Walk in the front door of this charming 1940 brick cottage and the front rooms are as traditional as you’d imagine: graceful dining room on the left, formal living on the right. But step through the front hallway and the back of the house opens to a modern, light-filled space.
Phil Health, who works at Nasa Ames Research Center, and Sam Miller, who owns a Mountain View laundromat, bought the house in June 2009, deciding they wanted to downsize after remodeling their big house on a big lot on the Peninsula.
They turned to San Jose architect Steve Hinderberger to update the dated and chopped up space and add a second story with a master suite. The 
couple wanted sleek, modern lines, but also were adamant about connecting with the rest of the traditional house. Hinderberger used wood detailing in rich stains, but gave modern details, including aluminum accents, on the stair railings and support columns.
The kitchen features green, orange and yellow tiles from San Jose’s Fireclay Tile. While the windows in the front of the house are divided light, the couple used no panes in the French doors overlooking the backyard.
Slate tile floors run from the kitchen through to the outdoor patio, connecting indoors and out. Upstairs, frosted sliding glass doors give privacy to the master suite, but let in light. The master bath was tiled in “boneyard” pieces of tile in different shapes and sheens to give added interest. A neighbor once likened the shower tile to a “bamboo forest.”
They have decorated the house with artwork collected along their travels as well as local “open studio” events. A prized pair of art deco console tables purchased at a San Francisco auction adorn the living room. The couple opened their home to the Rose Garden Homes Tour, benefitting St. Martin of Tours schools.
GreenDesign provided the floral pieces. The landscaping and hardscaping was done by Rodriquez Landscape.
Here’s the complete slideshow:
Liz Page was pregnant with their first child in 2002 when she and her husband Mark first laid eyes on this charming New England-style home. Liz grew up in Massachusetts and the traditional home with the formal entry hall and central staircase just felt right. 
great bones, it was in its original 1940 condition and needed updating. Construction began two days after her son, Douglas, was born.
Both their children, Douglas and Anna, attend St. Martin of Tours elementary school. Liz sought out 
When Brent Riedberger and Chris Johansen offered their backyard for their neighbor’s wedding in late summer, they shifted into high gear to get it ready. And as they have with much of their Dutch Colonial house, they did most of the work themselves – and with vintage materials. 
could take it off their hands. “We’ve salvaged 9,000 bricks since March.” And one by one, he recovered what had been a broad black asphalt motor court with old bricks, which made for a perfect area for dinner tables for the wedding guests. They also asked the owner of a house around the corner for the discarded pillars that had been removed from a port cochere. With them, they built a lovely pavilion at the back of the property.
“She’s a great old girl with good bones,” Brent said. 
![4846046619_2c3670ecb4_b[1]](http://www.lookiloos.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/4846046619_2c3670ecb4_b1-550x368.jpg "4846046619_2c3670ecb4_b[1]")
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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, ) ![4846048825_18d2cd225d_b[1]](http://www.lookiloos.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/4846048825_18d2cd225d_b1-237x350.jpg "4846048825_18d2cd225d_b[1]")
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.
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
We need storage and two “stations” in this tiny, one-sink bathroom: one for my husband shaving at the sink, another for me drying my hair right behind him (cheek to cheek so to speak.)
“I wanted the challenge to do it as inexpensively as I could,” said Marx, who loves nothing better than finding a cast-off sofa here or discarded end table there. “They’re little orphans. I like giving them a home.”
The last time the house had a makeover was in the early 1990s, a few years after Peters bought it. As was the style at the time, she decorated with a palette of black, white and chrome, including white marble flooring in the living and dining rooms. But over the years, the space had grown tired and cold. And Peters had little time to pay attention to it. She made brief attempts at repainting the interior, but when her artwork came down, including her collection of Asian masks, she never put it back up. In her entry hall, all she had was a plant.
With that, Peters cleared out the entire living, dining and family rooms of furniture, handed Marx the key to the front door, and took off for three weeks.
Marx mined Peters’ garage for lost treasures, pulling out her old trunk and a collection of masks. She hung Peters’ prints and some Chinese silk panels she had bought at auction and arranged everything just so. For finishing touches, she displayed martini glasses on the bar and filled a glass vase in the kitchen with fortune cookies.
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