This is a wonderful place to relax and spend a few days. My wife and I did just that for our anniversary trip, and had a wonderful time.
Pros:
- Excellent Views out
- quiet surroundings
- semi-private feel from the unit (you can't see the neighbor's house, for instance, and the lower deck is mostly obscured by trees from the shared areas of the estate)
- comfortable bedding
- bedrooms are not all adjacent to each other
- reasonably fast-working heater
- nice refrigerator/freezer
- interesting game collection;
- good proximity to towns both big and small.
- good proximity to hiking
Cons:
- Outdoor shower is cold water only, and hosts want you to rinse before getting in... we wound up rinsing upstairs.
- Hot tub is set at 104(!) (with no obvious way to change it), therefore the posted rules suggest that you should only stay in for 15 minutes at a time. We didn't even make it to 15 minutes, as it was uncomfortably hot. Considering we've been elsewhere where we could set the temp down to 98ish and sit for hours looking at the stars after putting our boy to bed, this was more than a little disappointing... of course, I'm sure this kind of behavior is exactly what the hosts are trying to avoid by cranking up the heat.
Other Notes:
- Pool is only in sunshine for a couple hours a day, so even though it was re-done with very dark plaster (and advertised solar heated), it's still pretty brisk at the end of May. Despite this, we did use the pool, though not nearly as extensively as we had originally thought.
- Play fort uses multiple ship ladders, and is thus more suited toward children who are older than our boy (who was a couple months shy of 2 when we visited). This doesn't really count as a con, just information that might be useful to others.
- Unit is downstairs, so you will hear some footsteps and plumbing noises from upstairs. The insulation is pretty good (or the hosts are quiet), so you don't hear much in the way of voices/TV at least. Hosts don't do a lot of pacing, so it's not too bad, but it's certainly still noticeable, and occasionally unsettling (i.e. at night). I can't really consider this a con, considering that it's in the description, but it's perhaps not quite as soundproof as the hosts imply in the listing.
- Downstairs square footage is dominated by bedrooms, meaning the living area would be tight for more than 3 adults, in our opinion.
- Downstairs "king" bed is more like a "sorta-king"... it's a little shorter than normal (my feet were over the edge when laying straight). The quasi-headboard is a little bit irritating to work around for setting glasses/phone on night stand... this winds up not really being a con as we at least slept well.
- Walk from "downtown" Boulder Creek to this house reminded me of my time living on Nob Hill in SF. It's probably on the order of walking up a 18 story building or so, similar to going from Market Street to Grace Cathedral. Certainly do-able (we walked it three times in 4 days), but not nothing.
- Hosts rarely seem to leave the property. They are friendly and gracious, and apparently hard-working maintaining the site. If you expect them to be gone or always out-of-sight, that is unlikely to happen. We didn't expect this, and so were not surprised when EJ was downstairs working out, cleaning the skimmer, or enjoying a brisk dip in the pool; or when the hosts were using the larger deck that overlooks the pool and property.
The Bottom Line:
We very much enjoyed our stay, and will consider staying again if we re-visit the area, though perhaps later in the year so the pool will be more enjoyable.