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After you enter for your chance to win the HGTV Dream Home 2009, be sure to check out the cool guides hosted by our sister sites and other must-see features:
About Sonoma
There’s more to Sonoma than meets the eye. From cool neighborhoods to fun leisure activities, find out what makes this sleepy town tick. Visit FrontDoor.com
Sonoma City Guide
Vacationing in sunny California? Find out why Sonoma is a dream destination for foodies and oenophiles. Visit FineLiving.com
Savor the Occasion
Bobby Flay created a wine country-inspired menu exclusively for HGTV Dream Home! Check out the mouthwatering recipes (the winner will receive a framed copy of the menu plus detachable recipe cards), and then watch as Bobby fires up the grill in the backyard of the HGTV Dream Home 2009 and chats with Monica Pedersen about his sensational creations. Get the Recipes and Watch the Video
HGTV Green Home 2009
We’re ramping up for the April online tour. In the meantime, pay a visit to the blog and post your thoughts. Right now, we’re talking about 2009 green home trends. Visit the Blog
Every time I see the Sonoma house commercials and view the house my heart and soul are at peace. I don’t quite understand it but it is awesome and warms me. The kitchen garden is so efficient! I absolutely love it! The kitchen and open concept is so homey! After years and years and years of snow, well, Sonoma offers so very much peace and warmth!
The peace I think comes from fighting and supporting our grandson’s fight with cancer. Oh, how we would just love to find peace. Just to sit back and focus on Ethan is so very heart warming.
The home and area is so beautiful! HGTV – you’ve outdone yourselves! The site is so gorgeous, the house is so warm and inviting, the area brings out the creative vibes. Hey, I also love HGTV! Candice is the best! International house searching is awesome. What Vern is doing is the tops! David is awesome with his signature art. Kitchen re-do’s are so informative. It is the primary channel in my book!
Thank you all so very much! I could go on but the bloggers know what I am talking about!
Lisa
You can pull up the site on mapquest or google earth. The image you will get is the lot as it was vacant, however it does give you a better perspective of the area. Just use the address 600 5th St. E, Sonoma, California. The area is quite diverse with respect to property style and value. East being more comparable, then west (as viewable across the street). While I am not knocking the area by any means, I do wonder why this particular site was selected. Knowing that most will have to sell, why put a diamond in a sterling setting, rather than gold? The location and the comps demand a pool to sustain the higher value (of course from the aerial you can obviously walk through the hedges and use either of two neighboring pools). The lot, while a nice size, does face 5th St. looking west. Not that these homes are low in value by many standards, they are however low in comparable to the dream home. There are also several vacant lots to build on actually within the eastern side of the neighborhood, that would sustain a higher value. The initial additional lot cost to purchase one of these versus the one chosen would have well been worth the value, not to mention a more pleasant viewing than looking across the street to see a driveway with weeds growing through, with a garage that one must drive over the sidewalk to get to (no curb cut for the garage – anyone else notice that). I am not trying to offend the owner of this property, for I am sure it is valued far greater than my humble dwelling. I am just trying to reason the placement of a $2,000,000 home across the street. It is possible that in time the housing across the street would be absorbed and rebuilt, but looking at the aerial map of the area and available eastern building locales, that will be quite some time. Bottom line – of course I would like to win, but I will have to sell and I seriously wonder if the comps of the area, even considering the eastern neighboring comps, will support the value. And how long would it take to sell? If you are going to pay $2 million for a home, it must be a $2 million home. Location prevails over all else on a sell. Most $2 million buyers prefer a $2 million view, not a $500,000 view. My solution, sell for 10% below actual appraisal, petition for a reevaluation of tax liability, and still walk away with a nice windfall. If you know you can’t live in it, why live in that dream, create a new dream with the dream… dream house that is!
As an additional note: In the google earth aerial you can actually see the car across the street that has a cover on it, that appears to be in the same spot! I wonder what kind it is? :O)
Is Coldwell Banker a "sponsor" or just a suggestion by the sponsors? Can Coldwell Banker Agents enter?
please correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think you would have to pay income taxes unless/until you SELL the property? So, the cost of winning would be property tax, closing costs and tax, title and license for the car. The maintenance costs of keeping the house would also be extra – if you keep the home. I would do my best to get a job there and use my current savings to keep and maintain the home. I absolutely LOVE it!
Yes Carolina you are wrong. There is a federal Prize Tax that you would have to pay. there will be given a 1099 Tax form (it’s written in the rules area) that HGTV will give to you if you accept the prize. A prize is different than a gift. a gift is something you did nothing for (enter, buy a ticket etc..mail in an entry buy a stamp etc.) a gift tax is paid by the donor. A Prize tax is paid by the recipient whom won… This would be reported on the 2009 tax year ….
sorry to say…plus what you had indicated before. However, HGTV does go to great lenghts to help in decision making and processes and has helped in the past with a gift in cash to help with those expenses. there’s several blogs out there on this information and links if you search hard enough.
happy dreaming…it can happen! enjoy the dream and wonderful home…!
wow my last posting sounded like caroline had already won the house…..hey.. i thought i was supposed to win it?? hehehehe
Good Luck to all the entrants!!!!
Thanks, NLeslie! It’s a little sad when reality takes a bite out of a dream. However, I’m still hoping and entering daily. Que sera’, sera’ …. and I fell in love with Sonoma during a brief visit so maybe that has something to do with it
I think i saw a comment on one of the postings about their idea to add a bathroom in the garage…
i actually have thought that a great idea would be to add a breeze-way between the house and the detached garage ..keeping with the theme of the farmhouse.. i’d add shelving for canning grape jellies and jelly juice and add some storage area for coats/season items boots, umbrellas etc and a full bath for access when having a large gathering in the backyard area…placing an entrance doorway to the backyard area like the one’s in the family room…guests can use that restroom instead of going through the house. also additionally that would cover unloading the groceries from the car to the house…. not that with the perfect weahter of sonoma you’d need too..but… i like the idea of the mud room / breeze way for even washing off cleaning off from working in the yard or flowerbeds, vinyard, mowing etc… it would tie the two together(garage and house)…
I think this home is beautiful. It would be everything I would ever want in a new home. I have been in the same house for 31 years. This house would be a wonderful blessing for anyone.
This is one of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen. I love the style and living in Sonoma would be a dream come true for anyone lucky enough to win it!
I dream about this home. Having guests in the backyard with dogs, and kids running around. whoever wins it is truly lucky, and I hope that person doesn’t forget to contribute something to charity.
I truly hope who ever lives across the street from the Dh does not read the Blogs.
So many people are giving their house such a negative view.
Their house might not be as grade as the homes in Armstrong Estates, but they do take pride in them and keep them up. There are no weeds growing in the drivway as Jim stated.
I have been in the area many times and think they are just fine. Not run down like some have posted (not you Jim).
I don’t think Google can give you a true view of the house.
And Jim, there is a driveway to the Garage of the DH. You don’t drive over a sidewalk!
Ingrid, do you know the neighbors across the street fom the Dream Home?
Do you know many of your neighbors? Everyone seems to be very friendly, I was just wondering if the neighbors know each other.
Lovelykitty, with respect to the home across the street, I acknowledge there is a driveway. I stated that there is NOT a curb cut out where the garage is located. That is the entry from the road. Usually a legality in communities requiring a permit. No curb cut means damage to the sidewalk, which means money coming from somewhere to repair. And yes, it would be necessary to drive over the sidewalk to get to this garage. There is a curb cut to the home, but it does not enter the garage, just a parking space (aproximate the chimney). Effect on the Dream Home you wonder? A lower property value due to neighboring comps as a result of functional obsolescence (inability to use in function, in this case due to improper garage passage). Even if sidewalk curb hopping is legally permitted (very doubtful), damage to a vehicle, tires and rims, could occur over time.
A follow-up to my last post; If you zoom in and look at the sidewalk across the street (referencing the garage), you can see that the sidewalk already appears damaged (notice the “tipping/dipping” of the sidewalk, and all of the tire marks on the curb).
As an additional follow-up, again I am not trying to “trash” the home across the street. It is valued quadruple what my home is worth. I am simply trying to rationalize placement and give a few facts with a part of the valuation process. The home itself does not, in itself, establish its value, the surrounding homes, neighborhood, streets, sidewalks, views, etc. also have a huge impact on value consideration of a single property.
People BREATH! RELAX! If you dont like it, Change the Channel, Change the Webpage, you dont have to see, read or write about it. There is enough hate and negativity already in this world FOR YOU to keep adding to it, for YOU to be wood to the hate fire. This is a voluntary activity. The NOW & POSITIVENESS is what would make all this beautiful & worthwhile. Good Luck to all the Good Happy Heart People! Kudos to HGTV Team for another great work & giving us an opportunity to dream big!
before you get the keys how much are the taxes and fees to accept the win?
Can you tell me the manufacturer/source for the back patio cover?