I have some things to take care of. They have brought me back to California, just for a bit, not long. I am staying at the home of a friend and his lovely wife. These days this is as close to a home as I have in this country.

I remember so much about this house. One afternoon, almost 20 years ago, I got a whispered telephone call. “Lynn, there is a place about to come on the market. I don’t know, it’s so expensive and it’s not in great shape. The realtor will ‘forget’ to lock the back door but just for one night. You have to come down to see it.” So I did. We wandered around with a dim flashlight while he pointed out flaws and I pointed out the reasons I felt they were cosmetic issues, nothing structural. And the price? High, but everything was. He bought the house.

Blame it on Lou Kahn, I guess. One of the first things I told my friend was that the house didn’t “want” to be white. It wanted to be blue and yellow. I was thinking sky blue and lemon yellow but as you can see, he took that idea and ran with it. I think it has worn rather well. He was right, too. The bolder colors go perfectly with his art collection. I remember making a midnight run to a 24-hour Home Depot — only in America! — for exterior paint because his painters were arriving in the morning and he liked my ideas for the inside so well that he wanted help with the outside, too. Well, the outside did want to be white, with a band of something, well, not quite on the paint chips. At that time of night we had the store basically to ourselves and the clerk was only too happy to play around a bit. It came out great. For years afterwards, folks would knock on his door to ask what that gray color was, it was so perfect.

He found a contractor to make a few upgrades. He found seconds and overstocks for the kitchen and bathroom. He found bargain furniture in moving sales. From dozens of unexpected sources he pulled together a house that fits together, that wouldn’t look right if it were any other way. Meanwhile the house was quadrupling in value. At least. 

So, all good. For what I need to do, I need a refuge. I am most happy to have found one here.