See Sacramento’s 1925 Fab 40s home tied to harp-playing socialite, beloved nanny

A bottle of champagne in the refrigerator was the first clue something unusual had happened.

Read more See Sacramento’s 1925 Fab 40s home tied to harp-playing socialite, beloved nanny

Kamal Khaira and her husband Dr. Ravi Khaira had just finished remodeling the kitchen at the family’s Carmichael home when she walked inside one day and sensed a celebration was under way. Then she opened the fridge.

“I’m just walking in, and there’s a nice bottle of champagne,” she recalled. “I’m like, ‘why is there a bottle of champagne? What’s going on.’ Ravi goes ‘I bought the house on 40th street.’ I said, ‘What? We own this house. Wow. OK, just let me take this in.’”

The decision to make a surprise purchase in 2016 brought her family into one of Sacramento’s most storied addresses — and into a home whose own history is as layered as its four floors. They knew little about the past at their new residence. They were in for another big surprise.

“I’d be in the front doing the lawn or greeting someone, and they’d say, ‘Oh, you’re the new owners. I remember being on the top on the fourth floor looking out, and this part (of the house),’” Kamal said. “Everybody in their 50s or 60s has a story, if they grew up here, about being in this home, knowing the kids.”

The ‘duke’ and the nanny

The stately house hints at a story far richer than its facade, one starring a “duke and duchess,” a long-serving nanny, and generations of family life.

Built in 1925, the brick Colonial in Sacramento’s prestigious Fabulous 40s spans about 6,300 square feet. It has five to six bedrooms, five bathrooms, a full walkout basement and a top floor known as the ballroom. From the balcony off the ballroom, a set of outside stairs takes you to a rooftop deck that looks over the neighborhood’s tree-lined streets, and may be the highest vantage point of any residence in East Sacramento.

Set on 0.42 acres, the historic property is for sale for $4.2 million. Christine Dariotis of Nick Sadek Sotheby’s International Realty is the listing agent.

“It’s a beauty,” Dariotis said of the home.

Kamal, a director for the UC CalFresh Program, and Ravi, a pediatrician, are well known in the region for their work in health and education, including their $1 million gift to UC Davis’ College of Biological Sciences. The college renamed Sciences Lecture Hall to Khaira Lecture Hall to honor the two Aggie alumni.

The Khairas and their two daughters are only the second family to live in the Fab 40 mansion at 1441 40th St. They spent nearly three years meticulously restoring it, preserving period details while updating nearly every system. But to understand the house, it helps to know its first family.

The original owners

The original owners were socialite Beatrice “Pinkie” Thys and her Belgian husband, Edouard Thys, who came from a prominent Antwerp family with ties to nobility, according to previous Sacramento Bee reporting. Pinkie’s German immigrant father Emil Clemens Horst built an empire around hops cultivation, including owning vast fields around Campus Commons and other Sacramento areas.

Olivia Barrett, a former owner who extensively renovated the home before the Khairas, called Edouard’s background somewhat of a mystery.

“Rumors of being a duke, being a spy, being a diplomat … I’ve heard a number of them,” she said.

“Apparently he was a count, a Belgian count,” she said, adding that it “seems to check” after she discovered a castle in Belgium was tied to his family.

What’s certain is their European background gave the home an air of old-world grandeur. The Thyses, known to some in the neighborhood as the “duke and duchess,” raised their children and often entertained there, turning the house into both a family refuge and a social gathering place.

Across the street, neighbor Debra Sherman, who has watched the house for more than three decades, remembers the Thys family vividly. She recalled that Edouard Thys was believed to be a count, and that Beatrice, who died in 1997 was a woman of refinement.

“Beatrice was just a lovely, lovely, genteel type of lady,” Sherman said.

Sherman said Beatrice Thys, who died in 1997, studied harp in Belgium and carried herself with the elegance that matched the home’s formal architecture. Even in old age, Pinkie remained a gracious host.

“I remember distinctly when she turned 88 that her children gave her 88 bottles of champagne,” Sherman said. “Every time we would go over, whether it was just to deliver mail that had been misdelivered (or something else), it was, ‘Won’t you come in and have a glass of champagne.’ ”

Amusement park backyard

The hospitality extended to the Pinkie’s youngest visitors as well. Sherman said Pinkie loved children and turned the backyard into something close to a private amusement park.

“There was a carousel in the back, and it was motorized,” Sherman said. “There was a doll house that had lights inside that worked … and then she had a really nice train set out there and around some of the trees.”

As the Khairas were moving into their new brick colonial, which already felt steeped in another era, workers began dismantling the old backyard carousel and other remnants of a private fairy-tale landscape.

“When we started getting involved, and we wanted to do improvements before we were moving in, we saw them taking out a carousel, a merry-go-round, that was here,” Kamal Khaira said.

One figure tied that past together: Lydia Payot, the Filipino nanny who came to the house when the Thys children were young and stayed for decades.

Walking the dog

“They had a live-in caretaker, her name was Lydia,” Sherman said. “She originally came to live with the family, kind of more as a caretaker for the children, but then after the children, she stayed on, and she was (treated like) a member of the family. She loved dogs, and you could always see Lydia walking the neighborhood with the dog.”

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Payot ultimately returned to the Philippines after her time in the home, according to Kamal and Sherman.

The Thyses’ whimsical yard has since been reimagined for entertaining with multiple seating areas, a rebuilt pool, an outdoor kitchen, a covered retreat, a fire pit, new landscaping, stone pavers and lighting.

It is overlooked by the home’s third-floor ballroom, which Sherman said served as Pinkie’s ballet room with mirrors and a barre. Pinkie also played harp up there, according to neighbors.

“My family and my daughters and I fell in love with this upstairs room,” Kamal said.

The space functioned as a bright great room and teen hangout, fitted with arcade games, a large television and a snack bar. That kind of flexibility is one reason the house worked so well for the Khairas, who moved there to be close to Christian Brothers High School. Their house quickly turned into a hub for their daughters and their friends.

“This ended up being the place for all of the CB kids (to hang out),” Kamal said. “This was a place where anybody could come, because it was close enough to the school.”

The scale of the home matched its function. Over the years, the Khairas hosted fundraisers, school gatherings and civic events and fundraisers, often welcoming large groups into the expansive backyard.

“It used to be on the regular where my daughters are like, ‘Mom, you’re always volunteering our house for everything,’“ Kamal said.

Scaled for family living

For a family, the home’s scale makes sense. The second floor offers bedrooms, a shared sitting room and private spaces that allow teenagers some independence. The layout, Kamal said, gave everyone room to spread out.

On the main levels, the home highlights a remodeled gourmet kitchen with a walk-in pantry and a large laundry room, plus a primary suite with balcony access, an office behind French doors and a stunning, renovated primary bathroom.

Two guest rooms — ideal for Kamal and Riva’s twin daughters — connect through a former sleeping porch with a fireplace and built-ins, creating flexible space for an office, hobby room or hangout area. It’s one of Kamal’s favorite features.

When the Thyses owned the East Sacramento home, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, whose nearby former house on 45th Street sold off-market last year for $4.5 million, was a frequent guest. Thys, who died in 1976, was an important fund-raiser for Reagan, according to a previous Bee reporting.

One renovation-era detail still sticks with Barrett: a heavy marble fireplace mantel that she found, but couldn’t place anywhere in the house. It was stored in the garage. After the sale, she received a call from a museum that was housed in a castle in Belgium, with ties to the family name, whose staff believed the mantel belonged there but had once been shipped to Sacramento.

‘Insane’ quality

Barrett, a Realtor who restores older properties, called the home her favorite project, praising the triple-bricked wall, Georgian colonial” construction and saying the quality of the house is “insane.”

The renovation that followed the Khairas’ surprise purchase was as ambitious as the house itself. Beneath the home, contractors found a maze of aging plumbing.

“It was like twisting all over underneath the house … it was a MacGyver everywhere,” Kamal said.

The family replaced cast-iron plumbing, upgraded the electrical and other systems, and restored the brick exterior piece by piece. They kept original details such as built-ins, cedar closets and walnut floors, while improving the home for modern life. The pool was rebuilt but retained its kidney-bean shape, a nod to early 20th-century design.

The home has two garages, newly poured driveways, and a full walkout basement that now includes gym space and storage.

After buying the home, the sellers invested nearly $2.3 million in upgrades and restoration, building on earlier work by Barrett, according to meticulous records kept by Ravi Khaira.

That long thread of care — from the original owners to Lydia to the Khairas — has defined the home’s identity.

“It’s a wonderful home, such a beautiful home,” Kamal said. “We have such good memories. We love the home.”

The Khairas now live in the Sacramento neighborhood of Sierra Oaks Vista.

In the Fabulous 40s, where stately houses often carry the weight of neighborhood history, this one stands out for the lives it has held.

“I’m sure all these houses have a history,” Sherman said, “but I think that one’s special.”

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