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Welcome to Spirit Wind, Joshua Tree!

Screen Shot 2016-03-08 at 1.52.04 PMWhen it rains, a waterfall comes off this corner of the house and lands in a dry creek full of rock.

Exciting, life changing news! Jonathan & I just bought a house in Joshua Tree, California. The property is called Spirit Wind (named by the second owners). It was designed by architect George Zelenz and was completed in 2009. It’s on the edge of the National Park and a few miles from the west gate. It’s a really special, magical place. We have over 100 Joshua trees on the property, thousands of cacti and stunning 360 views. It really looks like it could be on Mars or another planet!

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The house is clad with Hardy Board and core-10 steel.

We are still kind of in shock that this place is ours. It was a long complicated escrow because there were a number of things that had never been finished on the house, that had to be resolved before our mortgage broker, Natalie Salins from Movement Mortgage could get it approved. The house needs a bit of renovations and finishing touches. For example it was was missing a bunch of railings on 2nd and 3rd floor. There was a spiral staircase with NO railing. I climbed up it a couple of times because I was really curious to see the view from the roof, but it was pretty precarious.

The plan is to eventually move out there full time, but that might be 10 years away or more. In the meanwhile we going to split our time between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree. It is about a 2-1/2 hour drive between our house in Echo Park and Joshua Tree. We are looking forward to making lots of memories out there!

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View from the front door… I’m planning to plant a grid of Barrel cactus out here.

I’ll post more photos of the Spirit Wind renovation soon!

March 8, 2016
See more: buildings & places, diary, in California, Joshua Tree, landscape & garden, Los Angeles Real Estate, on the road, real estate

Los Angeles Streetcar Neighborhood: Boyle Heights


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Each month in 2015, I’m going to explore a different Los Angeles streetcar neighborhood. All aboard, our first stop is Boyle Heights!

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The boundaries of Boyle Heights as drawn by the LA Times.

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4th street across from Mariachi Plaza

Places to Eat & Drink
Guisados  Amazing tacos (this was their first location, they now also in Echo Park and DTLA)
Un Solo Sol Kitchen  This is a hidden gem on Mariachi Plaza – delish latin american vegetarian food
Manuel’s Original El Tepeyac Cafe  Amazing burritos – get the Hollenbeck burrito!
Otomisan Restaurant  Well loved Japanese mom & pop restaurant
Thai Deli  Japanese – Thai – Korean mashup
Indie Brewing Co. & Taproom  Coming soon (mid 2015)
Eastside Luv Wine Bar & Queso  Super fun wine bar with good decor, live music and burlesque

 

Getting There
The Gold Line stop in Mariachi Plaza lets you easily get to the Arts District, Little Tokyo, Union Station, China Town, Cypress Park, Highland Park, Pasadena, etc. You can also change trains at Union Station to connect with other Metro lines to get all over the city and you can transfer to Amtrak to go cross-country.
In 2029 high-speed rail is slated to open connecting Los Angeles (Union Station) with northern stops including San Francisco. 2029 sounds far away but it’s actually only 14 years from now.

 

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Mariachi Plaza, located in the heart of Boyle Heights, is a plaza where large groups of musicians have gathered daily, both day and night, since the 1930’s, hoping to be hired.

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Hollenbeck Park, built in the 1880’s, is a larger sibling to Echo Park Lake. It’s only 1 mile east of SCI-Arc and the Arts District in DTLA. It hosts a new playground, a bandstand and a lot of space to sprawl out.

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Evergreen Cemetery, opened in 1877,  is the oldest and one of the largest cemeteries in the city. Many of the pioneers and founders of Los Angeles are buried at Evergreen Cemetery. Cool mortuary architecture, sweeping views of the snow-capped mountains, and of the DTLA sky line make this a great place to visit and picnic.

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The Los Angeles River
In 2014, Army Corp of Engineers recommended the larger 1 Billion dollar proposal to revitalize the Los Angeles River. While some of that funding is still being sought it is clear that there is a lot of change coming to the LA River corridor. Plans include parks, bike paths, habitat, access to the water, and a lot of economic revitalization. A number of projects are slated for the section of the river located between DTLA and Elysian Valley.

Below is a collage from the Greenway 2020 proposal to make the LA River more accessible.

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The Piggyback Yard – There is a proposal to turn the huge Piggyback Yards (railroad yard), along the LA River into a massive riverfront green space. It is not a done deal yet, but it could be a huge addition to the city and amazing for Boyle Heights. Stay tuned!

Next month: Historic Filipinotown 

What else should we add about Boyle Heights?
Email me. Thanks!

February 5, 2015
See more: Los Angeles, Los Angeles Real Estate, real estate

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

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As Sophie Kachinsky on Two Broke Girls says, “That’s right! I’m back!”

Thanks for your patience while I took some time off from blogging in 2014. I plan to be writing weekly in 2015. Blogging about real estate, gardens, growing our lives to be more the way we want them to be, trips, food, history, etc.

2014 was an incredible year for me professionally, growing both Patty Hume Real Estate and BREAKurban. I think it is fair to say it was my busiest year ever. It brought a lot of great triumphs and challenges. It was exciting and exhausting. Running two businesses forced me to find lots of ways to organize and automate my life, which I’ll be writing about. It’s a challenge to have the discipline to write regularly, when there are so many urgent things going on, but it is really rewarding.

Besides being crazy busy, part of the reason I took some time off from blogging was that I was trying to figure out how my design and real estate lives overlap. I thought about keeping them separate, with two websites, but the more I thought about it real estate, landscape and travel are closely intertwined. They are all about creating an experience, a sense of place and home. So I’ve decided to keep writing about ALL my interested here at pattyhume.com. It’s a little bit eclectic and I hope you enjoy it.

I want my main feed, www.pattyhume.com, to continue to be of interest to people around the world. With that in mind my real estate posts that are of a more local (LA, neighborhood) interest will not show up in my main blog feed, but only on a sub-page I call Real Estate Blog under Real Estate in the top header.

Wishing you a happy and joy filled 2015!

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January 8, 2015
See more: blog, diary, real estate