Inside Stories « Lookiloos

Inside Stories

Carmel Remodel Ends with He-Said, She-Said Book

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

The newly renovated breakfast room

Pam Gilberd hated nearly everything about the dilapidated ranch house they looked at in the Carmel Valley. “It smelled. The yard was described as an Italian cemetery. It had a hot tub 10 feet from the front door and you had to walk over the cord to get to it.”

Before:The original facade with hot tub in front yard.

Her husband, retired stockbroker Fred Gilberd, however, saw only possibilities. The view across Carmel Valley Ranch and to the Santa Lucia Mountains was stunning. The single-story layout worked. And he was anxious to prove his theory that with a little vision and a lot of elbow grease, “you could make anything nice.”

And so the couple embarked on a two-year project that Pam — a writer — hoped would be as romantic as the Italian remodel in bestseller “Under The Tuscan Sun.” After remodeling, compromising, nearly giving up, finding hidden creativity — and, yes, romance — the Gilberds have just self-published their own version: “Under the Carmel Valley Sun.” (Lookiloos will be giving away two copies of the book, so please leave a comment below!)

The couple bought the house in 2000, a market peak when there was little else for sale. At the time, they had no idea what they wanted the house to look like when they were finished. But a previously scheduled bike-riding trip through Provence inspired them to work towards a French country look. And they vowed to do it themselves, without handing off any major work to contractors.

“For one reason, I’m a cheapskate,” Fred, 70, said. “I also wanted the satisfaction of doing it myself.”

After: The updated facade, with faux-painted door.

But what the couple quickly realized, as they ate dinner each night on one of the few pieces of furniture — their bed — “we got into something that was way over our heads,” Fred said.

Pam, 63, reached her low point about halfway though. She had envisioned that she would be like other homeowners who would uncover “wonderful archways” and would “laugh and learn together.” At that point in the Gilberd remodel, however, there wasn’t much laughing going on.

“Pam was reaching a crisis stage,” Fred said. Even playing the soundtrack to Out of Africa for her, which had seemed to settle emotions before, had little effect. He suggested they simply finish off the house with white paint throughout and put it on the market.

PamFredGilberdHi 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.”

She doesn’t like sewing, but because they spent so much money redoing their fireplace, she pulled out her sewing machine to make her own cushions and curtains. She read books on the Toll House painting style and painted two-tone fruits on a long, narrow dining table Fred made for her, and olive branches on the walls of her narrow hallway.

“It really forced us to expand our skills and our vision of what we could do,” she said.

And it also brought them closer together. “Renovating a house is a test of a marriage,” Pam said, but “it can be a wonderfully bonding time–as long as the small stuff stays in proportion to the overall intent.”

After:The new kitchen

They looked for ways to complement instead of criticize, she said, and “got a lot further that way and had more fun.”

In the end, not only did they transform a run-down ranch into a French county oasis, but they were so proud of their accomplishment together, they took on another challenge: writing a diary-style book of their adventure.

When they realized their memories of the same events differed so wildly, they decided to write a he-said, she-said book with each penning chapters. It’s a delightful story of the highs and lows and – with patience, understanding and compromise — the romance of the remodel. Julia Looking Left - Lookiloos

FinalCoverHiR Leave a comment and let us know if you’d like a copy.

Posted in Carmel, Contest, Decorating, Dining Room, Featured, Garden, Home Decor, Home and Garden, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Interior Design, Julia, Kitchen, Landscape, Painting, Remodel | 11 Comments »

Lionel Train Set in Living Room: What to Do?

Friday, December 18th, 2009

4189163508_b159762764_b

When my husband’s old Lionel train set arrived by UPS from his brother in Michigan, it was as though Santa himself appeared in a big brown truck. It was five years ago, Christmas Eve. I was standing in the driveway with our two children, who were 5 and 7 at the time, when the driver headed our way with a large cardboard box.

Carefully packed inside was the electric model train set that my husband, Chris, and his three brothers used to play with each winter in the basement of their home outside Detroit. It had been his father’s before that. And now, on the most magical night of all, it had arrived in San Jose for the next generation, just in time. I choked back tears as I wished the driver a Merry Christmas. 4189164464_63d0d386bb_b

Sounds like the end of a heartwarming story, doesn’t it? This was the part when the parents are supposed to embrace and the children open the box with eyes filled with wonder. Can’t cha hear the whistle blowing?

Funny how nostalgia can turn to exasperation and a midnight argument last week that almost woke up the kids. Where in the world can we set up this thing?
Unlike my husband’s boyhood home in the 1960s and ’70s, our home doesn’t have a giant basement rec room with a snooker table big enough for two full sheets of plywood on top to serve as a platform for this Michigan-made train set.

4188401331_ca73499522_b 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.

This year, though, Chris insisted the train and the plywood come back in the house and into the living room. And it had to be elevated, he said. That’s when the discord began.
I’m sorry, but am I out of line to protest when my husband wants to squeeze in the equivalent of a table set for 12 in the middle of our cramped living room that is barely big enough for a Christmas tree? Must this be a shrine to Lionel?

I already had holiday decorating insecurities. As much as I envision our house as an enchanted space filled with our hand-carved nativity scene, nutcrackers, Christmas candelabras and poinsettias, it more often than not feels like a mismatched montage.
To make matters worse, we were planning a Christmas cocktail party, plus Christmas dinner for 18. We needed more room, not less, for entertaining.

4188400775_9539e15bc0_b “Hmm, an 8-foot-by-4-foot sheet of plywood in your living room,” mused my friend Carolyn. “Sounds like a dance floor.”
One friend suggested that if we really wanted to show off the train set, we should deconstruct it and arrange the engine and cars artfully on the mantel. Another suggested building a catwalk around the ceiling like they do at pizza parlors. All we needed was sawdust and peanut shells on the floor. Great.

But the tradition of this train set was important to Chris and I understood why. The train set was sent a few years after Chris’ father died. It wasn’t an elaborate model with mountains and tunnels, but it included some special vintage pieces: a 1940s O gauge track with a pressed-tin signal house and a man with a swinging lantern who pops through the door when the train passes; a foot-tall light tower; three pieces of die-cast rolling stock; a 1975 Illinois Central GP9 engine that blows smoke and a matching caboose that lights up. It came with a bag of miniature pedestrians, benches and trees. Inside the GP9 engine box was the original handwritten note the boys found that Christmas morning when they unwrapped it for the first time: “Merry Christmas, Joey, Chris, Paul and Ed.” It was signed S. Claus.

Still, did it have to be mounted full scale, table height, smack in the middle of the living room? Couldn’t it be, maybe, half the size, in a corner somewhere? Midnight is the wrong time to have a conversation like this. When I imagined Chris pulling out the sheet of dirty white felt he used under the track to look like snow two years ago, I marched upstairs.

4188400611_7d76b12642_b As we got ready for bed, though, Chris said one more thing: “I want the kids to have memories of this train.”
“I do, too,” I said.

The next morning, Chris said that the train didn’t have to be table height. It could sit on milk crates just a foot off the floor. But something would still have to be moved out for it to fit in. I volunteered that my writing desk be moved to the shed.
We could still sit a 6-foot Christmas tree on top of the platform in the middle of the track. I would replace the white felt with chocolate brown burlap.
And to convince myself that I could salvage some sense of style, I would sew a string of silky brown pom-poms to finish the bottom edge. (Chris objected at first, worried they would distract from the track, but relented.)

Last weekend, Daniel, who is 10 now, helped his father assemble the track. Claire, 12, set up a station vignette around the signal house. It was a rainy afternoon and I took in the scene as Chris plugged in the twinkling tree lights and turned on the Christmas music. Daniel blew the whistle.
As the train came around the bend, I approached the platform, knelt down before it, and fluffed the pompom skirt.
Julia Looking Left - Lookiloos

Posted in Antiques, Decorating, Family Room, Featured, Featured in the San Jose Mercury News, Home Decor, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Julia, Living Room, Rose Garden, San Jose | 5 Comments »

Film Crew Shoots Vintage Farmhouse

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Film Crew Shoots Vintage Farmhouse

Deep in the golden hot countryside of Morgan Hill, the old white farmhouse languished for months with a For Sale sign planted in front. The knoll on which it was perched was bone dry and, but for the pomegranate tree, practically barren. Inside, the wooden floors were sloping, the wallpaper peeling. When the last member of the family that had owned the house for more than a century passed away, it was as though the house died, too.

But over the last two years, new life has been breathed back into the old place, first by an artist and her husband who had always wanted a vintage farmhouse to call their own, then by a local filmmaker and his crew making a low-budget independent short.

Filmmaking at the farmhouse

In extraordinary ways, both have celebrated the farmhouse’s humble history. And in return, the house has given back everything it has. Call it serendipity. Call it fate. But the house gave the artist and the filmmaker exactly what they needed, and more than they could have imagined.

The farmhouse brought Kerstin Schipper and Shawn Flanagan together on a late summer day in July. But it first beckoned Schipper two years ago. She and her husband, Peter, both came from Dutch dairy farmer stock and wanted a simple place with a sense of history. He was in the landscape materials business. She painted murals.

Kerstin Schipper - Film Crew Shoots Vintage Farmhouse 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.

Except for electricity and plumbing, Schipper said, “they had done nothing to the house since it was built. It was untouched.”

Double wash basins remained on the back laundry porch and the blackened Wedgewood stove in the kitchen still fired up. A narrow staircase led to the attic. When they noticed a calendar hanging in the garage dated 1948 — the year both Schippers were born — the whole place just felt right. They bought the house and, maintaining its tradition, cleaned it up but barely changed a thing.

“You want to respect who built it and lived in it,” she said. “We both like history — to touch the past in a way.”

They furnished it with second-hand pieces, many in the simple farmhouse style popular at the last turn of the century. On the front porch she hung one of her favorite paintings, a portrait of her daughter surrounded by sunflowers and hollyhocks. Most of her work contained at least one sunflower; it was her favorite and had become her signature symbol.

Farmhouse Kitchen - Film Crew Shoots Vintage Farmhouse 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.”

Sunflowers. Fields of them. Bright yellow and nearly 18-feet tall. And hollyhocks, pink, just like in her portrait. This was no simple cutting garden out back or a little patch of color here and there. The wildflowers surrounded the entire place and raced down the front hillside in an exuberant burst. The roots were so deep, she could barely pull one out if she tried.

“I thought it had to be an old garden,” Schipper said. “The only thing I know is that it felt like home right away.”

Director Shawn Flanagan with Actors

It was during this peak of summer bloom that Shawn Flanagan discovered it. A San Jose resident, he named his company Almaden Films after the neighborhood where he grew up. He had a number of independent short and feature films to his credit and was scouting locations for his latest Depression-era movie, “Whiskey Slide.” It is about Henry Percy (played by local actor Geordie Prodis) an artist who is down on his luck and in danger of losing his house, and his pregnant wife, Louise Percy (played by Kate Melia).

“It was supposed to be a no-budget short film where a bunch of friends get together and do whatever they can to get a movie done,” said Flanagan, 46. “Then great things started happening.”

Cameras rolling for Whiskey Slide

The first was finding the farmhouse, which had been recommended to him by a mutual friend, Maggie Wilhelm. “When I got there, I just freaked out,” he said. “I loved every part of it. The outside with the flowers all around; the house being period-right. It was just a great setting.”

And for a director on a budget, he didn’t have to pay for set design. “We had the old stove, the old kitchen, several old rooms that were just right,” Flanagan said.

The story called for a painting room for Henry, and the attic just happened to be filled with Schipper’s paintings. The script called for a chicken coop, and there it was in the side yard. One scene had the pregnant wife washing clothes and, running along the sideyard, a clothes line was already hung.

“That stuff was there when I got there,” Flanagan said.

The only props he needed were the historic cars provided by San Jose collectors Don Skow and Shaughnessy McGehee.

Farmhouse - Whiskey Slide “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.”

He plans to wrap up production shortly and have the movie ready to submit to San Jose’s Cinequest and other international film festivals. The only shame, he said, is that the movie is shot in black-and-white and won’t capture the brilliance of the sunflowers. But when he edits the scenes, “I will go out of my way to make sure I use some of the wider angles with the sunflowers.”

Schipper was thrilled to lend the farmhouse to the movie crew and loved that they embraced the house, just as it was.

Sunflowers - Film Crew Shoots Vintage Farmhouse Schipper likes to call it a “happy house.” But a friend who visited recently told her it was more than that.

“It’s a magical place,” her friend said.

“Thank you,” Schipper replied. “Yes.”

“She called it a magical place,” Schipper said. “I said thank you. Yes.”

(To watch an advance clip of Whiskey Slide, go to www.almadenfilms.com.)

Story by Julia Prodis Sulek, Lookiloos.

Photos of film crew by Mike Gendimenico, Faultline Digital

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Posted in Antiques, Featured, Garden, Historic, Home and Garden, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Julia, Kitchen, Landscape, Yard | 4 Comments »

Asian Inspired Backyard in San Jose’s Naglee Park

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

Keyhole gate

Rick Holden and Sandra Moll have long been known as patrons of the arts here in the South Bay. Whether they were chairing meetings for The San Jose Repertory’s Board of Directors or opening their home to host a private event benefitting the Institute of Contemporary Art’s or San Jose Jazz, the couple did it with flair. So when it came time to relandscape their large backyard in San Jose’s koi pond Naglee Park, it should be no surprise that it has a distinctly artistic bent, from Thai artifacts to sculptures by local artists, like Marcia Donohue of the Our Own Stuff Gallery in Berkeley.

Entertainers at heart, the couple wanted a backyard space that would be appropriate for hosting a fundraising reception for 100 people, barbecue for 10 or intimate breakfast for two. They enlisted the help of San Jose-based landscape designer Cevan Forristt, whose penchant for mixing ethnic treasures and reclaimed architectural artifacts was just what the couple needed to transform their space into an unexpected downtown San Jose oasis. “Our designer asked us each to write an essay about what we wanted to see in our backyard. I was not sure if Sandy and I would share the same vision or priorities” Rick said. “He melded our different points of view, brought his resources and hit the nail on the head. We are out here year-round and the landscape is lush and constantly evolving.”

tablefor14 From antique Chinese soaking tubs to giant Malaysian prayer beads gracing a keyhole concrete wall, the Holden/Moll backyard is a constant delight. The concrete table seating 14 guests was poured by Forrist himself who embedded broken ceramic plates and pottery as accents. The pottery pieces were retrieved before a San Francisco shop owner could throw the lot in a dumpster after the Loma Prieta earthquake. The custom table is surrounded by antique chairs.

Repurposing ancient items for new uses, they converted an antique Chinese horse trough into a beverage cooler. Dinner is often cooked on the gas powered wok hidden in one of the nooks. A indiangate Chinese gate flanked with potted bamboo graces the driveway entrance, while a reclaimed blue antique Indian gate guards the eastern entrance to the patio. Fishing baskets were turned upside down, filled with white lights and converted into outdoor lamps. The entire property is peppered with creations like bamboo/golden trumpet plant sculptures, lights imported from Mexico and a Buddah in an unexpected corner. Adjoining the backyard, they have one of the largest collections of SJSU alum Donald Carlson’s glass art and a contemporary painting by Jenny Do in their downstairs indoor entertainment space.

The hardscape is filled-in with a mix of bamboo, monkey paws, succulents and morning glories to pay homage to their Asian inspiration and create privacy and shade.

Rather than flying half way across the world to see ancient treasures, the Holden’s simply look to their backyard for some zen like relief — Silicon Valley style.

Update:
This post is featured in the San Jose Mercury News Home and Garden section here.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

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Tags: Asian Inspired, Ceven Forrist, Holden
Posted in Architecture, Art, Backyard, Downtown San Jose, Featured, Featured in the San Jose Mercury News, Garden, Home and Garden, Inside Stories, Naglee Park, San Jose, Sheila, Yard | 1 Comment »

Turning a Shed into a Charming Cottage

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

For years, the old structure in the back yard was known as the “haunted shed.” When Rebecca Sweet was a girl growing up in her parents’ Los Altos ranch-style house in the 1970s, even her bravest friends couldn’t make it through a slumber party there.

The roof was caving in. The floorboards creaked. Cobwebs covered old storage boxes. Spiders had taken over every inch. When Rebecca returned to her childhood home 11 years ago and moved in with her own family, the wood shed had only deteriorated further. Her daughter and friends would have Halloween parties and terrify each other over stories of the the eerie presence of the “shed monster.”

But over the last few years, with her husband, Tom Urban, taking the lead, the old shed has been given a new life and new purpose. Gone are the cobwebs and creaks. The structure is now a charming cottage and work studio for Rebecca, who is a landscape designer. As with the rest of the backyard garden once tended by her mother, who comes from a maternal line of avid gardeners, the shed was restored and decorated to maintain the family’s gardening legacy.

The roof on the 18-by-12-foot shed was pitched and decorative wood beams added to create an airy feeling and rustic charm. Her husband replaced the old aluminum windows with vintage cottage windows. He plastered the walls and painted them a buttery yellow. A long counter was built on the far end, stretching across the back, to lay out design plans. The shelves underneath store the family’s earthquake supplies, but are hidden by lovely linen curtains.

A wicker sofa dominates the seating area. Above it hangs a decorative screen made of branches from one of Rebecca’s favorite shops in Los Altos, Cottage Green. One of her most cherished possessions is a dainty painting of pansies done by her great-great grandmother.

Rebecca also likes to point out the old piece of wood siding that bears the carved named of Rebecca’s brother, Tim. He had been punished for defacing the shed at the time. But Rebecca made sure her husband kept it in its rightful place, next to the front door.

Sitting on nearly a third of an acre in a 1950s development of classic ranch-style houses, the shed was an ever-present backdrop to the garden, which was first tended by her mother and now her. Rebecca remembers expeditions to Lake Tahoe to collect rocks along the roadsides that had tumbled down from avalanches. Together, they would choose the prettiest and haul them back to San Jose where her mother would build curving borders for raised garden beds.

“I would watch her build this wall and tear it out because it wasn’t perfect,” Rebecca said. “It was her release.”

While she loves her mother’s stone walls, she has also made the garden her own by adding several sitting areas, curving pathways, fountains and an aviary. She writes about her garden and gardening tips on her blog www.gossipinthegarden.com.

When her mother visits, “she doesn’t come in the house. She goes around the garden first,” Rebecca said.

“We wander the garden and see what’s new. It’s a huge bond. It’s a personal garden, and I think it shows.”

Here’s the complete slideshow:

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Posted in Architecture, Art, Before and After, Decorating, Featured, Garden, Historic, Home and Garden, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Julia, Ranch, Wall Decor, Yard | 12 Comments »

Mission Revival in the Heart of Palm Haven

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

The stark white house at the end of Plaza Drive in San Jose’s historic Palm Haven neighborhood takes you by surprise. It’s small in scale, a single story on a corner lot. But its domed tower and decorative parapet across the roofline force you to take a second look.

This is Michael Borbely’s mini masterpiece – a recently completed Mission Revival house of stucco and tile that took years of research to create, plus help from San Jose’s Fireclay Tile to reproduce century-old details.

Borbely, 45, is an architectural activist of sorts who spearheaded an effort several years ago to restore the pillars at the entrance to the 1930s Palm Haven in Willow Glen to their original Mission Revival style. So when he was ready for a new project after selling his Prairie style house in the neighborhood, “I looked for the house in the worst condition that had the most impact on the neighborhood.” He decided on a tiny Spanish style house for sale nearby in need of a major remodel. He wanted the house to fit into the streetscape and, taking some cues from the pillars and an original Mission Revival house in the neighborhood, decided to reinvent a scaled-down version.

It still causes a little bewilderment when people walk by.

“When people ask what it is, they have all sorts of strange ideas,” said Borbely, who owns a small design and construction company called Novuspace. “Because Mission Revival is so rarely done anymore — and when it’s done it’s done out of proper context — I think that furthers people’s confusion when they see it.”

In the early 1900s, when the Spanish Colonial Revival style was hitting its stride in the United States, he said, there was no accepted category called Mission Revival. It was all considered Spanish.

“It wasn’t until later that historians in the architectural community agreed that there are pretty clear distinctions that separate real Mission Revival from Spanish mode,” he said. “It comes down to an
espadana – a curvilinear parapet.”

Most examples of Mission Revival style were executed in structures as large as the original Spanish missions, such as libraries and train stations. But here was Borbely with a 1,700 square foot original house that barely fit on its little, long, narrow corner lot.

“It’s a very challenging lot,” he said, “I found that if you scale down the components, Mission style fits quite nicely here. People say they feel it’s on a human scale. It’s got a tower, but not a tower that towers
over you.”

The narrow lot size also meant that Borbely had to forego one of the key features of Mission style – an exterior arched loggia. Instead, Borbely turned the concept “inside out,” he said, resulting in the home’s most stunning attribute: its wide, vaulted, triple-arched entry hall. The new house is barely 2,000 square feet, and the central hallway takes up a sizeable portion of it.

“It’s not a big house, but it’s a flexible house,” he said. “I see this as able to double as a dining space,” or a gracious area for wine receptions. A wainscoting of colorful tile, reproduced by Fireclay Tile, came from a 100-year-old photograph Borbely unearthed.

What used to be a tiny breakfast nook at the front of the old house is now the domed tower room that Borbely uses as a study. The old galley kitchen was turned into a guest room.

The new kitchen at the far end of the entry hall, down a few steps, makes another strong statement. The sanctuary-like ceiling explodes into view, with heavy timbers closely spaced and highly-carved corbels. Nava’s Brothers built the red oak cabinetry, including a pew-like banquet for the kitchen table. The kitchen accents tiles were created by local ceramic artist Babak Daleki at www.dalekiceramicstudio.com.

As much as the house is reminiscent of the old, Borbely integrated modern, environmentally-friendly features, including salvaged materials, LED lighting and solar power that not only heats his house but powers his electric car in the driveway.

Borbely even took pains to ornament the long side of the house – an area often downplayed in design. But since the side faces a sidewalk, Borbely added window hoods that suggest a deep adobe wall, a large, carved false door and a vintage style iron fence with a cross motif.

“I wanted to make it pleasing to look at no matter where you were,” he said.

Judging from the neighbors’ reactions, he seems to have succeeded:

“My neighbors have given me a list of properties they want me to work on.”

Reviving a Spanish Revival

Update:

This post is featured in the San Jose Mercury News Home and Garden section here.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Posted in Architecture, Featured, Featured in the San Jose Mercury News, Home and Garden, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Julia, San Jose | 1 Comment »

Sunset Magazine’s Ultimate Kitchen

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Imagine involving 30,000 people in designing your new kitchen. Sunset Magazine and DeMattei Construction did just that to build the Sunset Magazine 2009 Dream Kitchen of the West. A veteran of building custom homes, seven of which are built for Sunset magazine, Mark DeMattei and the folks at Sunset offered readers the chance to weigh in on how to build the "ultimate entertainer's home" from cabinet styles to paint colors to the layout itself. The results are simply stunning.

Located in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose, the new construction 5 bedroom, 4 bath Craftsman style home blends well with the upscale neighborhood. The home on Morse Street is laid out thoughtfully with plenty of natural light, emphasizing California's indoor-outdoor lifestyle.

Attention to luxury details is what sets this home apart. For example, the master bath featured a large frameless shower and jetted tub with beautiful tiles made by Ann Sacks. The bathroom was completed with Kohler hardware and custom cabinets. I could see myself soaking in this tub after a long day at work and never wanting to get out. The same treatment was given to the other three bathrooms, where the jack and jill shared bath featured marble floors and countertops, strong enough to handle a beating by a busy family.

I loved that the upstairs landing featured a built in desk, making use of often dead space. It is the perfect spot to place the family homework station, do bills or simply set up a nice vignette of collectibles.

The heart of the home is often the kitchen and this one did not disappoint. With more than 30,000 people voting on each feature, it would be hard not to be fantastic. I was immediately drawn in by the modern pieces that complimented the traditional craftsman style. The center island was oversized offering plenty of space to cook, serve food and have guests sit around comfortably. One of Food Network's stars could easily cook up their masterpieces on the GE Monogram professional grade appliances and still have plenty of space to display their creations. Picture Chef Emeril Legasi saying, "Bam! "

The counters and island are made of recycled Ceasarstone Quartz with infinity style edges, adding to the clean lines of the kitchen. The sparkle of the island's counters made a statement that this kitchen is indeed special. The backsplash featured more of Ann Sack's exquisite recycled glass tiles.

The kitchen's details are not only exquisite, but green! The butler's pantry cabinetry is pre-wired for warming drawers and are made of Teragren's bamboo. Most typical hardwood trees take more than 60 years to mature. Rapidly renewable bamboo is sustainably harvested between five to six years, leaving behind a thriving plant and new shoots – making them beautiful and good for the environment.

The kitchen opens up into the great room featuring a movable storage cabinet which doubles as a buffet or bar. The frosted glass top compliments the room's moss colored walls (Benjamin Moore Natura Paint). Another feature not to be missed is the one of kind limestone fireplace and mantle that is simply a work of art. It's crisp lines pay homage to the craftsman style, yet is distinctly modern. Beveled edges are seen throughout the home from the fireplaces, in the cabinetry to the Kohler kitchen sink.

As I think about how challenging it is to do any remodel and the multitude of decision that need to be made, it is easy to get overwhelmed without a little help. Did the 30,000 Sunset voters do a good job? Absolutely. Amazing kitchen aside, what I appreciate the most about this house was that it felt like a home and I could easily envision a regular family hosting a BBQ here, just as comfortably as a formal cocktail party. Isn't that what California living is all about?

You can read about more of the details and watch videos about the home and the process they went through to build the kitchen at the Sunset website and in the upcoming October 2009 issues of Sunset magazine.

(Photos courtesy of Valerie Mein, Realtor)

Posted in Craftsman, Featured, Home Decor, Home and Garden, House Tours, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Rose Garden, San Jose | No Comments »

Inspired by Childhood Farmhouse, Monterey Colonial House is all Americana

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

When she was a girl, Bebe Cassin and her younger brother would be sent on a train from California to Illinois, where they would spend summers on their grandparent’s farm. After a day riding the tractor and helping with the wheat harvest, she would return to the simple farmhouse and settle in with a good book, her grandmother’s quilts and the smell of pies baking in the oven.

It left a lasting impression.

“It made me love anything country,” she said.

Now, the house in Los Altos Hills she shares with her husband, B.J. Cassin, is in many ways an homage to rustic Americana. And it is has become the communal gathering place of their five children and seven grandchildren that – as Bebe likes to say – aren’t allowed to live outside a three-mile radius of the family home.

From early American pie safes to antique sideboards to folk art on the walls, Bebe has spent a lifetime finding pieces she loves.

“Luckily, B.J. went along with my collecting,” she said of her husband of 48 years, a venture capitalist and philanthropist. “I’m glad he doesn’t like modern – it would never have worked out.”

While the house is not farmhouse in style like her grandparents’, it is a classic white Monterey Colonial, providing a fresh backdrop to her favorite reds, whites and blues. And the couple have graciously opened it to numerous fund-raisers, most recently to benefit the Los Altos History Museum.

A curving country road takes visitors up to the three-acre, manicured estate, dripping with oaks and hydrangeas. On first approach, the three-story rear of the house, bedecked with windows, reveals itself. Down below, a vineyard is ripening fruit, readying for its first year of production for the couple’s “Red Setter” label named after their favorite breed of dogs.

Winding around to the front of the house, past the caretaker’s cottage, swimming pool and tennis court, a whitewashed gate beckons visitors into the front courtyard. Wicker settees with fluffy Nantucket blue pillows and a Jasper Johns-style American flag painting hanging under the eaves welcome you in.

The couple purchased the property in 1990, when only their last child remained at home. They remodeled the kitchen and opened up the servants’ quarters into a large, vaulted-ceiling family room. In the loft above, Bebe keeps her collection of antique dolls, quilts and pull toys that are at the ready for her grandchildren to play with. In the house hang two folk paintings by Charles Wysocki. Bebe also acquired an old wagon that reminds her of her grandfather’s wagon on the farm and turned it into a coffee table in the sun room.

While the pool and tennis court used to be down below where the vineyard is now, they rebuilt the pool and tennis court on higher ground across from the front courtyard to take advantage of the sunshine. Downstairs, in what used to be the dressing rooms for the pool, the Cassins converted the space to a wine cellar with an antique round chopping block for tastings, and a playroom with a billiards table that is kid-central during the couple’s annual Christmas party.

Bebe keeps some of her favorite pieces closest to her. An antique secretary and a Lincoln rocker that belonged to her great grandparents ornament the master bedroom and her great-grandmother’s lavender quilt is nearby in the loft.

They remind her of her childhood in Illinois. And whenever she thinks of those days, “I just love that whole feeling.”

Update:

This post is featured in the San Jose Mercury News Home and Garden section here.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Posted in Architecture, Art, Bedroom, Decorating, Dining Room, Family Room, Featured, Games, Garden, Historic, Home Decor, Home and Garden, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Interior Design, Julia, Kitchen, Landscape | 2 Comments »

Backyard Landscaping Gives Bungalow Home Style and Function

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

When Rick Partridge and Jack Black purchased the 1916 Arts and Crafts Bungalow in San Jose’s Hanchett Park in 2005, they finally found a home for the period Stickley furniture they had been collecting for more than two decades.

But the backyard was another story. An awkward triangular deck off the back bedroom was a safety hazard with steep stairs and an overgrown hedge along the driveway split the small backyard in two. The homeowners were big entertainers and wanted a space that worked for parties of 100, as well as an intimate space for two to lounge around the hot tub.

“Jack and I both grew up in the south, where you turn the AC on from March ’til October,” Rick said. Now that California was their home, they wanted to take advantage of outdoor living. (And they also wanted a place for their hammock.)

The solution? Bring in a friend and neighbor, architectural designer Steve Hinderberger of Hindesign. The first order of business was to rip out the hedges.

“That was the most dramatic,” Hinderberger said. “It opened up the space and you could see the potential.”

They decided to keep all the trees, especially the Chinese Pistache in the middle of the yard.

“It became a centerpoint and things radiate out around it,” he said. And that meant designing a series of outdoor rooms, from formal to casual.

He started by replacing the old deck at the back of the house with a new, larger one made of dense Ipe wood, and gave a sense of enclosure with brick planters. A few steps down is the semi-circular dining patio. Hinderberger unearthed some of the original stones that had sunken and re-used them for the patio.

Pavers were used along the driveway to make it feel more like a patio than a driveway, and a built-in barbecue was installed near the back kitchen door. (Another neighbor, interior designer Madeleine Randal, transformed the inside white kitchen from what Partridge called an “operating room” into an updated space with grey soapstone counters and seaform blue backsplashes.)

The focal point of the backyard is the arbor at the back corner of the yard surrounded by soft landscaping. During the Hanchett Park Home Tour in late May, Partridge and Black hung a bright red swing from the arbor (their answer to the hammock.) But the arbor also serves as a frame for an ever-changing feature.

“Even in the plans, we put ’sculptural element here,’” Hinderberger said. “It becomes almost a stage to highlight something of interest. They change it at least once every year, so it’s kind of fun to see what’s going to be there.” Partridge and Black have swapped out a fountain, a sculpture and a large planted urn under the arbor over the years.

“It’s kind of fun when you have a design concept, but what becomes really great is when the client embraces that and lives that,” Hinderberger said. “We were very in sync.”

Perhaps the most meaningful focal point of all came when Partridge and Black exchanged wedding vows in a ceremony surrounded by friends. Under the arbor were framed the groom and groom.

Hinderberger, of San Jose, can be reached at stevehinderberger@att.net.

(Photos by Desiree Northend)

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Posted in Architecture, Before and After, Bungalow, Garden, Historic, Home and Garden, House Tours, Inside Stories, Inside Story, Julia, Kitchen, Landscape, San Jose, Yard | 2 Comments »

Willow Glen: Spanish-Style Home with a Dining Room Fireplace

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Becky Fricke had fantasized that one day she would have a fireplace in her dining room. “I thought it was a pipe dream,” she said.

But destiny seemed set.

The couple were taking a walk through their Willow Glen neighborhood when they noticed the For Sale sign in front of a charming Spanish bungalow with a red tile roof and a brick-walled courtyard in the front. The house was empty.

She peeked in, and there it was. The curved plaster fireplace with green tile trim was nestled in the corner of the room. And an alcove next to it looked like the perfect size for their large credenza. They moved from window to window, looking into the large living room and master bedroom in the back.

“We knew it when we saw it,” she said. “It has Old World charm. The floor plan is great. We have three young kids. We just knew when we saw it it would work out for us.”

The couple has maintained the original floor plan, but added a counter-height breakfast bar in the nook. They replaced a modern jacuzzi tub with an old-fashioned clawfoot tub and finished the small basement, converting it into a cozy wine cellar/tasting room.

Just off the master bedroom at the back of the house is another stunning fireplace — this one in the backyard. The couple completely re-landscaped the small space, removing grass and building a patio, fireplace and fountains. A trellis behind the fireplace gives the yard total privacy.

The couple opened the house for the Willow Glen Home Tour in early May. Willow Glen Home and Garden shop on Lincoln Avenue helped get it ready in all its fine detail.

The house is not quite 1,900 square feet, but works just fine for this young family. The living room doubles as the family and TV room. With a flat screen TV from The Art of TV (www.theartoftv.com), based in San Jose, the screen appears as a beautifully-framed mirror when not in use.