Stockton, CA
This project is mine. After losing my husband, I couldn’t stay in our big house with its big yard and all its memories. I sold it and bought a 1935 two-bedroom, one-bath cottage in Stockton’s Caldwell Village. It had spent years as a neglected rental and needed everything: plumbing, electrical, insulation, HVAC. It took me two months before I could even walk through the door. Then I got to work.
We cleared the overgrown yard, gutted the kitchen and bathroom, and spent three months replacing every mechanical system. I restored the original hardwood, sanded and stained white, and had every wall insulated and finished in smooth new sheetrock.
Two-tone cabinets in Sherwin Williams Rocky River and Cardamon-stained white oak, Bosch appliances, white marble counters, and Mediterranean star-and-cross tile. The old dining nook became my home office.
Floral wallpaper climbs into the coved ceiling, framed in Ripe Olive green, above the original rock fireplace with its new plastered hood. In the bathroom, I stole a hall closet for space, flipped the toilet and shower, wrapped it all in marble, and papered one wall in black-and-white faces because a house should make you smile.
This little house taught me firsthand what I tell every client: a home can carry you through the hardest chapter of your life. Read the whole story on the blog, or learn more about me. Starting your own next chapter? Tell me about it.
