Jun 28, 2024
Gardens are sanctuaries, swathed in color, fragrance, creatures and peace. A church garden has more layers. It’s spiritual and steeped in creation.
Fremont Presbyterian Church, a block from Sacramento State University, is perched at the gateway to River Park and East Sac. It sprawls on four acres. One acre is garden beds, borders and open spaces wrapping buildings and parking lots in pleasing hues and textures.
Unrest throughout the world nudges us to seek tranquil environments, like gardens. At Fremont Presbyterian, pastors, the congregation and community are welcome to wander and worship among birds, bees and butterflies. Preschoolers can stroke soft velvety leaves of perennial lamb’s ears.
Jun 28, 2024
Six years ago, working as attorneys at the same Sacramento law firm, Heather and Dan Baxter fell in love. They married and decided to purchase their first home together.
Dan was raised in Carmichael. Heather comes from suburban Southern California. Dan was partial to the Arden-Carmichael area. Heather had been renting in Land Park and loved the tree-lined neighborhood filled with historic homes.
“I had to strongly encourage Dan to consider Land Park,” Heather says. “This neighborhood just was not on his radar.”
May 28, 2024
Buddhist monk Shunryu Suzuki proclaimed, “A garden is never finished.” Ever changing, gardens evolve and aren’t frozen in time. Trees grow, leaves fall, perennials fade, tastes change. Evolution dodges closure.
Michael and Peggy Bachman can appreciate Suzuki’s Zen teachings. Living in the same Carmichael home for 25 years, their front yard is a half-shaved mustache. One side of the garden is stunning. The other is stubble, a weedy, overgrown mess of gardening yin and yang.
What was transformed a year ago is now a neighborhood attraction, a marriage of stone, statuary, tile, a fountain and Mediterranean plants. The design was inspired by a trip to Greece. Michael built the walls and applied his handyman talents to tiling, stucco and concrete work.
May 28, 2024
John Hodgson and Sheila Boxley acquired their new Midtown home almost nine years ago. The builder was Indie Capital known for stylish infill projects.
“We had been looking and saw it on an open house tour,” Hodgson says. “We liked everything about it.”
Previously, the couple owned suburban homes and townhouses. “Then we even lived for a while in a loft unit at 1801 L St.,” he adds.
The new house was built in the center of a Midtown block with alley access to a two-car garage. The lot was 40 by 160 feet. “Nate, the Indie Capital contractor, split the lot to create this home’s footprint,” Hodgson says.
Apr 28, 2024
Thirty-eight years and four remodeling projects later, Jim and Ann Tracy still live in the home they purchased in 1988.
Back then, with one child and another on the way, the P Street vintage home in East Sacramento seemed like a good choice. The corner location had two bedrooms, one bath and a generous attic with a steep pitched roof.
It also had a separate garage. “Although the garage wasn’t built to code and was literally falling down,” says Jim, retired chief financial officer for SMUD.
“We started progressively going through and eventually we remodeled everything in the house. It totaled four major projects over the years.”
Apr 28, 2024
Kind-hearted folks adopt rescue dogs. I adopted a rescue potato.
Like a dog, the humble rescue potato requires food, water and loving care. A potato will not offer companionship or cute tail wagging, but the reward is embracing an abandoned, endangered edible. Plus, good eating.
My potato already had a name, Bodega Red. Once, it was the star spud of the Bodega Bay and Tomales Bay area. Sorely neglected, Bodega Red was thought to be extinct more than 50 years ago.
