Noted.

Jeff McClure was driving to work from his Anaheim Hills home when he took a side trip through Old Towne Orange and spotted a house on North Pine Street. A postcard from the past, the one-story, Mediterranean-revival charmer had a set of prim, arched windows. The porch overlooked a cactus garden.

He took his wife, Kathy, to check out the house, and her reaction was swift. The couple had spent a year searching for a home in the community. “Make an offer, make an offer,” Kathy McClure urged.

The McClures wasted no time, paying the full asking price for a nearly century-old residence in splendid condition that still has its original oak floors and vestiges of a carriage porch – where a horse and buggy once arrived.

Orange County’s historic homes are hot, but new

Looking for a new and better way to buy and sell residential real estate in Orange County? Now there’s an innovative, next-generation brokerage that delivers, thanks to the launch of Nook Real Estate.

Just a stone’s throw from Google’s regional headquarters, Nook Real Estate (NookRealEstate.com) brings together some of the region’s most respected real estate professionals…but it’s more groundbreaking than that. Nook Real Estate has more in common with its tech neighbor than with other residential real estate companies. That’s because like Google, Nook Real Estate’s platform is based on the power of search - which is critical for a residential real estate brokerage, as between 84 - 94 percent of homebuyers use the internet to search for homes

Here at Nook, we don’t just love selling houses, we also adore architecture. Working on great properties in Irvine reminds us just how iconic William Pereira, Irvine’s Master Planner, was. His architecture is rooted in his love of science fiction (Architect Magazine referring to it as an “it-landed-from-Mars approach”) and has an inherently futuristic but modern feel: stark, expressive, bold in its restraint, looking to the future.

Many feel that Pereira has never been given his due in architecture history, particularly his contributions to the Los Angeles landscape, many of which are now slated for redesigns. He was much lauded in his time, as one of only fifteen architects to grace the cover of Time magazine, for instance. Pereira’s cover was called

When Nook Experts match a buyer with their dream home, the only thing as important as architectural style is the neighborhood. Luckily, each neighborhood in our regions has its own distinct flavor, and it won’t be hard to find your perfect match. That’s why we’re bringing you the #NookNeighborhoods series, where every Wednesday you’ll find cool history and culture to make sure you don’t overlook an area that could have the best nook for you.

You can probably guess that a place like Long Beach has some of the best seafood in SoCal, but that’s not all, not by a long shot. Whether you need a classy happy hour to take a client or a brunch for the whole family, you can find it here.

• Royal Cup Cafe. 994 Redondo Ave.  Regulars have their favorite