'My Lottery Dream Home': A Mother Finds a Chance to Start Again After Losing Her Son

On HGTV's My Lottery Dream Home, host David Bromstad helps people take a life experience that is sometimes heartwrenching — like the death of a loved one — and turn it into a new beginning. Both lucky lottery winners and the beneficiaries of family inheritances search for the home of their dreams as David gently guides them through the process.

In Season 18, a mother, Jeanne Grimes, returns to her California roots after the unexpected death of her 51-year-old son, Ian, in Salisbury, Maryland, where the two had been living.

“Very few people can understand what it’s like to lose a son,” says David. “I’m more than honored to help them on their journey.”

Jeanne's daughter, Robyn Farrell, who has a 7-year-old daughter of her own, is anxious to bring her mother back home to the West Coast and the hip California town of Ojai. Ojai is a wonderful opportunity for Jeanne, who is originally from Sacramento, to be closer to family and nurture a garden, one of her passions.

“I’m a peasant, and I must have my soil,” says Jeanne, who is especially adamant about growing herbs.

With some assistance getting the lay of the land from local real estate agent Valerie Fasulo, David starts checking all of Jeanne’s wish list boxes.

“Are you so excited to get her here?” David asks, to which Robyn replies, maybe too frankly, “I cannot wait for the endless babysitting.”

“It’s kind of tucked away. You kind of have to be in-the-know to know Ojai,” says David of this special California town.

“It’s described as having a vortex,” says Robyn of the Ojai energy that draws people for meditation, retreats, spa escapes and healing to this California destination close to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, and all the money that entails. Finding a home within Jeanne's budget is going to be a challenge.

“$1.2 [million] is the average price for a property with the things that she wants,” says Robyn. David shows the pair three potential homes in this stylish town, each with the growing space Jeanne craves. Now, it’s up to Jeanne and Robyn to decide which one hits all the points on their wish list.

Wish List for Jeanne’s Ojai Home

• Around $1.2 million
• 2 to 3 bedrooms
• 2 baths
• Flat land and sun for gardening
• Nice kitchen

House #1: Simi Sands

• 3 bedrooms
• 3 baths
• Almost 1/2 acre
• 1,786 square feet

Price: $1,197,500

Five minutes from downtown Ojai, Simi Sands has a dream location with an enormous oak tree, fruit trees galore and tons of land. Jeanne is especially delighted by the wood stove in the open main living area. “I have heated with wood for 40 years,” says Jeanne. She also loves the high windows in the bedroom to let in the California breezes. The open kitchen is great, too, though Jeanne admits that on her list of priorities "quite frankly, the yard’s more important.”

But perfection comes at a cost. “I love it so much that it tempts me, and it’s at the very top of my budget,” says Jeanne.

Home #2: Bobcat Trail

• 2 bedrooms
• 2 baths
• 1/8 acre
• 1,176 square feet
  
  

Price: $1,140,000

Bobcat Trail feels private and oasis-like, with a tall wall at the home's entrance to keep prying eyes away. Inside the home is completely renovated. It’s on the smaller side, admits David, but “well appointed.”

“The fresh renovation has optimized every inch of space,” says David.

It reminds Jeanne of her home in Sacramento. It even has a high-tech cross between a sauna and a shower ("It's like a bidet for your whole body," laughs Robyn) in the en-suite primary bedroom. The home's lofted ceilings with wood beams make Jeanne think of her outdoorsy, windsurfing-loving son. “Ian stored his windsurfing boards on the beams in my bedroom,” she notes of her son, whose memory is obviously a part of Jeanne's day-to-day.

Bobcat Trail also boasts two large fenced-in yards with a hot tub and a storage space that make it feel even more like a private wellness retreat.

Home #3: Coyote Canyon

• 3 bedrooms
• 2 baths
• 1/2 acre
• 1,181 square feet

Price: $1,050,000

The final stop on their Ojai home shopping tour, Coyote Canyon is a mile outside of the Ojai city center.

Coyote Canyon is also beautifully designed with thoughtful, organic, hip details at every turn. It has, says David, “the coolest vibe. Very sexy, very bohemian.” The yard features fruit trees, sage and rosemary (David has now become an expert at identifying plants, thanks to Jeanne). The outdoor spaces are as meticulously designed as the indoor ones. Inside, there are easy-clean tile floors and a minimalist vibe, with sleek modern details including a concrete kitchen countertop. The primary bedroom is an outdoor lover’s dream, with a sliding glass door leading to the equally stylish backyard, which boasts an enormous pergola, a long wooden dining table, a separate outbuilding with stylish all-weather furniture and a large, flat, carefully landscaped yard just like Jeanne wanted.

Drumroll, Please …

So, which home did Jeanne ultimately choose?

There are positives in every home, Jeanne says, though she does point out that the large outdoor footprint makes Simi Sands “a tremendous commitment to maintain.”

But we want what we want.

“Simi Sands speaks to my soul,” says Jeanne, who has decided to follow her heart.

“I need to have what I want now. Simi Sands has so much possibility.”

“Keeping on, keeping on,” she says, her new mantra as she enters this exciting next phase of her life, living close to her daughter and granddaughter, a reality forged because of the planning and generosity of her son, Ian.

What’s next for Jeanne and Robyn?

Three dozen Maryland blue crabs and an alfresco dinner in the shade of one of the Simi Sands property’s magnificent oak trees.

“I’m so grateful to my brother for the planning ahead he did. I’m heartbroken, but this helps to mend that,” says Robyn.