With all of the mega houses on the strand and apartment buildings its interesting to find this not-humongous 3 story home to rent. Its small enough for a couple, or large enough for 2 couples, or a family. We have a young daughter, almost 2 years old and we had to make some barriers for the stairs, because they are open planks and room for the little one to slide under or through poles down three floors. Other than that we all had a fun, relaxing, refreshing time in this home, including our 8 year old dog. You can tell the place was set up for someone that loves their small/medium dog(s).
The third floor has no window coverings facing west, as seen in the pictures, so the open design with the bed there is refreshing, may take some getting used to. A lot of natural light in the AM with huge sky light above the bed. Perfect to get you out of bed by 8AM. Having lived in the area years ago, we are used to the daily marine layer in the AM, and the view is so much more amazing coming back to the 3rd floor after lunch. No problem for us, but sounds travel through the wood floor and the stairwell easily. The 3rd floor bath is amazing, the 2nd floor bath also not shabby. The 3rd floor tub is so deep and huge its great, two people can soak in it, and also has a hand wand thing to rinse off with, or the huge separate shower. The Neorest toilet is awesome.
The stove/oven was incredible, nice refrigerator too. No microwave, so if you want to pop corn the easy way or can't live without leftovers you might need to bring or ask for one. Check the propane tank ahead of time if you plan to grill.
The proximity to a little market and small restaurants or bars and the strand is really good. The market was a short block down the hill, and we biked to Vons. Just be aware that the streets are quite steep here, so the 3-4 blocks down to the strand is easy, but walking back up them not so easy after a long walk to Hermosa and back. For our bike riding we decided to drive the car down to the strand with our bikes, so we could drive home. We rode to the end of Redondo and back to the refinery. A great ride. We have ridden up to Playa Del Rey, also cool, ride under huge LAX jets taking off. At the end of El Porto there is a convenient parking lot down by the strand, but this time we drove to Hermosa where theres a lot of parking at the pier at beach level. They also have much cheaper bike rentals for our friends, a couple that joined us for a day/night.
