sam's digest — a weekly newsletter of my 3 favorite architectural gems on the market in los angeles, + raw life updates. issue 6. 2/23/24.

 

— the main update: i've moved from silver lake to topanga canyon! this has been a forever dream. 

— i'm renting a small back cottage on a groovy compound. my friend lived here for two years, and when she said she was leaving, i jumped at the chance. it's mystical. delicious. exactly where i've been craving to be. 

— from a career & alignment perspective, moving to topanga made a lot of sense for me. many of my real estate clients are looking in the canyons, and when you're an agent in LA, work often takes you all over town, wherever the cool houses may be. & as for my creative pursuits, like writing + photography … i really can't think of a better place to exist.

— it seems the weather in LA this month has been flip-flopping weekly. we started with a rainy week, then had a sunny week, and now we're right back to rain. 

— this matters because while my new place is very charming, it's also very small. not a lot of walking around to be done. so, i'm feeling a little cooped up. i tend to spend as much of my day outside as possible, save for the early mornings and evenings. making do by getting a lot of delicious meals with friends to build in that good, good social interaction. i'm navigating this interesting space where i used to live very close to a lot of my people, and now i don't anymore. so i'm juggling my desire to be connected and my desire to be at peace. i feel like we all go through that when choosing our living situation.

— continuing to see incredible houses as they emerge. there's not a ton on the market right now, however. this differs from last summer & 2021/2022, when a new incredible house would pop up every week. a lot of my buyers are in search mode, offering when it makes sense, but waiting for the one.

1 — treehouse with a funicular in laurel canyon, c. 1961, $1.9M

 

II — wood-clad sea ranch house, c. 1988, $939K

 

III — a-frame in lake arrowhead, c. 1979, $599K

 

— i've seen an abundance of prefab cabin companies pop up lately. and i honestly don't know how i feel. sometimes i feel like they're commercializing and mass-producing what was always been a bespoke, handbuilt experience, and other times i'm like: okay, this is pretty gorgeous. feeling equal parts intrigued and cautious reading this dwell article.

— my favorite third place in the canyon has got to be TLC: the topanga living cafe. i've hung out here a few times over the years, but just last weekend alone, i went there three days in a row. it's fabulous & the food is incredibly fresh.

— you have to check out my IG friend benji's content. been following him for going on three years now, and he makes incredibly soothing houseplant videos + has awesome, midcentury-coded design taste.