The house location was near Watsonville, a rural area growing strawberries and vegetables. We weren't close to Monterey or shops or many restaurants, but the gated community the house was located in was lovely. We were a 5 minute walk to an empty, beautiful sandy beach. The houses were built on sand dunes and the area was covered in 2' dune grass, ice plants and bushes. Very pretty. The air was cool and the sun was warm and it was quiet. No road or airplane noise or noisy neighbors. The house had a good size yard, was not close to neighboring houses and was airy with large windows and sliding glass doors. It seemed quite safe.
This house was close to parking and a rarely used drive and parking area. The front door of the house was two flights up from the trex boardwalk. Inside the door were stairs up to the living room and kitchen and stairs down to 3 bedrooms and one bath. The fourth bedroom was on the third floor and had a bathroom. The interior was clean, attractively furnished and appointed and comfortable. There were several sizable balconies and a grill.
One of us stopped at Costco and bought a lot of food in San Jose on the drive, so we did all our own cooking. One day we drove in to the Carmel area which was about a 40 minute drive to view a wedding venue. For us, it was perfect as we just wanted to hang out together with our 8 month grandbaby and family. The baby, 7 adult family members and the beach were the main attractions.
The instructions were to go to a Real Estate office to pick up the key to the house. The man we spoke to there told us we had to go to the gate to obtain it and acted like we were incorrect to even ask for it.. His verbal direction was pitiful and he was not friendly. When we got to the gate house, they told us we needed to get the key at the RE office. When I told them that was not possible, they made some phone calls and eventually produced a key. All this was disconcerting. The key worked, but it was difficult to remove the key as the lock appeared to be quite corroded. The owner did call me which was appreciated. She said we were supposed to get a welcome packet, but we never saw one. There was a loose leaf binder with info in it at the house. Maybe that was what she was referring to?
I rated it an overall 4 because of the difficulty of getting the key and locking and unlocking the house. I had the impression the house was in an urban area which it was not.