3 Generations of Builders
The House on Bonnie Lane: Three Generations of Building in Los Gatos
There's a house on Bonnie Lane in Los Gatos that most people driving by would never look twice at. It's a little older, a little weathered, in need of some TLC. But if you know the story, it's one of the most meaningful properties in town — at least to our family.
In 1944, my husband's grandfather bought that lot for $7,000. He and his oldest son, Jack, who is my husband’s father and just ten years old at the time — spent their weekends driving down from Oakland to build it, board by board, almost entirely by hand. It wasn't originally even meant to be a house. It started as a workshop. But weekend by weekend, it became a home for a family of six. The stories and photos shared by my husband’s father, uncle and two aunts are a treasure to us all.
A House Built by Hand, Weekend by Weekend
My husband's grandfather designed the home himself. He was a meat cutter by trade, working at a market tucked beneath what's now Mountain Charley's — a detail that still makes me smile every time I walk past that part of town. On his days off, he and Jack worked the land and raised the house themselves, and eventually added a room over the garage so Jack and his brother could have a space of their own, complete with a radio to listen to at night.
The family lived surrounded by orchards and dirt roads. The kids tramped down the mustard greens to build secret "rooms" to play in, learned to ice skate on the cement garage floor, and played Kick-the-Can on summer evenings until the streetlights came on. One aunt remembers meeting her dad at the corner of Bonnie and Shannon after work just to catch a ride home on the fender of his 1939 Ford. Another remembers her father building the family's bathtub himself — out of concrete and sheet metal — and taking real pride in the work.
Out front, near the bedroom window, he built a fish pond for his wife — one of the first things he did after they moved in. It's still there today, more than 80 years later, quietly filled with leaves and time.
The family lived in that home for about seven and a half years before life took them elsewhere. But the house itself never left. It's still standing on Bonnie Lane, and while the house has changed hands and changed hearts many times over, the bones of what he built with his own two hands in 1944 are still there.
From Bonnie Lane to Summit Road
Fast forward a generation, and that same hands-on spirit showed up again — this time with my husband and his brother, Steve, helping their dad, Jack, build the family home off Summit Road in the 1970s. Different decade, different tools, same instinct: if you want it built right, you build it yourself, together, as a family.
That's the tradition my husband grew up inside of. It's not a metaphor for him — it's literally how he learned to build. And it's the foundation, quite literally, of Wade Construction, the business we run together today as third-generation builders and developers in this town we both love.
Why I'm Telling You This
I get asked sometimes what makes my approach to real estate different, and the honest answer is: this. This story. This town. This family that has been putting down roots and putting up walls in Los Gatos since before the streets even had proper names.
When I work with a buyer, I'm not just helping them find four walls and a roof. I understand what it means to build something — because I married into a family that has quite literally been doing it here for three generations. When a client wants to buy a home that needs work, or land they might want to build on someday, or simply wants to know if a property has good bones, I have a builder's expertise sitting right across the dinner table from me every night.
That's the heart of how I work: one trusted partner, every stage of home. I help you find the right property. My husband and I can help you build or customize it into something that's truly yours. And when it's time to move in, I help you get fully settled and organized, so the last step of the journey feels as good as the first. It's a seamless experience from house hunting through move-in — because that's genuinely how our family has always approached a home. Not as a transaction, but as something you build with care, and live in for a long time.
The House Still Stands
I haven't been inside the Bonnie Lane house in its current form, but I've seen the photos — my husband’s grandfather and family cooking out in that backyard, generations of a family gathered around a home. The breezeway that once separated the house from the garage has since been enclosed. The inside has changed a lot over the decades. But the pond out front is still there. The house is still standing. And so is the family that built it.
Every home has a story before you ever walk through the door. I'd love to help you find — or build — the next chapter of yours.
Have a family home story of your own in Los Gatos? I'd love to hear it. Reach out anytime — I'm always up for a good story, and always happy to talk through what's possible for your next home, whether that means finding one, building one, or both.