It’s supposed to be a hot day today, so be sure to drink plenty of fluids when you’re out touring Open Houses!  Here are a couple of articles about dead people you could discuss once you’ve submitted your overbids.

Thomas Kinkade is back in the news.  It seems that his widow and his girlfriend are fighting over not just money and the art kitsch business but over ownership of his Monte Sereno home that uses two different addresses (16342 doesn’t show up in any property databases).  Thus far the girlfriend failed to get the open trial she wanted and it will be arbitrated. 

This is a really juicy tale complete with a handwritten will with an illegible signature, along with allegations of mixing alcohol with Valium causing death of the beloved Painter of Light.

Steve Jobs is also under discussion, due to the movie crew that has been filming at his old house in Los Altos.  We can personally attest to the crowds as we drove by the street (on a completely unrelated errand which we swear we are not making up). 

This Murky News article has a good quote from his adopted sister Patty that they got many of the period details right but brought in the wrong kind of furniture.  Steve Jobs’ dad remarried, and second wife Marilyn much fussier and frillier taste in interior decor than first wife Clara, who was more minimalist.

Some of the fuss was over actor Ashton Kutcher who was playing Jobs.  Another Aaron Sorken movie is in the works, based on the Walter Isaacson biography.

Feel free to discuss some live people or houses actually for sale in this Open Thread.

Friday’s featured find on Waverley escalated the eager entries in its comment thread, so let’s continue our pursuit of Palo Alto property with another home on the same superb street.  Thanks very much to Burbed reader Wendie for these proactively priced premises.

Also, we’re feeling a bit miffed at Redfin for not linking back to us for several weeks, so we’ll use the site Wendie provided instead.  Here’s the Redfin link if you prefer their entry, which confirms the price per square foot.

2051 WAVERLEY ST, Palo Alto, CA 94301
Offered at: $11,495,000 — Active

An Exceptional, One-time Opportunity To Own An Extremely Rare, Immense 26,344 sq ft lot (buyer to verify) in the Old Palo Alto Legendary Locale. On the corner of Santa Rita Ave & Waverley St, this dream building site is located in the prime, heart of Old PA. This premiere flat 0.6 acre lot also includes the existing 2,651 sq ft, 5BR/4BA home built in 1929.

MLS: 81216663
Type: Detached Single Family
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 4 Full
Interior: 2,651
Lot Size: 26344
Garage: Detached,2 Car Garage
Year Built/Age: 1929
Walk Score®: 58

Here’s why Wendie sent this one in:

Look! For $4,300 per square foot, YOU can live across the street from Steve Jobs’ home!

Big lot, big location!  Why do you care what the house looks like?  What’s more important is who you’re going to run into if you need to borrow a cup of sugar silicon.

Too bad this property is diagonally across from Waverley Oaks, or Larry Page would snap it up.

Here’s a glimpse from the side, courtesy of Larry’s fleet of mobile spycams. This is a better look at any of the structures than you’ll see on the actual listing.  Then again, can one actually price a home too highly in Palo Alto?  It’s been on the market for 37 days and counting, so place your bets!

Steve Jobs’ Childhood Home Draws Tourists; Stepmom Laments Resignation

By Avni Nijhawan, Los Altos Patch, August 25, 2011

Jobs’ childhood home is a modest 3-bedroom, 2-bath house on Crist Drive in Los Altos, where his stepmother still lives. Credit Avni Nijhawan

The modest home on the quiet Los Altos street where Steve Jobs grew up—and where Apple was born—has long been a tourist attraction for those in the know.

But Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after one of the most iconic CEOs in the world resigned from Apple, it became an even stronger magnet, as strangers and even relatives grappled with the idea of Apple without Jobs at the helm.

That includes Jobs’ stepmother.

Hesitantly answering the door at the Crist Drive house, Marilyn Jobs lamented Steve’s resignation.

“It’s sad. It’s very, very sad,” said the 78-year-old, who has lived in the 1,793-square-foot home for 20 years.

The above article includes the obligatory neighbor who gets tourists mistakenly ringing the doorbell asking to see the famous garage.  I do want to remind everyone that Jobs resigned, but he isn’t dead yet.  But if the pictures on TMZ can be believed, he isn’t looking too great, either.

Now, let’s take a look at this “modest” Los Altos home with a Zestimate of $1,208,600.

It’s in Los Altos, but it doesn’t have Los Altos schools.  Instead, if you lived here, your children would have to attend the inferior schools of the Cupertino and Fremont Union districts.  Sure, they educated both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but I bet you didn’t name any of your children Steve.

Next, it’s not on a busy street, but it’s pretty close to one: Foothill Expressway.  Just pretend the traffic noise is ocean surf!

Finally, on what planet is an almost 1800 square foot house considered “modest"?  Sure it is, in Texas, where land is cheap and construction workers can be paid in beer.  But in Santa Clara County?  And even throughout the entire United States (think cheaper land and building costs), the median square footage of new construction didn’t top 2000 square feet until the late 1990s.  By 1952 standards, this was a good-sized house.  The 9,375 sf lot is a little small for Los Altos but looks typical of the tract it’s in.  It’s certainly generous for Santa Clara County.

Oh, I know why the writer described this house as modest.  She was thinking of his current place.

Steve Jobs appeared at Cupertino City Hall to request plan approval for Apple’s striking new headquarters.  Seems they can’t fit all their Cupertino employees at the current HQ over at 280 and De Anza Boulevard, so they want to build a 12,000 person, 4 story building on the site they purchased from Hewlett-Packard.

And it looks like either a spaceship or a giant donut.  Mmmmm, donuts.

Jobs To Cupertino: We Want A Spaceship-Shaped, 12K Capacity Building As Our New Apple Campus

Alexia Tsotsis, TechCrunch, Jun 7, 2011

After having a banner WWDC start yesterday, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs humblypresented his idea for a new Apple campus at the Cupertino City Council today. Jobs wants to build one building that will hold 12,000 Apple employees on a former Hewlett-Packard property in the area between Tantau North Wolfe, Homestead and the 280 freeway.”It’s a little like a spaceship landed,” Jobs says. No kidding.

Jobs began the presentation referring to the fact that Apple is growing “like a weed,” and that its current campus at D’Anza and the 280 isn’t enough — fitting only about 2,800 people. Apple currently rents buildings to house its other 6,700 employees in the area. The new building will augment the current campus.

Paving the way for these plans, Apple purchased about 100 acres from Hewlett Packard in 2010 and added them to the 50 it owns adjacent. Jobs says he has corralled “some great architects … some of the best in the world” to come up with a design that will house 12,000 people in one four story high building on the property. The area is now mainly apricot orchards.

With the futuristic design Apple apparently is relying heavily on its experience building retail stores, and it will be creating one massive piece of curved glass if the proposal goes through. “There’s not a single straight piece of glass in this building,” Jobs says. The parking will be underground.

Here’s the site in question:

I’ve added the street names to the original slide.  Pruneridge will no longer be a through street from San Jose to Wolfe, but will stop at the new Apple campus at Tantau.  This reasonable alternative to 280 will then have traffic joining the fray on Homestead to the north.  But at least I’ll be able to get a parking space at BJ’s when this thing opens.  (Actually I won’t; Jobs says they will still need all the space at Infinite Loop, the current Apple HQ.)

As long as Apple doesn’t introduce an iPhone 5 that electrocutes the user while secretly tweeting photos of his/her crotch, this is a done deal:

“There is no chance that we’re saying no,” insisted [Cupertino Mayor Gilbert] Wong, who started his life with Apple IIs and Apple II +s, “The Mothership has landed in Cupertino.”

Will this make the house with a dragon sell faster with more overbidding?  This is an Open Thread.

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