We need to talk. About kitchens, and my obsession about them as the single most important room in a house. The kitchen is the pulse of a home. It’s where people congregate during parties. It is nourishment. It can be the site of epic dinners and emotional meltdowns. After my people, my kitchen is my …
There are some sounds that snap me back to childhood summers. The music from a passing ice cream truck. The song we used to play over and over at the pool. The sound of a wooden screen door slamming against the frame. Screen doors, for you apartment-dwelling urbanites, are a feature of rural and suburban …
It’s fashionable among urbanites to look upon the suburbs with disdain. Big city apologists snub their noses at two-car garages, lawns and expanses of empty sidewalks. They decry the necessity of cars and lack of public transportation. But there is one feature of the American suburbs that I love: the front porch. It’s more than …
When I am old and gray I want to have a house by the sea. And paint. With a lot of wonderful chums, good music, and booze around. And a damn good kitchen to cook in. Ava Gardner This quote by the late actress Ava Gardner has been a gently held vision when I think …
I’ve always felt that a home is way more than our physical surroundings. It is more than a place to store your stuff and take a shower. As much as I love to pour over beautiful interior (and landscape) design magazines, books and blogs, I appreciate that what I’m really absorbing is a story. It’s the …
When I initially meet with a real estate agent to explain what I’m looking for, s/he usually asks the expected questions — size of the home, general features, locations and, of course, budget. Two years ago I met with an agent in Portugal to talk about property and she asked a question that I have …
We closed escrow yesterday on our home of over 20 years. The new owners will move in within the next couple days, marking the next chapter in both our lives and the story of the nearly 100-year old house on Whitney Street.
My social media feed and my email inbox were filled this week with images from friends in the San Francisco Bay Area. An outré orange bloom swept across the sky and washed everything in ocher shadows. At 11 in the morning, people had to drive with headlights or turn on their houselights. The word apocalypse …
