5:18 p.m. PDT
By, Carrie Benuska
The Upper East Side of San Marino is a place close to my heart, because I have lived here for over a decade with my husband and three kids. This section of town stretches from Sierra Madre Boulevard to San Gabriel Boulevard and is north of Huntington Drive. With San Marino High School as our center, the Upper East Side is particularly convenient for reaching each of the San Marino Schools. My kids rode their bikes to both Carver and Huntington (each a mile away from our home), but now that the last two are at San Marino High School, they merely stumble out of bed and walk across the street to class. As busy high school students, this close proximity to the high school has made my life so much easier. I have to do very little driving, and they go back and forth from school as necessary for activities. It is truly an ideal situation! One of my favorite aspects of living close to the high school is morning band practice for the San Marino High School Marching Band. Most school mornings, I am greeted by beautiful band music emanating from the football field as I start my day. It is my signal that Fall is here!
This portion of town has homes of varying sizes and prices. The small neighborhood to the west of the high school, with Ridgeway Road at its center, is a place where a buyer might find a smaller home with truly unique and charming architecture. The short street, Coniston Place, is filled with adorable English Cottages, featuring steep roofs and leaded glass windows. Along with some impressive and expensive homes on Ridgeway Road, the beautiful Winston Avenue is a highlight of the Upper East Side. Flanked by huge Liquid Amber trees, which turn beautiful shades of yellow, orange and red in the fall, Winston Avenue is the location of many fantastic Mediterranean, Spanish, Colonial and Monterey Colonial homes, which are ideal for a family with kids. The eastern portion of the Upper East Side (including streets like Wetherby Road, Devonport Road and Shakespeare Drive), has a more contemporary architectural feeling, with a large amount of one-story Ranch and Traditional homes, built in the 1950’s or later.
My family and I moved to the corner of Ridgeway Road and Winston Avenue in the Upper East Side in the spring of 1999. In search of a good school system for our three kids and trying to avoid the high costs of private school, we decided to take the plunge into the San Marino real estate market. This move required a huge financial sacrifice for us as we transitioned from our smaller Altadena home, but we both believed that this investment in San Marino real estate would yield great rewards. We were blessed to receive an amazing deal from a family friend on a gorgeous Monterey Colonial that needed a huge amount of work. The first time that I toured my home, I was completely awe-struck at the beauty of the architecture, the classic elegance of the details and the wonderful floor plan that would provide a room for each of my kids (all upstairs too!) Our kids had only two requests during our house hunting period . . . a pool and balconies. As fate would have it, they ended up with both of their wishes fulfilled in our Ridgeway Road house.
It was not until I had moved all of our earthly goods into our beautiful fixer upper, that I realized that I had no money for improvements. I had old musty carpet, metal kitchen cabinets with formica doors, outdated decor and an added on family room that had a leaky roof and old aluminum sliding glass doors that were far from weather-proof. What had I gotten myself into? This project was going to require patience and a great sense of humor. I did well in those early years, except for the time that an enormous rat made its way into my house and confronted me in the hallway. That critter lived in our house, uncaught, for a good part of a week and his presence involved a few other confrontations that would have been priceless if put on YouTube. My lowest moment, though, was the time that our family room roof leaked so badly that my daughter found mushrooms growing in the old shag carpet beneath the leak. This discovery nearly pushed me over the edge, but now both stories are a source of laughter in our family and will endure over time like family folklore.
The good thing about living in a fixer is you don’t have to worry so much about walls getting dirty or carpet getting stained. Our family has lived to the max in this home! We have hosted San Marino Young Life events at our house for years, and we have been the designated location for pool parties and sleepovers and front yard football games. Kids could feel comfortable in our home, because there was nothing to wreck. Looking back, I love that we ended up in our less-than-perfect home. Of course, over time our finances have loosened up, and we have been able to slowly but surely fix our architectural treasure room by room and project by project. There is still a long way to go to restore the home to its original glory, but I am in no hurry. My priority is to enjoy the last years of my kid’s San Marino experience and will concentrate on the final projects once they are off at college and starting their adult lives.
There are currently five homes on the market in the Upper East Side, out of a total of 42 listings in the whole city. These homes have been on the market for an average of 88 days and have an average list price of $1,702,576 and an average price per square foot of $583. As of the end of the first quarter of 2010, sales in this area were brisk, accounting for 22% of total sold listings for the quarter.
Carrie Benuska
Coldwell Banker
626.840.9149
