// the mood & vibes this week
— hi, friends :) writing this to you from my couch. yesssss, your girl finally has furniture! i'm so sleepy. these last two weeks have absolutely zoomed by.
— i last wrote to you right before the long valentine's weekend. i had a really fun time with my girls, gays, and theys! we had dinner + went to my favorite bar trivia @ spoke in frogtown. i did want to touch on some things this hallmark holiday brought up for me. i am someone who definitely desires partnership, love, intimacy, a family-all of those things. those who know me offline (and i'm sure at this point you do as well!) know that i'm very much a lover. so of course it's painful to experience a holiday celebrating that when i don't have it in my life right now. but i'm also, on the other side of the same coin, and for the first time in my life, thinking about what life would look like without that. without romantic love. there's a quote from a favorite book of mine-titled ‘how to be a person in the world’-where the author is giving advice to someone and says:
"Let's try this: If I told you that you would never, ever fall in love again, what kind of a plan would you make to ensure your own happiness moving forward? What would you work toward? What would you do more of? I bet that you'd have to give up on some big dreams that you care about a lot. But I also bet that giving up some of those things might add up to a weird kind of freedom.
Maybe you'd cut your hair short and save up for a house. Maybe you'd start riding horses or writing poetry or growing sunflowers or taking dance lessons or baking pies. Instead of seeing your balance of days on earth as either a sad, lonely slog through single motherhood or a rosy daydream thanks to some magical second marriage, you need to begin by painting a picture that doesn't include love."
— that's been really, really inspirational to me as i'm actively trying to decenter men and male validation. especially when it comes to like, realizing that i don't have to wait to be ‘chosen’ to pursue the things i want. like kids, for example! when diane keaton passed recently, i learned that she had children by herself at 50. how freaking cool!
— ok, aside from matters of the heart-interpersonally, things have been realllyyyy, really good lately. i'm feeling so good in my body. dysphoria is a constant that i have to live with, yeah, that's true, and i'm working towards pursuing things that will lessen it. but overall-feeling my feminine oats lately! the outfits are outfit-ing! the hair is hair-ing! the confidence is confidence-ing!
— and my space is feeling so good, as well. you guys, like…i haven't had a spacious, well-curated home in a minute.
— when i was in topanga in 2024-some of y'all might remember-i was living in a SHOEBOX. a beautiful shoebox with a stunning green bathroom and a brick patio and a celestial oak tree, but like-when your bed is 2 feet from your desk and 5 from your kitchen…it's hard to feel good being at home all day. and for the first 6 months of 2025, i was in sublets on the eastside after moving out of topanga, zeroing in on buying property. and even when i moved to my triplex last summer, i seriously didn't have furniture until this january. i'm so happy to report things feel SO much better now, living in unit 3 at the silver laurel. granted, it's not my first preference to live somewhere that a past owner stripped of midcentury charm and added orange floors and 90s/2000s finishes, but it's a choice i made. when i bought my triplex, i actively planned to renovate units 1 & 2 + the outside, rent them out, move into unit 3 and live in there as is for a few years, and then restore her when i've saved up more down the line.
— regardless though!! the good vibes are actually vibing. i've been making super low-cost changes that are delivering high impact-axing old ceiling fans, adding track curtains/occasional new fixtures, and furnishing up the wazoo. i have a giant couch and a bevy of houseplants and actually kind of insanely good lighting through soft linen curtains. it feels very much representative of the state of my 20s i'm in: warm, earthy, mature, imperfect.
— and add to those two pros (gender slaying + house slaying), community is also in full bloom! many a good friend hang - valentine's weekend which i told you about, but also movie nights, soup gatherings, lunar new year celebrations, and family time. like….wow.
— i think about the sam of two years ago, living by myself in topanga, a thimble of one, or the sam of three years ago, barely two months on estrogen with a faucet of questions and worries and no answers at all. i wish i could tell those sam's of my past lives that yes, everything is gonna be OK!! life is gonna get really good! so yeah, that's pretty much been the personal vibes as of late.
— the real estate market has been in a similar upswing. things are waking up! houses are appearing! i was just telling a client today, i haven't had this many client tours lined up since maybe october of last year. this is pretty characteristic of the market here in LA+CA: the busy spring season. interest rates are coasting around 6% (a longtime low!) and folks are tied of waiting them out to go any lower. which means…bidding wars! it's market-dependent, for sure (IE topanga isn't really bidding war vibes right now) but the eastside certainly is. when you're buying, it's so important to consider the dynamics of the submarkets you're looking in, and to watch them over a period of days and months, to really give yourself engrained knowledge. but that's also what you have an agent for :)
— in terms of what's coming up … continually on the hunt with my slew of buyers. prepping houses to launch (++a v special topanga listing i'm going to keep teasing because it's fabulous!). always searching for the best houses in CA. below you'll find some favorites on the market in LA (so many good ones!!!!)
— if you're considering buying or selling in LA or NorCal in 2026,
message me here.— if you're looking to buy a wood house elsewhere in CA + the US, there's a good chance i can refer you to an agent in your city. referrals are a great way to support me. whenever i send a client to one of my cool out-of-area agent friends, i actually receive a portion of that commission! and like most things in life, a recommendation from a friend is the way to go. if that's you, respond to this email and i'd be happy to connect you.
— talk to you soon, and sending love.
xx,
sam
