Open House

An 8-foot high, multi-paneled glass door off the dining room folds back, opening the home to a secluded backyard patio. At the opposite end of the vast room, a large kitchen window overlooks the front yard’s lush garden landscape. When the panoramic patio door and kitchen window are fully open—no intrusive screens involved—the effect is like standing in a serene oasis with a cross breeze that may bring in a dragonfly or two.

“When designing the house, I told our architect, ‘I want to bring the outside in,’” homeowner Helen Wheeler says.

A Century in the Making Midtown bungalow is home and studio to local artist By Cathryn Rakich July 2020 For 100 years, a quaint bungalow on a corner lot in Midtown has sheltered its occupants and kept watch over a peaceful neighborhood. The century-old...

Terry Grabowy purchased his “really old, really small” home, tucked away off a quiet road in Carmichael, in 1989. More than 30 years later, it was time to level the 1,200-square-foot dwelling and start anew.

“It was meant to be torn down and something new built because the house was just so old and the foundation was really lousy,” Grabowy says. “Part of it was raised and part of it was slab. The concrete was falling apart.”

Bill Harms is an artist and craftsman who studied with a master in Germany. In 1957, Harms migrated to New York with his parents and siblings. A year later, they crossed the country by bus and landed in Sacramento.

“We got out on L Street where the Greyhound bus station was,” Harms says. His first impression was a sleepy village. But the family soon found an apartment at 23rd and G streets, and “that’s when we started loving the area.”

Similar to a scene in a Nancy Drew mystery novel, homeowner Cathy Skeen pushes open a secret door concealed within a library bookcase and walks through the hidden passageway.

What’s on the other side? Another complete house.