We know how to tell a good house from a great house–by how long our friends linger at the front door on the way out.
It’s hard to walk away from places that feel like home. And for those of us at cityhome who have assisted along the way, this house has been home in the making for a long while. We had the opportunity to help pair our clients with this gem, as well as partner with them to renovate the space. What a joy to see folks make a place their own.
I took a couple friends/colleagues over to walk the space and show the significant changes that make all the difference. The most significant change perhaps was opening the floor plan by removing walls that blocked the scene out the back of the home. To maximize the view, the entire back wall of the house flows open with two massive accordion doors that welcome us out to the deck for mountain and city views. The island anchors the space, the wooden lid above creates a cozy feel and the original fireplace reminds us of what is worth keeping in life, the warmth. Next time we have friends over, and they linger, let’s remember why we remodel our houses, why we work to keep them clean and healthy.
Because even when our friends say goodbye, the less they want to go, the more we wanna stay.
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There’s a reason why so many wisdom traditions encourage us to find ourselves and our talents. The simple truth is, this life experience is difficult at times. To say the least. And those that know a thing or two about living know one thing for certain, and I agree.
We need each other.
To get to the good stuff, our talents, our creativity and our offerings, we gotta dig down deep. Sometimes our treasure is hidden underneath a mountain of rocks. Struggles and conditioning and fog can hide the best parts of ourselves. But, the work each one of us does to shovel out the bullshit tends to be worth it when we uncover the parts of ourselves that are innate, simple and beautiful. The gift of community comes from personally knowing what it takes to free ourselves and our talents because when we find each other shining, and sharing these uncovered gifts, we celebrate each other. It’s a big deal when we let out our truth and our joy. What other response is there but appreciation when we ourselves know the depths we go to in order to express ourselves fully. This is how a community is built. One courageous human being fully free at a time and celebrating the unique expression of others. I applaud every individual who gives themselves to themselves, and to each other. It’s what makes us.
Our dear cityhome friends, Kera and Omar, are sharing their beauty with us weekly for the rest of the summer. Two fantastic folks in our sweet town giving themselves to our world. Come join us on Saturdays for yoga with Kera and some nourishment from Rawtopia owner/founder Omar. Life is better when we do it together. Movement and juice mixed with love and music is my kinda Saturday. We move our bodies at 10:00am in our cityhomeUNDERGROUND then wander to the front lawn for hang time and fresh juice.
Welcome home, to you.
I often find myself in conversation talking about what it means to have a simple life. And what a beautiful space to spend time with my friends who happen to be cityhome colleagues talking about the same. Annie, Kelly and I chatted at The Maryland building about our clients, ourselves and the consensus that no matter where we find ourselves living, the aim to be less complicated, less occupied with things that take us out of our enjoyment of life, matters. A lot. I find that many of us have realized over the years that what we are striving for in our living environments is also what we are striving for in our overall way of being. That perhaps more is not better, that quality over quantity in friendship, clients, and home, all stem from a realization that…
in order to know how to live well, we actually have to know ourselves well.
What it means to live a simple life is not one size fits all, but there are a few underlying truths in my experience. When we know what lights us up, we can prioritize that in our house. If we enjoy reading or writing, can the tiny nook become a sacred space for penning letters. Or can the books be filled floor to ceiling so that all other activities need to find a new space. Can our life be contemplative enough that we know what our needs are in the home and can we cultivate enough self respect and care that we make changes to our living environment that supports and honors who we are becoming and who we truly know ourselves to be?
Free thinkers everywhere are asking real questions about what actually makes us happy.
When it comes to the space at The Maryland, we saw simplicity everywhere. Not too many rooms, the right allocation of space for public enjoyment and quiet privacy. We saw intelligent design and quality galore. We saw attention to detail and spacious volume in the layout and the design. We saw ourselves already living in more integrity, the way one does when we architect our lives mindfully and meaningfully. Satisfaction that does not come from more consumption, but instead, from more appreciation for what we have. To bask in the beauty and the sturdy structure of our bodies, our brains, our families, and our friends.
To live simply, might just mean we love more, and let more of what is not that go to the next highest bidder.
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I believe that art has the power to change us in a million ways. In as many ways as we the viewer are diverse, really. There are layers of conversation, levels of introspection and so on. But in my opinion the most profound way that art works is in the catharsis that takes place when we get the heart, mind, body, intention, essence of the artist that is in the painting on us, and in us. There is an act of communion that takes place when we partake of the person in the canvas, and the paint. Benny is a friend of mine. So I can say with full confidence that where he creates from, is a gift that we want on us.
“I use all available tools: brushes, rubber brushes, palette knives, etc. I build my work contemplating shape, form, color, and line. I am a gestural mark maker and I respond to the previous marks in successive layers, in an attempt to create visceral dynamic abstracts”
So where do the layers and the colors and the construction come from, aside from the depth of his beautiful soul?
“I love people, problem solving, and mark making.”
“My work is a result of my life experiences, I am a graffiti artist/painter first, and a trained artist with a degree second. My life revolves around creating work. Growing up my parents always supported and encouraged art making, my father worked as a builder/contractor, my mother did interior design, and grandmother was a painter. These skill sets influenced my fascination with problem solving, respect for material sensibility, and a love of mark making. With limited access to toys and unlimited access to tools and materials around the house, I began exploring art making and fabricating at a young age.”
It’s no wonder Benny has made friends all over the world and all over this town, educated with a degree in Intermedia Sculpture from the University of Utah, his real studies came from painting graffiti, graffiti style murals, and painting in all mediums for the past 25 years.
“I have great respect for the Graffiti subculture, and my family and friends that thrive in this Arcane Arena.”
Well, friend, thanks for letting yourself out into the world and thank you for giving yourself to the art on the walls for your show in our cityhomeUNDERGROUND. We are all looking forward to feeling you in our space and sharing your goodness with all the folks who are gonna get up in the face of all this bright ass paint.
exhibition opening May 19th 6:00-9:00pm | cityhomeunderground 645 E south temple
Honoring the talent and the taste of the past while enthusiastically looking forward is one of the reasons I got into real estate and design. I love houses, yes, but mostly I love the people that make them. I find it fascinating to see homes and people in transition. To look back on a house and love the designs of the homeowners and their architects and to see how beautifully they were made and how they stood the test of time and trends is a gift. And then to see who moves in (with their own personalities and dreams) is something not everyone gets to see as often as we do.
To assist, guide and witness these life changes is such an honor.
This particular house was built in 1990 and designed by Babcock Pace, now Babcock Design, for a couple who knew how to live. Views for days upon entering the home lead to living spaces lit by a fireplace in almost every room. To be in well-designed contemporary houses reminds me of how good they are at holding space for multiple generations. Clean design tends to leave room for people to express themselves uniquely within the walls.
We found ourselves loving the artwork and furniture on this tour.
We mixed right in while we watched the snow fall, spoke about our favorite pieces, laughed, listened to music and made peace with change. Because at the end of the day, I remembered an important lesson: good people and good houses like this one teach us that no matter how great the history of a place is or how fun it is to dream about its future, neither are more important than what they offer right now.
I think this is why I love seeing houses and people transition-
new owners, new designs, nostalgic people, beautiful memories, we see so much outside and inside the walls of the homes we represent. The real gift they give us is to be right here. To really be present, to look out the windows, to feel the people we get to be with in our homes and to enjoy living. In a world always changing, what a gift our houses give us when we just get to cozy up, together, present, and calm.
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We have been ‘qigong’-ing with Scott every week since the beginning of the year. I have to say it is honestly one of the highlights of my week. Close to fifteen years ago we implemented a little cityhomeWELLNESS program where we had our friend Chase at Vitality lead a class for our clients and colleagues. Over the years our resolve to both be well in body and well in home has only strengthened. I know the better we are in our health, the better we are in our homes. So, we gather as a COLLECTIVE every Thursday morning to move with Scott and the most meaningful review I could give him is that I feel different when we are done – more calm, balanced and alert. To move in community with purpose, in a container that feels free of ego and agenda, is all I could ask for when it comes to ritualizing beginning to the spring equinox. I’ll be there Scott, with spring bells on.
Self Care is Health Care.
I think leaving houses is an opportunity to leave behind parts of ourselves that we are ready to leave and to gather up parts of ourselves that we have become. Homes change us as much as we change homes. We know this from personal experience. Of course we live our lives and we grow, and so often we think of this growth independently of the walls that hold us. We are living breathing beings, getting ourselves on and in the places we spend our time, and those places are giving themselves to us too.
Every time I guide folks during transitions from one place to another, I am reminded of the importance of our intentional house goodbyes. I sat down with Paige, a therapist friend of mine, who teaches a conscious community series for our colleagues at cityhome. I wanted to get her take on the pointers I offer clients when they are heading out of spaces like this Maryland unit. My neighbor Celesta is leaving this place after a long love affair with the building and way of life, which we both hold and honor. The simplest offering I have for folks is to spend time in every room leading up to the move-out date. Take time to remember who you’ve loved in those spaces and how you were held, witnessed and seen. And to return the favor, recognize the gift of shelter offered by your house. Say thanks to the objects that gave you the gift of living. We can wonder what it took to craft and carve the woodwork, to paint the paintings, to design the wallpaper all done by folks we know and those we will never know – wonder what trees took new shapes to shelter us, who photographed the images on the covers of our coffee table books, who made the incense, who fixed the plumbing? What held us when our hearts broke and who are we now that we remember our ability to mend our wounds? Who laughed with us here, who have we become?
How do we honor the home we are now and sincerely say goodbye to the one we’ve lived in?
After welcoming Paige into this process of moving on that I personally hold dear and offer to my people, she mentioned a time when she offered her home of many years a, “brave goodbye”. What a term. I love the idea of saying goodbye bravely. We can all relate to the bravery it takes to lovingly leave a place even when the circumstances may be difficult. Oftentimes we are ready to leave a home as in the case of my client Celesta, but oftentimes we are not. Some folks are transferred for work, lose loved ones or jobs. It is in both the good times and the bad that we can deliberately and consciously walk out the doors of our homes for the last time. And only we know when we are ready for that walk. When we leave our thinking mind and drop into our knowing body, we can move on. Saying goodbye in this way also feels like the right kind of closure to give the next inhabitants. Paige and I also talked about leaving every space and everything better than we found it,
a clean-closed chapter may just be the best way to invite the next folks to open theirs.
So as we hold this tension, of both how much we love and honor our homes and how real it is that we are not our homes, can we choose to walk away with an important embodied truth – that we are different every time we move on, but we are also very much the same. As we recognize ourselves as the homes we take with us, my desire and hope is that we all remember the growth, the rituals, the morning routines, the love, the lessons and that we can let go of everything that is no longer us, making room to move forward with everything we know we are.
“I will miss this place. But mostly, I am eager to pass the baton to someone else longing to call it home. To someone else looking for respite in its warm embrace. May you also find HOME.” – Celesta
Thank you neighbor, for being a good example of a brave goodbye.
We heard about the passing of a great Utah architect, Dee Wilson this past week. His personal residence is one of the most beautifully, compact, intentional, and balanced homes we have ever featured over the years. When the scale of a home is not too big, not too small, and just the right amount of thought, concrete and glass, filled with good art and loving pets, well, I’d call it a masterpiece.
Dee graduated with a BFA from the University of Utah and completed his postgraduate work at Wilson-Smith University. We are glad he came home to Utah to create. In The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard simply states, “Come what may the house helps us to say: I will be an inhabitant of the world, in spite of the world…A house that has been experienced is not an inert box. Inhabited space transcends geometrical space.”
Thanks for letting us experience your space, both in and outside the box you called your home.
Be well wherever you are Dee.
We showed you how to live that mid-mod life inside the Springville Museum of Art a few months ago. Thank you to the museum crew for that lovely invitation to create a home within your home. The Conversations we had with so many great patrons of the arts that evening inspired us to continue the conversation together. How the hell do we live well these days, both in our homes and in our bodies? And how do we do it authentically? Well, we believe there are some tips that we can lean into together, straight out of the living guidance of well designed homes, especially mid-century ones. We will gather up family style and talk in the presence of some great art, furniture and humans. Real talk. Beyond the real estate and the art, is home.
Join us for a conversation with Cody Derrick and Kelly Carper of cityhomeCOLLECTIVE on design philosophies for authentic living, mid-century edition.
Save the evening of February 8th | Located at the Springville Museum of Art | 126 E 400 S Springville
In my direct experience, I have known from a young age that the spaces we inhabit shape us.
Over the last few decades my perspective has broadened from how important it is to care for our interiors and our properties, to a robust understanding of how the very elements the homes themselves are made of, impact us. How we intend to live is what influences how we live, and is not separate from the elements beyond us that mold our space. One of the biggest influences our designs and habitats can have is created by the people we invite into our homes – the people who help us adorn them, create them, and infuse them with their knowledge and insight. That being the case, when I chose my architects to collaborate with, Sparano and Mooney were the obvious marriage of my heart’s desire, to their love of their craft. Over the years, I have had a visceral experience in their personal home and the sacred structures that they’ve designed. As world renowned experts, they helped me stay true to my vision on how I wanted this space to shape my life and how important it was that it be able to be shaped by and shape others, as well. Kudos to us all, the sanctuary that this home has become is well beyond me and I think when it comes to good architecture, that’s how it should be. We got a little press about it and that’s always fun too. Shout out to the artists, the makers, the architects, the friends, the gardeners, the welders and everyone in between.
