We used this house for a family of 13. We had picked San Jose as a central location for our Bay Area vacation. Please know that the house is up in the mountain so it takes a bit to drive up and down. One night we encountered two deer and a horse grazing on the side of the mountain road and almost hit them! The house is very big with a lot of bedrooms and bathrooms. The owners have completely rebuilt the existing home and have significantly added onto the house.
Cons: We experienced some issues with the air conditioning. With such a big home and the entire back of the house facing west with huge windows and no window coverings, the home got really hot in the afternoons and wasn’t cooling well with one air conditioning unit servicing the entire home. The air conditioning seemed to fail the last night and wasn’t working at all. With all the flies in the area, opening windows and doors to cool the house down was resulting in a lot of flies coming into the home. The house is one big DIY project so there were places throughout the house which were not thoughtfully finished. For instance, cabinet doors or drawers couldn’t be opened because they were blocked by hardware or light switches. We experienced an issue with the shower door in the in-law suite which was finally addressed by Abby. Some of the bedrooms had skylights which were not conducive for sleeping if you don’t like lots of light in the morning - bring sleeping masks to help! The kitchen is very outdated with some original appliances. We tried baking some things but there were no baking pans. The in-law suite has a completely separate entrance from the main house so getting back into the main house if doors are locked can be problematic. Since the owners have added onto the existing home, the original exterior doors and windows were not removed. For instance, the kitchen is separated from the living area by sliding doors and windows, and there is a double exterior door separating the foyer from the dining room. One of the bedrooms is adjoining another sitting area and separated by sliding doors as well, with fabric shades which are too small which compromise some of the privacy. There is an interior door where an exterior door should be by the laundry room so there is a wide gap under the door from the outside; this allowed a lot of bugs to come in from the outside.
Pros: The newer bedrooms were large and spacious. The master bedroom had a huge bathroom with some nice finishes. Plenty of people can stay and sleep in this house. While we didn’t use them, we noticed a few Amazon Echos throughout the house which were appreciated. The amenities were so great with the pool table, miniature pool, jacuzzi, and fire pit outside. The views were magical and the evenings by the fire pit were fantastic. The bathrooms which were redone were very clean, and the beds were comfortable. There were plenty of towels with shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in each shower. Toilet paper, paper towels, dishwasher fluid, laundry detergent were all provided and were plentiful.
All in all, it was a nice house with some minor problems here and there. The pictures accurately depict the space. Our family enjoyed our stay, and Abby was very responsive to our questions and inquiries.