Hillary Fox and Matt Jacobs had lived in their 1920s Prairie-style home in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood for eight years before they remodeled. They loved the bones of the house, but they had to walk through a warren of rooms to get to the dark, galley kitchen.
“We wanted to open it up with more light,” Hillary said. And she wanted it to be more modern, “but consistent with the principles of the house.”
Two years ago, they started the remodel. With two living rooms, they turned one into a dining room.
In the kitchen, they opened walls and added a new family room that stepped up their hillside lot. That gave them more space for their growing family.
The couple love clean lines and neutral colors. In the kitchen, they installed white Caesarstone countertops with translucent, white glass subway tiles, then added red-topped stools for a splash of color. They opened their home to the Rockridge Kitchen Tour last fall.
The family decorated with Matt’s original paintings, inspired by Modigliani.
Here’s the complete slideshow:
Then she saw it, an eight foot angel with golden wings, a long white robe and bursts of cobalt blue. Translucent. Brilliant. Mesmerizing. Once the adornment for a San Francisco mortuary, it was now stored in a Richmond warehouse. Lisa quickly realized it was too big for the bathroom, and, quite frankly, almost too beautiful for it.
After 15 years of marriage, Craig has learned to trust the fantastical vision of his artist wife. As usual, however, the vision would come with a price. The new home for the angel would be the south-facing bay window in the great room — and that would not only mean a new design concept for the room, but a major re-engineering of the bay window to hold its weight.
But Lisa had originally designed the great room that opens to the kitchen to have a retro David Hicks style with a geometric circle motif. And that would no longer work with the leaded glass window. So she has ditched the idea of using Kraftmaid kitchen cabinets that had a circular overlay as well as the splashes of hot pink she was planning in the family room furnishings.
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 home was built by the Gallagher family, who owned Gallagher Fruit Co. when the area was known as the “Valley of Heart’s Delight.” One of Carol’s favorite pieces is a tile serving tray she keeps in the kitchen that shows the Gallagher’s pear packing label with their company name on it — a gift from her daughter-in-law, Rita.
It has become a favorite game room for all three of their grandchildren and a place for Tom to read since retiring as vice president of Argo Systems.
Saltilo tile floors greeted her in the entryway with a sweeping staircase with curved wrought-iron railings. Two steps down took her to the grand formal living room with plenty of space for the baby grand piano and their whimsical orange and black “Halloween tree” that adorns the front window for the autumn Rose Garden Homes Tour in mid-October.
One of Mary’s favorite spots for a little solitude is the lovely balcony off the master bedroom where she often reads or enjoys a cup of coffee while overlooking the lush backyard and swimming pool.
” for ideas on every inch.
Recent Posts
