas anymore.   My two brothers both live far away and it's me and the parents.

Oh Yeah, back to the excitement.  I got up this morning and braved the chill and went out to Jack-in-The-Box for the Supreme Croisant Sandwich Meal Deals for my parents and myself.   When I got to my parents San Leandro home my mother goes on to tell me how she saw me drive by this morning on the way out to get the breakfast  (I live two homes away from them on the same street).  She said that she went out to get the newspaper and found that someone had sabotaged our holiday lighting display with the lighted reindeer and spiral lighted tree.

Some one mounted the buck on top of the doe in an X-rated position last night.   Can't you just see it all lit up in front of these senior citizen's house two reindeer making more baby reindeer.

My mother was ticked off because she had just bought them this year to replace the ones that my sisters in law relocated while cleaning the house for my mother's return from the hospital.   She was so proud of her new display with the reindeer being animated and moving their heads and all.

Some damage was done to the buck during the mounting.  Yikes.

 Restored position of the buck and doe

On Sunday I went out to the Grand Lake / Lakeshore district of Oakland and photographed a sign that I want to use in Staging a laundry room.  It's a cool neon sign above a laundrymat "Launderville".  If anyone wants a high resolution copy, just let me know, I'll share it with you.  Crop the photos any which way you please.

Have a Merry Christmas

Okay, Here I am sitting in the office on Christmas Eve doing floor time.  It's just shortly before 2pm.  We had some activity here in the office.  I don't think the phone has rang one though.

David, one of our agents had some out of town house hunters in the office looking at condos along Alameda's shoreline.   Nice folks from central New York State, our manager Nick is also from that area of New York.  The New Yorkers were amazed that our chilly but pleasant weather is about bad as our Bay Area weather gets in the winter.  They had to scrape ice off their car midway on their journey to the airport this morning.

Lillian another agent came in and checked her computer email messages.  Her home computer is on the fritz.  It's always better to come into the office and commit to Real Estate for the day.

Endina, another agent came in and was looking for a check.  Dani our office administrator has the day off and the check is well secured somewhere.  Endina was looking all over for it.  She is transferring over to the Castro Valley office.

I had a nice conversation with a gentleman who came up to the window to look at the listings.  He may move in the next year.  I gave him my card and we talked about the economy and how people spend $5.00 on cups of coffee at Starbucks.  He is a shareholder in McDonalds and he is very happy with the Arch card discounted coffee for seniors.

I created two new groups on Activerain this morning one for Alameda and one for San Leandro.  So now I have a place to deposit some of my blogs to be of local interest.   I have already mentioned Alameda so now I think I should say something about San Leandro.

I had breakfast with my dad and his friend Norm.  We normally go to a restaurant called Ronakers.  Ronakers is a classic coffee shop with no frills, located at Marina and Doolittle.  Great friendly waitresses and a fair price.  Well, today being Christmas eve, Ronakers was closed.  Good for the management of Ronakers.  We ended up at Elios Family restaurant at the corner of Floresta and Washington.   I had a Linquica omelette.  mmmm yum.  remind me to blog sometime about the Portuguese heritage in the city of San Leandro and how Linquica is the hometown hero of the Sausage and Suds festival each October.

So many blogging ideas, so little time.

Here I am sitting in the office on a Sunday afternoon.  2 days before Christmas 2007.  It's a sunny day here in Alameda California.  A good day to blog.

I didn't want to do an open house this close to Christmas, I wanted to give it a break.  I have been showing the same house every Sunday.  It's an official W.R. Yelland home.  The Taylor Residence and it's blueprints are in the collection at UC Berkeley.  1982-1/2006.  I have been holding it open for my friend Dona Pedvin who is the listing agent.  I like this house.  Just look at the random brickwork at the bottom of the first floor and on the corners of the building.  The Brickwork around the front door is very interesting too.....Classic Yelland.  The light fixture on the front porch was something that the architect would design himself in many of his designs.  There's no reason not to think that that fixture isn't an original Yelland as well.  Not every home has obelisk finials on top of their stone columns.

Speaking of light fixures for older homes I will add a link for Rejuvenation Hardware to my side links.  Rejuvenation, a company out of the Northwest, Portland I think has a wonderful collection of lighting fixtures that are reproductions from originals.  www.rejuvenation.com

Getting back to 857 Alma Place,  It has really cool features all over the house.  On the side gate to the rear yard it has a classic Yelland Startled Cat.  The startled cat is a feature that Yelland would make out of the stamped tin and he'd place it on the ridge-line of the house.  In this case, It's a cut out on the gate.  The shutters on the lower windows have little chickadee birds cutout.  They are incredibly detailed and they even have little eyes.  I'll try and post they flyer if I can manage that.

I had fun last weekend while holding the house open.  Across the street at another home for sale 874 Alma Place the HGTV television show "Hidden Potential" was filming.  That home across the street is a major fixer upper and needs some serious work.  I met the show's hostess, when she came through my open house.

On another note:

I am looking out the office window from the computer room at Prudential California Realty at the historic Croll's Building at the corner of Central Avenue and Webster Street.

The Prudential office is on the West side of Central Avenue at the end of Webster Street and was the historic location of an old Amusement Park, or trolley park called Neptune Beach.  For several blocks all around this location there are random remains of Boardwalk style architecture from the turn of the century.

I really wish that Alameda would get creative with their zoning and make this area a fun place to shop and dine.

The above clipping came from the Oakland Tribune on November 20th 1941.  It shows a modernism home to be built in the area designed by architect William Raymond Yelland.

This is a pre-war design almost a full decade before the Eichler homes began to appear in the 1950s.

William Raymond Yelland, the Oakland based architect known for his storybook or period revival homes of the 1920s and 1930s would spend his summers out with his family in the Sacramento River Delta Community of Clarksburg.

It appears WR Yelland was toying around modernism ideas as early as the late 1930s.  Some homes show up in the New Broadmoor Tract and Estudillo Estates Tracts in San Leandro as early as 1937.  New Broadmoor was done by the Derry Brothers of San Leandro and it has long been my theory that Yelland was their primary architect. The existance of these very early modernism homes just strengthens my theory.

Back to Clarksburg, Yelland was friends with a young architect Carter Sparks.  Carter Sparks was building Eichler style modernism homes in the Sacramento area with devlopers Streng Brothers.

http://www.eichlernetwork.com/streng_saga.html

As you can see from the article above from the Eichler network, Carter Sparks spent some time working for one of Eichler's favorite design firms Anshen + Allen. (The Eichler Network article was written by David Weinstein, an accquantance of mine and a real good guy).

So Anyway.

Yelland appears to have inspired Carter Sparks, who worked for Anshen + Allen.  You can then see the link from Yelland to Eichler.  If you see my earlier posting it appears that some homes (rumored to be Anshen + Allen) built in Alameda, share some architectural DNA to that very Yelland clipping from 1941.

Okay, here I go again.  Ranting.

here we are days away from 2008 and in older portions of just about every town across America there they are telephone poles.

Let's call them by their correct name Telegraph poles.  The technology from the 1840s still here with us today cluttering up the sky above our streets.

Cities and towns spend so much money and time beautifying the street scape but stop at the overhead utilities.

Step back and take a really hard look down the street and focus on the canopy of wires that criss-cross the street big time U-G-L-Y.

I live on a tree lined street.  In the summertime the trees hide some of the wires.  In the wintertime when the trees loose their leaves, it's a whole different story.  I enjoy the street in the winter because you can see more of the architecture of the homes on the street.  In the winter you get larger vistas.  Unfortunately, the wires are still there and do not go away.

The best way cities can beautify, is to underground the utilities and put in nice ligthposts.

nuff said for today.