Saint Francis Talk

I went out to get the newspaper the other day and saw this beautiful sky above my house.  I almost went inside to wake Gwen but thought she would not appreciate it as much as me.  I snapped a pic with my iPhone.  I hate to say it but it was much more spectacular in person although the photo did a...

For most of my life my father worked as the Art Director at Sunset Magazine.  We lived in Menlo Park which was a sleepy suburb of San Francisco, at least until the 1980's when it was swallowed by Silicon Valley.  Our house was made of adobe brink in a style known as  "Early Californian".  The hou...

Happy Halloween from Saint Francis PropertiesI took this photo several years ago after carving pumpkins with my kids.   I got tired of carving the same Jack-O-Lantern face & came up with this.  That was the last time I tried to carve letters into a pumpkin.   I'm not an artist, but I have to say ...

The fires are out but life is not back to normal.  We are not on the 5pm news anymore.  No interesting footage of hills on fire, or families standing in disbelief in front of the burned ruins of their homes.  The firemen, policemen and news is mostly gone.  The time from escape to total destructi...

A big thank you to everybody who sent their prayers and love my way.  The power in my neighborhood came on this evening at about 7pm just as I was getting all the candles and lanterns lit.  We've been without power since early Monday morning.  I threw out most of the refrigerator stuff out Wednes...

Thank you to my AR friends who have reached out to me asking if everything is okay.  I've been off AR due to most of Santa Rosa having no power or residential internet. Big news in Sonoma County/Napa is a series of 5 large all uncontained fires rolling through the counties.  In Santa Rosa we've l...

I love it when a client who has lived in the same house for 20 + years thinks they know how to price a house better than me.  Don't get me wrong, as a homeowner myself, I pay attention to what sells in my neighborhood, and feel I have a pretty good idea of what homes are worth, but when a seller ...

I was walking through the Sonoma County courthouse earlier this week when I ran into a past client.  I helped her buy her first condominium about 7 years ago.  She said to me "Jimbo, I'm selling my condo".  What???  Why didn't you call me?  She replied: "We are going to sell it ourselves".  I sat...

It's time for another Kunde Vineyard dog walk around the vineyards.  I've done this hike a few times, and it is one of my favorite dog walks.  The hike is led by Kunde wine grower  Jeff Kunde and his dog Marley.  Be prepared to hike 4-5 miles through the hills and vineyards of the Kunde Winery.  ...

 Rescue for North Bay Beagles brought me 2 new dogs (Emma (left) and Maddy (right) to foster until we can find them their "forever home".  Not sure what their history is, but both appear to be very scared of a tall man.  It took a good 30 minutes to get them to come inside last night because they...