As fall brightens our county with pumpkins on menus and doorsteps, kids testing out costumes weeks before Halloween and sport fields filled with colorful uniforms, we can all take a moment to enjoy the calm before the holiday storm. We hope you can find a quiet place to dive into this month’s issue, where you’ll find Spaces, offering inspiring homes, including the McGovern family’s Sonoma gathering place. Sounds like they had a solid team to create a dreamy compound to enjoy with extended family and friends. Again, proving that the right team of architects and builders can ease the stress.
Reading their story, I could relate to their hesitancy to start a new construction project after just completing their home in Larkspur. I’m not sure if there is anything that brings as many emotional highs and lows as a remodel. The high of falling in love with Serena & Lily wallpaper, finding a gate made of railroad ties on 1stdibs.com and the smell of fresh paint signaling the end, contrasted with the heartbreak of not passing inspections, bringing your neighbors to the brink of insanity (due to all the construction activity), all while trying to manage a team of people who can blame each other for anything that goes wrong.
As a chronic people pleaser, I should never try to manage a project. Lesson learned. I do want to compile a book of essays titled, “It Can Go Wrong: Ten Very Expensive Home Construction Woes”. The book idea was inspired by a lunch with my mother-in-law, where she reminded me of the entirely new foundation they had to add to their home in Kentfield, an issue missed by the inspector years earlier when they purchased the house. Bam! Suddenly I felt better. Maybe the book could just be called “Misery Loves Construction”.
A more important topic in this issue, Kirsten Jones Neff talks to our county’s fire department about what they are doing about the alarming number of cancer cases amongst their ranks. Sadly, the focus of this article is on my dear friend, Rick Addicks, who left us way too early. Ironically, Rick used to get teased in the fire department when he and his family were mentioned in this magazine. As our best friends, they were easy targets for me whenever I needed a quote, or subject for an article. My favorite was when I needed a photo of a family having a good time at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and I remembered a perfect photo on their fridge. Don’t worry, despite his expression of fear, their son Casey is thriving as a sophomore at USC.
Rick’s diagnosis of stage 4 esophageal cancer shocked us all, and the profound sadness of not seeing his smirk, hearing his laugh or seeing him roll his eyes, as his wife Kristin ignored him, this holiday season will be felt by many. Could he have caught it earlier? Hard to say, but either way, his passing has ignited a call for cancer screenings amongst our county’s firefighters, which will hopefully result in early detections and saved lives.
Looking towards a long-term solution, Assembly member Damon Connolly and State Senator Mike McGuire, are advocates for AB 2408, a law that would hold manufacturers accountable for toxic materials, and in the short term, more diligent pre-screening and testing is being advised. The men and women who are there to protect us during our worst moments need to be cared for — by us, as well.
