Tag archives: home
The boutique store Emily Joubert has now opened in Montecito is located at the Montecito Country Mart. Owner Judy Cottingham-Sieber and her husband Mike Sieber held a private opening for friends on Thursday, July 11, and a public opening July 12. Their first stores are in San Francisco and Woodside, CA. I attended the private […]
Montecito animal rights activist Gretchen Lieff didn’t have to look far when she moved into a new estate. The property, built in 1964 and designed by architect Carl Hillmann, was right next door to her former Arcady home! To mark the occasion Gretchen, owner of the La Lieff vineyard and Funk Zone tasting room, hosted […]
There are a lot of upsides to living in a lusciously spacious home. A downside, however, is when you have to downsize. For many folks, the idea of having to go through a whole houseful of heart-grippingly beloved belongings, and then somehow end up resituated in a smaller place, is an unimaginable scope of activity. […]
There was a time in my life – not lately – when I used to enjoy re-visiting places where I had previously lived. There were quite a few of them – towns, neighborhoods, even countries, going back to my childhood. Nowadays, when people in general are much more mobile, it’s not unusual for your family […]
In 1953, a woman named Polly Adler published a book which became a best seller and also gave new dimensions to two familiar words, “house” and “home.” Her book was called A House Is Not a Home, and, in this context, the “House” was a New York house of prostitution, which she had owned and […]
Los Angeles has always been an incubator for magnetic religious personalities, and in the 1920s no one could touch evangelist, faith healer, and media celebrity, Aimee Semple McPherson. At her pioneer megachurch, Angelus Temple, she preached the “old-fashioned gospel” for a packed house of more than 5,000 people three times every Sunday. “Sister Aimee” livened […]
Cities and civilizations leave enduring footprints. Think of Egypt’s Pyramids, the rows of statues on Easter Island, the white columns of the Parthenon in Athens. But Los Angeles has an unhappy habit of knocking down its past, its iconic buildings and houses – paving paradise to put up a parking lot and leaving no trace […]
Restoration Hardware, the upscale home furnishing emporium, is coming to town! The chain, founded in Eureka in 1979 with 100 stores in 31 states and 6,500 employees, now rebranded RH, is taking over the old Lucca Antiques space in the Old Fire House building on East Valley Road. Its former longtime store on State Street, […]
With the holidays upon us, here are a few places for putting those finishing touches on the home, last-minute local gifts, or just spots to go get some fresh air and holiday cheer. During the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s easy to let things slip through the cracks and this week is […]
Montecito Country Mart (MCM) has welcomed two new stores this month, both bringing fresh products to the Lower Village shopping center. DÔEN, the Los Angeles-based fashion and lifestyle brand, opened this past weekend; the opening marks the brand’s second permanent location. Owned by Santa Barbara-grown sisters Katherine and Margaret Kleveland, the shop features the brand’s […]
The 101 is synonymous with a need for patience, particularly along the South Coast corridor. But for Jennifer Cheyne, that trip up the coast from Los Angeles was one she treasured each and every time — after all, the destination was Montecito, which was quickly becoming a home away from home. “Who wouldn’t want to […]
For roughly 1,225 days, Kim Cantin didn’t have answers. A mother searching for her first born. Her 17-year-old Eagle Scout was missing amid the catastrophic Montecito Debris Flow of January 9, 2018. Other deceased were found. But not Jack, not her kind-hearted, gentle soul of a young man. But in late May of this year, […]
To use a well-worn phrase, the homeless (“unhoused,” “unsheltered,” “houseless”) are a blight on our fair city. It’s not that we don’t have sympathy for these folks, but when they are met on the street most of us steer wide of them. I’m not insensitive to the homeless, but from what I’ve seen on State […]
Judging by the home buying activity in the last few months, we can easily conclude that Montecito is “The place to be.” Since the terrible home sales in April and May brought on by strict lockdown measures, Montecito has experienced the highest number of sales per month that most real estate agents can ever remember. […]
As we wrestle with the evolving ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, Santa Barbara’s commercial real estate world is learning how to conduct business at a distance, leaving previously on-site activities on the sidelines. MJ recently caught up with Santa Barbara native and real estate appraiser Greg Brashears to discuss navigating through a pandemic and all […]
It was March 2004 and I was pregnant with our first child when my husband and I bought our home here. We’d married nine months earlier at the San Ysidro Ranch and we would drive up for weekends, rue L.A.’s show biz culture and roam around Montecito, fantasizing about raising our kids in one of […]
Last Friday, I took a guided tour of a charming abode hidden at the end of a long and curving driveway on East Mountain Road. Located just a block away from the San Ysidro Trailhead, the property included an historical guest cottage (believed to have once belonged to Priscilla Presley), and a home office above […]
“It takes a heap of living to make a house a home” is probably the best-remembered line of Edgar Guest – even though – as I’ve often found when my own work is (mis-) quoted – that isn’t exactly what he wrote. The public has an ability to improve upon things it likes, often by […]
Nearly two years after the closure of Silverhorn in the iconic building at 1155 Coast Village Road, a new clothing, home, and accessory boutique, called Marcus, has opened its doors in the space following an extensive remodel. Owned and operated by celebrity entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis, and his wife, Bobbi Lemonis, the Montecito location is the […]
