Our designer believes that some houses call out for the people who can bring them to health and beauty and that our house has called to us.

It is a fanciful idea that Steve rejects out of hand, but I find it pleasing. The house has an ineffable quality that really does call for help in bringing it to beauty. Lots of potential there for people who can make it work. And there is something mournful and jangling about the house as it is.

Steve is sensitive to color, proportion, and design, even when he doesn’t know how to make things right. And so when he saw the house he thought it needed help, which is why we hired Christopher. Because as much as we could see that something needed to be done to deal with the unevenness of everything. We just didn’t know what that would be.

There were many dubious choices the previous owners made. For example, this is a picture of the second kitchen, fairly close to the primary kitchen. Leaving aside the question of why build two kitchens, notice that this kitchen has roofing tile on it. Indoors. Up close it looks quite bad with badly done cement. Things are installed badly. The dishwasher door can’t open without scraping against the oven. They’ve stained the cabinets only where they show when the doors are closed. It’s mind-boggling short-cuts.

This is true of the entire house. Often they bought very expensive appliances and then did a bad job of the installation. For example the oven in the primary kitchen is a fancy-pants Wolf oven. Installed crooked.

Why?

The house feels very much like a movie set, in that they were just doing the work that showed and none of the important details that ensure proper functioning and safety. Some of these were nearing a point of imminent collapse. For example the tankless water heater had been installed with a octopus of copper cables done in such a way that the gas was destroying the lines. A gentle poke and the copper piping sprouted a leak. A gas explosion in our new house was top of the list of things we didn’t want. So we got it fixed.

One other way the house resembles a movie set is that it is extremely well-lit and has video jacks in every single room. Even the water closet. Again, we have to ask, why?

The team has been hard at work pulling the second kitchen apart to create a office for Steve. This is what it looks like today. It’s been completely pulled apart. The team is working incredibly fast to make a space that they can then build into.

It doesn’t look like much now, but soon it will transform into something serene and beautiful. Follow along and I’ll keep you informed as the house transforms. And hopefully transforms us for the better as well.

Be well, friends!