The Home Page: Hot Properties & Accidental Art

Featuring Bing Crosby’s Mid-Century Modern Home

This edition of The Home Page was originally emailed to subscribers on February 13, 2022. To receive Sarah Sinclair’s real estate newsletter in your inbox each Sunday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

HOT ENOUGH FOR YA?

If our recent summer weather isn’t hot enough, check out Bing Crosby’s mid-century modern home, tucked between Palm Springs and Palm Desert in a golf-filled enclave called Thunderbird Heights. Built in 1957, the 1.36-acre estate is currently on the market for $4.5 million. The 6,700-square-foot home sports six bedrooms and six baths, plus an attached two-bedroom casita named after President John F. Kennedy, who is rumored to have stayed in the casita with Marilyn Monroe. Built for indoor-outdoor living, the home features retractable glass walls that open seamlessly to a pool, patios, and an outdoor kitchen and bar, with mountain and Coachella Valley views beyond.

ACCIDENTALLY ARTFUL

If our current weather really is too hot for you, spend your Sunday indoors with this fun decor project idea: rearranging your artwork using unexpected places in your home. I bought some prints last year from one of my favorite local artists, and as I debated where to hang them, I left them standing on the floor, leaning against a bookshelf in my living room. Once I overcame my fear of commitment and actually hung the frames on the wall, I realized that I sort of missed my lean-to art corner display. This recent article about intentionally using unusual spots made me realize that my makeshift display was actually right on trend.

HOW TINY IS TINY?

I visited and wrote about the most adorable house in this week’s issue. It’s 445 square feet of cute, located over a bridge in the rural area between Mission Canyon and Montecito near Parma Park known as Sycamore Canyon. While I was touring the house with Realtors Adam McKaig and Kip Glover, I mentioned my own one-bedroom, one-bath house downtown, comparatively large at 576 square feet, and remembered that HGTV shot a local segment a few years back. The little Sycamore Canyon home is not the smallest home in Santa Barbara, but in this case, size really doesn’t matter. Situated on more than half an acre of serene, woodsy land, any new owner’s living room is going to be outside anyway.

NOT-SO-GREAT HOUSE DETECTIVE

In last week’s newsletter, I did a little sleuthing and thought I had identified the building shown in the background of the vintage photo referenced in this article by Betsy J. Green. I was so brazen in my discovery that I shouted it from the virtual rooftop, declaring exactly where and what it was. Well, I was wrong. Betsy, our true Great House Detective, explained that “the frozen fountain was in the plaza that once existed near the intersection of Cabrillo and Castillo. The building seen behind the fountain was located on the northeast corner and is no longer here.” Aha. I had positioned the fountain near the train station, but it was actually next to Los Baños. Betsy shared the old postcard above, which shows the fountain from another angle. She went further to kindly explain, “This building, the train station, and the former Neal Hotel were/are Mission Revival style, so I can see why you thought the fountain was near the Neal Hotel.” I thought I was being so clever. From now on, I’ll leave the detecting to the real detective.

Whether your Sunday plans include the Super Bowl, Olympics, or a day at the beach, sit back and enjoy. And if you haven’t yet grabbed a copy of this week’s issue, make sure to take a look!

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