Arriving at Casa Appian is like coming home... if your home is everything you've dreamed and you happen to live in the most stylish and well-decorated and well-stocked guest house in all of Los Angeles. The drive to the top of the hill where the house is is exhilarating but be prepared if you aren't a strong driver as it could be considered scary. But, living in the wonderful age of now and even though it felt like you were miles away from anywhere, we got ubers every time and though internet can be spotty up there in the hills, the Wifi provided worked perfectly so there was no problem ordering the Uber. Back to my dream house (I mean the Poolhouse at Casa Appian)... We were met by our gorgeous host, Chandra, who was just adding some of her beautiful little touches (a lovely strand of lights by the front door). We could tell immediately she was so sweet and asked if we'd like a little tour - conscious that we might just want to explore ourselves - but we definitely appreciated her showing us the ways in and out, the pool (which is to die for) and, lastly, the VIEW! The view is everything from the ocean to the Hollywood and even LAX and we had some amazing cloud cover that felt like we were literally floating over the city with only a few of the tallest buildings poking through. I've lived in the LA area since high school before moving to London where my husband and I currently live, and it's the freshest air I've breathed in all my years in Los Angeles. The house itself is a stunning work of art - built on the hills in the 20s. It's stone with whitewashed walls and wonderful plants, spices and flowers (Chandra is landscape designer) and the pool and backyard area where our little mecca was looks like something out of a Hollywood fairytale or maybe even a Greek tableau. The pool house itself was immaculately clean and looked like the photos (only nicer.) I instantly noticed that Bill and Chandra clearly put in a lot of care to the small touches - the dishes and glasses, cutlery and all of the bedding is high quality. Additionally, there are amazing surprises like a salad spinner and gorgeous Le Creuset Dutch Oven / casserole dish that I was never going to use because I'm lazy, but had I wanted to - I could have! And any spice I could ever think of using in my could-be stew. Anything I could have wanted would have been there and, though I don't think it's possible, had there been anything not already in the kitchen, I think they'd have provided it upon request. We brought a lot of food and snacks as we were planning to bunker in for our 5 days and there is a full-sized refrigerator, coffee pot, kettle and an old-fashioned oven that I had to ask my mother how to use (but only because I don't know much about life) that worked perfectly once Mommy started it before she left ;) That first night, we put a frozen pizza in the oven and lounged in front of the tv (which worked as it should) with the windows open and a perfect breeze. I showered and, even though I'd brought my own toiletries not knowing what to expect, there was a wonderful, big brand new bottle each of shampoo, conditioner and body wash (the lavender body wash especially smelled like heaven and I wouldn't have washed it off if I could help it!) It was just another example of the little touches of very quality bits and bobs throughout the house. As we were going to go to bed, we heard (because it's so perfectly peaceful and quiet), a little bit of a humming from the gas wall heater. Of course, we then got paranoid and convinced that we weren't going to wake up from carbon monoxide poisoning (but not a bad place to end it!) but then realized the pilot light was definitely on and clearly weren't worried enough to actually call or text Bill, so slept with the window open. In the morning, we woke fresh and went outside to catch some rays by the pool and had the pleasure of meeting Bill and having a nice chat with both Bill and Chandra. We mentioned the furnace and they, very concerned, checked it right away! They'd just gotten it serviced and it was probably something to do with that but, in the end, we all decided there was no way we were going to need heat in LA (even in October, bless that town), so they just turned the whole thing off for our stay. I would say the rest of our stay was uneventful - but it was perfectly uneventful, really - just as we'd hoped. We read, sunbathed, and relaxed. Bill and Chandra live on the property and rent out some other parts of it as well (though there are so many nooks and crannies and different entrances that we didn't see any of the other people.) Our hosts were extremely respectful of our privacy but, at the same time, were so kind and cool, that when we did see them, we loved it and loved our chats! They have the best dog, Buddy, we've ever met in the entire world of all time. Like, I can't stress this enough. And I'm not a crazy dog person but Buddy, like Bill and Chandra, just seems to have an air of gentle, calm, cool, and classy about him. He'd come visit us maybe once a day and we played a couple of fun games of catch while in the pool (well I was in the pool, he was outside.) On a couple of evenings, we opened the doors and windows and a soft jazz would come pouring in from outside. It just added to the...