Sara Fenske Bahat and Heather Peterson forged their friendship 20 years ago, rearranging furniture in their small New York City apartments.

“After grad school, I moved to Manhattan for a job I didn’t love and didn’t stay with for long,” said Mrs. Bahat, 45, “but I got this amazing friend out of it.” Mrs. Peterson, 47, and Mrs. Bahat met at the advertising agency where they both worked. They bonded over a shared interest in home décor and spent weekends poring over design magazines, combing the Chelsea Flea market for cheap finds, painting walls and DIY-ing curbside freebies.

Eventually, life and love (both married and had children) took them away from New York—Mrs. Bahat to San Francisco, where she teaches at California College of the Arts, and Mrs. Peterson to her hometown of Minneapolis, where she started an interior design business. They stayed in touch as well as they could, considering they were separated by 2,000 miles and busy raising children and building careers.

The friends found an opportunity to work together again in 2015 when Mrs. Bahat and her husband, a venture capitalist, purchased a 1909 free-standing Edwardian in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco for $4.1 million. The couple was deep into planning a renovation of their existing home when the property came on the market. At 4,500 square feet on 0.2 acre with a rare-for-the-neighborhood full driveway, side yard, and well-preserved period details, it offered the space their current house was lacking, said Mrs. Bahat.

Unfortunately, the entire main floor had originally been designed as an obstetrician’s office, according to Mrs. Bahat. The space still had vestiges of the practice, including a long corridor with a series of what were probably once examination rooms and a large area with a dropped ceiling and fluorescent lights. The kitchen, living areas and bedrooms were all located on the second floor, where the doctor lived. It would need a major overhaul. But the property also included a 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage in the back that Mrs. Bahat, her husband and two children, then ages 4 and 7, could live in during construction. Mrs. Bahat knew it would be a huge undertaking, so she called her old friend for a reality check before making an offer.

Mrs. Peterson said her jaw dropped when she saw the listing photos, especially the architectural features and blank-slate potential of the first floor. She told her friend to go for it. Then, to her surprise, Mrs. Bahat asked her to come on board as the interior designer working alongside architect Antje Paiz of Berkeley-based Raumfabrik architecture + interiors. “At the time, I’d never done anything on that scale,” said Mrs. Peterson. But Mrs Bahat was resolute. “Heather has an amazing eye. I knew she would push me in a way that felt safe.”

The main level was reconfigured to open up the small rooms and create space for a kitchen and dining area with easy access to the yard. Moving the staircase from the front of the house to the back and topping it with a large skylight yielded a big impact, creating brighter, better-flowing spaces throughout. Upstairs, the old kitchen was converted into a guest bathroom. Mrs. Peterson used the home’s original trims and finishes as inspiration and outfitted each room with the simplest versions of what might have been to keep the spirit of the 1909 home intact while incorporating a more casual, modern aesthetic to suit the family.

Mrs. Bahat is interim CEO at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and has a growing collection of contemporary art. So, it was essential to create space for her rotation of pieces. White walls were a logical choice. Then Mrs. Peterson warmed them up with furnishings and textiles in colors she knew her friend loves, including deep green, saddle brown, and tiny touches of hot pink (a “very Sara color,” she said) to keep the rooms from feeling sterile .

On the second floor, the color story gets bolder, and nowhere is this more evident than in what Mrs. Bahat calls “the pajama lounge,” a family room located near the home’s four bedrooms. Previously the dining room, the space features the original coffered ceiling and an ornate built-in buffet. Now painted a deep teal, the room is a moody jewel box where the family’s two children, now 11 and 13, like to hang out and host sleepovers, said Mrs. Bahat.

More: US$36 Million South African Reserve Has 40,000 Acres—Plus Lions and Rhinos

The project was, in many ways, a continuation of the friends’ home décor adventures that began in New York, albeit with a bigger budget. But the spirit of the hunt was alive and well during the 18-month project. “Sara would go to high-end vintage stores where she was traveling and text me pictures of things,” said Mrs. Peterson. “We were talking almost every day.” The pair also took a weekend trip to Los Angeles to shop at RH, Nickey Kehoe, and Hollywood at Home, where Mrs. Peterson pitched a four-poster bed for the primary bedroom. They climbed into it to make sure it didn’t feel claustrophobic.

The renovation, which came in at around $1.5 million, was completed in 2017. Since then, Mrs. Peterson has been an overnight guest on several occasions, giving her the chance to experience what it feels like to live in the house, something not many designers get to do. Better yet, both women say the project deepened their bond. Mrs. Bahat said, “It felt so easy, and I loved seeing my friend come into her own. I’m a mega fan.”

The post This Historic San Francisco Residence’s Intestine Renovation Was Powered by Friendship appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

As the best man at a classmate’s wedding, chosen over two brothers, Brian Sapp gave a toast to the importance of friendship.

He went on to steal half-a-million dollars from the groom and the life savings of several people present.

Among his victims were the father of a severely disabled child, the parents of his godchildren and a man dying of pancreatic cancer – whose widow Sapp asked for $75,000 (£57,500) just days after the funeral.

For his four-year, $1.8m (£1.4m) real estate scam, Sapp, 38, was sentenced last week to nine years in prison.

“I am not a criminal mastermind who manipulates people with no remorse,” Sapp told Judge Anthony Trenga in federal court in suburban Alexandria, Virginia. “I was too weak, too desperate, too proud.”

World news in pictures

Show all 50

1/50World news in pictures

World news in pictures

30 September 2020

Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

29 September 2020

A girl’s silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

28 September 2020

A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1st

Getty

World news in pictures

27 September 2020

The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes

Getty

World news in pictures

26 September 2020

A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

25 September 2020

The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

24 September 2020

An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand’s parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

23 September 2020

A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors

The Mercury/AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

22 September 2020

State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

21 September 2020

A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic

AP

World news in pictures

20 September 2020

A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California

EPA

World news in pictures

19 September 2020

Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand’s royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

18 September 2020

Supporters of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq

Reuters

World news in pictures

17 September 2020

A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at ‘the Place de la Nation’ as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France

EPA

World news in pictures

16 September 2020

A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day

EPA

World news in pictures

15 September 2020

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin’s Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month

Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP

World news in pictures

14 September 2020

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election in Tokyo

Reuters

World news in pictures

13 September 2020

A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

12 September 2020

Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president’s resignation are now in their second month

AP

World news in pictures

11 September 2020

Members of ‘Omnium Cultural’ celebrate the 20th ‘Festa per la llibertat’ (‘Fiesta for the freedom’) to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia

EPA

World news in pictures

10 September 2020

The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece’s biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

9 September 2020

Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

8 September 2020

A home is engulfed in flames during the “Creek Fire” in the Tollhouse area of California

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

7 September 2020

A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

6 September 2020

Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open

USA Today Sports/Reuters

World news in pictures

5 September 2020

Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

4 September 2020

A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

3 September 2020

A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador

EPA

World news in pictures

2 September 2020

A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

Reuters

World news in pictures

1 September 2020

Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk

TUT.BY/AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

31 August 2020

The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

30 August 2020

Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus

Reuters

World news in pictures

29 August 2020

A woman holding a placard reading “Stop Censorship – Yes to the Freedom of Expression” shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

28 August 2020

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world’s third-largest economy

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

27 August 2020

Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

26 August 2020

People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

25 August 2020

An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel

Reuters

World news in pictures

24 August 2020

Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

23 August 2020

People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India

Reuters

World news in pictures

22 August 2020

Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California

AP

World news in pictures

21 August 2020

Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel’s plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

20 August 2020

A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

19 August 2020

A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

18 August 2020

Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

17 August 2020

Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

16 August 2020

Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland

AP

World news in pictures

15 August 2020

Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

14 August 2020

AlphaTauri’s driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

13 August 2020

Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio

AFP via Getty

World news in pictures

12 August 2020

Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya

AFP via Getty

Sapp told the judge he has been reading self-help books and engaging in “self affirmations”.

He had claimed to his friends and their families he had contacts who could help him find distressed properties at great prices in the Washington area.

In reality, after quitting his job as a construction manager in 2012, he never flipped a single house. The only money his business made was a “finder’s fee” for scouting a few properties.

He went on to steal the name of the Alexandria home builder he had worked with, signing it to fake settlement documents to make his scheme appear legitimate.

Some victims even paid taxes on their illusory profits, which Sapp often convinced them to reinvest in his next venture.

Friends told the court Sapp claimed he was “dominating” the real estate market, “killing it” and “crushing it”. He needed more money only because he was planning to expand from residential to big commercial real estate products, he told them.

On vacation with one pair of victims in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, he offered a hostess $75 (£57) to get them a better table, then bought them an expensive dinner, one testified.

He encouraged his victims to get their friends, families and co-workers to invest despite knowing he had already lost all of their savings and would be involving them in fraud.

One, who had named Sapp as his children’s legal guardian in the event he and his wife both died, quit a six-figure job to work with his childhood best friend.

His wife was five months pregnant with their fourth child when he learned they no longer had health insurance and would be getting none of the money they were promised.

The company was “entirely a fraud”, Assistant US Attorney Russell Carlberg wrote in a court filing, and the only “work” Sapp engaged in was “attending expensive wealth-building seminars and bloviating over golf matches”.

To stave off exposure as a charlatan, he used funds from newer victims to pay off older ones with what he claimed was interest on their investments.

He hired employees and bought advertising for a business that never made any actual profits. He went to high-priced conferences, where court documents show he was purporting to give advice to legitimate real estate developers.

The rest went to golf trips, vacations and Penn State tailgating parties at which he would roll up to State College in an $80,000 (£61,000) customised Mercedes van with a satellite television in the back.

He invited many of his victims to those parties; several testified at the sentencing hearing about the food he served them from a professional grilling station.

The defrauded groom, who asked not to be named because of the potential impact on his own career, said in court only a “psychopath” could enjoy the “sick pleasure” of pretending to host people with their own stolen life savings.

The FBI advised Sapp not to sell the van; he did. He has repaid none of the lost money and told his victims in court that there was nothing left – his parents went into debt to pay his defence attorney.

That attorney, Robert Jenkins, noted that Sapp freely and fully explained his scheme to the FBI and prosecutors before being charged with a crime, sharing with them thousands of falsified documents.

But that was only after one of his victims had gone to the authorities, making Sapp realise his con was over.

After his plea in December, prosecutors said, Sapp moved into the guesthouse of a friend in the real estate business and was working for him in exchange. But he was kicked out in February, according to the court filing, and since then has done no work.

“Apparently, the defendant spends his time cultivating friends on the telephone, cultivating people at the gym he frequents, and lobbying people to write letters of support for him based on incomplete and misleading information,” Carlberg wrote.

After learning more about the case from friends and court filings, three people who wrote such letters – including Sapp’s therapist – withdrew their support.

Chimney sweeps at weddings – in pictures

Show all 4

1/4Chimney sweeps at weddings – in pictures

Chimney sweeps at weddings – in pictures

Kevin Giddings has been a chimney sweep since he was 21

Chimney sweeps at weddings – in pictures

Giddings has been appearing at weddings to wish couples luck for over three decades

Chimney sweeps at weddings – in pictures

The sweep has had over 12 cats during his career

Chimney sweeps at weddings – in pictures

He admits some couples aren’t sure how to respond when he appears at their big day

One college friend, James Douglas, wrote the court that he “was not entirely surprised” to learn of the scam. Sapp had been forced out of Penn State’s architecture program because his grades were not good enough, Mr Douglas wrote.

“In the past I had seen Brian cope with failure by running from it and trying to hide it from his peers,” he wrote. “I believe Brian’s fear of being perceived as a failure crushed his self-confidence, polluted his thinking, and drove him to create a facade of success at the great expense of many others.”

Sapp said in court he was committed to repaying his victims, and his remaining friends wrote that he had shared plans for doing so.

Mr Calberg told the judge that FBI agent Jeff Weeks called one of those friends during a break in the sentencing.

Scott Deardorff relayed that Sapp had pitched him on a new real estate investment project.

He wasn’t allowed to contact investors himself, Sapp told Mr Deardorff, but he would coach his new business partner – he knew just what to say.

The Washington Post

The post Finest man toasts significance of friendship earlier than scamming $500,000 from groom and visitors’ life financial savings | The Impartial appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.