The End of One Era and the Start of Another

Karen has been fortunate that her childhood house has remained in her family. It’s been a wonderful home base for visits to the San Francisco Bay Area, a great place for celebrations and the perfect spot to relax. But this year was a time for change. Karen and her siblings, who co-owned the property, decided it was time to sell. This meant a very large project of going through all the things in the house, deciding what to do with them, selecting a realtor and going through the sale process. Since the family moved into the house in 1963, there was a lot of stuff to go through!!

Karen and Terry spent time there at the end of 2024, including a final Christmas celebration with family. Then in February Karen returned to work with her brother and sister on final decisions about things and arranging movers. Then the movers arrived, first for Karen and later for Sallie. Since there have been family gatherings here since we first moved in, we had one last big family celebration in February.

We made a great choice in realtors, the Michael Galli Team at Compass. Michael and his key realtor Bri Secviar advised us about repairs and improvements that would add value (and those that wouldn’t); they oversaw all the work, then handled the sale. It closed in May. Whew! When we began this process, we met with several realtors and they all told us the same thing: the buyers will be a professional couple with school-age children who want the benefit of the Cupertino schools. That is exactly where our family was when we moved there, and it is indeed the character of the family who bought the house. So we’re happy the house can begin a new cycle of growth with another young family.

Karen returned to California in October and began a new style of visiting. She spent a few days in San Francisco, joined by Sallie; then they took the train to Sallie’s new home in Lincoln CA (near Sacramento). It was a fun trip – time with good friends and family, getting acquainted with Sallie’s new neighborhood, hiking and wine-tasting. Our new era is likely to see Northern California trips based in many different places, instead of just Santa Clara.