why napafarmhouse1885?

2.16.08

ok..the obvious first question is why napafarmhouse1885? the easy, simple and obvious answer is that i live in napa, california in an old victorian farmhouse. the more detailed answer has more to do with living my dream life than anything else. i grew up in southern california in a perfectly nice brand new "rancher" in the suburbs. looking back, i had a really good childhood..two parents..dad worked, mom stay-at-home mom who loved being a wife/mom more than anything else. the kind of mom who baked fresh cookies/cakes for after school and cooked a home cooked dinner every night...led the campfire girl troops, p.t.a...you get it..that kind of mom. the kind of dad who worked really hard, but was always there nights, weekends, father-daughter teas, help with home work...made us chocolate milk at night as a treat and suffered through family vacations with my mom, me, 2 sisters and, since each of us could invite a friend, 3 additional girls in a station wagon driving to beach towns throughout california for camping trips. who does that...6 girls and my mom in the car with my best friend and i in the very back blasting led zeppelin on a portable tape deck???

whoa...where did all of that come from? back to napafarmhouse1885.... anyway, my entire family lived in a 30 mile radius of our house so we constantly got together for every family event possible..we celebrated every birthday, holiday, school event..you name it....my grandparents lived in a wonderful spanish style home built in the 1920's. lots of arches, spanish tile, rooms at different levels..and my favorite part was a room my grandmother called the sunroom in the center of the house. the room had a ceiling made out of large stained glass tiles and was open on 2 sides to the rest of the house. the sun through the stained glass would throw off the coolest colors/light throughout the house. i loved that house. when my grandparents passed away a few years ago my mom and her siblings sold the house. a horribly sad time.

my grandparents house was the catalyst for my life long love of old homes. when my husband and i moved to san francisco 15 years ago for business we bought an old victorian flat in the city. the flat was very cool but needed a lot of work. i quickly learned that the maintenance on an old home is verrrrry different than on a brand new house but i really loved the idea of restoring and protecting beautiful old homes. 4 years ago my husband and i discovered the town of napa. we had visited the napa valley loads of times but, like most people, zipped up hwy 29 and sailed past napa the town. by accident we met a real estate agent who showed us some of the old victorians for sale. we did not see anything we loved but a week later he sent us some additional listings
on line. i opened the email and the first house i saw was my dream house...the house i had imagined since i was a little girl...you know..the house all kids draw..the square with a triangle on top for the roof? this house looked like that with a wrap around porch..picket fence..gazebo. now this is not a big house, but perfect for 2 adults and a big dog. enough room for friends/family. my husband and i had never even talked about buying property in napa..but we loved this house so much we bought it with the premise we would use it as a weekend/vacation house but also rent it out to vacationers looking to experience wine county. hah..that never happened. not only could i never bear the thought of someone else in "my" house..we decided that we needed to chuck it all..sell our san francisco home and move here full time. after 15 years of living in the city this has been a major..but amazing...change.

our farmhouse has been the key to all the recent changes in our life. i look forward to continuing to share my stories with you...

best,
napafarmhouse1885
live a green life of style

now that you are starting to get to know me i should warn you..these posts may sometimes be really long if i get on a roll...as a former boss used to tell me "you will never be accused of being pithy!!"