House Art Journal

Joshua Michael July 26, 2001-July 8, 2006 so very much missed.

One part of Mark and Gretchen's renovation was their adding on a full basement beneath their great room for the kids' hangout. Instead of the usual cinderblock walls, they used materials for the construction and finishing that remind you more of an old inn or mead hall than a holding cell. Salvaged barn beams, "Z" doors, wide board paneling, and a scavenged tavern sign, as well as a pool table and lots of toys, provide a rambunctious setting for their kids, cousins, and friends. The porch in front of the walk-out basement (also the facade of their house) is trimmed with salvaged barn beams and features a massive retaining wall of old mill stones. One has the date of the original building carved into it. The "Z" door (typically used for barns) leading upstairs to the great room is made of hefty timber. Lots of storage for kid stuff. The walls have wide-board paneling which echoes the massive beams of the room. Note the John Paul II poster in the cente...

When a large family who's lived with one bathroom for years finally gets a second one, it's time to celebrate, especially if your oldest kids are just about to become teenage girls. And if you have a lot of kids, you might just start using the bathroom even before it's finished! I loved how Gretchen painted the kids' bathroom blue (it's a boys' bathroom too) but feminized it with a purple shower curtain and shag rug. You can see it's a work in process: a utility sink stands in for a standard vanity (though maybe it's so useful they're going to keep it!), wiring and tiling still need to be done. But the bathroom is thoroughly functional even in its partially-done state: skylights bring in natural daylight, a pocket door separates the shower/toilet from the vanity area, bath toys are stashed in empty ice-cream buckets, and stacks of beach towels (love that idea!) keep things cheerful even while the "under construction" phase continues.

One of the first things Mark did to rennovate the house was to add on a massive, two-story-high great room, using beams and trusses from an old barn he and his family had disassmbled. The room uses old and new wood together for fasciating contrast (we did the same in our house, though not on as grand a scale), with curious objects displayed throughout, everything from a deer's head (Mark is a hunter) to old tools to salvaged blue bottles to a silver sword. Mark created a hexagon out of small triangular scraps of wood when he was first married (I think, using pieces left over from his San Damiano cross business): years later he set it in the floor in front of the fireplace as a pa rquet inlay. The ample glass windows in this room give a view out into the valley and the woods. Gretchen furnished the room with a few sets of vintage couches and chairs, which are easy to come across in Steubenville (the town is a treasure trove of antiques from the Steel Boom of the last century). The r...

This is, I believe, the unofficial name of my husband's sister's family house. Their house is in the midst of one of the most amazing before-and-after stories I've yet to see. When I was dating my husband, he lived at this unassuming house, whose cement block foundations sidled up against an Ohio valley while its modest frame upper story clung to the sides of one of the surrounding hills. Over the past thirteen years, his sister's family (who, I must brag, run Nelson's Woodcraft and CatholicPosters.com ) bought it and proceeded to expand it for their large and growing family (Gretchen just had her seventh baby barely a week ago). I took some photos to document how this wallflower of a house is becoming a beauty in her own right, thanks to Mark's artistic eye, his skill with wood, and Gretchen's patience.

Thanks to the wonder of recordings, American culture is saturated with music. For better or worse, Americans are a musical people, and although most of us don't make our own music on a regular basis, a good percentage of us try. And (probably the one benefit of celebrity worship) musical ability is still largely admired and coveted - most Americans would like to be proficient in singing or playing an instrument, and this generates millions of music lessons, thousands of instruments sold yearly, and hundreds of American Idol auditions. When we moved to our new house, we had a housewarming party where we invited a local homeschool family who has a bluegrass band, The Woodhouse Band, to entertain. They came gladly, and "sang for their supper" -- they brought music instead of a potluck dish. It was a wonderful party, and the beginning of a warm partnership. Now we regularly invite them and other musical friends to our parties, and what a joy it is to have them! There is some...

I love how a simple square of old bricks and a park bench tranforms a stretch of lawn into an outdoor room. I love how, at Oliver Hill, there are places for adults to sit, children to play, goats and chickens to roam, and a bonfire to burn. And as usual with Molly's home, there are little unique touches: the wind chimes in the tree near the goat tethers, and a large marble statue of Our Lady amid the flowers by the front door, which I dubbed "Our Lady of Freecycle ," since that's how Molly acquired it. (The man who was offering it said, "I don't think it will fit in your car," and Molly and her husband immediately responded, "Oh, we'll make it fit!") (Which goes to prove once again my observation that in America, you can get almost anything for free if you are in the right place at the right time!)

One of the reasons I decided to blog about interior decorating was that so many of the gorgeous homes in home magazines look as though a child has never set muddy foot in them (you can tell the immaculate toddlers looking at books on the pure white couches were deposited by helicopter into the scene moments before the flash went off). I prefer homes where you can tell that children dwell, and since the modern mentality sees children and house beauty as basically incompatible, these sort of photo stories are rare. I also think the presence of children brings out creativity and beauty in homeowners. As one example, I love how Molly has made "valances" out of her children's artwork, a constantly-changing display that adds so much cheer to the sunroom.

We just returned from vacation, during which time we visited friends and family, and I couldn't resist taking some pictures of house beauty for my blog... Our friends the McGoverns have moved onto a farmette in Ohio with a tiny old house. Their property is christened Oliver Hill, after their tiny son who died of SIDS last year. (they also run Oliver Hill Home Health Care .) The house on the property is a renovation project, but I was impressed by how Molly has decorated it for their family of five children. Their house is small, and despite some unusually fine wood detailing that gives cottage charm; it has (like a typical cottage) low ceilings and small windows. The pine trees around the house keep its interior in shade. So how does Molly keep her house bright and cheerful? With a vigorous and generous use of red. Red is a strong color, usually used as an accent. Since Molly's house is small with rooms flowing into one another, she kept the color scheme consistent throughout ...