The Home Page | Baseball, Blue Skies, and the Big Bad Wolf

This edition of The Home Page was originally emailed to subscribers on January 21, 2024. To receive Sarah Sinclair’s real estate newsletter in your inbox each Sunday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

I’ve always been a beachgoer & sunshine lover, so summer has always been my favorite season. This year, I’m appreciating winter more than ever. We’ve already had a variety of weather in 2024, showcasing gorgeous sunrises, beautiful sunsets, and crisp wintry days with blue sky and puffy clouds. Heck, even the rainy days have their appeal. The Skimm’d blog offers some rainy-day food-for-thought in this recent article with their take on what’s trending in home design this year. Tapestry pillows, like the one above from Jess at The House on Walnut, are just one of the cozy trends they highlight for those stay-at-home and focus-on-home days.

These bright winter days offer some great shadows at play. The colors and shapes of Jeff Shelton’s architecture are especially ripe for the contrast of a shadow against a white wall, as shown above at The Cota Street Studios. Right around the corner at El Zapato:

stripes from a balcony drip down onto the building below. Both of these projects are in downtown Santa Barbara, and make for the start of a great self-guided walking tour.

Here’s one from the files of “you never know what you’re going to see when you’re touring houses.” Realtor Gabe Grandcolas shared the photo above from a recent day out visiting properties. This big bad wolf was just one of the movie props seen at a house in Santa Barbara’s west mesa neighborhood. Potential buyer? Eager seller? Either way, its probably best to stay out of his way.

De la Guerra Plaza plans? News about East Beach? If this sounds like what’s happening in Santa Barbara today, check out our newest Independent real estate column to hear about headlines from one hundred years ago. Writer Cheri Rae brings us “Our Santa Barbara” which will be part history, sometimes topical, and always interesting. This week’s column looks at what was going on in town in 1924. Just one of many topics: Peabody Stadium at Santa Barbara High School was completed that year, and the Dons baseball team, shown above, was called “one of the fastest baseball clubs ever.”

Make sure you check out this week’s cover story for some real estate-related news, as Indy reporter Ryan P. Cruz dissects the “builders remedy” and what it means for Santa Barbara’s current and future housing outlook. The whole issue – from cover to cover – offers pages of info to educate, delight, and inform. No matter what the weather, enjoy your Sunday!