Dave Wheaton and Melodee Meyer are the founders of Martial Arts Family Fitness, a gym and martial arts studio in downtown Santa Barbara that offers kickboxing and fitness classes, self-defense workshops, summer camps, and martial arts in a discipline called dynamic circle hapkido. Woven through all of the curriculum is a spirit of camaraderie, caring, and respect. No one stays a stranger at Martial Arts Family Fitness for long. I haven’t trained at the dojo since back surgery five years ago, but every time I interact with anyone there, I’m still treated like family. When I learned that the house for sale at 1825 Stanwood Drive is Mel and Dave’s home, I knew I wanted to visit. Before I even stepped through the front door, I could tell that this tranquil oasis had their trademark style written all over it.
Dynamic circle hapkido is all about flow, and this property flows magically from the outside in and from one area to another. The house sits on an acre of beautiful grounds. It has one entrance on Stanwood, where a bridge leads over a stream and up to the front door. It has another entrance off neighboring Conejo Road, with a wooden gate set into a bamboo fence and flanked by Chinese dragon statues. Through that gate lies a lush courtyard surrounding a bubbling stone fountain in the center of a flagstone walkway winding toward the front door.
I had the pleasure of being guided around the house and grounds by Mel herself, making this behind-the-scenes tour even more personal. Mel confided that when she and Dave moved to Santa Barbara from Hawai‘i, she wanted one spot in their surroundings that felt tropical, so this fern-filled front courtyard is her small slice of the tropics. Mel points out a stone statue tucked off the side of the path. It's a mother image with children peeking from below and around her, all wrapped protectively in her arms. The statue is one of many that Mel and Dave fell in love with in Bali and brought home to enjoy forever. These treasures are dotted throughout the grounds, making their outdoor space a unique sanctuary. Before exploring the rest of the outside, we toured inside the house itself.
