// the mood & vibes this week
— hi, friends :) writing this to you from the tulip table in my kitchen nook at the silver laurel. my two close homies, juliet & maddie, are over for a coworking session. it's a cool 89 degrees out, lol, oxymoron hello! in march no less…if that isn't a climate change harbinger then i don't know what is.
— in my last writing to you, i wrote about how things have been really, really good lately. community, gender, space, and work is all blooming. happy to report this is still true. i'm experiencing a kind of steadiness that is really soothing to the soul. i had so many moons of moving every season, whether it was college at UCLA or in the years after. and even if this place, this triplex in the city isn't perfect-i'm not yet in a wood house in the great wilds of california-i'm still finding joy in being with exactly this version of me. exactly where she is now. because oh my gosh i'm actually having so much fun living in the here and now! and watching the confidence and fulfillment that blooms when you build a full life where you're at. and i'm realizing that this kind of autonomy is…contextually and culturally new.
— i'm the first woman in my line that is just expected to be…me. there were so many expectations on my mother and her mother and her mother's mother that were steeped in patriarchy. expectations about how they'd live their lives, and what north star they'd point themselves towards - expectations to marry, to have kids, to sacrifice oneself in serving others. don't get me wrong, i have incredibly brave and badass women in my family-it's just, the culture is so different now than it was then. heck, it was only the 70s that women could get mortgages by themselves! it's a whole new world out here.
— my girlfriends and i talk about this, a lot. the newness of our freedom. and deconstructing expectations that were passed down. mainly, realizing that we have everything we need right here-in the palm of our hands, in the quiet hum of community. that partnership doesn't define us. neither does male validation. or anything else besides the values and benchmarks that sap up from deep within. any baggage that isn't from us we're learning to put down, to step into the bloom of our new lives. and i think that's just freaking beautiful!
— don't get me wrong, i'm making strides towards de-centering external validation, but i'm not anywhere close to letting it go. it's an odd mix of enjoying these things i do in my life, but knowing that i'm not entirely doing them just for myself. i still spend hours in the shower every week-nixing every hair south of my eyebrows-polishing my skin to a halo sheen. i still pick out clothing that shows exactly where the lines of my body begin and end. i still seek out that opposite-gender affirmation. but lately-with the buoyancy of my community and my full life-filling my days helping the coolest people i know find houses just as cool as them-spending my evenings with my friends in bars and theaters and parks-the tide is changing. it's hard to explain, but i'm just feeling…freer. i just give less of a f*ck! and am finding confidence rooted in a firmer, stronger core sense of self and worth. leaning into and really FEELING my own beauty, even if yeah, it would be sweeter shared. i think that's all we can do, right. plant roots where we are. nurture ourselves the best we can, in the environment we're in.
— it's what i tell my clients, too. no house is perfect. there will always be something. but in order to get somewhere, you've gotta take that first step. you've gotta plant now if you want a tree later! clunky analogy but it's true! you've gotta get real low. real quiet. and ask yourself-is this right? how do we make this right? what would make this right?
— it's those questions that lead you down a path towards a future you that's where you wanna be. and the truest answers may be farther along that path then you'd like. but what a waste to not even start walking! or to drag your feet! i don't know about you, but i'd rather walk with my head high-rather laugh and sing and skip and look at the stars overhead on my way to where i want to be-to that life someday.
— the life where i'm fully realized in my ~divine feminine~ … where the insides finally, fully match the outsides. the life where i'm posted up on some wild parcel of land in california-whether it be norcal or socal. the lady of some vineyard or a salmon-creek-farm-esque compound. to have orchards and gardens and a giant 70s midcentury ranch house in the middle of it all. a ranch where i get married on the back patio overlooking the grapes, just like my mother did at my grandmother's house. to raise three kiddo's in the meadows-not because someone pressured me to have them but because, against all biological odds, i want to be a mother. to feel like i'm doing all of this while at my zenith of career & love & family. i know i'll get there, to that future version of me and a thousand other glimmering variations, but i want to enjoy THIS version. THIS season of life, girlbossing in the city, with so much freedom, so many wins, and so much to figure out. that's what i'm working on lately.
— and speaking of that kind of live-wire energy…that's very much the real estate market in LA these days. awake and aflutter with the spring bloom. everyone's out and about, searching for that next stepping stone in their journeys. it's refreshing to see such an uptick in activity, even if slightly stressful for my buyers-because there truly are just so many more good houses coming on the market. unforch, this means bidding wars are back. this of course is location dependent-what is true for topanga isn't necessarily true for the eastside-but the sun is definitely up in our market. it's been so fun to hang out with my exceptionally cool buyer clients and just test-drive different versions of what their life could look like. it's also been just as much fun to prep my new listing. we're putting in some new landscaping, dotting our i's and crossing t's. i really can't say much but you'll have her in literally a month. wood house of the highest order. ahhhh!!!
— in terms of what's coming up … continually on the hunt with my slew of buyers. prepping houses to launch. 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
