Team Effort
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.”
Professional Help
Curtis Popp is a residential interior architectural designer. Over two decades, he established a reputation as a talented, creative and sought-after home design consultant.
Along the way, he found a side project, his family’s unconventional tri-level Land Park residence.
Popp grew up in Land Park. He and wife Sue, a nurse, were raising their two children there in a small, traditional house on Perkins Way.
But the interior designer couldn’t stop thinking about the nearby tri-level.
“One day, in the middle of the Great Recession, I saw a For Sale sign spring up on it,” Popp says. “The timing wasn’t good. And it took several visits to get Sue interested because the house at that time looked nothing like it does today.”
Growing, Growing, Gone
A green, leafy dot on the Oak Park map is destined for the compost pile. The Plant Foundry Nursery & Store at 3500 Broadway lost its lease. The parcel will be developed into a three-story infill of retail and housing.
Nursery owner Angela Pratt was heartbroken when the lease was not renewed, a turn of events that thrust her into a spin cycle of “what to do?” Ideally, she would prefer to buy a property and reopen the nursery nearby.
Anything’s Possible
Monica Hernandez is proud of her hometown. She went to McClatchy High School, City College and Sacramento State. It’s no coincidence she and husband Kevin Flanagan ended up homeowners in Curtis Park.
Flanagan grew up near Monterey, attended Sac State and returned home after graduation. He met Hernandez a few years later. They were together for eight years before getting married in 2015.
“Our first house was much smaller and located in the Med Center neighborhood of Oak Park,” Hernandez says. “The house was built in 1914, and we took on many ‘old home’ projects as do-it-yourselfers in the 11 years we lived there.”
But the couple had grander plans.
Fall Forward
The Big Leafy too often transitions from blistering hot to chilly and wet, allowing minimal days of local autumn color. Our magnificent trees should not be denied the opportunity for extended applause and encore performances.
Eventually, the heat concedes, and Sacramento is blessed with orange and crimson leaves, but for how long?
Gardeners have an elevated appreciation of the city’s leaf canopy. Shade, beauty and finally wonderful composting material are welcome perks.
