298 Lexington Road, Kensington — Just Listed! $900,000 4 Bedrooms 1 1/2 Baths
Open Thursday 18 May 2017 9:30 – 12:30
Open Sunday 21 May 2017 2:00 — 4:30
Open Sunday 28 May 2017 2:00 — 4:30
Gorgeous 1964 Tri-Level Mid-Century Modern on a wooded Kensington cul-de-sac now has a fresh new look!
Wrap around windows & floor to ceiling sliding glass doors fill top & mid levels with an abundance of natural light & tranquil green canyon & creekside views.
Upper & lower decks; dining or family room includes built in storage & large closet; remotely controlled gas fireplace; kitchen & living room skylights; efficient U-shaped kitchen design with a pass-through window
Half bath at top level; full bath at mid level
Bedrooms with large closets at mid & bottom levels; built-in desks; off street parking; easy access to Bus, El Cerrito Plaza BART and Solano Avenue, Colusa Circle & El Cerrito Plaza shops & dining.
And from the owners to you …
From Judy
We love our home of 45 years and are sad to leave it. However, we’re approaching our eighties and can no longer navigate a multilevel house.
The setting is unique and irreplaceable.
On sunny mornings the living room is wonderfully full of light and the sky’s palette at sunset often takes our breath away. Another wonderful experience this house has provided was sitting by our new gas fireplace on cool nights and looking at the lights of the Bay Bridge with San Francisco in the background. They absolutely sparkle after a rain.
The master bedroom is large enough for a king size bed and several pieces of other furniture as well. It, too, has a sylvan setting. Across the hall is a second bedroom, suitable for a queen sized bed or use as a two-person office. It looks out on the canyon. Downstairs on the lowest floor are two more rooms, one of which opens onto the lower deck and the canyon. This deck was used for relaxing. The upstairs deck is convenient to the kitchen and a good-sized one large enough for a barbecue, a table and chairs, and growing things. It is particularly hospitable to cymbidium orchids because it is sunny much of the day and sheltered.
It will be hard to leave our convivial neighbors of all ages and backgrounds. Many are very generous people … some host neighborhood get togethers and there’s a lot of socializing between the couples and families who get to know one another. The preschoolers on the block often play together while their parents supervise and chat.
We will greatly miss this unique setting. It is one of the joys of this house. It is a peaceful and quiet house, and feels secluded, even though it is tucked in among other houses in a vital neighborhood near many good things.
The house is close to Colusa Circle, Solano Avenue, El Cerrito Plaza and BART. All are within walking distance for able walkers, as well as being accessible by bus and by car. The family-owned Colusa Market and the Colusa Circus Pub at Colusa Circle, are quite popular and convenient.
And from Rich
We absolutely love our house’s setting. It has the feel of a treehouse, with the living room three stories above the ground. This gives spectacular views from every window — a stately redwood not ten feet from our living room, and through the adjoining windows, a keyhole vista of the Berkeley flats, the Bay Bridge, Yerba Buena, and the San Francisco hills in the distance. And we’re always delighted with the fireworks show when the Giants score a big win.
Closer in, we look out on our neighbor’s fruit trees and fascinating buckeyes, with their ever-changing display (barren and eerie-looking much of the year, then bursting with leaves and blossoms in the winter and spring). Across the back, a babbling creek runs through our lot, and in among the trees, abundant wildlife roam: deer, turkeys, raccoons, hawks, squirrels and many other species, keeping us constantly entranced. It is extraordinarily quiet at our end of the street, completely sheltered from sounds of traffic or city life.
We also love the block we live on, with our house almost at the very end. The neighborhood is multi-generational, communally minded and diverse, with very friendly neighbors and lots of kids. People who move here usually stay a long time, as we have (for 45 years!) And when neighbors move away, we tend to stay in touch, since they have become good friends by then.
Further afield, we appreciate the larger neighborhood, with its excellent destinations for able walkers. Colusa Circle, with its shops, restaurants, grocery, and bus line is just three blocks down the hill, and Solano Avenue, BART and El Cerrito Plaza are all accessible by foot, bus or car. Up the hill is Kensington’s other business district, on Arlington, with still more restaurants, shops and offices.
Finally, there are so many things we love about the house itself — the new gas fireplace, the open feel, the multiple decks, and the many rooms and variety of possible arrangements that have served us so well over the years: a large master bedroom, with room enough for a king-sized bed plus a new baby’s crib; another bedroom just across the hall, ideal for bunk beds as the kids grew older. And a separate bedroom for each on the floor below as they grew older still.
When our daughters were teenagers, we reconfigured our separate dining room upstairs as a media room that could be closed off for privacy. Highly recommended! But most of all, the whole family has cherished the feeling throughout the house that we were living right alongside nature. Our daughters have tried to replicate that feel in houses of their own. We have loved living in this house, and leave it with sadness, having faced the reality that a three-story treehouse is not viable in the long term for a couple approaching their 80s. So we’re moving to Rossmoor, but will carry the memories of our wonderful home in Kensington the rest of our lives.
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