Open House

When Jennifer Mata-Tayamen and Mar Tayamen married four years ago, both were widowed for many years. They had six children between them and a large home in Elk Grove.

But East Sac kept calling. “My daughters attended St. Francis High School, so I was in East Sac frequently transporting them to and from school and to the homes of their friends,” Jennifer says. “The sense of community was awesome and quite different than Elk Grove.”

After house hunting for several months, the couple closed last year on an unusual home on 46th Street. Built in 1970, it was the newest house on a stately street. The design is modern compared to the Tudors and Spanish styles that surround it.

Over time, previous owners upgraded and added Craftsman details. They also liked a color that didn’t agree with the Tayamens. “The house had a lot of yellow, which we decided to change right away,” Jennifer says.

Alison and Ryan De Anda purchased their Curtis Park home in January 2020, just before the pandemic.

“We are super glad we did it then because the housing market heated up in the coming months and we likely would have been priced out completely,” Ryan says.

The couple moved from San Francisco where they worked for Macy’s. Ryan grew up in West Sacramento, Alison in Oregon.

“We were priced out of the market in the Bay Area and wanted to be closer to Ryan’s large family,” Alison says. “Sacramento was the perfect place for us.”

Ryan works for the state as an IT project manager. Alison is a vision care retail buyer. She also buys and sells vintage items.

With its inventory of century-old homes, Curtis Park filled the couple’s wish list. “It had the charm of the older San Francisco neighborhoods we enjoyed. And we loved the eclectic architecture of the homes,” Ryan says.

Andy Harris was a pioneer house flipper. By 1988, he was on his third house. He bought them, made repairs and resold for profit.

But he knew the Curtis Park home was special. It was designed by Earl Barnett, the architect who conceived Memorial Auditorium, Sutter Club, Westminster Presbyterian Church and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

It was no candidate for flipping.

The 1937 Spanish Revival-style duplex in Land Park is the perfect place for retired architect Peter Saucerman and his wife Susan Twining.

The house features an owner-occupied unit of 2,200 square feet and another 1,100-square-foot rental. The owner’s side has three bedrooms and two bathrooms on two floors connected with a curving staircase, plus a two-car garage.

Local architect Leonard F. Starks designed the property for himself and his wife Eleanor. One of the city’s most prolific architects, Starks designed the Elks Tower, C.K. McClatchy High School, Downtown Post Office and Alhambra Theatre, the latter demolished but still missed.

Ryan and Heather Filippini go way back. They met as youngsters at St. Anne’s Catholic School in Lodi, followed separate paths to college, got reacquainted in Sacramento and married in 2010.

Now they work mostly from home. Ryan works in real estate. Heather works for a tech support company. East Sac is their base.

“Our first East Sac home was a two-bedroom, one-bath near Bertha Henschel Park,” Ryan says. “We then upgraded to a larger house across the street. We loved our neighbors and our tightknit neighborhood, especially during COVID lockdowns.”