First and foremost - thanks to everyone that helped me with my many questions before my Irvine visit. It was quite informative and served to give me some background before the visit. 
My family loves Irvine, we drove from Torrance to Temecula in search of a nice area and although we have friends in Temecula and the prices are right - its too far away. Other areas, while nice, don't seem to have the same level of packaging or new projects. They also don't have the same level of Japanese infrastructure (language schools, pre-schools, etc). Torrance also has excellent Japanese infrastructure but its 2 hours from our friends so that may not work. Irvine to Temecula is an hour drive and a relatively easy drive during off hours so its more palatable.
In terms of the 2010 collection - we are looking for a 3-4 bedroom home so we visited Carmel, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Coronado and La Casella. Tried to visit Montecito but the sales office was closed the 2 times we tried.
While there we decided to keep our home in Japan for a little while after moving so our price range was reduced to about 750K as I still want to put down a significant down payment. This limits us to Coronado, Santa Cruz and La Casella both of which we really liked.
We also decided that we really liked the Great Room concept, this is a switch from our earlier opinion. Switch is mainly due to the amounts of storage in the kitchens. Kitchens in Japan don't have that much storage so there tends to be a fair amount of clutter that you don't want guests to see however the US kitchens seem to have a lot more storage enabling the concept to work for us.
Brief impressions of the models:
Carmel - very well done, seems expensive for the size home that is provided and the options to make the home larger are even more expensive. I was quoted 85K for the master bedroom on the 2nd floor, 30K for the conservatory, etc. Our favorite feature seems to be the very heavy front doors. It just gives a feeling of luxury. Downside for us was the sales staff, polite, but far too formal for my liking.
Coronado - again seems well done. I like that it didn't have a fireplace. On the smaller side as its not even 2000 sq. feet. so it may not work for us.
Montecito - only viewed the outside of the model, seems well done. Plan 3 would be the right size for us. But I would choose Sonoma over Montecito.
Sonoma - Plan 3 was our favorite.
La Casella - Plan 3 was again our favorite, really liked the upstairs retreat and the 2 master bedrooms. Also seems very well priced for the space provided - I think it has the honor of being the cheapest per square foot. Our only concern is privacy of the patio space. I'm not sure how open it will be when actually implemented. Staff was very friendly and welcoming.
Santa Rosa - Nicely done. Too bad its too small for us as it seemed very livable.
Santa Cruz - Plan 3 is our choice as it has the 3-bedrooms on the 2nd floor and a 1st floor office / 4th bedroom. I like that there is a wall for an entertainment unit so the TV doesn't have to go above the fireplace.
In all cases - I preferred the open California room over the conservatory. The backyard just seems too small with the room enclosed.
We did drive by a few of the older homes for sale in the area but I don't want to deal with re-modeling and taking care of an older home. Too bad because our favorite area in Irvine is near the Marketplace.
Next step for us is to decide the timing of the move, finalize our model choice and complete the priority registration /mortgage pre-approval.
My family loves Irvine, we drove from Torrance to Temecula in search of a nice area and although we have friends in Temecula and the prices are right - its too far away. Other areas, while nice, don't seem to have the same level of packaging or new projects. They also don't have the same level of Japanese infrastructure (language schools, pre-schools, etc). Torrance also has excellent Japanese infrastructure but its 2 hours from our friends so that may not work. Irvine to Temecula is an hour drive and a relatively easy drive during off hours so its more palatable.
In terms of the 2010 collection - we are looking for a 3-4 bedroom home so we visited Carmel, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Coronado and La Casella. Tried to visit Montecito but the sales office was closed the 2 times we tried.
While there we decided to keep our home in Japan for a little while after moving so our price range was reduced to about 750K as I still want to put down a significant down payment. This limits us to Coronado, Santa Cruz and La Casella both of which we really liked.
We also decided that we really liked the Great Room concept, this is a switch from our earlier opinion. Switch is mainly due to the amounts of storage in the kitchens. Kitchens in Japan don't have that much storage so there tends to be a fair amount of clutter that you don't want guests to see however the US kitchens seem to have a lot more storage enabling the concept to work for us.
Brief impressions of the models:
Carmel - very well done, seems expensive for the size home that is provided and the options to make the home larger are even more expensive. I was quoted 85K for the master bedroom on the 2nd floor, 30K for the conservatory, etc. Our favorite feature seems to be the very heavy front doors. It just gives a feeling of luxury. Downside for us was the sales staff, polite, but far too formal for my liking.
Coronado - again seems well done. I like that it didn't have a fireplace. On the smaller side as its not even 2000 sq. feet. so it may not work for us.
Montecito - only viewed the outside of the model, seems well done. Plan 3 would be the right size for us. But I would choose Sonoma over Montecito.
Sonoma - Plan 3 was our favorite.
La Casella - Plan 3 was again our favorite, really liked the upstairs retreat and the 2 master bedrooms. Also seems very well priced for the space provided - I think it has the honor of being the cheapest per square foot. Our only concern is privacy of the patio space. I'm not sure how open it will be when actually implemented. Staff was very friendly and welcoming.
Santa Rosa - Nicely done. Too bad its too small for us as it seemed very livable.
Santa Cruz - Plan 3 is our choice as it has the 3-bedrooms on the 2nd floor and a 1st floor office / 4th bedroom. I like that there is a wall for an entertainment unit so the TV doesn't have to go above the fireplace.
In all cases - I preferred the open California room over the conservatory. The backyard just seems too small with the room enclosed.
We did drive by a few of the older homes for sale in the area but I don't want to deal with re-modeling and taking care of an older home. Too bad because our favorite area in Irvine is near the Marketplace.
Next step for us is to decide the timing of the move, finalize our model choice and complete the priority registration /mortgage pre-approval.
