Spanish Revolution

A historical charmer in Sacramento gets a DIY revival .

- Joanna Linberg

On the spectrum of real estate heartaches, falling for something that’s not on the market is a tough one. Kele and Christina Dobrinski were in the middle of a house hunt in the San Francisco Bay Area when they found themselves in Sacramento touring someone else’s newly acquired 1930s Spanish Colonial Revival. “We didn’t say anything while we were walking through it,” Christina says. “But we were definitely elbowing and eyeballing one another.”

Feeling they could talk the new owner into letting it go, Kele picked up the phone: “Hi, Dad.” Kele’s father—a general contractor who had purchased the house as a flip with Kele’s mother—not only agreed to sell but signed up for a major remodel too. “Looking back, I think that was his plan all along,” Kele says.

The move came as a surprise to the couple. After years of apartment dwelling in San Francisco, they were ready for something with outdoor space (preferably in Oakland) for their growing family— which today includes Jack, 5, Wyatt, 2, and newborn Adler. “If you’d told me anytime during the last 10-plus years that we would be living in Sacramento, I would have said, ‘No way,’ ” Christina insists.