Taking A Peek: Pacific Grove Historic Home Tour

Pacific Grove held its Historic Home Tour today, so I went around looking at the homes on display.  I must extend my gratitude and deep admiration for the homeowners who trusted that a few hundred clods like me would not kick, smash, crunch or steal anything.  I like to have friends over, but not several hundred, especially if they are like me:  I look for the architectural details, clues to original structure, modifications, irksome problems in design.  I like to see how kitchens are set up, how light comes into the structures, and how traffic flows to and from rooms.

Only one actual Victorian was available to tour today, a kit home built around 1900 that is now painted about 6 different vivid colors to accentuate the gingerbread cutouts and curlicues.  Very cute, colorful, dollhouse-ish.  No brave owners of large magnificent structures were to be found this year, although in years past some incredible homes have been showcased.  Instead, an imaginative architect opened his office and living space, revealing a fine use of the "bones" of the original building combined with more modern and usable spaces that I found very appealing.  A small bungalow in another part of town was renovated to look like a zen retreat in which the owner's beautiful quilt work was displayed.

The large old original building called Chautauqua Hall was the final stop where tourers gathered to look at very miniature homes (aka bird houses) designed by artists.  These were being auctioned with money donated to local charities.  I bid on one, but my dismal luck held, and I am empty handed as we speak.

For the most part, dinky little Victorian homes that now occupy lots where tent cabins originally stood in the days of the Chautauqua Retreat that Pacific Grove once was are now all modernized.  Inside, most homes have been enlarged, updated, made much more comfortable than they originally were.  Some houses are very tiny looking from the front and look as if only Snow White's dwarves could manage to be comfortable in them.  A number of grand old homes are unmistakably enormous and impressive.  I guess I'll have to remain curious and hope that someday one or more of them open their doors for interior viewing.  

It's a pleasant way to spend a Sunday once a year, one of many modest events that make Pacific Grove a tidy and cute little town.  Kudos to owners and docents for donating time and effort to make the tour possible.

Curtains, Colors and Style - Oh My

About 10 years ago I painted my kitchen "August Morning," a color made by Benjamin Moore that falls in the category of earth tones.  I like it.  A lot.  Then, I painted four other colors in various sections of the room.  So, there are five colors, all told.  I couldn't decide on just one color, so I found a piece of art that I like and used it as a color guide for the kitchen, which then turned into a guide for the whole place.

Today, on the advice of a feng shui expert I consulted back in December, I got busy with a project to balance the colors in my kitchen differently, to accentuate the element of metal in the southwest part of the room, plus to add a bit of the element of water as well.  This is pretty challenging.  I'd long since come up with a balance in the room that I liked, but I was ready for a change and was curious to give feng shui a try.  I think the jury's still out on that one.

Changing colors in an already comfortable room feels the same as when you learn to dance in certain shoes and can move instinctively and well in them, but then you change shoes and your step is a bit off.

The project is coming along okay, but it's in the phase where you are considering about six ideas and none of them are really winning out over any of the others; they all seem worthy of attention and experimentation.  Either that or I'm just not ready to make a decision.  I'm holding out for the wow factor that hasn't shown up yet.

As part of the same project, in order to introduce the element of metal into that part of the room, we bought an antique clock, a Vienna Regulator that has a single brass weight and a swinging brass pendulum.  It's a wall clock, built in 1864, that's simple and trim in its walnut cabinet, a fine, efficient clock that is just the right size and style for our tastes.

Now, I'm regarding two curtain choices and trying to figure out if I want valances, tie backs.  I am looking at color combinations, textures, styles.  The process of shopping and deciding on what I want is infuriating and fun all at once.  It's a love-hate kind of thing because I know in my mind how I'd love to have it all look in the end but almost surely will not be able to get exactly that.  I try to coax myself into compromise for the sake of shortening the time I spend on the project, but at the same time I know I'll just be a grouch about it if I do.  It's just going to take as long as it takes.

In the small bedroom, we are both thrilled with the outcome of the changes we've made and love to be in that part of the house.  There are lots of red accents and the walls are painted to look like aged plaster.  Four colors there, too, but layered, and it looks great.  The rest of the place is, well, evolving.  Now -- back in the kitchen again -- I'm looking for turquoise, silver, and gold.  The idea is to have whimsy and warmth in the room, a home that hugs me with its color.

I put the kabosh on white walls a long time ago, started down a more colorful path of home decor that I've found to be very satisfying.  I'm wobbling down the path right now, full of ideas, trying to keep my eyes on the goal.  Could be awhile though if today is an indicator.