Open Homes Photography for Sotheby’s International Realty; Christian Rose/Roger Viollet via Getty Images; Rick Diamond/Getty Images
While heading to the grocery store back in 2014, Samantha Lyman spotted an enticing residence for sale in the charming Marin County town of San Anselmo, about 14 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The retired interior designer toured the run-down structure and discovered immense potential. After rushing home to tell her husband, advertising creative director turned consultant Douglas Penman, the couple promptly sold their place in the nearby community of Ross and bought the circa 1906 property, known as The Church, for $950,000.
“It was sort of falling down and decrepit-looking, but it was still magnificent,” Lyman told Mansion Global. “I’d been an open house junkie, so I pulled over and walked through. Then I went to go get my groceries, and I came back to my husband and said, ‘I got us some milk and a church.'”
A variance was granted to allow the new steeple to match the height of the original.
Open Homes Photography for Sotheby’s International Realty
