Oakland, California
Our “Enlightenment Home” is a huge, spacious, artistic, modern and inspiring home in the Oakland Hills. Perfect work and play retreat. Large exercise studio, large office space. Happy, color-filled home with plants. We feel inspired to create here, we hope you do too. Super fast internet. A quiet street - more walkers than cars. Plenty of parking. 2 bedrooms each with attached bathrooms. Indoor jacuzzi tub. Front balcony has views of the hills. Back balcony wooded. Relax, create, BE in the Enlightenment House.
The space
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It's a tall two-story home that sits on a hill. An architect built the home for himself, it's private and expansive. We have a view of a private golf course. If you listen closely outside at night, you can hear the wolves howling at the Oakland Zoo. We love sitting on our "Cleopatra" lounge chair sipping our morning tea as we watch the sunrise over the hills. We live here part time, so it's a very cozy personal atmosphere in a spacious home (4,300 square feet). A gourmet kitchen with lots of appliances, gadgets, knives, and condiments. Just bring your food and you'll be able to cook whatever you want.
Great for two couples and/or a creative work time.
One bedroom has a king bed, the other with a queen. Both are high end memory foam mattresses (T&N and Essentia). Both bedrooms have their own bathroom, and there's a half bath upstairs near the great room/kitchen area.
If you happen to have a bird with you, you've just hit the jackpot. We have a very large parrot that goes to the bird hotel when we are not home. You are welcome to use her cages and perches.
Guest access
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We recommend parking in our driveway. Plenty of street parking too. You will need a car, or take lots of Ubers.
Other things to note:
This is a residential community and quiet street. Visitors other than the guests listed on the reservation are not permitted. If you’d like us to consider a request for visitors, please send an inquiry with details.
We mainly live here. When we go out of town, we make the home available for short-term rental. This means the house is very cozy, not a sterile hotel setting. We have our bookcases, our art, our kitchen utensils, etc.
Please treat our home like you are visiting a favorite relative!
We have a huge refrigerator and freezer. We leave the first two shelves of the freezer available for you.
The way the house was built which is long and open. the roof will sometimes make a sound like a squirrel is walking on roof, but usually it's just the roof creating the sound.
There is a railing that creates a loft feeling between the first and second floor. The railing is not child or pet proofed. There’s a few photos of the railing so you can determine if the house would be safe for your family.
Our backyard neighbor has chickens and a rooster that sometimes crows between 8am and sundown. We can’t hear it from the master bedroom.
Our stay was superb!! The house had an abundance of artistic features that were incredible to see. Each part of this beautiful home captivated our senses with charm and delight. The views from the rooms were totally incredible and the accommodations were top notched. Thanks for an amazing experience.
We loved everything about the house. It was quiet, spacious and cozy with all mod cons and an eclectic aesthetic. Highly recommended.
The owners made our family very welcome. Everything was perfect and the beds were extremely comfortable. Beautiful neighborhood for evening walks.
Spacious with everything you might need. Beautiful setting in Oakland hills. Centrally located to all things you might want to reach in the East Bay.
This property was amazing. So organized, wonderful decor, VERY comfortable, all the amenities one could ask for, great location. We couldn't have been happeir.
We had a great visit. The home lovely and filled with fun artwork. We will be back.
Mark and Shelley were gracious hosts and made our stay so comfortable and welcoming. They were wonderful at communicating with us. Their home is so unique and has a relaxing environment with a beautiful view of the hills. The exercise room was such a bonus too. We didn't have to sacrifice our fitness routines during our stay. My daughter loved all of the plants too.
Overall the home is beautiful and very spacious located in a great neighborhood. I traveled to SF for work and my spouse (including 3 dogs-approved by the homeowners) tagged along with me. We were very excited for our stay for a number of reasons (space, beautiful photos of the home and friendly hands-on property owners). However when we arrived to the home; it unfortunately didn’t meet our expectations for a number of reasons. The house is big (which we knew) but the overall layout didn’t work well for us especially with three dogs. The Second level is the living area and there is a decent size gap between the floor and the banister/balcony to the 1st level which gave me a little anxiety seeing how two of my pups are small dogs. We also expected the house to be more clean than it was. We couldn’t walk on the floor without socks; because it was so dirty our feet turned black, the master shower was not clean. I had to use the Clorox wipes we brought to wipe down the shower. One of the sinks in the master bath was broken. The plug would not come up for the water to go down the drain so we couldn’t use the sink because the water would fill up. The sheets were clean but the duvet was dirty, it had long strands of black hair all over it. Someone rented the home before us (left the same day but the owner said the cleaners came). The home really isn’t pet friendly. There is a decent side/back yard, however the grass is overgrown and if you have a small dog they get lost in the grass (not kidding). One thing that is not in the description (from what I remember) is that the neighbors have roosters. Anyone who is familiar with a rooster, they are extremely loud early in the morning and sometimes throughout the day which caused for very stressful mornings. To end on a positive note; some of the pros, if you are looking for space but ultimately want to travel to the city, this house is in a great spot. It only took us about 30 minutes (at most) anytime we wanted to drive into SF no matter the time of the day. If you are looking to rent space with a group of people; this home is plenty big. All the cabinets, light switches, etc are labeled so you know where to go for what at all times. And most importantly the homeowners are wonderful! Very responsive, communicative and friendly! Certain wants and needs are more important to some than others so this isn’t to scare anyone away from the home. Unfortunately our expectations weren’t met this time.
Our experience staying at this property was great. The views from the house are beautiful and there is so much space for a group to gather here. The owners were so communicative and hospitable. We are very grateful for our time here.
We were in Oakland to drop off my granddaughter at college. We were looking for someplace fairly close that could accommodate us all. We were so pleasantly surprised. The pictures are lovely but they do not do the home justice. All the plants and lights and a wonderful homemade chandelier made the home so welcoming and restful. Our hosts were so helpful and accommodating. Our stay was wonderful.
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Includes taxes and fees