Our story
A small collection, lived in.
Chris and Anne keep a handful of houses and spend real time in all of them. Family stays here, friends stay here, work gets done here, and dinner runs long.
Now
We stay in them too
We cook in these houses, work in them, and bring family and friends to them. We notice the door that sticks and the chair nobody sits in, because we are the ones sitting there.
A house tells you what it needs if you are in it often enough.
Where it began
A standard set early
Stay Close came first: a 1935 cottage at Wrightsville Beach that Chris's father, a master carpenter, restored with the family. It is still a family house. Chris's mother owns it, and Chris runs the rental with his sisters. Laura, in Wrightsville Beach, manages it day to day.
That work set the standard the rest of the collection is measured against: care for what is already there, then make it better.
Creative life
Things get made here
Musicians, writers, photographers and other makers have spent time in these houses. Songs and albums have been written and recorded in them. Photographs taken at Mill Creek have ended up on album covers.
That is not a programme. It is what happens in good rooms when nobody is in a hurry.
Around the houses
Music, writing, and gathering
Chris and Anne run Analog Reunion, a music festival in Sonoma County. Much of their life sits around music, writing, and getting people together, and a good deal of it happens in these houses.
Chris wrote a book, Analog: How to Love Your Work, and Not Wait for Retirement to Live the Good Life — about attention, craft, gathering, and keeping the things that have soul. The same instincts show up in how these places are looked after.
Care, close to home
The people who keep the lights on
Every house is looked after by people who know it well, live nearby, and are there long before and after a stay.
Armando and Maricella
Casa del Arte · Todos Santos
Care for the compound, the gardens, and the guests who arrive.
Doreen
Cosmico · Mill Creek, Healdsburg
Looks after the cabin and the creekside.
Laura
Stay Close · Wrightsville Beach
Property manager for the cottage, and a familiar face on the street.
A small number of distinctive places
This is not a portfolio or a marketplace. It is a few particular houses, looked after by people we trust, kept so that guests walk in and feel at home.