This is a long, crazy story. One that a faithful reader spurred, after asking me to do a "Look for Less" post about a house she'd found online. A little digging for photos revealed a deeper story that was too good to pass on, and a story book Beverly Hills Flats cottage that may very well be my dream house.

It's the long and tangled story of two insanely wealthy families who have passed incredibly expensive real estate back and forth like a stroller their children have grown out of. And it's all been decorated by Obama White House designer, Michael S. Smith

After some thought, I have decided to keep the names of these families private. I will simply refer to them as Family 1 and Family 2. Family 1 has enlisted Smith to design multiple houses, including one that Smith wrote a very popular book about: Building Beauty: The Alchemy of Design, and another which would be the first they'd pass off to Family 2 - a Portuguese style Quinta (traditional manor house) in the exclusive Santa Barbara suburb of Montecito.
Elle Decor / Henry Bourne
The house was designed by Tichenor and Thorp with Ferugson and Shamamian, and was featured in Elle Decor in 1999, House Beautiful in 2000, Santa Barbara Magazine in 2002, and in Michael Smith's books Houses and Elements of Style, along with the Dianne Dorrans Saeks book Santa Barbara Living. 

Family 1 and Family 2 are very close. Related not by blood, but in business - which can be closer. When t...