They met as students at UC Irvine. After graduating, they moved to Seattle, but could not wait to return to Irvine.
After starting a family, MohammedAli and Jessica Un Hye Merchant discovered what Jessica calls the “perfect fit” in Eastwood Village.
Their brand-new, five-bedroom home comes with ample room for their children, ages 6 and 2, and room for a garden where the Merchants grow tomatoes and peppers.
It’s also walking distance from Eastwood Elementary School, where their 6-year-old son is enrolled, and an easy jog to the Hicks Canyon and Jeffrey Open Space trails, where Jessica loves to run.
“These trails are really like Irvine’s veins,” marvels Jessica, who especially enjoys spotting hummingbirds and eucalyptus trees on the paths. “You see everyone there, from older people walking to the market to kids on their way to school to hikers, bikers and joggers.”
Best of all, the couple says, is the neighborly feeling. With just 4,000 residents – most of them young families like their own – the village is designed in ways that bring people together. With so many parents having children in the same school, it’s easy to arrange local playdates and parties.
“Our son had his 5th and 6th birthday parties in Eastwood Park, and everyone could show up – even his teachers,” Jessica says.
“You see everyone there, from older people walking to the market to kids on their way to school to hikers, bikers and joggers.”
Jessica Un Hye Merchant
Irvine incorporated the area that now encompasses the villages of Eastwood, Orchard Hills, Portola Springs, Woodbury and Stonegate some 20 years ago. Today, it’s home to more than 30,000 residents, five community centers and several award-winning schools.
More than half of the land, about 4,600 acres, has been set aside as open space, linking the new neighborhoods with the 20,000-acre Northern Open Space Preserve, which extends to the Cleveland National Forest.
Other green amenities include 60 local parks and the popular Jeffrey Open Space Trail, a 76-acre path for walkers and cyclists that meanders through meadows, creek beds and woodsy trails in the heart of the city.
