The architecture, the design, and the gossip…
Welcome to ‘the Colorado Life…’ Dream Denver, my real estate brokerages tagline. This is my story of taking on a six story townhome to renovate and design. This story starts with me attempting to hire someone to help me design the home. You can read more about how that went at “Two Creative minds“.
This home should have been an absolute masterpiece. An architectural feat that stood out in the neighborhood. It could have changed the landscape of the community. Sadly it was developed at the start of the housing/market crisis. When the foundation and walls were put up, around the end of 2006, the home was basically abandoned for about a year until it was finished at the end of 2008 / beginning of 2009. Originally the project was being developed by a group of investors. They all walked away from the project except for one person. He bought the project out and attempted to finish it. ‘Attempted’ is the keyword as the homes, though finished, had so many issues they needed to be taken to the shell and put back together. From the start of the development project it was inundated with issues and lawsuits. The developers tried to hide the fact that the foundation was tied into a condominium immediately next door. The condominium eventually won that suit and they had to change the FOUNDATION of the townhomes.
After we purchased the townhome we found out that the developers son-in-law was developing six additional townhomes immediately next to our property. The units were roughly 50% complete before we purchased. I just did not realize it was the same developer. My thought is if you could not finish the first three, why would you start six more units! lol. Well my thought process was correct. Come to find out the son-in-law had forged numerous signatures on loan documents to start the project. Not just on the actual owner of the property… because the son-in-law did not have permission to develop the property at all. He forged documents with our neighbors information (a tenant the developers had living in one of the triplex units we just purchased). So, the son-in-law not only stole the land out from under his wife’s father, without the father knowing. The man also forged the father’s signature on loan documents including signatures from a tenant they were renting to. The son-in-law actually received a loan and started building!!! They were probably 85% complete when everyone found out and the project was seized! Of course the daughter divorced this man and he went to prison…You just cannot make this shit up.
When we purchased the property we knew it needed TLC (tender, love, and care). Though it was a nice home as-is and we could do the work overtime… or so we thought. A year after moving in we had the “flood of 2016”. Four stories of this home were flooded by a coupling (a metal piece to join to plumbing pipes) failing. The pipe disconnected while I was not home and 7000 gallons (roughly 26,500 liters) of water was pushed through our home. That is the amount of water that was sucked out by vacuums. Just for reference that is about 2000 gallons (or 7500 liters) less than what is in a 40 cubic meter swimming pool. The destruction was swift and so was the demolition crew that worked through the night and started the next morning. Within a day all the damaged sheetrock, wood flooring, carpet, tiles, furniture, etc… was all out of the home. That was the quick part. It took another year and a half to put this home back together. If you have ever done work in Italy, you know everything and everyone is all about “piano, piano” but this was the US and this construction company and crew, were just god awful. A total shit show for project managers too. I remember their name and it wouldn’t matter even if I did announced them, which I will. The construction company filed bankruptcy for being sued multiple times (from my understanding) and then started business under a new name… but I do remember the owner very vividly. Stay away from Brandon Clapp in or around Denver or any version of Metro-Construction. (update: the name may still be the same. You can google him)
After the major flood – the home did actually get what it needed (minus a new roof). The plumbing was updated. The electrical was updated. the floors and walls were redone. Basically everything I needed to turn this home into a showpiece. I could finally start putting the home together!
I fell in love with this space all over again. The home worked as a series of layers, almost like a Jenga puzzle. Starting with the outer blocks of the Jenga puzzle this was the exterior walls. The walls were held up by a large steel structure towering 6 stories in the air. One of the things I loved about this property is that I also owned the air rights to the building and you had potential to expand vertically… as if 7000 sqft (650sqm) isn’t big enough for a single family home. Though if the right developer came along they could have also purchased all three units and built a condominium or apartment building.
Once you were inside the first layer of the Jenga Puzzle ( you entered the home on floor two), standing at the entryway you saw the middle layer. With the Jenga puzzle, imagine someone had removed the center pieces. Looking up was what appeared to be a Floating floor. The floors held in place by what looked like 4 small cross-beams that went into the exterior frame. They were actually large steel beams. Though covered in sheetrock the beams looked almost insignificant. In the image to the right, you can see from the upper roof looking down on to the main floor. This shows you how open the home was.
The interior space did not have many load bearing walls. Two in the middle of each floor. The weight load was all held on the exterior frame with a centralized staircase that wrapped around an elevator shaft. The main floor was the dining room, kitchen, powder room, and main living space. The main living space had a 23 foot (7 meter) tall ceiling with a wall of windows overlooking our courtyard.
Our style choices have usually been a bit eclectic. We like to blend pieces we love together and mostly, ‘pray like hell’ I can find a space for the piece to fit. lol. Overall I like to keep my house a bit more elegant. I like rooms that are designed to be classic and timeless. I tend to like deep colors verses a solid white home. Though Solid white does have its place. I think elegance can be found in numerous different interior design styles. When it comes to labeling my style I am generally never sure of the proper ‘label’ though I am a big fan of interior design quizzes. If you are interested in your style take this quiz on modsy. Modsy labels me as a Rustic Traveler and based on the description, I would say it fits perfectly. If you follow my blog and store then you know I love to shop at antique markets and create one-of-a-kind pieces that you can also purchase from my shop (coming soon: August 1, 2022).
In our dining space ( my personal favorite room of the house) you can see all of my ‘rustic traveler‘ style come together. The dining table is from restoration hardware. It is no longer available in the store but you can find aftermarket pieces like this by searching “Restoration Hardware Reclaimed Wood Draftsman Dining Table.” One example of this table is found on Chairish. The dining chairs we choose are also from Restoration Hardware. I decided to only have chairs on one side of the table and a bench on the opposite because we had a large picture window facing an external garden. This garden was also in the front of our house facing the street. The captains chairs at each end of the table all came from Arhaus. They are “alice slipcovered dining chairs” that are no longer in stock either. Though, you can find similar versions by searching on google as well.
The rug is my travel find! This was imported from indian on one of our travels. It is made of 100% Cashmere and depicts the tree of life in small squares. The art on the walls are five Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec original screen prints (on the left). The main focal painting is a zebra painting by Luis Sottil. I loved the painting by Luis but it was to small for the area I wanted the painting in. After scouring through an antique store in Atlanta, GA, I found this stunning vintage frame. I decided this was the perfect find to enlarge the painting. I painted the wall black behind the zebra piece and added the frame. Then I hung the zebra painting in the larger frame. It gave the piece a much more grand appearance and dominance on the wall. All for less than $250 usd. We also loved to entertain and the addition of the Large brown paper roller on the wall was a place to write down the dinner menu for our guests (and me! because I always forgot what my husband was cooking. lol.)
I am a budget shopper at heart. I believe, you do not need expensive rugs and custom made couches with scalamandre fabric to decorate a home. Is it lovely if you have money dripping from your ass? absolutely! We may have had a nice home but I see value in saving money where we can and I know I can make a beautiful home for pennies on the euro without turning my home into a museum.
On the third floor (or two for europeans) we had a library and a game room. The library held my personal favorite pieces of furniture that we own to date. The best part is the furniture was given to me by great friends after selling their home in Cherry Hills Village, CO. Sure I may have worked for the sale but the furniture was FREE! It was well worth it too. This sage green victorian couch and two chairs with its shabby chic appeal really clashed with everything I was doing in the home. Though it did not matter. It was love at first site – so I made it work! The tassels on the overstuffed feather pillows sent me to heaven! The golden guild on the arms and legs of the chairs was the perfect balance of glam and shabby chic paired with the old world style of the furniture… It was just meant for me! (My dogs loved it to – but that’s a fight I will have one day, once it moves into my future home).
The library also held family heirlooms. The antique bar against the wall held our ‘nice’ liquors and private glasses. I could not begin to tell you where this bar came from. The rug is an authentic cowhide. The table between the shabby chic chairs was inherited by my husband from his great, great grandmother. It was shipped to Stati Uniti from Italy as she moved to the US. On the table sat a tiffany lamp given to my husband from his mother as a birthday gift many years ago. We ended up bringing the octagon table with us on our move back to Italy, completing its circle and bringing it home.
The guest bedroom floor had two massive bedrooms with large ensuite bathrooms and closets. It also had the laundry room and mechanical room for the upper floors of the home. Each bedroom I had to decorate rather quickly. My husband loves to entertain (to a fault.) Our parents (my mother and step dad and his father) were all coming at the same time. So I went on a shopping spree from Homegoods and T.J.Maxx (T.K. maxx in the UK). I used extra rugs and furniture we had in other rooms and pulled these bedrooms together. What I loved about the ‘western room’ was my antler chandelier and red smoking chair. It didn’t belong in this modern townhome at all and neither did my victorian couch… again it did not matter! That smoking chair was one of my favorite pieces but sadly we ended up selling the chair when we left this home.
What I remember vividly about this room is one of my husbands favorite paintings. It looked very oriental to me and at the time I did not know the artist (oops). I just could not find a place for it. I am one of the people that says you design a room around art. He thinks art should stand on its own. I won this battle, of course, and placed the painting into the only room that had red in it. That painting is hidden in this photo but it is by Jean Claude Gaugy This painting is still crated in our storage unit from our move to Italy. It may be a few years before all of our stuff comes out of storage again. When it does I will add a photo!
The purple room and/or our second guest bedroom was so obnoxiously large.. I put two queen beds in this space to try and feel it up. It had a closet that rivaled the walk-in closet of the master bedroom. I have always thought “what in the hell is a child or guest going to do with this size space”. Luckily (I think) we don’t have children. Just the occasional guest that I can ship home… The walls were already a deep purple that I did not love but I could not bring myself to change. I used this as inspiration to design the room. White ralph lauren sheets (from T.J. Max of course), a grey fitted sheet for the “bedskirt”, and yellow accents. I found two woven yellow throws at a local store in Colorado. For a quick design on a low budget, I think it all fit together perfectly. The art on the left wall was actually a find in one of the homes I sold in Colorado as well. The buyer wanted it out, so I threw it into my car and the painting found a home in this room. ha. It is a cityscape of New York (one of the most magical places on earth for me). The art above the bed is a charcoal drawing from my college best friend, Bradford Coleman. This is one of his first works and I fell in love with it. I bought this work a number of years ago at his first gallery show.
The top floor was our master bedroom. Floor 5 was the entire master suit. This floor held the master bedroom, master bathroom, walk-in closet (with my amazing shoe wall), and office with a small kitchenette.
I completed this shoe storage with Ikea shelves for a little less than two hundred us dollars and a free saturday. The rug was a white lamb skin fur. ( No… it wasn’t faux.)
The master bedroom, I honestly felt I could not get perfect. I redecorated the bedroom three times. Each time while my husband was traveling for work. lol…Something about my master space was always changing. In the end, the design photographed below was my last effort. The curtains were deep navy dupioni silk, The bed frame was hand carved from indonesia and the large credenza was purchased in Colorado. Though the credenza had doors custom to it that are reclaimed from a castle in Italy (we brought this piece back home too). The gold painting is also a special piece… painted by ‘me’. I found the canvas in a storage unit from a home I was selling (working in real estate really paid off for me in Colorado). I took it home (with permission of course) and after adding a little texture to the canvas I spray painted it gold to finish. We placed white lambskin rugs next to the bed for a very luxurious feel when you wake up in the morning and roll out of bed.
The rooftop and garden is the last stop on this tour. Floor 6. We added a herb garden and an L shaped couch for enjoying the summer nights in Colorado
For anyone interested in our color choices: The paint was all by benjamin moore – The white walls were all called Lacey Pearl. The dark blue wall is called Newburyport Blue and the Paint color for the elevator shaft is Deep Ocean. The ceilings were all painted Simply white.
I think a home is a never ending project. I could live in a home for years and constantly make changes to my interior design choices. When I first started writing this, I thought, “wow I never really got to finish this home.” Now, looking back, I realized just how far I actually made it. I hope you enjoyed my design and story as much as I did remembering pulling it all together!
Ciao tutti!