About 4184 Manila Avenue
Hello, and welcome to 4184 Manila Avenue. We moved from San Francisco to this house in June 2004. Prior to purchasing this home, we had been searching for 6 months for a home that met our criteria – easy commute to San Francisco, walking distance to restaurants, coffee shops and markets, a multi-cultural neighborhood with a sense of “community”, and a backyard big enough to feel comfortable adopting and raising a dog. We are happy to say that what we found in our home and neighborhood surpassed our greatest expectations and we hope you will find the same!
Sandwiched between Piedmont and Rockridge, Temescal offers the best of both neighborhoods. The walk to Piedmont Avenue and its restaurants, movie theatre, coffee shops (Starbucks, Peet’s and Gaylords) takes no more than 10 minutes. This summer one of our favorite Berkeley restaurants, Cesar’s, opened a 2nd location on Piedmont Ave. A few blocks past Piedmont Avenue, on Linda Ave., is a wonderful dog park, toddler playground, and public tennis courts.
The walk to Rockridge takes no more than 20 minutes. Rockridge offers many great restaurant options, including one of our old SF casual standbys – the Crepevine and the famous Zachary’s Pizza. Additionally, we always enjoy a trip to Market Hall and La Farine
While Piedmont and Rockridge are very nice, our favorite neighborhood is our own – Temescal. Nothing beats the Sunday walk to the Temescal Farmers Market or the fried chicken sandwich from Bakesale Bette’s on Telegraph Ave. In fact, some of our best meals have been at the restaurants on Telegraph Ave. – Pizzaiolo, Dona Tomas, Koryo Sushi, Lanesplitters, La Calaca Loca, and Tofu House.
But enough about food…let us tell you a little about Manila Avenue. The first thing we noticed upon moving in was that our neighbors all came out to welcome us. The 4100 block of Manila is a community unto itself. The neighbors are a combination of folks that have lived on the street for years (in some cases 40+ years) and others that, like us, discovered Manila Avenue rather recently. We are a mix of ages, cultures and backgrounds yet find community through appreciation of just what makes us different. There is an active 4100 Manila Yahoo Group where neighbors post notices about the monthly book group, political events, the annual summer street party, community gatherings, etc.
What matters most of course, is the home. We fell in love the minute we walked into 4184 Manila Avenue over 3 years ago. The house has a lot of charm – crown and picture frame molding, built-ins, an O’Keefe & Merritt stove, beautiful hardwood floors, a large backyard (we had lots of BBQs) and an amazing back unit (perfect for out-of-town guests on extended visits, mother-in-laws, nannies, etc.).
We do admit that there were a few things we felt needed improvement. Planning to be here awhile, we went right to work on some major improvements (some of which required quite a bit of research on the house’s history/architecture) we know you will appreciate:
• Refinished the hardwood floors
• Re-cemented the long driveway (4 cars fit easily)
• Installed central heat
• Painted the outside of the house and the majority of the rooms inside the house
• Completed a full bathroom remodel/restoration (including a 1914 cast-iron, claw-foot tub and a
beautiful 1920’s pedestal sink)
• Installed period appropriate lighting
An unexpected job opportunity requires that we sell our home and relocate to Washington State. If we could, we would take 4184 Manila Avenue, our neighbors and community with us.
We hope the new owners will enjoy this house, the neighbors and Temescal as much as we have!
