After spending so much time home together in 2020 we started asking ourselves if we were where we would be most fulfilled. Sure, the Smoky Mountains were beautiful and the folks around us were kind and friendly, still we were rather isolated. We love each other’s company, but began asking ourselves what we wanted each day to look like. I guess we were feeling lonely and wished to have more people around us to share our lives. We made the decision to list the BearCamp for sale and to our surprise it sold on the first day. After a complete and total panic attack when I realized there was no turning back I settled into the idea that it was the right move.

We loaded everything we felt worth keeping into what I considered a rather small shipping container to represent my 50+ years on earth. We paused for one last photo next to the BearCamp sign, and with heavy hearts, we set out leaving our mountain behind forever. One last drive down the windy country road along Ellijay Creek and out to the 4-lane.

As Liam drove us up and over the Nantahala Mountains I knew I would miss the lush, misty, cool, greenness of my country home. While we drove cross-country I was rather numb with sentimentality. By the time we were crossing Arizona I saw the sun setting on the desert. I didn’t see a dry, brown, lifeless landscape. It was so vast and open and free. It felt spiritual and I was overtaken by a sense of peace and calm that this was the right move and direction for our lives.

California, as the rest of the country, was experiencing a feeding frenzy in the housing market. We had been buried under competing offers and houses were selling in days forcing us to buy a home sight-unseen. After a dozen offers and no luck we reconsidered a home we had initially turned our noses up at during the first video tour with our realtor.

This poor house was getting no love and had sat on a hot market for almost two months. It had never even been lived in except for two weeks a year during season, until the husband passed away and the wife, who hated the desert, left never to return. With the sprinklers turned off and the landscaping brittle the house sat naked. All its original paint worn off by the desert sun exposing its raw pink stucco. We decided to take a second look at this poor unloved little gem to decide if a “gay touch” could revive it. We ended up making a great deal under market value.

A few months later under a new paint job and some landscaping Casa De Angell was born. No longer a sad, neglected, forgotten house, but a lovely home filled with friends and laughter and promise. It is the perfect metaphor for our lives. Once feeling overlooked and unloved to finally shedding the things holding us back. This is the home we want to share with our family, friends, and our wonderful viewers. Please join us as we embark on this exciting new chapter in our lives.

Welcome to Casa De Angell, we are glad you are here.