Karl and Dahlia Schonian take childhood sweethearts to a new level. Their adorable love story began with a childhood friendship when they were eight years old. “We attended the same church with our families in Berkeley, CA. By the age of 13, I began to admire Dahlia from afar. I knew she was the one, and after a few years, at the age of 16, I worked up the courage to ask her out. We are celebrating 34 years of marriage this month,” says Karl. Our first date was actually Thanksgiving Day 1986. Karl was so nervous, and he asked to borrow his father’s car. I had no idea that he had enlisted two of my best friends in the endeavor to help prepare him to ask me out that day. Many ask how we have had a successful marriage, and we credit this to being best friends with a foundation in our faith. It’s this foundation that helps us work through challenges throughout our relationship,” adds Dahlia.
Karl was born in San Francisco and spent his early childhood years in the San Pablo/Richmond area. Dahlia was born in New Jersey and moved to Suisun, CA at the age of six.
The Schonians have been able to combine their love of the Bay Area and real estate into a successful Real Estate and Mortgage Brokerage that they created together in 2013. Driving along highway 80 as a child, Karl always had an interest in real estate and would tell his mother how good it would be to invest in Bay Area real estate. He has been working in real estate and mortgage lending for over 25 years. Dahlia began working in technology for Pacific Bell full time while attending college, majoring in Technology Operations. “While at Pacific Bell/SBC working as an Associate Director in Product Marketing, I was asked if I would be interested in going to law school fully paid. They wanted me to be able to negotiate contractual agreements for partnerships in the product I was working at the time, which is known today as ATT/Yahoo. This is what led me to change my major, and I completed my degree in B.S. Law and Executive Juris Doctorate (JD) in Law. This led me to transition into a career in Legal and Compliance in both Technology and Health Care. I left Kaiser Permanente working as a Senior Leader in Legal and Compliance Operations and began working for myself. My husband and I established our Real Estate and Mortgage Brokerage in 2013, and I established a Legal Documentation Prep Service in 2020. It’s been so rewarding to be able to put my years of experience to use helping people,” says Dahlia.
When they aren’t working, the couple enjoy a variety of hobbies and love to stay active. “We firmly believe in a healthy, active lifestyle as long as we can. I have ridden a couple of century rides (100+ miles), and have climbed many of our local mountains. I also regularly mountain bike on Mt. Diablo and in Tahoe. Living in Blackhawk provides for easy access to Diablo, which we love,” says Karl. Dahlia has ridden the Cinderella Classic twice, multiple metric century rides and is involved in a riding group with several cyclists from our church, “We love cycling, mountain biking, hiking and hitting the gym. We enjoy vacationing in Hawaii every year for our anniversary, and we are also both musicians. Karl plays the piano and organ, and I play the flute and sing. We are very involved in church, we attend three times a week and perform in the church band. Church isn’t just church to us. Our faith is our lifestyle. We live by our Christian principles in all we do and our decisions. We also support youth and educational efforts,” says Dahlia.
Two adorable pups complete the family, an eight-year-old Maltese named Zoe and a five-year-old Cavapoo named Brooklyn.
After living in Oakland, Vallejo and San Leandro, as well as out of state in Baton Rouge, LA, Dahlia and Karl say they had admired Blackhawk since being introduced to the development as pre-teens. It was cycling trips during the pandemic that brought them to the area frequently and inspired them to make the move “We had admired Blackhawk for years and when we took up road cycling during the pandemic, we found ourselves riding in this area frequently and falling in love with it. After admiring the area for so long, we decided to make the move to this beautiful neighborhood. We literally looked for four years until we found our dream home, a single level home on Deer Hollow Drive that met all our needs and wants. We moved to Blackhawk in 2021 and enjoy how quiet and clean the neighborhood is as well as the security. The neighbors were so welcoming, and we love the diversity of our street.”
By Megan Scott, Resident since 2010
Images courtesy of Schonian Family