After a two-year hiatus, the Sacred Heart Holiday Home Tour returns to East Sacramento’s Fab 40s the first weekend of December.
One of the most historic and visible homes in the neighborhood will open its doors with new owners and beautiful upgrades.
After a long courtship, Cindy Ward Escott and Rich Escott married in February and purchased the 3,550-square-foot home in May. Cindy moved from 43rd Street, while Rich sold his home in Rocklin.
Ten years ago, filled with energy, optimism and can-do spirit, Lisa Schmidt and I took on the monumental job of saving the Clunie Community Center and McKinley Rose Garden in McKinley Park.
We founded a nonprofit called Friends of East Sacramento in 2010. That was the easy part. The rest of the story is an adventure in generosity, volunteerism and community pride, along with the darker parts of human nature, from petty jealousy and troublesome neighbors to crime.
Faced with drastic cuts to city park budgets, the rose garden and community center faced a crisis after the Great Recession in 2009. The center was headed for closure. The city was unwilling to spend $100,000 a year to keep it open. There were no funds for much-needed maintenance.
As Marika and Scott Rose planned for their two daughters to move onto college and beyond, the couple anticipated some changes for their empty nest.
The Roses purchased the classic brick and stucco 1937 Tudor-style home in Land Park 25 years ago to start their family.
As the family grew and finances allowed, the couple expanded the home on several occasions, adding a family room off the kitchen, and then a second story with two bedrooms and bathrooms, and an upstairs laundry room. When the girls were teens, they added a beautiful side patio with an outdoor fireplace and generous seating areas for family and guests.
About five years ago, they hired designer Elizabeth Lake to help further remodel and refine the home for their evolving lifestyle. “Elizabeth helped us tie it all together by rearranging, repurposing and adding some new pieces,” Marika says.
A few months ago, our photographer went to Clarksburg to shoot the home studio of artist Julia Couzens. The place was as fascinating as the woman who occupies it.
The 2-acre property runs along a country road. The house appears to sit up on a throne. Many homes near the Sacramento River have elevated living spaces above levee roads to take advantage of river views and cooling breezes.
The three-story home of Couzens and her husband, attorney Jay-Allen Eisen, consists of the artist studio on the ground floor, main living area on the second, and offices and a guest suite on the third.
Sacramento is still recovering from COVID-19. As of September, the pandemic killed 3,399 people in Sacramento County, with 1,830 COVID deaths in the city. Those numbers are tragic, and they especially impact older folks with pre-existing conditions. But just about every problem faced by our communities, schools and businesses resulted from broad lockdown policies authorities ordered despite the societal and economic damage closures would inflict. It was myopic, short-term, “let’s do something” thinking that will negatively impact a generation.
Many experts advocated for isolating medically vulnerable people, rather than the entire society. Their voices were slandered and censored by lockdown architects, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the president. He recently stated lockdowns had not gone far enough.
Walking up the garden path to the Curtis Park home of Julie and Stan Perez, one is instantly charmed by the Americana cottage feel of the property, complete with a beautiful U.S. flag waving in the breeze.
The couple purchased the home five years ago when family life made an unexpected turn. After raising two sons in a 3,500-square-foot home in El Dorado Hills, they moved to Pasadena. Stan—a retired CHP officer—became head of security for the Norton Simon Museum. The couple also established a business selling vintage farmhouse goods.
“Our sons remained in Sacramento, and we promised if they ever had grandchildren, we’d move back to help take care of them,” Julie says. Until that happened, they planned to buy an actual country farmhouse.
When Stan retired and their first grandchild was born in 2017, the couple started house shopping in Sacramento.
