Wednesday, December 05, 2007

A wonderful weekend

As part of our crazy November/December, we made our way back to LA for the first time since we moved, to celebrate our dear friend Stacy's 40th birthday. She and her husband Brett have been our ultimate DIY inspiration, having renovated something like 5 houses in the Los Angeles area in the past 6 years. They recently completed work on their magazine worthy, spanish hacienda in Altadena, and their beautiful home was an important backdrop to our wonderful long weekend. This was the first time I have had to just RELAX in a very long time. And while lazing around their pool, I felt refreshed and reminded of what we are trying to accomplish in the grand scheme of things with our home renovation. Sure, we want a nice house. Who doesn't? But beyond that, at the risk of sounding overly sentimental, we want to create a place for people to gather and connect. A place that everyone feels comfortable in. A place that brings our friends and family together. Being at Stacy & Brett's house, with all of our old friends, felt so fantastic, and I was blissed out the whole weekend. That is the atmosphere (unfortunately minus the pool) that we want to create in our home.

I don't have any of their before pictures, but I have lots of afters! (Forgive the crappy quality, because as usual, I forgot our camera. So I took all the pics on my phone.)

The beautiful custom kitchen:



I am totally coveting the farmhouse sink:



Kitchen view #2, with a little breakfast nook:



Chuck's favorite part of the house:



A built-in wine cooler will be a necessity in the Sennebryant house when we finally get around to the kitchen:



With a built in wine rack just above it:



How bad do I want a garbage drawer? It's the little things...



The shower in the master bathroom was a big inspiration, b/c we're planning on doing something similar in our master bathroom-in-progress:



I love the floor in the guest bath, which is original to the house:



And the big, wide staircase with the tall, narrow windows:



One of my favorite things about LA houses are all the details. This is a little phone nook at the bottom of the stairs:



The back door out to their yard, which is a fantastic spanish style courtyard surrounded by adobe walls (that they built!)



The patio that our room opened onto:



The pool was an afterthought. I can't imagine the yard without it!



This is a fantastic outdoor living room right beside the pool, where we spent most of our time. The outdoor living element in LA is one of the biggest things I miss.



It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend.

1 Comments:

At 2:40 PM, Blogger Jerry Zhang said...

You definitely did a great job designing with what you have!

 

Post a Comment

<< Home