You can find the complete virtual tour here.

Thierry Buisson’s parents met in a French military hospital in Marrakech, Morocco. She was a local nurse born and raised there. He was a doctor from a farming village in the south of France.Growing up in Paris, Buisson spent time in both places, from his grandparents’ rustic farmhouse to the colorful marketplaces of Marrakech.Buisson, who came to the United States two decades ago, is a personal shopper at Neiman Marcus in San Francisco and does interior design work on the side. A dining room he decorated with zebra skin and a custom-made topiary of his dog Winston, of all things, was featured in the Summit League’s “Homes for the Holidays” tour last Christmas.

His love of collecting started with his father.

When Buisson was a boy, he and his father would spend weekends at Paris flea markets and antique shops, searching for

“just that magical piece that turns you on.”

It was there he learned “the patience of finding something that makes your heart beat.”

His father would often collect small things, silver and china.

“The biggest piece he ever bought was an 18th-century Aubusson tapestry. My mom just freaked out,” Buisson said. “My dad had to justify every purchase, either hide it or bring it out for a birthday.”

In summers, they would often visit his grandparents in the village of Le Breuil. He remembers two things about the farmhouse in particular:a huge fireplace in the kitchen along with a “gigantic dining room table,” as well as the handmade, white linen sheets in the bedroom that were so cold “it would take us hours to get in bed.”

And every Christmas, the family would travel to his mother’s homeland of Marrakech, where he absorbed the spicy aromas and the colorful textiles. “It’s the most phenomenal, magical place I’ve ever been to,” he said.

And now the home he shares with his partner is filled with the influences of his youth, inside and out.

The front walkway is lined with potted citrus trees, giving you the feeling of approaching a French “orangerie.” Inside, a 19th-century, hand-painted French vaisselier for storing and displaying china sits in the living room — a find from friend Darin Geise who owns the Coup d’Etat showroom across from the Design Center in San Francisco. Atop a leather ottoman is a bright green tray and a Moroccan lantern. Louis XVI chairs are covered in charcoal grey Pierre Frey toile. French doors lead you to a deck that looks like the courtyard of a boutique hotel, with topiaries and Moroccan-tiled wrought-iron tables. On an end table in a guest room is a collection of miniature porcelain busts he collected from the Alameda Point Antiques Faire. In his room, he keeps a collection of antique boxes. His sister, who owns an antique shop in the seventh arrondissement of Paris called “Fauve,” sends him a tiny box for every birthday.

And in an ode to his grandparents, on his bed he keeps French linen sheets. But unlike the farmhouse in France, in his masterbedroom, he has a fireplace to keep them warm.

(Thierry Buisson can be reached at thierryinteriors@gmail.com or 408-828-1685.)

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Rinconada Hills has a new listing—and it’s fabulous! Sitting on 1 1/2 acres this home has some of the most wonderful views and let’s not forget the country club living. Living in Rinconada Hills you have access to tennis courts, swimming pool and coming soon—bocce ball.

But, on to the home— The living and dining space is huge and sporting those wonderful views. The master bedroom has a huge deck to take in California sunsets. The backyard has a great fire pit and a hot tub. The grounds in Ricconada Hills has many ponds and little waterfalls. I can imagine after a stressful day, a walk around the grounds or a glass of wine on the deck would wash away any weight you felt on your shoulders. Check out the listing here.

Bedrooms: 4

Baths: 3

Asking: $1,599,000

Bedrooms—5

Baths—4

Asking–$2,295,000

I’m including a few more pics than I usually do–because you must see this home! And for the entire listing you can view it here

Unpacked boxes were everywhere. Only the living room and kitchen looked presentable. And she needed a privacy curtain for the front bathroom or her guests would be flashing the neighbors. She had already raced around Indian shops in Sunnyvale looking for fabric that would work in the iridescent blue bathroom and found nothing. As she was unpacking a box full of old clothes she hadn’t seen in a year, she pulled out a sari-like dress.

Hmm, she thought. “Dress or curtain? Dress or curtain?”

She took out the shears, cut it, and began the whirr of the sewing machine.

The entire remodel, which has been a year in construction and chronicled by Lookiloos and the Mercury News, has been a hands-on, nail-biting project from the start. Murray is an artist and wanted the home to reflect her avant-garde style as well as their international roots. Like many Silicon Valley families, they have traveled a circuitous route to get here. Murray’s husband, Craig Hinkley, is an Australia native. She grew up in Canada. With their two children, now 14 and 12, they have traveled the world and the United States, moving every two years or so following Hinkley’s jobs in high tech.

Unlike other homes Murray has transformed to suit their needs and prepare for resale over the years, she designed this one with creative abandon. She isn’t worried about pleasing a potential buyer anymore. After more than two years enjoying the life and climate of Silicon Valley and the town tucked into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, they plan to settle down this time.

So when they moved their family, plus their rambunctious boxer Millie, back into the house just in time for Christmas, they began to feel a whole new sense of home. And with a giant angel on their shoulder — or tucked under the bed until the towering stained-glass window was safely installed in the living room — they have survived rainstorms and mud bogs, accidents and injuries, cramped quarters and a leaking storage unit that left many family keepsakes in ruins.

And now, after all that, Murray said, “We finally stopped moving, stopped renovating, stopped the dirt, stopped the noise and just put on the music.”

They can finally sit back and enjoy the home they built for no one but themselves. The peacock-blue backsplash in the kitchen. The quatrefoil ironwork on the banister. The colorful Moroccan lanterns above the dining table and the industrial pendants over the kitchen island.

And across the room from the stained-glass angel that casts colorful light across the floor is a sensuous portrait of Proserpina, the Roman goddess of spring, that Murray painted on the sliding pocket door.

“By saying to yourself, ‘I am not going to move; this is the house I would like my grandchildren to come to,’ you make it in a way that is incredibly personal,” she said. “You don’t need to answer to neutrality. You can take who you are and run with it.”

All along the way, her contractor, Vinnie Tran of VT Construction, put up with her brainstorms and second-guesses and finished the project within the year he promised.

Murray even changed the size and scale of the house early on, giving up a formal dining room and more interior space when they reined in their budget and decided to better enjoy what the Bay Area has to offer that their former residences of Charlotte, N.C., and Seattle didn’t — great weather. Instead of a formal living room, they now have a covered terrace.

The landscaping will have to wait. Inside, boxes remained unpacked and rooms undecorated. But after a full year of the parents sleeping in the cottage and the kids in bunk beds in the garage, they are all sleeping under the same roof.

Even now, they look back fondly on the past year. Son Cal says his best Christmas was in the cottage when they decorated the Charlie Brown Christmas tree in about 20 minutes and the smell of ham filled every square inch of the 360-square-foot dwelling.

In the new house the other night, Murray lit the outdoor fireplace and called the family to join her.

“I said to everyone, put down the homework, stop the texting, get off the phone. Let’s sit and listen to the crackling fire and the music and the frogs from the creek,” she said. “Everyone stop and be thankful for this moment and where we are.”

And then, for a memorable moment, the four of them sat together and talked.
Contact Julia Prodis Sulek at jsulek@mercurynews.com. Read the previous stories in “This Darned House” saga at www.lookiloos.com.

LESSONS LEARNED

Have a renovation in your future? Here is Lisa Murray’s advice to other homeowners:

Know your style. If you are not confident in your design abilities, hire a designer who can communicate your style to your architect, contractor, stonemason, tiler, painter, etc.

Building green is relatively easy thanks to new state energy efficiency standards. It’s the demolition of the old home that is difficult.

Find a contractor that you like, respect and trust. This choice will affect your experience more than any other one. A good contractor will have good subcontractors and good subs collectively create well-built homes.

Never compromise on your finishes as this is what you will touch and feel every day.

The renovation will seem like it is taking forever. But, upon reflection, it will seem like it went at light speed.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Contemporary Bungalow

I think I’m in love. When I pulled up to the front of this home—I knew immediately that this was not going to be an ordinary shoot. It has contemporary lines on the outside, which usually would leaving you feeling a bit of a chill, but this home was warm and inviting. Walking distance to downtown Los Gatos—I imagine myself picking up coffee on a brisk Sunday morning while walking the dog. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Large sliding glass doors all lead to the backyard and dining pergola. Perfect for California entertaining! You can see the rest of the virtual tour here.

Bedrooms:3
Baths:2
Asking: $1,250,000

What started as a simple ranch house built in 1954 has been transformed over the past 20 years by the Kenny family into a French Chateuu in the country manor style. And Linda Floyd of Linda L. Floyd Interior Design has been with the  homeowners every step of the way.  The home decor is French inspired with trims and tassels and elegance.  Linda also decorated the living room for the holidays and the Summit League Homes for the Holidays tour.

The dining room was spectacular for the tour, as Sharon Watts of Peony created an astonishing table display.

David Stonesifer of David Stonesifer Interior Design and Decoration appointed the family room, including a couple of oil paintings he created himself.

Debi Campbell of Cover Story on Main Street in Los Altos added sparked to the kitchen and bath.

Upstairs, the daughter’s bedroom was decorated by Wahlberg Designs, The Duke & The Duchess of Morgan Hill. Saffron and Genevieve in Santa Cruz created the boy’s room with wonderful linen bed spreads and the master bedroom and bath received the special touch of Warmth Company from Aptos. Tiffany and Co. created a special display in the upper hallway.

Lulu Pom of Los Gatos appointed the study; La Jardiniere brought whiteness and light to the backyard and Color in the Garden from San Jose created an inviting front entrance.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Men's Smoking Lounge by lulu Pom

In a manner of days, the duo transformed what had looked more like a woman’s sitting room into a masculine man’s smoking room, or as Linda and Laura put it, “a history-reading, cigar-smoking, absynthe-drinking room.”

Niche with collections and curiosities

Some of the “added to” included the central focal point — a pair of vintage wing-back chairs whose dark wooden frames were bleached and wire-brushed, then reupholstered in a faux bois fabric with nickle nail heads and placed atop a zebra-skin rug for a “pattern on pattern” look.

Linda and Laura are expert at pairing vintage with modern and did so in the niche, where they replaced a sofa with a sparkling  starburst mirror and a credenza to display books, bankers’ boxes, crystal decanters and curiosities. They painted the ceiling a high-gloss gray to add more sparkle.

Absynthe glasses at the ready

While the spaces may have been designed with men in mind, the many women on the tour certainly wanted to linger.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

The garden of the Kenney Home was green and pastoral, but somewhat shady and dark. It needed some “pop.”  So, after planting white cyclamen in the beds, she turned to the  major focal points — the fireplace patio and the French doors at the back of the study. Bringing in two graceful urns filled with white hydrangeas, azaleas and wispy maidenhair ferns– plus a piece of garden statuary from her friend Laura Ziffer at Lulu Pom in Los Gatos — Dhelia created a graceful vignette flanking the French doors.

“Having the statuary and urns accentuate the architecture of the French doors — to me, it looked like something you’d see in Europe,” Dhelia said.

Making her way around the patio to the fireplace area, she planted more white flowers and bright green cypress in the homeowner’s pots.  “I wanted the chartreuse all over to pull your eye,” she said.

On the table in front of the outdoor fireplace, she planted a white cement pot with succulents and surrounded the base with the kind of ornamentation that might be seen on a mantel – layers of moss, lichen, bleeched pinecones and antlers. Small birch containers showcased miniature Christmas tree cypress and amaryllis.

Instead of using traditional red poinsiettas to create a Christmas feel, she wanted the setting to appear “organic.  A winter wonderland.”

Indeed it was.

To see other work by La Jardiniere, click on these stories:

Before and After:Spanish Courtyard Makeover

From Beige to Bright: Backyard Makeover Gets Colorful

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Lisa Murray thought opening the storage containers that sat idle for a year would be like crossing the finish line of their house remodel. She had looked forward to sifting through family photos and baby quilts made for her two children by her late mother, and uncrating the art books she had built a library for. Murray and her husband, Craig Hinkley, built this house to settle down their vagabond family that had moved every two-and-a-half years for the past 16. The family momentos would help make this house a home.

Cottage shared by family of four---plus dog.

Woman on Sliding Door---Truly Stunning!

Still, she had a reality check when her son, Cal, was attacked by a dog last summer that tore a gash into his face that threatened to leave lasting scars. This is a woman who understands what’s important in life — Los Gatos remodel or not.

Through the heavy winter rains, as she was choosing tile and light fixtures, ninety percent of the art books she had collected in her travels were turned into muck. All the Nancy Drew books that she and her daughter, Madison, read together in bed each night were ruined.

Cherished Childhood Memories

Here’s the complete slideshow: