Our House(s), Part Four: Soaring Hawk, Irvine, CA.

 

14 Soaring Hawk, Irvine, CA

Funny (or not really); our Soaring Hawk saga begins with a disaster, when the title company lost our down payment.  The sale of Tanglewood and the purchase of Soaring Hawk involved what we call a domino transaction, wherein in order to buy Soaring Hawk we first had to sell Tanglewood.  No problem there; with the help of my good friend and realtor Jeff Marandi we found a buyer for Tanglewood, and in the meantime we found Soaring Hawk, which had most of what we wanted; a single-family detached home on a quiet street in the village of Woodbridge in Irvine; 3 bedrooms and a full den/office (which could be converted into a bedroom), and at about 1,800+ square feet, it had room for all of us.  Also, Soaring Hawk had a nice backyard for the kids to play, mature trees and landscaping, and we were really close to all the pools and parks that Woodbridge has to offer.    

So, on a Monday(ish) in January in 2003, we sold our house on Tanglewood, and the proceeds from the sale went to the escrow company (it also meant that we no longer had a home to live in).  On Monday evening, the escrow company transferred the proceeds to the title company, so that on Tuesday we could put the down payment ($110,000) on our new house on Soaring Hawk (so we could move in).  However, when I called the escrow company for an update about the purchase of Soaring Hawk, they informed me that they had not received the down payment from the title company.  Immediately I called the title company, and they said (and I’m not lying) “We are sooooo sorry, but we have a new computer system, so the wire transfer (they kept using the word “transfer” instead of “cash”) has been lost”.  I was completely baffled; how could this be happening?  Long story short; livid as I was, that Tuesday morning I made forty (40) phone calls, mostly to the title company, but also to the escrow company (who, of course, blamed the title company), before the title company finally “found” our cash.  How crazy is that!  Not a great start, but with the $110,000 downpayment finally at the escrow company, we could proceed with the purchase of Soaring Hawk. 

When we first moved in, the first thing I had to do was to remove the old stove/oven combo, because it was soooo wretched and dirty.  Fortunately, because of the fiasco with the title company, they waived their usual $2,000 title fee, so we bought all new stainless-steel appliances.  Also, since we had decided to have the old popcorn ceilings scraped and painted, we moved all of our furniture into the garage, and slept on mattresses in the living room for a couple of weeks.  Also, all of the carpeting downstairs had to be replaced; over the years the originally pink carpet had faded to a dirty grey, except for some areas where furniture had prevented the fading (that was the only reason we knew it was originally pink).  I even believe that the old carpet may have been original to the house when it was built in 1984, that’s how awful the old carpet was.  Yuck!       

For the first few years after we moved in, besides Kathy painting all the walls and cleaning really good, we didn’t do much to the house.  However, sometime in 2008(ish), we had a flood in our downstairs powder room, so that was the catalyst to start the remodel of the house on Soaring Hawk.  Since we lived at Soaring Hawk for some 18 years (the longest we ever lived in a house), over the years we did a whole bunch of stuff:

Completely overhauled all three of the bathrooms, with new vanities, new tiled shower, new bathtub, new sinks and new toilets; new floors and new carpet throughout the house and a complete kitchen remodel, which we started and completed in 2011.  In 2013, we also had the old wood shingle roof replaced with a steel roof, which finally made the house watertight.  (We probably should have replaced the roof sooner, but instead we focused on the inside.  However, when we moved to San Clemente, one of the first things we did was to replace the roof…).      

For some reason, during all of the work we did at Soaring Hawk, we didn’t take a bunch of pictures (we were probably just too busy to actually do the work), so what follows below are (mostly) the pictures taken by the real estate company when we decided to put Soaring Hawk up for sale in 2021.  Funny, your house is usually never as clean as it is when you put it up for sale (at least in most instances)…  Also, as usual for real estate pictures, they are taken with a wide-angle lens to make the rooms look bigger, but you’ll get the idea.    

The Soaring Hawk living room in 2021.  Originally there was a sunken floor where the fireplace is located, which we contracted to fill in with concrete to make the living room one level.  We also put in the bamboo flooring throughout the downstairs ourselves including all the baseboards, and also redid the fireplace surround (it was originally an ugly red brick).  Also, we re-tiled (twice) the area where you first come into the house.  The stained glass window over the front door was a gift from one of our neighbors (who owned the same model), when they decided to remodel their house, and no longer had a need for the stained glass.

 

The hallway at Soaring Hawk.

    

The dining room at Soaring Hawk.  We celebrated many a Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter around that table.  Kathy made all the drapes throughout the house, both downstairs and upstairs.  Kathy also refinished the dining room table with new paint and restored tabletop, to bring it back to its former look.

As I mentioned above, we remodeled the kitchen at Soaring Hawk in 2011, which took about four months to complete, working on the remodel during evenings and weekends.  We completely gutted the old kitchen, ripping out all of the old cabinetry and countertops, and we installed all new cabinetry, granite countertops and new backsplash.  We also raised the ceiling, and took out the old fluorescent lighting.  Furthermore, we also installed all new appliances; stove, microwave, dishwasher and refrigerator.  Finally, we completed the downstairs remodel with new bamboo flooring throughout, which we installed ourselves.  Laying a floor is hard on the knees; I don’t think we will do that again…    

The remodeled kitchen at Soaring Hawk.  In order to hold the heavy pot rack, I reinforced the ceiling with plywood before putting in the anchors.

 

Over by the coffee maker, I installed a hutch, for additional storage.  Also, I custom-made the over-the-refrigerator cabinet by putting two 12” cabinets together to make a 24” deep cabinet.

 

The remodeled kitchen at Soaring Hawk.  Kathy designed and installed the backsplash insert over the stove, along with all the other backsplash tiles.

 

The remodeled downstairs powder room.  When we did the original remodel in 2008, we had installed a tiled countertop; however, we later replaced it with a granite countertop, for a cleaner look.

 We also completely upgraded our master bathroom, with a new double vanity, new tiled countertop, new mirrors, and I also took out the old fluorescent lighting, and replaced it with recessed lighting.  Some years later, after Kathy got tired of cleaning the grout between the tiles on the countertop, we replaced it with a white quartz countertop.  Taking out the old tiled countertop was crazy hard; I had used layers of plywood and backerboard, all held in place with screws and glue.  I was surprised how sturdy the tiles were; I used a hammer and screwdriver to take the whole thing apart, all the while cursing myself for making a countertop that would survive a strong earthquake!

The master bathroom at Soaring Hawk.

  

The master bathroom at Soaring Hawk.

 We also completely refurbished the shower / toilet room, which is attached to the master bathroom.  From what it looked like when we moved in to the house in 2003, it had never been upgraded or even painted; it was completely wretched, with peeling paint, and a stinky old carpet on the floor (who had the crazy idea to put in wall-to-wall carpeting around a toilet?).  Yuck!  We tore the whole thing apart including the old drywall in the shower, and installed new tile all around, including the floor in the shower and also in the rest of the room.  I also raised up the barrier between the shower and the rest of the floor, with a treated 4”x4” wrapped in waterproof paper, then encased in tile underlayment.  We also put in a taller shower door, and of course a new toilet and new fixtures.  Voila! 

The refurbished shower at Soaring Hawk.

 We also completely re-did the second upstairs bathroom, also known as the kid’s bathroom, since it is located in the hallway toward the kid’s front bedrooms.  Again, the full treatment; new floor tiles, new tile bathtub surround, new shower door, new vanity, new toilet and new fixtures all around. 

The refurbished second upstairs bathroom at Soaring Hawk.

 However, one of the things we didn’t do when we first re-did the second bathroom was replacing the bathtub.  Instead, we had the old tub reglazed, which looked OK for a couple of years.  Fast forward to sometime in the fall of 2011, and we realized that the old tub was leaking around the overflow, where the tub had rusted right through.  So, we had to replace the old tub, take out the first row of tiles around the tub, and replace the whole thing.  This was a very tricky job, and since the new tub was about one inch shorter than the old tub, we had to install a new border tile, made from little 1”x1” mosaic tiles.  As always, Kathy did a great job tiling, and in the end it looked great!

The old tub has been removed from the upstairs bathroom.  As always, a messy, tricky job…  Also, removing the first row of the tiles was difficult, since I didn’t wanna break too many tiles…  As usual, the work had to be done using a hammer and a screwdriver…  We had to remove and replace quite a bit of drywall, which had been damaged from the water leaking over the years.

 

Finally got the old bathtub out of the house.  I had to use a sledgehammer to get it removed from the wall, which shows.  The rusty, leaking overflow is right by my shoe.

 

After we got the new bathtub installed, we had to prep the wall for the new replacement row of tiles.  As usual, a lot of work…

 

Kathy is prepping the wall for the new replacement tiles.

 In the end, we finally turned Soaring Hawk into a family home that we were really proud of, and we spent a lot of happy times both inside and outside of our house.  We especially enjoyed the backyard, which had two mature trees, and a nice shady patio with a cover.  All in all, Soaring Hawk was our “real” family house, with all three of our kids growing up in that house.  However, by 2021, with Chelsea out of the house, and Michael on his way moving out, coupled with the birth of our little grandchild John, it was time to move and get something else, but that story will unfold in Part Five! 

Our backyard at Soaring Hawk.  We spent a lot of happy times out there, enjoying the cool shade.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   Living the life in Irvine: 

We ended up living in the City of Irvine for more than 30 years, and it was a great place to live, especially if you got little kids to bring up.  Irvine has everything; wonderful parks, green belts and bike trails, all kinds of activities, a great school system, a great Junior College in Irvine Valley College (IVC), a world-class university in University of California, Irvine (UCI), and shopping galore.   Some of our favorites were University Park, where I taught all our three kids to ride their bikes; University Park Library, which we would visit weekly when the kids were younger and the Spectrum shopping center, where we would take the kids just to ride the parking shuttle!  Such great memories! 

For most of our 30 years in Irvine, we lived in the village of Woodbridge, which I used to call the Vatican of Irvine, since it sits pretty much in the center of the city, with its own homeowner’s association.  

  

Map of Irvine

Woodbridge is bound by Culver Drive on the west side, Jeffery Road on the east, Irvine Center Drive to the north, and the San Diego Freeway to the south.  Yale Loop forms a belt way that forms yet another demarcation, that of being either inside or outside of the Loop (which, interestingly enough, is an important real estate selling feature).  Also, as you can see from the map below, there are two man-made lakes, South Lake and North Lake, which offers recreational activities like boating and swimming.  Both lakes also have swimming lagoons, which are great for the kids, and we spent a lot of time at the lagoons when our kids were younger.  In addition to all that, there are some 25 pools and a bunch of parks, so Woodbridge is like the Disneyland of suburban living!  Every fourth of July there would be a 5K race, followed by a bike parade, which the kids loved.  Also, Woodbridge would put on concerts at the park every summer, which were very well attended and brought the community together.        

 

The Village of Woodbridge, Irvine, CA

From 1992 through 2002, we lived over by North Lake, but when we bought Soaring Hawk in late 2002, we moved to the South Lake area.  Again, a great place for kids; five minutes walking distance from our house was the Blue Lake Swim Club, with a great swimming pool, and an attached park and playground.  Also, all three of our kids went to Irvine schools, which gave them great solid academic foundations for later in life.  As Kathy and I got older, we also developed a network of doctors and medical services which, even though we now live in San Clemente, we still use.  I only have good memories from living in the City of Irvine, especially all the fun stuff we did with the kids over the years. 

However, there is one feature of Irvine that is not so great if you want a view; with the exception of Turtle Rock, Irvine is flat as a pancake, and your view will probably be that of staring into your neighbor’s window…  Since Kathy and I had been talking about a view home for several years, in 2021 a convergence of events took place, and with the birth of our little grandson John, we decided to move out of Irvine to be closer to him, while also fulfilling our dream of buying and owning a view home. So, we settled in the Marblehead area of San Clemente, some seven minutes away from little John, a move that we have never regretted.  But that’s a story for Part Five, so stay tuned!