from the editor

Fall back into a different pace

FALL. It is a wonderful and exciting time to live in Southern California.

Although it begins subtly, with a shift of a few degrees in the morning and through the night, there can be no mistaking its arrival.

Balmy coolness day-by-day slides under the hot air that bakes us in the summer, forces us into the shade and seemingly welds water bottles into our hands.

No, autumn is a different beast. It is gentle. It holds a promise of change — a word that’s been bandied about these days — as it renews prized traditions we cherish.

College football has returned with the energy and enthusiasm that catches us up in its excitement. Schools are in session.

The heavier calendar of the season — and with it a chance to connect more closely with our social communities — promises opportunities to sip a glass of wine while supporting charitable endeavors.

Even the garden beckons. It is time to gather in the shambles of the used summer crops as we pluck the last tomatoes from the vine and move forward to planting carrots, spinach and other hardy standards sure to thrive during the cooler season.

In it all, there is change. In it all, there is the familiar. In it all, there is home.

And with the activity of these days, we want to come home, to steal a phrase, to a clean, comfortable and well-lit place. We look to define and refine our lives and the spaces we live in to make them more welcoming, less complex, more comfortable.

So with this issue, we offer our suggestions and research to make your home more like what you want it to be: ideas to improve your living space, simple suggestions on how to recover problem rooms, alternative ideas for financing, a strategy for avoiding the nightmare remodel and even a look at an historic home now being restored.

We also caught up with Linda Rouyer and Sherry Powell of Saffron, to explore what the owners of this favorite restaurant that moved from the Guasti Mansion to a new home in Riverside are up to now. (By the way, they are working to bring their fare back to the west Inland Valley soon.) And we invited our favorite wine steward, Gino L. Filippi, to explore obscure but flavorful varietals for the season in this month’s issue.

There is much more to find inside, but we will let you explore it at your own pace.

We hope it offers some of the fun of living here in our Inland Empire home, where change is just around the corner every day.

Don Sproul don@inlandlivingmagazine.com (909) 386-3899