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The first time the Los Gatos house got a makeover, Betsy and Dan “Whizzer” White just needed a bigger house for their growing family. The house they bought in 1977 was 900 square feet and with one child and another on the way, they added a second story in 1984. In 1991, they did a major kitchen/family room remodel. Then on New Year’s Eve 2003 while Whizzer and Betsy were at a party, they got a call from a neighbor: “Your house is burning.”
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A lit candle left on her daughter’s bedroom desk had destroyed nearly the entire house. With the help of architect Phoebe Bressack of Bressack and Wasserman Architects in Los Altos, ) Chateau Construction (theirr builder for 30 years), interior designers Ann Sonnenberg of Palo Alto and Susan Hoffman from Los Gatos, the house was redesigned, rebuilt and redecorated. With all the loss, chaos and rebuilding, Betsy said, “The day I cried was when I found I could have the same tile in the kitchen,” that she had loved when she remodeled it in 1991.
As much as she loved her house before the fire, the third incarnation has it’s benefits. Along with increasing from a three bedroom, two bath, the house –built in a Bernard Maybeck craftsman style and shingled — now has four bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths. They reconfigured the downstairs space to add an office and laundry room. All the bonuses came inside an extra 400 square feet.
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The stair railing also saw an upgrade, from what Betsy affectionately called “barnyard chic” to an elegant iron railing with a leaf motif modeled after the magnolia tree outside the window. The couple enjoyed weekends at garage sales and antique shops to replace their furnishings and collected Mexican pottery and other crafts from one of their favorite destinations: San Miguel de Allende.
The house sits on nearly a third of an acre and the grounds are gorgeous, from a shady patio in front to a lush vegetable garden in the back.
While Whizzer’s wife considers her husband a “farmer,” because of his 60 tomato plants, chili peppers and other fruits and vegetables, Whizzer simply considers himself a “foodie.”
With his heirloom tomatoes, “I freeze 50 pounds a year for cooking and give away about 200 pounds,” he said. He’s also proud of his “pimientos de padron,” a chili pepper made famous by writer Calvin Trillin that is popular in Spanish tapas.
Whizzer is well known in Los Gatos for supplying the enormous squash for the annual march of the “Cucuzza Squash Drill Team” in the town’s Christmas parade. “We’re the successors to the Pigmy Goat Herders that were kicked out a few years ago,” he said. “They got too outrageous.”
And while Betsy still finds herself “going for light switches in places that were there for 20 years,” she loves the third makeover of her home. The couple have no plans to do it again.
Knock on wood.
Here’s the complete slideshow:
When I think of a Sunset house, I usually picture something a bit grand, perhaps on a hillside overlooking California oaks. So when I drove by the latest Sunset Dream Remodel in Los Gatos, I almost passed it. It’s small — a 1,550 square foot Mediterranean bungalow on the corner of a somewhat busy street. But the whole idea, in these tough economic times, is to showcase the wonderful things you can do in a small space. And when you look at it that way, this house really measures up.
“This project shows how big a small space can live if done right,” said San Jose builder, Mark De Mattei, who marks his sixth Sunset house with the renovation of this Los Gatos bungalow.
When De Mattei first bought the property, the house was even smaller — 1,300 square feet, and faced the busy University Avenue. To take full advantage of the corner lot, he lifted up the house, built a new foundation and turned it to face Town Terrace.
A side yard leading to the sidewalk and busy street was also put to best use with a deck right off the dining room. A
Top on the list was replacing the brick on the curving path that was caked with old mortar, probably from a demolished fireplace. They handed the list to Suzanne’s longtime gardner, Carlos Arrioja, who owns the Los Gatos landscape business, “A Touch of Quality.”
The hand is a sculpture Carlos came across. He had to re-attach the broken thumb. And it has become the signature piece in the garden, adding a bit of whimsy.
Lookiloos and Scene Magazine, produced by the San Jose Mercury News, teamed up to profile Ecofabulous founder Zem Joaquin. Here’s the story of Zem’s fascinating life written by Julia Prodis Sulek, and photos and slideshow of her own sexy, sustainable house by Desiree Northend:
So how did this commune kid become such a design diva?
Unlike some in the environmental movement who preach doom and gloom, he says, Joaquin takes a positive approach.
Her journey to the rental house has taken a circuitous path. Picanco, her husband, Mario, and their two young children, Gabrielle and Giancarlo, were living in a 2,800 square-foot home in Boise, Idaho — “in search of a calmer life where we could live on one income.” But less than a year into their lives there, she was confronted at the same time with two frightening realities: her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer and her 19-month-old son was confirmed deaf.
After a stint in one Willow Glen rental distinguished by a pink tile kitchen with a butterfly motif, she found the house her family now calls home, a place she hopes to stay in for at least the next several years.
Pam was shocked that he would even consider giving up his dream because she wasn’t happy. “To me that was one of the most romantic things he ever said to me,” Pam said. For Pam, it was a turning point. “When he said that, I said, ”No way. Of course we’re going to finish this.’ I became almost as obsessive as he was.”
Leave a comment and let us know if you’d like a copy.
Without it, the track never really found a home in our house. That first Christmas, the engine that had been boxed up for 30 years was too worn out to pull cars behind it. The next two years, when the track was laid on the living-room floor, the kids kept tripping over it, knocking down the cars and disconnecting the track. In 2007, Chris placed a piece of plywood on top of the dining table on the screened porch. But it was chilly, few ventured outside to play with it and the track started to rust. Last year, it didn’t even make it out of the boxes.
“Hmm, an 8-foot-by-4-foot sheet of plywood in your living room,” mused my friend Carolyn. “Sounds like a dance floor.”
As we got ready for bed, though, Chris said one more thing: “I want the kids to have memories of this train.”
The couple had raised their nine children in a 1930s house in what had once been Los Gatos countryside. But the Mediterranean villas and modern mansions started crowding in and when their children were grown, the Schippers’ search began. Hidden behind eucalyptus and oaks west of Morgan Hill, the Schippers found the farmhouse. It sat on a rise, overlooking a pasture and creek.
But the view from the porch of the barren landscape needed some tending. Instead of heading to the nursery, though, she simply grabbed the hose. “I just thought I’d water,” she said, and gave the property around the house a good, deep soak. And that’s when “they all came up.”
“It’s unbelievable the way things came together,” Flanagan said. Parts of the movie have also been filmed at San Jose History Park and the Radonich and Adams ranches in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But, he said, “the heart of the movie comes from that house.”
Schipper likes to call it a “happy house.” But a friend who visited recently told her it was more than that.
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