Our house was fine.
Built in 1899 for Colonel Gay, our 2 story bungalow had 9.5 foot ceilings, old growth floors, one bathroom, and a bizarre layout thanks to previous owners’ updates. After 12 years of ownership, redecorating was no longer enough to mask existing problems. Plus, Mike and I had failed hard at maintenance, so it was time to either move or double down.
This place has soul; we stayed. My goal was to maximize functionality and activate every space to reflect and inspire us (and our future selves). We travel a bunch. After trips staying in crazed European boutique hotels, coming home felt alien. It didn’t feel like us; a designer and a musician. We wanted funky, fresh, future-present, fab, funny, freak-out. Curated atmosphere. Drama downstairs, Chill times upstairs. I compiled a massive wish-list (‘In a Perfect World’) for Steve Ewoldt at Artifekt, our architect. Several rounds of drawings and permit headaches later, we embarked on this project knowing there would be good and bad surprises. We hang tuff.
So with the bulk of our stuff in storage, we moved our bed downstairs so the dudes could demo our entire upstairs. This is what it looked like when we got home from work that day: no turning back!
