Issue #8: A Jewish Guy Buys His First Christmas Tree
My visit to Grandma Buddy's Christmas Trees, a holiday pop-up in Petaluma, and five cute Bay Area homes for under one million dollars.
The Silvert Lining is a place where I talk about real estate, cool homes for sale, things I’m looking forward to, and how I’ve been spending my time. In addition to this newsletter, I also post regularly on Instagram. You can follow me at Dan Silvert Homes.
My original plan was to cut down my first Christmas tree. My girlfriend and I drove to Grandma Buddy’s iconic Sonoma County Christmas tree farm in search of a stately yet relatively diminutive tree. We wanted something around five feet tall with ample branches for lights and ornaments. After walking around the farm for about 30 minutes, I had many opinions on Christmas trees. Prior to this excursion, I had never given much thought to Christmas trees, but now I had many thoughts on Noble Firs versus Douglas Firs.
Grandma Buddy’s has a selection of precut trees trees of all sizes, including cute “baby” trees (under three feet), or you can walk the farm and cut down a tree yourself. I considered buying a precut tree, but then thought better of it. I drove all the way to a Christmas tree farm in Sonoma County to find and cut down a dream tree for my girlfriend! I then saw the box of seemingly antique handsaws I would be using to laboriously cut the tree down. Is this really what I signed up for? An employee offered to cut the tree down for us with his chainsaw. In under one minute, he had cut the tree down and we had our Fraser Fir. The tree is about five feet tall and easily fit inside my girlfriend’s Subaru Forester.
Once we had our tree in the car, we spent some time in Grandma Buddy’s barn, i.e., holiday wonderland. While sipping hot chocolate, I was immersed in the spirit of the season. There were enormous Christmas trees decorated to the hilt, wreaths and garlands hanging everywhere, a charming wood burning stove, and a model train surrounded by miniature villages.
On the way home, we stopped in downtown Petaluma for dinner at Brewsters Beer Garden. The beer garden is Miracle’s official Christmas-themed pop-up location in Wine Country. I was expecting lights, decorations, and a special menu, but I was not expecting the restaurant to be completely transformed into Santa’s workshop Wine Country edition. We ordered a bunch of food and drinks to sample, and I loved the chicken wings, fried chicken sandwich, and specialty eggnog.
Each week I try to find homes to feature at a variety of price points. When reviewing the newsletter data, I noticed that less expensive homes are most popular with Silvert Lining readers. For this week’s issue, I wanted to focus on cute houses that are listed for under one million dollars. Perhaps your dream home is on this list?
Let me know if you are looking for a new home, and I can create a customized search based on your wants and needs that will email you homes that meet your search criteria. You can schedule time with me to discuss your search for a new home or selling your current home by emailing me at DanSilvertHomes@gmail.com. DRE #01963734
The quintessential Will Ferrell holiday movie Elf was playing at Brewsters Beer Garden when I was having dinner. The San Francisco Symphony will be screening the movie with a live symphony orchestra on December 19, 20, and 21. The symphony will also be screening the Michael Caine classic The Muppet Christmas Carol with a live symphony orchestra on December 12 and 14.
In more news about the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, Bob Dylan himself loves the movie. Saturday Night Live had a funny skit in this week’s episode that parodied A Complete Unknown premiere’s red carpet; I especially loved James Austin Johnson’s Bob Dylan impersonation. As part of the film’s press tour, Timothée Chalamet appeared on ESPN’s College GameDay and impressed everyone with his college football knowledge and surprised University of Minnesota students with a visit and screening of the film. I cannot wait to see the actual movie on December 25!
Sweet selection of homes…Each one needs a Christmas tree in its window, don’t you think?Any volunteers to cut a few firs?