All Natives!
13.07.2024 - 04:08 / sunset.com
When Blythe Friedmann made the decision to move out of her stately Edwardian home in San Francisco’s eclectic Mission neighborhood, she had only one serious criterion: It had to be the opposite of the house she’d lived in for 15 years. That meant no tall, walnut wainscoting, dimly lit rooms, or closets full of memories. The interior designer and art therapist was preparing for her life as a new mother. And she wanted the proximity of suburban living without any of its inherent blandness.
“I was thinking and thinking, and then I just woke up one morning, and it was this intuitive knowing. I wanted to try to buy a houseboat,” she says.
Thomas J. Story
Friedmann hadn’t thought much about the famous floating communities that fill the snug harbors around Sausalito since she visited a friend from graduate school who lived in one over two decades ago. But when she saw a listing for a dated floating home in a quirky neighborhood on the Bay, she knew instantly that she’d found her place.
Thomas J. Story
“The boat where Shel Silverstein lived, the Evil Eye, is just two slips away,” she says. “This is literally Where the Sidewalk Ends. It’s a very tight-knit group of people of all ages, from their 20s to their 80s. I was really drawn to the bohemian, slightly weird community.”
Thomas J. Story
Transitioning from a traditional, somewhat masculine house that she’d always occupied with a partner or a roommate to a four-level, 1,400-square-foot boat with her little girl, Goldie, required a comprehensive purge, both of bulky furniture and old ideas.
Thomas J. Story
“I got rid of almost everything except for art and a few beloved collectibles, and it felt so good,” she says. “When I design things for my clients, I think about where they’re coming
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