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Kitchen With Door To Back Deck/Patio- Kitchen Table Seats Six

Master Bedroom Looking Towards the Master Full Bath

Bedroom Two With Built-In Loft With Full Size Mattress and Convertible Sofa Bed

Bedroom Two Bird's Eye View Sofa Bed Opened

Bedroom Four With Full Bed and Built-In Loft With Single Mattress

Bedroom Four Built-In Loft Bed With Single Mattress

Bedroom Four Living Space With Convertible Futon Sofa, TV, Chairs

Backyard Patio/Deck Currently With Ping Pong Table And Garage/Laundry/Work Out Space To Left

New Non-Premium #56144

California family home in the heart of Mountain View

House • Mountain View CA United States

12 Guests

4 Bedrooms

7 Beds

3 Bathrooms

Pets welcome

Primary home

Exchange types accepted

Simultaneous

Non-Simultaneous

Non-Reciprocal

Hospitality

                                    Hospitality Description: We have a guest suite that shares a wall with our main home but has a separate entrance around the corner from our front door. It has one regular bedroom with a queen-sized bed and closing door. The other room is a flexible space with living area on one side (futon/bed, chairs, tv) and full bed with built-in loft and single mattress on the other side separated by cabinetry. There is a full bath. It doesn't have a full kitchen (no kitchen sink, or stove/oven) only a kitchenette (microwave, mini-fridge, coffee machine, water cooler) and basic kitchen-ware. It is more like a hotel guest suite but it is available for hospitality.
                                

Statistics

Listed September 2026

General Overview

Our house was built in 1946, when Mountain View was still a small agricultural town and the surrounding Santa Clara Valley was famous for its orchards. It began life as a typical 3-bedroom/1-bath home common to our neighborhood, and we expanded it as our family grew. In 2016, when Mike could no longer find parts to fix the original commode, we pulled it out for a redo and found 1946 stamped on its interior porcelain. It was time to update!

Raising four children, one of whom uses a wheelchair, required specific design elements that we were fortunate enough to incorporate as we lived through two remodels with our growing family. Because of this, you will find a spacious and flexible layout in the current house. Easy flow throughout by way of wide doors and hallways; wide berths around furniture and corners; and natural gathering spots on the backyard patio/deck and around the front-yard fire pit. We opted for natural light and comforting decor to make it a place we genuinely like to hang out. To that end, you will find a wide array of instruments hanging on the walls and a piano. We grew up musical and tried to pass that on as much as possible to our kids. I also screen print and so original artwork hangs on many walls. Ultimately, as two long-term transplants from other parts of the country, we love doing what Northern California does best: integrating outdoor living with indoor, and that is maybe one of the strongest features of our house. 

Having four kids also meant finding every way to expand the space usefully. This is why our house includes two loft beds in two of the bedrooms and can sleep up to 12, if you really need it to. Three full bathrooms with one completely curb-free shower plus integrated ramp access in both the front and back exterior doors make the space accessible to almost everyone. 

We live in the best neighborhood. The neighbors make it that way but that’s probably not the first thing you’ll notice. Mountain View has a lot going for it. We live 4 blocks from the main drag, but you wouldn’t know it because the modest postwar homes of the neighborhood have been expanded, reimagined and sometimes replaced in all sorts of clever and eclectic ways, with equally varied garden makeovers. Walking around the blocks is pleasant and peaceful. 

Four blocks away, Castro Street has a newly dedicated pedestrian stretch (thank you pandemic) which boasts a mix of really good restaurants- Spanish, Peruvian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Israeli, Persian, and recently the neighborhood added an Azerbaijani/South Caucasus restaurant to the mix. Mealtimes are quite popular on Castro Street. And, on Monday nights, a legit Irish Pub on Castro Street holds a seriously raucous Pub Quiz night. 

But also from Castro, you can reach the performing arts center, the city library, public plazas, tree-lined parks, public fountains, and all the different festivals and celebrations that happen on that street (mostly in the warmer months). And, Mountain View is home to a bustling weekly farmer's market—one of the largest in California. To cap it off, our front door is less than a mile’s walk to the city’s major public transportation hub whose recent electrification will allow you to be in San Francisco in under 45 minutes and San Jose even faster. (Our closest bus stop is much closer - maybe a 4-minute walk.) 

The other thing I love about Caltrain is how easy it is to explore all the other small cities that make up the Bay Area. Most have adorable downtowns and hopping on and off the train makes them so easily explorable. I am talking: Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City, Burlingame, San Mateo, and likely others that we ourselves still need to discover.

But what I really love about our area is all the nature that surrounds us and how quickly we can get to it. We have bike and foot trails that wind their way for miles ending in surreal Baylands landscape and salt flats in one direction and the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in the other. County and state parks abound, with scenery ranging from gorgeous Dr. Seuss-shaped hills of gold and green to deep forest canopies and cool canyons. What I describe is roughly 30 minutes by car from our front door. If you go further, of course you’d be at the ocean in about an hour. Skiing, Lake Tahoe, and Yosemite are all within half a day’s drive. 

My favorite cultural spots close by (within about 20 minutes) are Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center with its famous Rodin Sculpture Garden and the Anderson Collection focused on modern art, both free. On Stanford’s campus, I also love Stanford’s Cactus Garden, Memorial Court and Memorial Church, and it’s hard to beat walking around the Oval and the palm tree-lined entrance for grandiosity. Google’s crazy new building, Gradient Canopy, has an enormous sweeping, configurable roof with outdoor artworks open to the public backing up to restored habitat around a retention basin with pedestrian paths and bridges. For concerts, we go to Shoreline Amphitheater, a lovely grassy knoll that catches soft breezes off the Bay, usually by bike. And Tony Award-winning TheatreWorks has its home in our Mountain View Performing Arts Center, where we try to catch plays, musicals, and concerts. 

I guess that sums it up. I love Mountain View because it’s the place where I made a life with Mike and our kids. It is connected to nature, it celebrates diversity, it is reachable on foot, and it is close to other things I find extremely cool, like the ocean, the mountains, communities of thought, and history and human expression.

The Space

Four bedrooms- The Master Bedroom has a queen bed with full en suite. Bedroom 2 has a sofa bed opening to a queen-sized bed with memory foam mattress and a built-in loft with a full-sized mattress. It also has dedicated work space with a powered sit to stand desk. Bedroom 3 has a queen bed. Bedroom 4 is a combo bedroom/living space with full size bed and built-in loft with single mattress on one side, separated by cabinetry a living space with convertible futon and TV on the other side. There are two additional full baths. There is a dine-in kitchen for 6 that accommodates most cooking, there is a large living room/music room. We have a convertable dinning room table to opens to seat 10 people if necessary. There is a back patio/deck that can seat 10 or more for dinner, with sofa and chairs and a ping pong table. the front garden has a pathed path to a fire ring which can seat 6 or more. The garage has laundry and work-out area with weights, a rowing machine, pull up bar, bands, and jump box.

Guest Access

The house is a ranch that is all on one level. We have ramp access in and out of 2 exterior doors.

Notes

We have two dogs who will not be present during stays.

Features

Show all features including those not in this home

Fridge

WiFi

Bed sheets

Oven

Towels

Washer

TV

Heating

Hair dryer

Microwave

Iron

Dishwasher

Smoke alarms

Workspace

Clothes dryer

Coffee machine

High Speed Internet

Garden / yard

Bathtub

Air conditioning

Deck / patio / courtyard / terrace

BBQ

First aid kit

Fire extinguisher

EV Home Charger

Camping gear

Piano

Travel Styles

Family

Foodie

Relaxing

City

Mountains

Beach

Hiking

Cycling

Good public transport

Accessibility

Step free access

Easy entrance

Single level

Wide hallways

Accessible door handles

Accessible shower

Handheld shower

Accessible laundry access

Accessible parking space

House Rules

Unsuitable for infants under 2

Suitable for children ages 2-12

Pets welcome

No smoking

Allergens

Cat free

Smoke free

Fragrance free

Low allergen

Dates of Availability

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Neighbourhood

The neighbors are very nice. We have quiet hours between 10 pm and 7 am for their benefit.

Getting to my home

We are 45 minutes away from SFO (San Francisco International Airport) and 30 minutes away for SJC (San José Mineta International Airport). In addition to taking a taxi/uber from the airport (or driving yourself) you can take BART/Caltrain from SFO (not available from SJC)

Nearest airport

SFO-45 minutes; SJC-30 minutes

Getting Around

Much of our small city is accessible by foot and bike. If you have a car, it is drivable as well. Stanford University is accessible by Caltrain as well as other stops up and down the Peninsula from San Jose to San Francisco. Destination further afield will require a car, like the Coast and the Mountains

Map of Approximate Location

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People Like Us Local Guide

Meet up for a drink on Castro?

My Other Home

Mountain View CA United States #56263

2 Bedrooms • House

Feedback

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Non-Premium

Stephanie

We are Steph and Mike from Mountain View, CA situated in the heart of the Bay Area. We’ve raised four kids in the home we currently live in and have now seen them spread their wings to all different places and endeavors (all currently in their 20s), leaving us with both the time and desire to connect as a family whenever possible. Top-tier locations currently are NYC, Lausanne, Switzerland, and San Luis Obispo, CA. But really, we love traveling and exploring just about anywhere, using all different modalities—foot, bike, train, car, boat, animal? We especially appreciate living like locals and exploring a new area through all different lenses—history, nature, art, music, theatre, social, to name a few. Please reach out with your inquiries!