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Published on 12/08/1999 All articles from this issue

Changing look of Los Altos

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By Carolyn Barnes

Special to the Town Crier

New millennium-era families want light, space and technology

Today's building boom challenges long-cherished images of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. As 1999 draws to a close, neighborhoods teem with construction sites, subcontractors' trucks and portable potties. Our population remains about the same; it's the houses that are changing.

One by one, ranch-style houses - the cream of Sunset Magazine's "western living" models of the 1950s and 1960s - disappear, replaced by large new homes, sometimes called monster houses. The new homes look different on the outside, but it's inside where they really strut their stuff. Popular amenities include fine tile, stonework and marble; exercise rooms; wine cellars; great rooms (kitchen-family room combinations); and kitchens with two of everything.

The biggest differences between today's and yesterday's homes - seismic stability and high-tech wiring and control systems - are invisible to the casual observer.

"Where we used to budget something like $20,000 for electrical and infrastructure, people now spend $200,000 and more. Today you can be in an airplane over Paris and call up your house in Los Altos to turn on your hot tub," said John Komo, principal of John Komo Construction Inc. of Los Altos. A builder of up-scale custom homes for more than 25 years, Komo estimates that 19 of his last 20 houses have replaced "tear-downs," most of them 50-year-old ranch houses.

"Forget buying a lot; all the good lots were gone 20 years ago," Komo said. "So people spend $700,000 or $800,000 for an older house and add $15,000 to tear it down. For that amount of money, they can't build a 1,500-square-foot house. New owners have to balance the value between the house and the property."

Abby Ahrens, co-owner with Von Haws of Abigail & Haws in Los Altos, believes today's high property values began their climb in mid-1995.

"It was as if on one specific Monday, five years of appreciation suddenly accrued. In some cases, sites doubled in value. The market had been flat here from the time of the 1989 earthquake, and economic and global issues also contributed," she said. "Now, there are so many housing options open for different stages of people's lives; people are on the move again instead of staying in one home and one job, waiting for the gold watch."

Ahrens' custom homes reflect her talent for combining Old World elegance with Californiacasual charm. She scouts out antique roofing tiles and French-made windows, whatever it takes to produce clients' fantasies.

"I'm so lucky. My clients tend to say, 'Give me the latest and greatest,'" Ahrens said.

She says clients now ask for more rooms with specific purposes; for example, a computer room/study and children's family room, instead of just one formal library; a mini-laundry in the master bedroom; his and hers master bathrooms; as well as music rooms, workout rooms and wine cellars.

"Another trend is small but grand townhouses near downtown for clients whose children are grown," Ahrens said. "People don't need so many rooms, but they want the same level of quality they have seen on their European travels."

Other Los Altos homeowners choose to enlarge and update existing houses - homes they have occupied for years, or homes they have recently purchased.

"We are seeing a major amount of large-scale remodels," said Judy Bogard-Tanigami, a founder of Fine Homes and Estates/Seville Properties, located on San Antonio Road in Los Altos. "Some of the community's most cherished home sites are being updated by young families who want to raise their children where they themselves grew up. This is a time of great revitalization for Los Altos, with balance again between older families and young families. Downtown is full of baby strollers."

Bob Owen, whose more than 30 years of local experience make him the dean of Los Altos-area custom builders, said he's never seen anything like today's housing market.

"This is the number one, most expensive market in the country: Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Atherton, Woodside, Portola Valley - all are in the Top 10 national listings," he said recently, while recalling the boom-and-bust home-building cycles he's experienced over the decades.

"Our clients today tend to be in their 30s or early 40s with one baby, or with a young child and another on the way. The wife needs a home office and they usually need nanny's quarters. These are the young families who are coming back into town, because of new IPO money and pent-up demand," Owen said.

His company currently has eight homes under construction between Saratoga and Atherton, all on 2-3-acre properties where older homes had been torn down.

"They range from 6,000-to-10,000 square feet each, with at least five bedrooms and six to nine baths," Owen said. "There's wiring for computers throughout each home, and each one has a home theater in the basement."

Bogard-Tanigami believes today's local property boom will continue indefinitely because of the scarcity of land in Silicon Valley.

"There's much more demand than supply," she said. "And because so many clients are young families, they need space. They are bringing life, excitement and opportunity to the community, and also greatly increasing the value of everyone's home in the whole area."

Bogard-Tanigami's daughter and business partner, Sheri Hughes, agrees. "Their homes are so important to my clients. They appreciate Los Altos schools, our downtown and the mature landscaping in the neighborhoods. But they don't want homes with small, little separate rooms; they want a kitchen/great room combination so they can watch the children play inside or outside. Today's kids can't play in the street, like I did; instead they have play dates with each other at home."

In many neighborhoods, the sound of children at play has disappeared over the last two decades.

"When we moved into our home in 1992, we were the only family in the neighborhood with children at St. Simon's," said Lisa Pazmany, mother of four children, ages 4 to 14. "Now there are eight nearby families sending children there. And for the first time ever, all of our Halloween candy was gone this year."

Pazmany and her husband Peter love their 2/3-acre lot in the Los Altos Country Club neighborhood. Both were raised in Los Altos and they met at St. Francis High School. But as their family grew, they needed more and different living spaces than their 48-year-old home offered - specifically, a teen-friendly family room, more bathrooms, and a separate master suite. After six months of planning and obtaining permits, they launched the project in April and plan to finish sometime in January.

No big deal - except the family stayed put, moving their living quarters to wherever the construction crew wasn't at work.

"We just call it 'early U-Haul,'" Lisa said. "Right now two of the boys don't have any electricity and we've had periods of total chaos."

"Lisa and I like to call this our house for the next millennium," Peter said, pointing out the steel seismic strapping that surrounds each room and the new marble entry hall. They've also installed a speaker system throughout the house with a master switchboard, an electronic security system, computer hook-ups in every room and new separate phone lines.

Designed by Walter Chapman of Los Altos, the Pazmanys' remodeled home now takes full advantage of its bay view and has a beautiful second-floor family room, complete with a mini-kitchen and Tahoe stone hearth.

"As kids get older, they get more mobile," Peter said. "We wanted to make our home a place where they and their friends would feel welcome."

The Pazmanys have survived their remodel with good humor, but John Komo warns new clients that building a home can be hard on a marriage.

"People laugh when I ask them, 'How's your marriage?' but they don't realize that building a house is the most stressful thing they'll ever do together," Komo said.

Pam Bishop, co-owner with Larry Woolworth of Ridgecrest Development Co. Inc. of Los Altos, sees building today's custom home as "a luxury which takes time and a real commitment. But a lot of people have always dreamed of building their own home. I tell them to be very candid with themselves and their architect."

In the design and construction business since 1972, Bishop is completing a new "spec" house near Magdalena Road in Los Altos, selling for approximately $2.5 million. Set on a 1/2-acre lot across the street from a Los Altos Country Club fairway, the two-story, French/Mediterranean-style house has five bedrooms and five-and-a-half baths.

"This house is what most people building a new home want - value and practicality balanced with luxury," Bishop said.

Touring the home last week, Bishop reviewed her conclusions about today's Los Altos dream house:

"The living room today is more of a parlor - somewhere to put the Christmas tree. The kitchen is No. 1 in importance. People prefer to entertain in the kitchen and great room. In the kitchen, they want really good quality, professional appliances, but not necessarily high-tech or exorbitantly expensive. Two large kitchen sinks are a must and two dishwashers. For bathrooms, it's evolved to one bathroom for each bedroom - they don't have to be enormous, but they must be of fine quality. And recessed lighting throughout the home is a very big feature for people today. They are very particular about their eyes and seeing their tasks."

Bishop pointed out that many of this brand new home's features were popular in Los Altos at the turn of the last century - like the dining room's French doors to a small terrace, the pillared gallery leading to the study, the butler's pantry with glass-doored cupboards, and the hardwood floors in the living and dining rooms.

"I believe the things that have worked long and well in houses in this area should be continued," she said.

Sabina Way, owner of Sabina Marble and Granite Inc. of Menlo Park, summed up the attitude of today's home-building families:

"People ask themselves how they really live in their homes," Way said. "They don't spend their lives sitting on a white couch in their living rooms - every day they want to enjoy kitchens and baths of beauty and quality."