Malibu Post-and-Beam, Rebuilt 20 Years After It 1st Ran in AD

“For us, people, art, plants, and a view make a home,” says Michael McCarty of the Malibu house he shares with his wife, Kim. The original house was designed by renowned post-and-beam architect Douglas Rucker. But like everything in the colorful life of the McCartys—he's a culinary entrepreneur, she's an artist—it has a story, too. When Michael purchased the original Rucker in 1976 from his father, he had just returned from studying in France and was teaching cooking classes, in French, at a culinary school in Boulder. Kim, who had grown up in Europe, was fluent in the language and attended his final exam—an 18-course dinner for students and their guests. "I cooked the dessert," Michael recalls,"which was passion fruit soufflé with fresh raspberry coulis… which she loved first, then me second!" The couple moved to Los Angeles, renovating the house in 1979 with help from Doug Rucker himself.