The "Smallest House of Los Gatos" is For Sale

The county's smallest home on the smallest lot sits in the historic Almond Grove District of Los Gatos. It's a darling cottage, totally rebuilt about a dozen years ago, in a fantastic location just steps to all that downtown Los Gatos has to offer.  Because the home is unique and architecturally interesting, I blogged about it here on Live in Los Gatos a few months ago (see first link, above).

What are the specifics? The 541 square foot house sits on an 817 square foot lot.  Originally built in 1922, the home was essentially rebuilt 11-12 years ago with design by Gary Schloh, a well known and highly esteemed local architecht. He did a tasteful job of blending historic charm and modern, upscale amenities in a compact package. With high ceilings, loads of windows, air conditioning, and inside laundry, it is an exceptionally comfortable little home. It is offered for sale at $799,000 and is located at 304 Nicholson Avenue. (Appointment only!)

This listing is presented by Helen Cockrum of Alain Pinel Realtors in Los Gatos, who graciously gave permission for me to blog about (or advertise) her listing here. More information and photos of this amazing downtown cottage can be seen on MLSListings.com. 

Landscaping Tips to Avoid Attracting Rats in Silicon Valley

Got rats?

Roof rats abound in Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, and Saratoga. Our lush vegetation, the mild weather and the abundant food sources must be too irresistable. They are not as uncommon as we'd like them to be!

Recently I learned quite a bit more about landscaping and how it can attract (or deter) rats. If you're interested in some practical landscaping tips - mostly a list of what NOT to plant or keep - please visit my Valley Of Hearts Delight Blog, where I posted on this subject earlier tonight.

Los Gatos Real Estate Market Numbers - In for July 2008

The numbers are out for July's sales activity in Los Gatos!

To the left, please see a graph for prices and sales of single family homes in the Town of Los Gatos. Note that sales prices, both median and average, are slipping, while the number of homes sold has been rising. This is welcome news for sellers.

With the Los Gatos condominium or townhouse market, things are less positive for sellers, but a great opportunity for buyers. (This is very much the situation in the Saratoga and Almaden Valley markets too - the luxury condo market is having a far harder time than the single family home market.) Prices are down and the number of homes selling is down also. Please see graph below.

Please visit my online Silicon Valley Real Estate Report to see much more data for the Town of Los Gatos or any other part of Silicon Valley's real estate market. Visitors to the site can navigate to view statistics and graphs for condominiums and townhomes or single family homes by region.

As always, the real estate market is comprised of many "micro markets", so please contact me for specific information on your particular home or neighborhood.

Mary Pope-Handy

Happy 121st Birthday, Los Gatos! Celebrate Downtown!

                      Art Exhibit and Reception August 10, 2008 
               Meet Barbara Cassin, an artist and Los Gatos native

Los Gatos became incorportated 121 years ago tomorrow, August 10th, 1887. To celebrate this anniversary, the Los Gatos Public Library is sponsoring an exhibition of the beautiful artwork of a local Los Gatos High School graduate, Barbara Jones Cassin, tomorrow from 2-4pm in the Los Gatos Council lobby.  There will be light refreshments served, and a chance to meet the artist too. (An example of her work may be seen online at the town's website.)

The Purple Onion: Great Food, Service & Ambiance in Downtown Los Gatos

Last Friday, my teens and I stopped for lunch at The Purple Onion, a new Los Gatos restaurant, which opened April 18th at the former site of Caffe Siena (Main Street and College Avenue, across from The Penthouse Apartments).  We enjoyed outside dining and experienced prompt, polite service and great food, so it is something I wanted to share here on "Live in Los Gatos".

As with its predecessor, at The Purple Onion, customers order at the counter, pay (they do take credit cards, though there's no logos for them on the front entry), and find a seat. Servers will bring the food to you. Tables and chairs are available both indoors and out.

My kids each ordered sandwiches and I ordered a salad. Brian's was a hot sandwich, and it was so good he had a hard time keeping it on his plate between bites. Clair had a french roll with salami or prociutto and she, too, savored hers. For me it was the Cafe Salad, a wonderful mix of chicken, cranberries, a soft cheese, pistachios, greens and even a few flower petals - which made the presentation lovely - with a sweet vinegarette dressing.   We ordered soft drinks as well and our total, with tax (before tipping) was about $41.00.

This morning I returned with camera in hand to take a few pics and hopefully to meet the proprietors. (I came away with coffee and sweet rolls for home.) I was in luck and met Steve Angelo, the chef/owner, and Lisa Hanson, pastry chef & party planner. I had not realized, the week before, that The Purple Onion offers catering too, but overheard a patron inquiring about it. The store's website has information on catering, too.

The Purple Onion is open Tues-Sun from 7am to 4pm, closed on Mondays.  It is located at 26 E Main St
Los Gatos, CA 95030. Tel 408 354-4124. Or visit their catering site online: www.purpleonion-catering.com.

Parking is easy. There's a lot behind the Soda Works shopping area. Just don't park in one of the 15 minute zones. You'll never want to leave that fast.

Much of Los Gatos is in the Quarantine Zone for the Light Brown Apple Moth: What Does That Mean to You?

Recently I was suprised to learn that there is a quarantine map (click on the image to enlarge it) for most of Santa Clara County, and it includes most of Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno and Almaden Valley too, for the Light Brown Apple Moth treatment plan.

What does the quarantine mean?

For most of us, it means that produce (your homegrown fruits and vegetables) can't move around within the zone. In Los Gatos, if you are northeast of Saratoga Los Gatos Road (Highway 9) or Kennedy Road, it means that you cannot share produce from your garden with your neighbors. (Please see the link above for the exact map boundaries.) That is, unless you've cooked or canned it or otherwise rendered it no-longer-fresh. In many neighborhoods, it's the norm for neighbors to share some of their excess fruits and vegetables with friends and neighbors, so this is counter-intuitive.

So don't share your garden fresh produce beyond your property boundaries this year if you're "in the zone". A recent article by the San Jose Mercury explains why this is so risky, so if this is news to you, as it was to me, have a look.

Los Gatos in the News

Los Gatans recently have been amazed to see so much big crime-related news of their fair town hit the web. Usually the Los Gatos events of the unsavory variety consists of things like drunk in public, things stolen out of unlocked cars, or personal fights gone physical.

But not so long ago, Los Gatos had a murder - the first in 5 years in this "low crime town".

Then, Lunardi's Market, a favorite grocery store here in town, had thefts from their debit machines in the checkout stands that totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And in the last week or two, there were two bank robberies.

Those are just the major items. Since when did Los Gatos get so much crime?

On the plus side, of course, is that suspects have been apprehended in all but one of the bank robberies - so far. Many thanks to the Los Gatos - Monte Sereno Police for that.

The poor economy is hard on most everyone, so perhaps that explains some of the uptick in Los Gatos crime.

Yesterday's San Jose Mercury (and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times), though, ran a piece about why our fair town continues to attract businesses. The article is "'Quality of life' attracts businesses to Los Gatos".  

It is good to be reminded about what's right in town and too easy to dwell on what's wrong. Recently my husband and I spent a Sunday afternoon strolling downtown Los Altos - a lovely town where we'd once considered living. We were amazed that two-thirds of the shops were closed on a perfect summer day. A few interesting places were open, but more often we found that shops that appealled to us were not open. It was a reminder of how vibrant our downtown is. That's just one aspect of the "quality of life" in Los Gatos that can't be beat. Add to that our summer music, Shakespeare, movie nights and so much more, and you have a community that's highly desireable even when things are seeming bleak in many areas of the economy or valley life generally.