I grew up in a place that was quickly disappearing, deep in the rural South. Amongst the cotton fields were the occasional yet frequent abandoned house. Paint peeling, windows broken. As we passed them on the way to the grocery store or to school in the days before smart phones, I amused myself by imagining what they were once like, long ago.
When I moved to Croatia some years later, I would do the same on trips to the coast – imagining restoring a little stone fisherman’s house long left empty or transforming the local doctor’s office – in a once grand villa that was decaying – into something stunning.
I’ve moved a lot and it hasn’t bothered me most of the times. Most of the times I have enjoyed making each place into a home, searching for solutions to various dilemmas each house posed.
As for houses, I don’t judge. I just love.
My husband is fortunately of the same mind and in addition he put himself through college as an electrician and a general contractor. And his dad was an architect. Doesn’t hurt when you have a soft spot for abandoned houses.
I’d like to brag that saving a house is the sustainable choice. And it is. And I do care about that.
But really for me, if I’m honest, it’s about saving its soul. I feel like they are people, very generous people who offer us shelter from the elements or sometimes just a really bad day. I’ve heard that is very Japanese.
So I guess somehow that love and that mindset brought us to the perfect house for us. We fell in love instantly with what I never thought I find in the crazy market that is the Bay Area – an abandoned house. A very Japanese, partly mid-century modern house with four bars. Yes, we like to throw parties.
This is our journey and I hope to inspire others to love their homes, not tear them apart.
Shann Fo
untain Alipour has worked as entrepreneur and as an author, writing for Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Hemispheres, Four Seasons Hotels Magazine, and many more. She has also written two travel guides on Croatia and Slovenia for Moon Guides.
These days she works with her husband at Oliso and spends her spare time on the house and garden.
She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, three children, and various animals including a pair of raccoons who just won’t leave the premises.