Michael's Blog

I am doing some floor time here and came across the following article in the Alameda Journal.  Here's the link to the article on online.  I am not sure how long it will be up at this web address.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/alamedajournal/ci_8075959?nclick_check=1

Just in case I'll try to summarize what the article states.

*** Once code compliance is applied against the property amnesty is no longer available.

*** The amnesty program legalizes, currently undocumented construction. which may still need to be made code compliant for safety.

*** To apply go to the following website www.ci.alameda.ca.us/planning/planningdocuments.html

*** A $40.00 fee for the amnesty program

*** A physical inspection is needed.

*** An additional $210.00 inspection fee for projects accepted into the amnesty program

*** You may have to open some walls and openings to facilitate inspectios!

Planning and building department staff are located at rm 190 at 2263 Santa Clara Avenue 510 747-6850

Gregory J. Mc Fann the building official buildingofficial@ci.alameda.ca.us

Down at the end of my street where I live is the city limits between San Leandro and Oakland.  Less than 20 houses away from me is the Dunsmuir Historic Estate.

My mother and I have volunteered here since at least 20 years as docent tour guides.

The mansion was built in 1899 as a wedding gift from Alexander Dunsmuir to his Bride Josephine Wallace Dunsmuir.

Alexander was the son of Canadian Coal Baron Robert Dunsmuir.  Robert Dunsmuir massed a huge fortune on Vancouver Island in British Columbia Canada.  The Dunsmuir & Dingle Coal company ended up with three collieries, shipping, railroads, real estate and lumber.

Alexander the younger of the two Dunsmuir sons was sent down to San Francisco, which was the marketplace for their company's coal in 1870.  In San Francisco Alexander was to manage the coal distribution and shipping arms of the company.

Alexander, a single man would spend his evenings in the theaters. He eventually became friends with Waller Wallace who worked in one of the theaters.  Waller invited Alexander to his home.  Alexander met Waller Wallace's wife and the two quickly fell in love with each other.  The affair caused a divorce in the Wallace household.

Alexander and Josephine wanted to marry.  Alexander's parents back in Victoria would not allow Alexander to marry a divorcee and show folk on top of that.  Alexander would be dis-inherited from the Dunsmuir fortune if he was to marry "that woman".

Edna Wallace, Josephine's daughter went with Alexander and Josephine. Waller Wallace Jr., Josephine's son went with his father.

In the height of Victorian Era San Francisco, Alexander and Josephine live together out of wedlock.  This was very scandalous indeed.

Even though Alexander was one of the wealthiest people in San Francisco, he could have lived on top of Nob Hill with the elite of society.  Because of his situation, he lived a very seclude private life, out of the public eye.

The stress of not being able to marry the woman he loved, Alexander took to drinking.

In 1889, Robert Dunsmuir passed away,  Alexander and his brother James began to run the company on their own without their father's direction.  Their mother Joan Dunsmuir still controlled the purse strings of the family fortune.

1899, Joan gave up control of the fortune to Alexander and James.  No longer in fear of being dis-inherited, Alexander proposed to Josephine.  Construction soon began on "OAKVALE PARK" the Dunsmuir estate.

"OAKVALE PARK" built on 500 acres in the San Leandro Hills.  It was to be a lavish country estate in the Country Place design style, with large natural meadows with specimen plantings from all around the world, but still in a natural setting.

The Dunsmuir's chose Joshua Eugene Freeman to design the mansion which is 16,224 square feet in size. On the third floor there was the servants quarters.  The second floor contained a lavish master bedroom suite that contained a his master bedroom and a hers master bedroom with dressing rooms and bathrooms between.  Several smaller quest suites for family and close friends to spend the summers at the mansion.

San Leandro was chosen due to the fact that the Dunsmuirs had now grown accustomed to the privacy that their lifestyle had warranted.  This large estate would serve them just fine.

Well, in December of 1899, Josephine and Alexander finally wed.  They embarked on a railroad trip to New York to visit Josephine's daughter Edna.  Edna Wallace had since become a grown woman, a dancer on the Broadway stage as a Flora Dora Girl.  Edna Married to producer Dewolf Hopper.

Just 40 days into their new marriage Alexander passed away of alcoholic related meningitis. Josephine came back from her honeymoon a widow.  Just 18 month's later Josephine would be dead also, this time, for her, cancer took her life.

Edna inherited the newly constructed mansion, however, non of the money from the family fortune.  She ended renting the mansion out to the Hellman family from San Francisco to use as a summer home.

In 1906 the Hellman's purchased the mansion at auction.  The Hellmans, owned Wells Fargo Bank and wanted a summer home to escape the city.  "OAKVALE PARK" allowed them the room that they could not have in San Francisco.  Amenities were added such as a golf course, hedge mazes, swimming pools, tennis courts.

The Hellman's used the mansion as their summer home until 1959.

The City of Oakland purchased the home in the 1960's and developed the Northern edge of the property into the Peralta Oaks Business Park.

The Non-Profit Organization "Dunsmuir Historic Estate, Inc." operates the house museum, gives tours, educates the community and most importantly maintains and restores this beautiful mansion.

Http://www.dunsmuir.org

Dovetailing off of my blog a few days ago about blogging at Mach 1.3, I wanted to follow up with this posting.  What would the speed be of the Earth be if we calculated the time and distance of the Earth's orbit around the Sun.

A quick google search resulted in the following website: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/uts/earth3.html

It appears that we are travelling around the sun at a whopping 67,000 miles per hour.  Well, let's do the math again on this.  If Mach is 761 miles per hour, 67,000 miles per hour divided by 761 miles per hour that means we are cruising along, doing real estate at  Mach 88.

Think about that for a moment.  if you read this blog for 5 minutes you would have travelled a whopping 1,116 mile per minute and in five minutes, you would have travelled 5580 miles from where you started.  Don't for get about the 16 mph that the earth rotates on it's own axis.

When you place your head on your pillow to sleep tonight, You will never be in that same location again.  This is not taking into account the un-imaginable mph orbit of our solar system around the galaxy.  I will stop here.

I could just hear it now.

Officer: Do you know how fast you were travelling? My Blog reader: 67,000 miles per hour officer!

Lots 1 and 4 of Pleasanton's Foothill Road contained acreage that once contained 170 acres. I confirmed it with the City of Pleasanton historical museum.

This land was the home of San Leandro's mayor Earl Derry and his wife Stella Derry from 1946 until both of their deaths in the late 1970s.

You see Mr and Mrs Derry had a sense of humor about things.  They ran their very own Dairy farm on that site.  Derry's Dairy.

The Derry's moved out there when they sold their Superior Avenue home in San Leandro to my Grandparents William and Agnes Greenslade in 1946.

I reading old newspaper archives about the Derrys, I also found out that the Derry's still owned some land back in Michigan.  Their property was surrounded on three sides by another property.  Oil was discovered on that property surrounding theirs.  I would imagine that they had some considerable wealth besides what his real estate and development career had produced.  It is imaginable that the Derry's owned the Pleasanton property for several years before moving from San Leandro to retire out at the site of where Stoneridge Mall.

It's interesting to note that the Fenton Family of Fenton's Creamery also lived on Superior Avenue.  Was the Derry Dairy one of the locations where the Fenton's got their cream from to make their wonderful ice creams on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland?

Mmmm yummm Fentons.

nuff said for now

I wanted to share with you the photograph that Robert Yelland sent to me of the architect William Raymond Yelland and his wife Edna.  Thanks Rob (btw if you need a great veteranarian doctor for your pet, go see Robert Yelland at this office on Lewelling Avenue in San Leandro)

William Raymond and his wife Edna lived on Coventry Drive in Kensington in a home that he originally designed for his in-laws.

It's a little Cape Cod styled home, something you wouldn't expect from him, if all you knew from him was his storybook style and Normandy Styled homes and buildings.  The home just sold in December from foreclosure.  I need to wait for the new owners to move in and tell them of the important nature of their home, having a home designed by Yelland, but also being the residence of the architect himself. (sounds like an episode from "If Walls Could Talk" from HGTV)

Not everyone knows that WR Yelland designed churches and funeral parlours too.

Clarksburg Community Church. Located just South of Sacramento California in the Delta town of Clarksburg California, this church is at the heart of the community.  This design is classic Yelland through and through. One of his most distinguishing design features is a brick and stucco checkerboard at the gable ends of some of the gables.  This church also has classic yelland bricked arches and a great clinker brick cat slide roof.  Part of the roof is a double conjoined gable.

Chico Trinity Church.  Located in the Butte County college town of Chico, this is one of the largest churches designed by Yelland.  It appears to be a prototype for some churches here in the East Bay which follow the same design pattern as this beautiful church. Located at the corner of 5th and Flume streets in Downtown Chico, this church has a large church main chapel on it's right side.  On the Left side of the church is a smaller single story chapel. Joining the two wings is a two story office and class room wing.  The entry to this church has a fantastic tan brick lattice over a red brick field.

The same basic design can be seen in the San Leandro Community Church located on Bancroft Avenue.

Brentwood Methodist.  Located in the Contra Costa Delta town of Brentwood, not to be confused with the Southern California Los Angeles District of the same name.  This church was built from before the turn of the century.  It may have been moved to it's current location.  The work WR Yelland did to this church was to do an addition creating a centralized entrance and office and classrooms.

United Methodist Church of Endicott - Endwell, Ny.  This is by far the furthest Yelland ever built.  It is still classic Yelland.  On it's steeple are classic Yelland turned finials.  The interior ceiling of it's main chapel is an extruded barrel vault.  That ceiling is very much like the ceiling, in shape, to the ceiling of my parent's home (Derry Residence c. 1927).  This design makes me happy to see another example of a Yelland Barrel Vault.

Yelland also designed the Hislop Funeral Parlour in Auburn California.  It is now known as the "Chapel of the Hills"  Looking at this and the Clarksburg Community church, you can see the family relation to each other.  A beautiful design.

Chico Trinity Church

Clarksburg Community Church

United Methodist Church

Dovetailing on my "Big Planet, Small Minds" blog posting last week. Just think about the numbers for a minute.  The Earth is roughly 7900 miles in diameter.  To find the circumference we simply multiply the diameter by PI (3.14)

7900 x 3.14 = 24086 miles in circumference.

Considering the fact that the day is 24 hours long, or, it takes us 24 hours to make one revolution around the circumference.  We are travelling at over 1,000 miles per hour this very instant.

Imaging Real Estate at 1,000 miles per hour.  Now that is fast.

Mach 1 at sea level is 761.2 miles per hour.  1,000 miles per hour roughly calculates to Mach 1.3.

Just think that if it takes you 3 minutes to read this blog, you are 50 miles from where you started reading this blog.  We travel at about 16.6666 miles per minute.   So you could easily get from Alameda to San Leandro in one minute, providing the Earth rotated in that particular direction.

This number does not take into account the motion of the Earth in it's yearly orbit around the sun.

I should issue you a speeding ticket.

I want to put it out there that I am a big fan of mixed use development.  I look around at commercial business districts, like Webster Street here in Alameda or Bancroft & Dutton in San Leandro, I see oodles of wasted space above each business establishment.

Places like Bayfair Center, San Leandro Plaza and Alameda Town Center should have condo units above housing thousands of people.

It drives me crazy that in someplaces "they roll up the sidewalks" after some of the shops close at 5pm.  How cool would it be if people actually lived directly above these places and were there all the time.

Could you imagine waking up in the morning, getting ready for work and taking the elevator down to the street or plaza level and walking to a bakery, coffee shop or diner for breakfast.

Getting to work would be a matter of hopping on the public transport.

Coming home you can stop by the cinema, have a dinner at a nice restaurant and taking the elevator back up to your condo.

Imagine, adding a level of business offices above the retail and below the condos.  Wow, you could, if you wanted to live close to work. 

 [edited 2/7/2008] 

San Leandro is having some new construction around town.  Most of the new construction is in the higher density row houses.

Cherry Park Square Built by JohnBenCo at the intersection of Superior Avenue and Mac Arthur Boulevard.  8 craftsmans style row houses.  I was instrumental in naming of this tract.  At the planning department meeting for this tract at city hall, I suggested the name "Cherry City Square" in relation to the older portion of Superior Avenue "Cherry City Tract".

Cherry Glen built at the interchange of Interstate 880, Interstate 238 and Washington Avenue. 43 row houses.

Then there's Toscani Place, the Portofino Italian Mediterranean styled row houses on Davis Street. 9 units in that complex.

There is Bayport Court off of Lewelling Avenue.  6 units in the complex.

There is a development scheduled for the corner of Broadmoor Boulevard and Mac Arthur Boulevards.  So far, this is looking like it will be 20+ units in a building looking like the Grand Floridian or the Hotel Del  Coronado.  I like the design they have displayed on the sign at the location.

Just across the border on Durant Avenue and Mac Arthur Boulevard at the old location of Hambrick's 1/4 pounder Giant Burgers will be another smaller development.

On Mac Arthur Boulevard between Dutton and the San Leandro Creek, in the redevelopment zone is the Greenbrier Court.  Single family detached homes.  Great location for dining and Starbucks.

In the Ashland district near Bayfair Center is Citywalk San Leandro.  Condos from Low $300,000.oo

On San Lorenzo's Bochman Road is Village Walk by Olsen Homes.

Liberty Pointe on Liberty Street in the Ashland District by Clarum Homes.

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.