Ocean Front Home - Between Big Sur & Carmel-by-the-Sea

I surprised my wife for her birthday by taking her to Big Sur. I had mentioned that it was her birthday to Elite Carmel when I was making the reservation and was touched when we got to the house and found a bottle of champagne, a birthday balloon and a handwritten birthday card! My wife and I were amazed at the gorgeous views from the house and we didn't leave during our entire stay. I definately did a great job picking this house and will now be returning every year for my wife's birthday.

The pictures do not do justice for the fantastic views from nearly every single window in this house! My husband and I got to the house and left our bags in the car for hours because we were just in awe of the scenery. The house was in great condition and very comfortable. It is a great place to go if you want to enjoy loved ones in beautiful surroundings. I will definately be coming back to this house!!

I don't mean to sound like I wouldn't recommend this place, because I absolutely would. However, a few minor fixes to this place and it would be perfect. I'm writing this in hopes that they fix these issues for future visits. This place is gorgeous with views everywhere. It's everything you expect from a Big Sur house but there are some significant shortcomings with the kitchen that negatively impacted our stay.

The first and most important was the refrigerator. To save energy, they turn off the fridge between rentals. There are actually two very small gas/electric refrigerators side-by-side. We turned them both on but only the left side worked at all. The right side was completely non-functioning. The freezer in the left quickly made slush of the melted water that already existed in the freezer. We took this to mean that the fridge also worked. After noticing that everything was getting warmer, we cranked up the fridge to MAX to see if that would work. The freezer doubled down but the fridge never worked. We eventually decided the "I think it's working- there's ice in the freezer" and then went on a day trip and forgot it. When we got back to the cabin many hours later, it was obvious that it did not work. As a result, we lost some food to spoilage. Had we known about this, we would've kept everything in the cooler and brought more ice.

The second kitchen related problem is the sink has no water pressure at all. The rest of the house has ample water pressure, but the kitchen sink barely spits on your dishes. As a result, everything is flavored with a hint dish soap.
One more small complaint- the instructions for finding the lock box with the key are misleading. We arrived in the pouring rain and dimming light. The instructions said the utility closest was 5 feet from the door. The problem is the utility closet door looks exactly like the siding to the house, has no handle or visible hinges and it's easily more than 10 feet from the door. Between the bad light, the incognito closet, and the poor instructions it took us a long time to find the lock box.

The road to the house is a little harrowing at first, but after you've done it once it's no big deal at all.