The Home Page | A Whale of a Tale on a Sunday in July

Last Sunday, I devoted most of this space to the only “floating home” in the Santa Barbara Harbor known as the Thomas Jefferson. The same day that you were reading about it here, I was being introduced to yet another iconic local residence: the Whale House at 999 Andante Road. I had about 500 words to describe it in print for this week’s issue, but there’s so much more to show and tell, so I thought I’d share a few more details here.

There are more than 270 Belgian leaded and stained-glass windows in this house. Even the “plain” windows are interestingly shaped, partnered with unique hardware, or both. The nature-scape window above is located in the primary bathroom on the second floor, overlooking a similar scene outside. Just a few feet away, dramatic blue and red waves surround one entrance to the rock-walled hot tub, shown below:

Upstairs is another bedroom with a much more traditional tub. While it could almost be overlooked in this spectacular house, it would be a noteworthy highlight in any other residence.