Inside Los Altos homes
North Los Altos, the Country Club streets and Woodland Acres share a shape: a wide single-story house set well back, a circular or long straight driveway, and a garden doing most of the work of the frontage. Because there are no sidewalks, gravel and dry grass reach the door on shoes, and the entry mat is carrying more than it looks. We treat entries, mudrooms and the laundry passage as one set of surfaces.
Inside, the rooms are big and the hallways are long, which sounds easy and is not. A 2,600-square-foot single-level has more floor per bedroom than a two-story of the same count, and kitchens here have usually been remodeled into something with an island, a range hood and a lot of stone. Loyola Corners and the streets off Fremont Avenue read the same way. We quote on the footprint, not the label.
What we walk into in Los Altos
The typical property is a 1955-to-1975 ranch extended at least once, 2,000 to 3,200 square feet, sitting on 10,000 square feet or more of land. Hardwood or engineered plank through the living areas, stone or tile in kitchens and bathrooms, carpet increasingly rare. Many carry a detached studio, pool house or converted garage. Newer builds go two stories with a formal stair and a double-height entry, and those entry windows are the thing owners cannot reach themselves.