About Us
We looked at more than twenty houses out here before we found this one, and honestly we were starting to think we'd made the whole idea up.
What we wanted was a place we could bring friends and family, somewhere the drive out ends and everything goes quiet and nobody has to be anywhere. We kept looking for that version of the desert and kept not finding it, so eventually we decided we'd have to make it ourselves.
We passed on this house twice. The man who lived here before us was fully off grid, and we mean fully. Solar that wasn't connected to anything, water tanks, propane, not a scrap of insulation in the walls. He loved this place and he lived it the hard way.
The third time we came back, something shifted. We stopped seeing everything that was missing and started noticing what was already here. Twelve-foot ceilings. Eight-foot windows on all four walls. Someone had framed a small house in the desert to hold the whole landscape, and then it just never got finished the way we thought it had the potential to.
What we were trying to solve
Modern. Luxurious. Quaint. Connected yet.. disconnected.
Those aren't words that naturally sit together, and they sit together even less in 750 square feet. Most places out here ask you to pick a side. You either get the remote, unplugged, nothing-for-miles version and give up anything resembling comfort, or you get a beautiful house that could honestly be anywhere.
We didn't want to choose and didn't think we should have to.
So the whole build became about holding all of it at once, in a space small enough that every single decision had to earn its place. Keep the quiet and the wildlife and the stars and that feeling of being genuinely out here. And still have internet that works, a kitchen you can actually cook in, air conditioning that holds up in August, and a projector you can fall asleep to.
Mostly that meant getting out of the windows' way - everything pointed at the glass.
Some nights you want to sit outside and not talk to anyone. Some nights you want a movie and a full fridge. We built it so you don't have to decide which kind of trip you're taking before you get here.
After getting the keys in 2022, it took a year. Not a fast year either, a real one, because doing it right meant doing a fair bit of it twice. Then a few more months of permits and paperwork, which is the part nobody ever puts in the story. We'd do it again too (we'd just now know what we were signing up for.)
Your hosts
Believe it or not, the first time we ever visited Joshua Tree together, our little car broke down in the sand and we were stranded in a hotel for 2 days with no way back to LA. Susanna swore she would never come back to Joshua Tree. Now, it’s her favorite place in the world.
We're Dalton and Susanna. We spent about a decade each working in music and entertainment in Los Angeles, and what we were after was somewhere close enough to reach on a Friday that still felt like a different world by Friday night.
Our two rescue pups, Bambi and Jackson, spend a lot of time out here with us. That's part of why the place is dog-friendly and why that was a non-negotiable. If yours comes along, there's 2.5 acres and a whole lot of new smells (just be careful of the cholla cactus!)
We host The Atrium ourselves (and probably always will) because it's the part we like most. Meeting people from all over, hearing what they got up to, pointing them toward the spots we love out here. That said, please sign the guest book when you’re here! We love that you’ll be part of The Atrium’s story.
Dalton & Susanna
@theatriumjt
