February 2008

We had the chance to check out a few "common interest" houses in Palm Springs (Kings Point) this weekend. A bit like a condo, these homes have shared public spaces and pools — but like a house, they have no adjoining walls and each seems to be a slight bit different. While stepping into them felt a bit Kubrick-esque with all of the white finishes, they were really neat.

And they were huge — twice the size of some Eichlers and something we did not expect from a condo-esque house. For instance, the last two images are taken in the same room from nearly the same spot (taken in opposite directions)… that bedroom is larger than many family rooms.

While the lack of true "back yard" would be a bit of a deal-breaker for me as a full-time home, it’s perfect for someone who has fewer projects or for someone looking for a retirement/vacation spot.

It was getting a bit dark, so photos were a bit hard… check out the realtor’s site for more detail and better images.

We had the chance to visit the Marmol-Radziner prefab. After Google maps had taken us through a wasteland of wrong directions, we were able to find the house after a call to the very understanding selling agents. It’s one thing to get lost in downtown San Francisco, but quite another to find your path blocked by 3 foot boulders with a fresh alignment on the car.

Once we were there, we were greeted by a very nice piece of prefab… I was really taken by the cabinetry and attention to detail throughout and geeked-out taking some upclose detail shots of the cabinetry before my battery went south. It didn’t feel "prefab" at all, but after visiting the Breezehouse during Sunset’s showplace weekend, I’m not sure what that "feel" would be anyway.

While a (really) nice house, I think a few LV buildings in an unincorporated area of Palm Springs might be more up our alley, price-wise (this one is well beyond our reach at $1.8M).

We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to learn about the architectural history of the area from Tony Merchell — a cornucopia of information and delightful candor — during an open-air bus tour this morning. Starting with the civic buildings and moving to Frank Sinatra’s house and beyond, it was well worth the sunburn. Many of the images I snapped would be meaningless without Tony’s commentary, but I’ll add a few.

Some rich people here have creepy taste…

Ever since I snapped a picture of a shirtless oil portrait of Kris Kristofferson that my friends Brenda and Jon kind of became obsessed with, I’ve been hyper-aware of the odd celebrity-icon art around me. And my wife’s brother has an uncanny fondness for Robert Stack. I snapped these for them.

We’re blogging semi-live (aka when we get back to the hotel room where there’s wifi) from Palm Springs this weekend. We decided to ditch the house projects and take a breather. The irony is that last time we were down here (in March of last year), my wife commented on how cool it would be to own a MCM house… little did we realize that 3 months later, we’d be knee-deep in an Eichler renovation. Too bad she didn’t mention something about a winning lotto ticket that weekend as well…