back to previous designs

As far as floor plans go, I seem to be back where I was in October (see plan here). Except I would make the entryway a lot wider, I cut the corner from the kitchen, and preserve just a tad more of the existing floorplan. Here is a sketch of what I am currently thinking.
The protrusion from the kitchen is supposed to be a deck and it would double the size of the kitchen. There is also a wrap-around deck to match the overhangs and make the floor seem to continue.

Regroup!

I had a chat with a local architect, Bob Stoecker. Very interesting and inspirational. He said several things that immediately resonate with me:
First, a lot can be done to make the existing small'ish home seem bigger and more airy. One thing he suggested was to have all the windows go all the way up to the decking and all the way down to the floor + build a wrap around deck to give the illusion of the floor continuing.
Second, the true value of living here is the mild Mediterranean climate - begging for an unobstructed indoor-outdoor flow. So he recommend putting at least 100K into designing and building the exterior room. He pointed me to Ron Lutsko as a great architect/designer of modern landscapes.

Is 1700 sf too small for a Portola Valley lot?

This is one of the questions that has been nagging me all along: my fear of having a way too expensive sqft price in case I would need to sell. So one question I have is to what extent square footage price is a significant factor when homes are evaluated.

I contacted a couple of local real estate agents to get their opinions on different scenarios and the likelihood of getting my money back from different investments. The options I presented were:

A. SELL: sell it
B. REMODEL: $450K, 1700 sf of partly updated home. Raise the roof 4 ft on the old section, make new master BR suite, rebuild all roofs w/ fire sprinklers, etc.
C. NEW AND REPAIR: $450K, 750 sf new home and 1700 sf of repaired home: build addl. 750 sf structure and repair only as needed on existing structure

Some important qualities of what I have are: a large lot, an amazing view, a very level lot, no stairs required to get from driveway into house; no levels in house, sewer system (makes lot fully usable (no drain field).

Negatives are: traffic noise from Alpine (can also be a positive by being close to everything),

The consensus was that a small house is not necessarily a detriment, and possibly as wealthy baby-boomers retire and want to scale down, a house of this size may actually be attractive. One agent suggested the 3/3 configuration of BR/BA was important to keep. However, most buyers would consider it a tear down to give room to their mansion. A couple of recent sales suggests that just the value of the lot is in the 2.3M range.

Option C did not get a lot of positive feedback: even if a larger sqft would be gained it was unclear that the unremodeled part could get sufficient curb appeal and integration with the new structure.

Option B was seen as a viable course to take; in today's market a remodeled house like this might be able to sell for 2.3M - but no guarantees of course.

All this made me add a fourth option to the confusion:

D. UPGRADE + EXTERIOR: $300K, 1700 sf of maintained home. Stick to current building envelope; take care of deferred maintenance and energy improvements: new windows, roof resurfacing, new furnace, clean up floor plan in BR section, redo entry and get new kitchen.