How we clean Monte Sereno
Nothing about the place announces itself. Houses on Via Sereno, Santa Rosa Drive and Bicknell Road sit behind hedges and gates with long driveways, and the numbers are often on a post rather than the building. First visits here start with finding the property. We ask for the gate arrangement and a note on which driveway is yours, because two of them frequently share an entrance off the same lane.
What arrives once you are inside is a great deal of house. The stock is mostly 1950s through 1990s custom building that has been enlarged, plus a steady flow of complete rebuilds, and it tends toward stone floors, high ceilings and windows facing a garden rather than a street. With no commercial activity anywhere in the city, daytime noise carries; crews keep equipment quiet and do not slam a van door at eight in the morning.
Monte Sereno homes, structurally
Almost every dwelling is a detached house, typically 2,500 to 4,500 square feet on a third of an acre up to a full acre. Construction spans four decades of custom work rather than tract development, so no two floor plans repeat and the crew works from what is actually in front of them. Expect hardwood or stone through the main level, a formal staircase, at least three bathrooms, and often a pool, a guest studio or a converted barn at the back. There are no condo towers to negotiate.