They Traded L.A. for Rhode Island. Which House Did They Choose?

After spending 12 years crammed into a 700-square-foot Hollywood Hills bungalow, screenwriter Eirene Tran Donohue and UCLA intensive-care nurse Brad Martin packed up their lives and moved to Barrington, Rhode Island, in August 2025. The New York Times reported that the couple, alongside their daughter Tofino, relocated to Ms. Tran Donohue's coastal hometown about 10 miles south of downtown Providence to escape the pressures of Los Angeles schooling and traffic.

Living in L.A. with cheap rent and beautiful views had worked for over a decade, but family logistics ultimately drove the move. Eirene Tran Donohue noted, "We slept in one bedroom in bunk beds with our daughter," and added that "we didn't really want to do junior high school and high school with a kid in L.A." While searching, they stayed with Ms. Tran Donohue's mother, Mai Donohue, in Barrington, while Brad Martin maintained his ICU job by changing coasts every few weeks.

What were their housing criteria and budget?

The family targeted a home of about 2,000 square feet with an office, a refinishable basement, and roughly half an acre within walking distance of the water. Their initial budget sat at $600,000 for a fixer-upper or $800,000 for a turnkey house, though figures increased as they searched. Brad Martin explained the market challenges, stating, "For anything that was $600,000, the flipper people were just too hard to compete with."

Real estate agent Sarah Huard of Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty pointed out broader buyer tendencies during their search, noting, "Buyers today are being fed daily with imagery of homes at various price points that are completely done. Many of them lack the desire to do any work on them."

Which three properties did they evaluate?

Working with Sarah Huard, the family weighed three distinct options in Barrington:

• House No. 1 (Ranch With Private Beach Access): A 1952 build measuring 2,048 square feet with four bedrooms and annual property taxes of about $9,695, listed for $699,000.
• House No. 2 (Colonial With Pool and Firepit): A 1952 build featuring 1,910 square feet, three bedrooms plus a den, and taxes around $8,805, listed for $729,000.
• House No. 3 (Fixer-Upper With a Koi Pond): A 1900 build of nearly 2,000 square feet with four bedrooms, two bathrooms (including an upstairs bath with no plumbing), a half-acre yard, and property taxes of about $8,636, listed for $789,000.

Which house did the family buy?

The final outcome of the home search remains unknown because The New York Times formatted the feature as an interactive quiz asking readers to guess the purchase. The provided source material cuts off before revealing which of the three properties Eirene Tran Donohue and Brad Martin ultimately selected.