SoCal writer’s retreat: studio/home share on 1/4 acre property with views

Description

You will be renting the spacious ground-floor main BR of a 5BR, owner-occupied home in a quiet suburb bordering wild space. A private entrance at the back of the house is accessible through a gated side yard. The room is over 400 sq ft, with vaulted ceilings and southwest-facing windows and French doors with expansive views of the surrounding hills, amazing sunsets, and the Santa Monica mountains in the far distance. Furnishings include a comfortable king bed, Danish teak dressers, a writing desk, a few chairs, and a kitchenette tucked into one corner (fridge, microwave, toaster oven, electric kettle). The en suite BA has a double vanity, large tub, and a separate white tile shower. Extra amenities include a smart tv with paid subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon prime, an overhead fan with remote, blackout curtains, and a variety of pillows, blankets, and comforters to choose from. French doors open out from your room onto a back patio with multiple seating areas and a beautiful drought-tolerant upper yard with roses, garden beds, and a small pond. Paths lead down either side of the back hill, where you'll find more garden beds and a variety of fruit trees, including peach, pear, lemon, persimmon, fig, apples, oranges, guavas, and a gnarly old grape vine that looks spent during the winter months but magically leafs out each summer to provide shade for a large picnic table. This rental is ideal if you’re looking for a peaceful quiet retreat space where you can focus on writing and research, and/or if you’ve been longing to get away from your usual haunts to slow down, relax, recenter yourself, and rejuvenate. Come to sunny SoCal and unwind in the company of nature’s beauty and bounty! The real gift of this location is that, while you can choose to stay put and feel transported far from the madding crowd, you're also just an hour's drive from downtown LA and everything it has to offer (depending on the time of day and the traffic, of course!), with nearly endless cultural and recreational opportunities within easy reach. From here, Hollywood and Malibu are each about a half an hour's drive away. In 45 minutes you can get to UCLA, Pasadena/Cal Tech, the Getty Museum, or the old-school beach city of Ventura. The archives and galleries of the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens are an hour’s drive straight east; Santa Barbara is an hour's drive to the north along an especially spectacular stretch of coastline. Your housemates include the homeowner, an LGBTQ humanities professor at a small private university nearby, and an adult renter who occupies the “upstairs flat” and shares use of the kitchen, dining area, and laundry. We’re both friendly, low-key, and pretty quiet; we sometimes share meals, but not always, and we’re open to whatever degree you want to engage with us and be part of our household. You’ll have access to the kitchen, living room, and laundry as much as you want or need them, but you’re welcome to keep to yourself as much as you’d like. Outdoors, you’ll want to navigate with a bit of care among the tools, bricks/boards, pots, hoses, etc. that accompany yard and garden projects in various states; if you enjoy gardening, just check in about what the current needs are, and you’re welcome to pitch in! If this sounds to you like a promising environment in which to spend part of all of your sabbatical, either getting focused & getting your work done, or unwinding to get your energy & groove back, please reach out! I envision this as an ideal situation for one person, especially for a longer-term stay, but I’m willing to consider renting to a couple for an additional cost, if it seems like a good fit. The cats would ask that you be cat-positive and cat-allergy-negative; I’m not inclined to take on additional pets at this time, or to include children in the mix. (A few more photos are imminent…)

Private Space Offered