#sarah-l-winchester

#sarah-l-winchester

The influx of art-world characters had come and gone, albeit in reduced numbers due to the winter storms out east, and they had done their yearly duty of complaining to me about the traffic.

The walk, and the houses surrounding it reflect a period when Berkeley's hills were becoming a laboratory for new architectural ideas rooted in craftsmanship, landscape and a belief that the built environment could shape daily life for the better.

The guided one-mile journey takes participants past buildings steeped in decades of dramatic events and reported hauntings while at the same dropping tons of fascinating history of San Jose. The experience began under the prominent arch at Paseo de San Carlos and wound through areas tied to everything from Wild West saloons and brothels to brewery tragedies to sorrows at San Jose State University.

The whole reason we're here is we know something is impossible, but we also know it's inevitable. He pulled off a trick where a member of the audience mixed up a Rubik's Cube, then Blake presented a second cube with identically arranged colors, demonstrating the paradox of magic where the impossible becomes inevitable through skillful illusion.

He was flamboyant, all right. But he was much more than that. He was an extremely colorful personality and a close friend of The Chief (Hearst). His input went beyond that of the builder and overlapped into the interior design and even in the choice of furnishings.

In 1968, a "good girl" is squeaky clean. She studies hard, follows the rules, gets into college and doesn't embarrass her parents. She doesn't lie or drink or do drugs. She doesn't participate in the Summer of Love or experiment with any of its alternative ways of living. She definitely doesn't have premarital sex, get pregnant and upend everyone's meticulously laid plans for her future.

In a full house at the 1,025-seat Toni Rembe Theater, there was an eruption of gasps and shrieks. The grown man to my right reflexively gripped the arm of my seat, sheepishly muttering an apology. In a distant aisle, I spotted one person get up and run out of the theater, their friend trailing closely behind.

I've interviewed a lot of booze proprietors and given that many of the bars in this town are in old buildings, at some point I usually inquire if the place is haunted. But this is the first time that anyone has brought it up without me asking. In fact, Billie did so only 3 minutes and 24 seconds into our chat.

If you happen to have $950,000 and a hangar to spare, a famed - and heavily discounted - American warbird in the California desert can be yours. Described as the "World's Only Privately Owned F-4 Phantom Capable of Flight" by its listing agents, the McDonnell F4H-1F has a significant and storied past: During a demonstration in 1961, this exact plane dropped several 500-pound bombs on Fort Bragg, influencing the U.S. Air Force's decision to order them.

Casa de Sierra Nevada beautifully strikes that same balance across its six historic manors dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. The first luxury hotel to open in San Miguel de Allende, the jigsaw puzzle estate is teeming with centuries-old Easter eggstiled fountains and romantic balconies, family crests and staircases carved in stone. Though it's a Belmond Hotel, the Casa de Sierra Nevadalike all of the brand's properties around the worldis unique.

Stepping into 2800 Pacific Ave. is like taking a trip back in time, arriving in San Francisco's Gilded Age, when architects like Ernest Coxhead were creating opulent mansions to enshrine the city's elite. In this Georgian abode, we are presented with a carefully preserved example of Coxhead's work, as well as a particularly rich slice of local history. And though 2800 Pacific Ave. has been called SF's "most iconic" mansion by Chronicle columnist Herb Caen,

Maybe if I had been smart, I would have bought the land a long time ago, but, at the end of the day, sometimes you have to say, It's been a beautiful experience and it's time for it to have its fat lady sings opera moment,'

"Above: Continually inspired by the material mix in 'Nothing Wasteful, Everything Intentional': Molly Sedlacek's Small but Mighty Live/Work Space in Los Angeles. Photograph by Austin John. Julie's eyeing this limited-run cookbook by Nickey Kehoe-with proceeds benefiting the LA Food Bank and NY Common Pantry. This just in: a first glimpse of Bode's new Tokyo outpost. And in Paris, the onetime private office of Karl Lagerfeld is now available for stays. And Margaret Howell is in residence at The Newt in Somerset, UK; info here. We did not expect this Ikea find to make us cry this week, but here we are. Angelenos, you're invited to tea at Plain English to celebrate their newest color collection. Really love the earthy tones of the new Nordic Knots x Studio Mellone rug collection."

Disneyland's Haunted Mansion will soon serve as an eerie new wedding venue for brooding brides looking for a morbid place dripping with tales of mourning, dread and murder to exchange their wedding vows and begin their happily ever after. Disneyland will begin offering weddings in July for the first time in front of the Haunted Mansion starting at $25,000 to $40,000, according to the official Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings and Honeymoons website.

How long a minute is depends which side of the bathroom door you're on. Now it appears that how much a $1m loss matters depends how eager you are for your business to be concluded. That's pretty eager apparently and unsurprisingly if you're Lily Allen and David Harbour. The former couple have just accepted $7m for the Brooklyn townhouse they listed for $8m in October.

I want to talk about architecture for a moment - specifically residential architecture. In San Francisco. You expect to see stately Victorian homes with their bright colors and fancy decorative trim. Then there's Marina style homes with their big windows and stucco facades. But sprinkled in amidst these grander homes you might spot a few tiny cottages - the original tiny homes.

Not every home is willing to play a supporting role. Jess Cooney's has always demanded top billing. "It's been a main character in my life-we've had a beautiful journey," says the AD PRO Directory member of her 6,000-square-foot house in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. "And it also drives me insane." More than two decades ago, Cooney returned home from Colorado to the Berkshires with her husband, Joe, and a new daughter in tow.

A year ago, Alexander Widener quit his job to move to Maine and follow an unlikely dream: to open an antiques shop. And it worked: Alexander's shop and guest cottage, Widener Company, is the talk of New England and beyond, thanks in part to Alexander's wild Instagram following. (Perhaps you caught his "Super Bowl" video last weekend-on, yes, bowls.) Before shopkeeper life in the small village of Wiscasset,