The King’s Ranch Origin Story

Sean had always dreamed of owning a large swath of land, preferably forested. I, having grown up watching This Old House on PBS, thought about restoring her own dilapidated historic home one day…

We had developed remodeling experience over a decade’s time working on various single family home projects, but nothing near the extent of a full gut and rebuild, and certainly nothing on a sizable piece of land that needed to be managed.

Just for fun, Sean would periodically check listings for vacant land in Sonoma County, CA two counties north of where he and his family resides. Years past, until one day he came up on a listing that was rather intriguing. But, the price was no where near affordable. Months passed, the price dropped and dropped again, and all of a sudden it was within reach. The land was most appealing for him, and for me the 1930 farmstead that needed a LOT of love called out. Our dream was to build a retreat house and campground, something comfortable and attractive to families. A pool, sleeping porch, land to run around and affordable for people via a work trade program. Once we discovered the website created by the listing agent, we knew this place was for us. “This offering would be ideal for a family that wanted to develop a retreat compound to bring everyone together and have private solitude and nature to help make life memories.” I mean COME ON!!!!

We drove up to the site once before putting in an offer. Indeed, the hot mess of a house spoke to me and the stands of redwood trees and mature oaks beckoned as they creaked ever so gently in the breeze. We had to give it a shot.

Through some very convoluted, yet God-ordained, financing we were able to put in an offer at less than half of the original listing price, and they took it. 132 acres atop King Ridge was ours. We closed the sale on September 14, 2023: the feast of the Exhaltation of the Holy Cross. This was, yet again, a God Project (tm).