Its love for Danville that keeps Carla Minosh and Tom Belles going on a 20-year journey of refurbishing their Victorian home on Millionaires Row.

Insanity? Minosh quips when asked what compels them to continue on their never-ending quest to make the perfect work of art.

The four-story, 146-year-old home sits at 878 Main St.

Depending on your imagination or mood, visiting the High Victorian, Gothic-style home can bring to mind the Addams Family or have you looking for Oscar Wilde to make an appearance.

High Victorian Gothic architecture features include towers, turrets, arched windows and a dark, heavy, brooding look about it, Minosh, a nurse practitioner, said.

Boasting about 20 rooms and more than 140 windows, the home was built in 1874 by Charles Sublett, who died in the 1880s.

The second owner, E.H. Miller, was a tobacconist and dry-goods merchant who married Subletts widow, Jennie. The home that Jennie also owned with E.H. Miller remained in the Miller family until Minosh and Belles bought it in 2000.

The couples priority at the time was to remove all the white paint.

It was painted white inside and out, Minosh said.

Getting rid of the white paint took years and entailed using a heat gun and dental tools, she said.

To step inside the stately red-brick home is to experience sensory overload, an elegant feast for the eyes.

The entrance includes a vestibule and stained-glass doors leading into a wide hallway with chandeliers, antique oriental rugs and stained-glass windows at the end.

An 1890s grandfather clock an original the couple bought from the Miller family stands against the wall to the left. An 1880s wooden credenza is on the other side of the hallway.

Its just pretty much for show, Minosh said.

Blue-green fabric walls with honeysuckle designs adorn the music room, which also contains furniture by Luigi Frullini, Minoshs favorite Italian furniture maker.

The room features a glass and crystal chandelier and a taupe and faded-green Russian-style Oriental rug.

In one corner, theres a rotating statue of Esmeralda with her goat, Djali, from Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The couple got the object from the Troy Public Library in Troy, New York.

One of the homes nine bathrooms has Turkish themes, with Turkish-patterned tiles that are diamond-shaped with squares in the middle. Black, dark green, brown, red, gold and white make up the color scheme.

The bathroom was pink, Minosh said, referring to yet another instance of taking a part of the house and making it their own.

Mark Joyner, president of the Danville Historical Society, praised Minoshs and Belles preservation efforts.

It adds to the commerce and history of downtown Danville, Joyner said. For every home that gets restored, it saves the beauty of what Danville originally was.

The couple simply adores the home and the community, said Belles, an attorney.

We love the house, the architecture, the area, Belles said between pauses during his work on the home. We have great neighbors and friends.

Belles and Minosh typically hold parties three or four times per year, which provide an opportunity for others to enjoy the home.

Lincrusta wallpaper, paper pulp made with linseed oil and pressed into a pattern, covers the walls of the dining room. The stenciled, hand-painted ceiling holds a 19th-century bronze chandelier from Henry N. Hooper & Co. in Boston.

A glass china cabinet holds Jennie Subletts china from the 1870s.

Minosh and Belles gutted the kitchen, which is done in a reformed Gothic style including the refrigerator doors.

We didnt want it to look too kitcheny, Minosh said.

They added a sunroom next to the kitchen in an area that used to be a porch. The red-bricked room has an object that was esoteric even during the 19th century a radiator cabinet used to keep food and plates warm.

Its an old-fashioned plate warmer, Minosh said.

The cast-iron, gun-metal gray item dates to 1874. The couple found it in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A second-floor bedroom carpet dates to the 1870s and has a burgundy, cream-colored and faded-green design. A bronze chandelier is decorated with Roman armor and buffalo figures cast into the object.

The bedroom also has a bookcase with books owned by the houses past residents old hardbacks of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, Lady Chatterleys Lover by D.H. Lawrence and other works.

When asked why they would spend so much money and time working on the home, Minosh answered with a question: Why not?

Its just a spectacular house, she added. It really deserves to have the spa treatment.

They have done a lot of the remodeling themselves, but hired contractors for work on plumbing, electrical and the etched glass, Minosh said.

Though theyve been working on the home for two decades now, there is still work to be done. They dont plan to stop anytime soon.

We hope to inspire people to do this because there are so many spectacular houses in this town that just deserve the same treatment, she said.

Tom Belles (left) and Carla Minosh have been refurbishing their home at 878 Main St. since 2000. The Sublett-Miller house was built in 1874.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.

The Sublett-Miller House, owned by Carla Minosh and Tom Belles, was built in 1874. The couple has been working to refurbish the home at 878 Main St. since they bought it in 2000.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.

The Sublett-Miller House, owned by Carla Minosh and Tom Belles, was built in 1874. The couple has been working to refurbish the home at 878 Main St. since they bought it in 2000.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.

The Sublett-Miller House, owned by Carla Minosh and Tom Belles, was built in 1874. The couple has been working to refurbish the home at 878 Main St. since they bought it in 2000.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.

The Sublett-Miller House, owned by Carla Minosh and Tom Belles, was built in 1874. The couple has been working to refurbish the home at 878 Main St. since they bought it in 2000.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.

The Sublett-Miller House, owned by Carla Minosh and Tom Belles, was built in 1874. The couple has been working to refurbish the home at 878 Main St. since they bought it in 2000.

Crane reports for the Register & Bee. He can be reached at (434) 791-7987.

Crane reports for the Register & Bee. He can be reached at (434) 791-7987.

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For 146-year-old Victorian home in Danville, a remodel 20 years in the making - GoDanRiver.com

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Chef Patrick Mohn in the kitchen at Santa Ana Caf at Tamaya, which recently underwent a $3.24 million renovation. (Amy Byres/Rio Rancho Observer)

RIO RANCHO Santa Ana Caf underwent a $3.24 million renovation to capture New Mexicos essence through its food, decor and head chef Patrick Mohn.

Mohn said the changes from the renovation have allowed him to connect even more to the caf.

Its easier to connect because it has evolved much like Ive evolved. When I was first starting out as a chef, I was cooking carne adovada, making tamales. Now the tamales may have a blue corn masa, or they may have truffle wild mushrooms. So, what were doing is its evolving the way I think of food, Mohn said.

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His personality can be seen from end to end of the restaurants new menus.

Much of the food is inspired by something that Ive eaten, and Ive really loved, he said.

One dish is inspired by his childhood. The Waldo Gulch Benedict is made with blue corn pancakes, something Mohn ate as a child.

This has always been a dream of mine to run this place. I have been a sous chef here before (and have) worked here and I love the connection to the indigenous cuisine while incorporating a lot of the New Mexican, Spanish colonial stuff. Growing up in that type of cuisine, I wanted to make my mark in it, but also elevate it, Mohn said.

Mohn wants to reintroduce people to the possibilities of what could be made with the three sisters of squash, beans and corn.

With this in mind, Mohn built the menus to encompass ancient cuisine with a modern twist, he said.

We talk about marrying the modern aspect of everything, along with the ancient cuisine; thats really what the place looks like, he said.

The renovation itself had this same approach.

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First, when you walk in, you should feel the expanse because, much like New Mexico, the views go on forever, but there are great points of interest when you look at the chandeliers, when you look at the beautiful pottery and baskets at the end of the dining hall there. You have to sense that this is a very big place, like New Mexico is, Mohn said.

This experience continues all the way to the back, where the buffet area has been modernized, he said.

Santa Ana Caf is first and foremost steeped in Native American culture, indigenous food and obviously so since we are on the pueblo. But the investment in remodeling in, and modernizing the kitchen equipment and dining room, buffet area, the stuff like that, is that modern approach to pre-contact food, he said.

The buffet area includes heated and iced tables to ensure food is always served at safe temperatures.

This improves the quality of the food and allows us to offer more variety and feel comfortable that it is always going to be at safe temperatures, Mohn said.

One thing Mohn worries about when going to a buffet is how long food has been out and whether it is being maintained at the correct temperatures.

Honestly, besides the fact that it is extremely beautiful, this is much safer for people to eat, Mohn said.

Another feature added was a year-round outdoor patio, equipped with ceiling heaters, fans and the ability to become enclosed with plastic walls.

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This space being as big as it is but also enclosed like this is very versatile, you know, its summer through winter, he said.

Mohn believes this outdoor space is perfect for large groups and team-building exercises.

So, when we have big groups that come in and they want to do team-building and stuff, this is the perfect space for us to do, like, a guacamole competition, he said.

This space is also used year-round for activities, Mohn said.

You can tell by the view, in the summertime, when youre out here for breakfast, or even dinner, youre going to have all these great activities just right outside of you while youre eating, he said.

The caf is at Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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Remodel provided updates, but Native influence remains - Albuquerque Journal

The Novi Home Show came to the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi from Friday to Sunday, January 24 to 26, 2020.

Hosted by the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan (HBA), the show featured virtually everything you might need for home projects and improvement and/or interior design, from kitchens to concrete to hot tubs.

"The Novi Home Show is the one-stop destination to find home improvement products and services for every type of project imaginable, decorating and landscaping exhibits as well as experienced businesses available for consulting or hire," the show said on its website.

The HBA is a nonprofit advocate for the home building industry including builders, remodelers, property owners, developers and suppliers to the single family and multifamily residential construction industry.

Brian Starrs, of the HBA and the show manager of the 2020 Novi Home Show, when asked howconsumers moods for home remodeling projects in 2020 are, said he felt optimistic.

"The Home Builders Association is very optimistic about the forecast," Starrs said. "

As a matter of fact, numbers have been trending upward as far as building permits and we know there's been definitely a large increase in remodeling and reconstruction and renovations on homes as well."

Exhibitors encompassedsiding professionals, landscapers, builders, kitchen and bathroom remodelers, waterproofing experts, countertop installers and basement refinishers, with exhibits includingkitchen and bath interiors, windows, doors, flooring and cabinetry.

WJR's The Inside Outside Guys, also broadcasted live from the show on the WJR Stage Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon and featured talks with many of the exhibitors.

Greg Elston, a Fenton resident, andEric Butts, a Holly resident, had achimney sweep exhibit at the show.

When asked what the optimism is for people to improve their homes, Butts said they were trying to get people to be more efficient with their energy usage.

"We are trying to get people (to) lower emissions on their home into the atmosphere and trying to keep up with all of the standards that are going on right now," Butts said.

"Gas is a newer thing. People are getting into really efficient wood burners that are capable of heating a substantial portion of the home."

Laurie Smith from TLCs Trading Spaces was this year's show's featured speaker.

She spoke on Friday at 4 p.m., Saturday at noon and Sunday at 11 a.m. on the Inspiration Home Stage, which presented educational and fun seminars focusing on home design and organizing for the duration of the show.

She spoke about how to save money, time and stress on all types of big and small home projects.

Smith discussed color, pattern and furniture layout, sharing pictures from her personal home renovations, including before, during and after pictures.

Prior to speaking Smith said she was excited to present at The Novi Home Show, where she will discuss her process from evaluating the bones of a room to placing the final accessories.

Sponsored by The Detroit News Homestyle section,Participants could also enter online to win a VIP experience with Smithon Saturday, January 25 from 9 to 10 a.m., which featured coffee, tea, breakfast snacks and an informal consultation.

Five winners also received a signed copy of Smiths book, "Discovering HomeFind Your Personal Style", as well as two tickets to the show.

I like to remind people that their home is a reflection of their soul, Smith said.

Surround yourself with objects of art and accessories that move you and bring you joy. Treat your home as though you are a curator and not a decorator. If one can truly embrace that, there are no mistakes.

Others speaking on the Inspiration Stage included:

Located near the Inspiration Stage at The Novi Home Show, in booth 945, home design professionals and experts from the AISDoffered free 15-minute consultations to event-goers.

Thechapters display at their booth featured a cozy home office showcasing Sherwin Williams color of the year Naval (a dark navy), a complete living room and a dramatic, glammed-up sitting room.

Participants were offered a chance to help with the display by visiting the Novi Home Show's Facebook page.

Event-goers could also enter into the"Cabinet Comeback" contest, sponsored by Great Lakes Ace Hardware and My Local Pros.

One lucky winner received$500 worth of project materials for a DIY cabinet refinishing job from Great Lakes Ace Hardware, plus $200 of service or materials from My Local Pros.

Brought to the show byKids Gotta Play, the event also featured a family fun area with activities for children and families, such as bouncy-houses.

Sponsors for the Novi Home Show included The Home Depot, WJR, Great Lakes Ace Hardware, the CW50, Bigby Coffee and ABC Warehouse.

Free samples of Bigby Coffee was offered to Home Show participants.

The show ran from 2 to 8 p.m. on Friday, 8 to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Admission was $10 for adults 13 and older, $9 for seniors 55 and older and free for children under 12.

Admission did not include parking fees.

Tickets could be bought online at brownpapertickets.com and were good any day of the show, but could also be bought at the door.

A special "$5 after 5" deal on admission was offered on Friday and Saturday, with tickets discounted to $5 after 5 p.m. each day.

While show-goers were encouraged to buy tickets in advance online, advance tickets were not eligible for the "$5 after 5" deal.

Event-goers could also register to win free tickets to the show if they bought tickets online in advance and $2 coupons were available through the event's website.

A "buy one, get one" offer on admission was also available online on the show's social media pages.

Other coupons for admission were also available at Great Lakes Ace Hardware store locations, Biggby Coffee stores, the Detroit Newspapers Homestyle and SaveOn publications.

Many attended the show hoping to get advice or find solutions on their home improvement projects.

One homeowner, who asked not to be identified, when asked what brought him to the show, said he wanted some ideas.

"I am looking at a couple of projects for around the home and want to have some ideas," he said.

For a complete schedule of events and other information, see the show's website.

For more information on the show, visit the Novi Home Show's websiteor visit their Facebook page. Or, check out the event page on Facebook.

Information can also be found on social media under the hashtag,#novihomeshow.

Or, to check out videos on home and garden shows in Novi like this one, visit Novi Home & Garden Shows on Youtube.

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Novi Home Show comes to Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi - The Oakland Press

In July the previous year, the United States Reserves Secretary Steven Mnuchin took to the platform in the White House conference room to clarify his opinion on the hazards of so-called numeral, or cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, have been demoralized to back billions of dollars of illegal actions, stated the secretary. A lot of companies have tried to use cryptocurrencies to back their harmful conduct. This is certainly a nationwide security concern. Since then, the central government is unsuccessful to agree on any predominant strategy toward digital currency, resulting in supervisory doubt and specified aggression that is leading modernism away from the United States.

Steven Mnuchin was very precise: The developing riot of digital currency is a nationwide security concern. However, the issue is that his methodology to digital currency may initiate modernization into the hands of China, the foremost national security challenger of the United States.

Xi Jinping, the president of China has transformed the digital currency into a major innovation objective for China. For instance, in October 2019, 3 months after Steven Mnuchins White House declaration, Xi Jinping expressed to his team that they have to take blockchain as a vital innovation for self-governing innovation, simplify the key directions, raise investment, and speed up the growth of blockchain.

Almost directly after this announcement, the National Peoples Congress obediently passed a different cryptocurrency rule to begin the framework for a controlling government for a Chinese domestic digital currency. This Chinese digital currency, labeled as digital yuan, is prepared for experimentation, as stated by the Peoples Bank of China.

While Washington emphases on if to permit digital exchange in the United States commercial system, or to say that China is clearly progressing. The view of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leading this developing monetary technology should be shocking.

More here:
A digital remodeling is a requirement for the greenback - Industry Herald 24

Q: Since were remodeling our master bathroom, I thought Id put my creative side to the test. I want it to be a relaxation room as well as a bathroom, highlighted with a soaking tub. Can you guide me with some soaking tub info?

A: Soaking tubs are usually smaller and deeper tubs that seat two people comfortably. Perfectly square or round shapes are the most popular choices.

There are some bells and whistles you can add to your soaking tub. In place of vigorous whirlpool jets, champagne-bubble massage systems can be a better soaking choice. Keeping the water warm is important as well. Look for tubs with built-in heaters. For visual relaxation, you can add soothing lights that slowly change water color.

Finally, some soaking tubs are wired for sound to gently vibrate the water Im sure that option will brings music to your ears.

Ed Del Grande:eadelg@cs.com. Ed Del Grande is a master plumber and contractor and is the author of the book Ed Del Grandes House Call.

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Add-ons help you relax, recharge in your soaking tub - Seattle Times

RIYADH: Saudi diners are still chewing over the Kingdoms move to end the long-standing legal requirement for restaurants to have separate entrances for males and families.

As a result of reforms involving 103 rules and regulations, manuals, models, and standards aimed at making life easier for citizens and visitors men and women no longer have to enter restaurants through separate doors.

Naif Al-Otaibi, general manager of public relations and media at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, said gender-segregation was now a matter of choice.

Its optional. We did not specify the number of entry points, so the investor is free to have multiple entry points and segregate (males from females) in their restaurant, he told Arab News.

Many restaurants and cafes in Saudi Arabia, including American coffee chain Starbucks, typically have separate sections for families (women on their own or accompanied by men) and males.

The AlShaya Group, operator of Starbucks, The Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Changs among others, has said it will end gender segregation in stores and eateries that were opened before the new rule came into effect.

We at Alshaya are planning to transform the old stores designs following the new desegregation law, but that will take place over the course of the next two years, the company told Arab News.

An employee at one of Starbucks gender-segregated outlets said maintenance contractors had recently conducted an inspection of the site with a view to commencing remodeling work. They will take out the wall that separates the male area from the families section, the staff member told Arab News.

They will also remove the signs at the entry points that say, families and males and merge the two separate sections.

Just a few years ago all of this was unthinkable in a very different Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom had a strict policy of not allowing women to dine in a restaurant without a mahram (male guardian). They would be turned away if they did not comply with the rule.

Recalling an incident that happened 20 years ago, D.K., a 37-year-old Saudi woman who wished to remain anonymous, said she found herself inside one of the white vehicles belonging to the religious police whose official job description was the prevention of vice and promotion of virtue.

She had been dining with her friends at a McDonalds restaurant without a mahram.

But D.K. is amazed by the changes that have taken place since, and said the ending of gender segregation in restaurants was a huge step forward for the Kingdom.

She praised King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for advancing womens empowerment by increasing their employment opportunities, enhancing the quality of their social life and expanding their personal freedoms.

While these steps might seem unimpressive to the average person in the West, cumulatively they were opening up the Kingdom in a big way, D.K. told Arab News, though she admitted that some conservative sections of Saudi society still wished to see the continuation of gender segregation in restaurants.

However, most restaurant owners were eager to move with the changing times.

Al-Amin Mahmoud, a 35-year-old father-of-four from Madinah, takes his family every weekend to a different restaurant. While in Jeddah on a short vacation, he faced a problem when he discovered that some restaurants did not have separate sections for males and families.

I respect that decision, but I did not feel comfortable. I knew that the decision had been implemented. However, for me, having grown up in a conservative family and society, it does not suit me, he told Arab News.

Father-of-three Habib Saleh, 41, said that businesses had the option to accept or reject the gender-desegregation decision.

This is akin to the decision to ban sheesha from restaurants. Many people objected, saying smoking sheesha was the main reason they frequented the restaurants in the first place. Some restaurants who implemented the rule naturally lost regular customers, which affected their revenue, he added.

Saleh pointed out that when considering applying the new rules, some business owners faced the same dilemma of having to be prepared to lose some customers.

It will take time before people get used to it. Of course, people will either reject it or be suspicious about it at first. And we have to keep in mind that some of the people who are objecting to this decision do not mind eating in mixed restaurants when they are abroad. So, there is some amount of contradiction.

We have to remember that the segregation rule was in force for more than 30 years, so dont think that people will accept it quickly, he said.

For his part, Abdulrahman Al-Harbi, an architect, believes implementing the desegregation law will improve the bottom lines of restaurants in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Harbi said not only would managing a restaurant become easier but construction bills would also shrink. I prefer open spaces. A good designer can provide clever privacy solutions to customers in different ways.

If we want to call ourselves a civilized society, we must get used to a mixed-gender environment, he added.

Abdul Aziz Al-Qahtani, the owner of Bicicleta Coffee Shop in Riyadh, said that since opening a new branch in the capitals U Walk, only one cashier counter was required.

We had customers coming in and asking for separate sections, but we have to keep pace with development, he said. This change in the law has reduced costs in many areas for us. Now we dont need two cashiers to serve a family section and a male section.

We also dont have to have large spaces any more to be able to divide it up into two sections.

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Yayoi Kusama's 'Brilliance of the Souls' comes to Saudi Arabia's AlUla - Arabnews

2. DIY painting

A bold statement wall can say the wrong thing to potential buyers if the workmanship is questionable. Streaky, chipped or low-quality paint can knock $1,700 off a homes sale price, according to Opendoor data that looked at home offers made from June 2018 to June 2019.

A good paint job is not easy, says Sarah Cunningham, a real estate agent with Ethos Design + Remodel in Boise, Idaho. It is all in the prep work, and most people dont want to do the prep work. Hiring a professional to paint can help ensure a more attractive result.

3. An expanded master suite

Knocking down a wall to create an oversize master bedroom or stealing closet space to build out a spa-style bathroom may sound dreamy. But how about as a selling point? If you go from five bedrooms to four, and you can make it work, no big deal, Arienti says. But he cautions that losing a bedroom in a smaller house could mean a lower selling price.

As for cutting into closet space, residential building codes dont mandate that bedrooms have closets. But, Arienti says, Once you take the closet out of a bedroom, to a buyer, that no longer looks like a bedroom.

4. Plush wall-to-wall carpeting

Carpet can be especially unattractive to first-time home buyers, who may be used to landlords updating carpet between renters, de Jong says.

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5 Home Improvements That May Not Pay Off When You Sell - STLtoday.com

JANUARY 26, 2020

IN 1908, HENRY JAMES pronounced that the house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million, consisting of apertures, of dissimilar shape and size. About 15 years later, Willa Cather took up the metaphor again but replaced those airy, asymmetrical windows with the tchotchkes of realist description. For her, the attempt to capture real life in words inadvertently crowded it out, like the towering stacks of newspaper in a hoarders home: How wonderful it would be if we could throw all the furniture out of the window [] all the tiresome old patterns, and leave the room as bare as the stage of a Greek theatre, or as that house into which the glory of Pentecost descended. Boring novels are overcrowded with cleverly worded approximations of what it feels like to live, but great ones have the good sense to leave the best bits off the page.

Though the metaphor is now a little tired, Rachel Cusks new essay collection, Coventry, flips it over to articulate her own desires for writing. In Making Home, one of the books best essays, she imagines houses to be like novels, rather than the other way around. The piece follows the psychic as well as architectural turmoil that accompanies remodeling her flat in London, a project that throws out of balance the same life that shes ostensibly enhancing by undertaking the renovation. This forces her to consider whether, deep down, the creative destruction shes enacted carries a more thorough desire to destroy. She wants a better home and garden, but what if enhancing it, dignifying it, actually exposes a deeper problem? What if what I really wanted all along was to erase it?

It, in case you didnt catch it, isnt only the hardwood floors. Any reader even vaguely familiar with the expanded Cusk universe which to date consists of 10 highly acclaimed novels; three stunning memoirs; one very public divorce; and now Coventry, a book that collects the odds and ends of her occasional essays, reviews, introductions, and forewords will recognize that her writing and biography teem with such multilayered metaphors of renovation.

This isnt the first time that Cusk has turned to household infrastructure to ponder the casualties of self-reinvention. Transit, the second novel in her Outline trilogy, follows the narrator, Faye, as she remodels a London flat eerily similar to that in Making Home. Even earlier in Outline, the first novel of the trilogy, Faye adopts the metaphor to explain how family fights often hinge on who notices the smallest infraction of household decorum: [I]t was as though everything that had been inside was moved outside, piece by piece, like furniture being taken out of a house and put on the pavement. Like Cather, Cusk throws out the furniture, but instead of standing alone in the newly spacious interior she then walks to the curb and describes how everything landed. In fact, thats a workable metaphor for how Cusks novels differ from their early 20th-century ancestors: whereas the Jamesian novel is interested in the interiors of minds and family manors, Cusks works give us something like the novel of exteriority: they consist almost entirely of recounted talk and external description, so we judge the characters not by what they think but by how they look and what they say.

Or, in the case of Making Home, how they decorate. Even better, how they imagine themselves decorating, because that projection of a better future is the place where storytelling resides. Before she threw everything out, Cusk recounts how she would bring in visitors to describe what was going to be done to it and what it would look like, as though creating a home out of mere words. Later, she compares her ambivalence over creating a more comfortable living situation with the unpeopled showrooms of her childhood residence the unused drawing room, the study with its unread leather-bound volumes. Both, she concludes, are versions of storytelling: In their way these rooms were expressive works, attempts to perfect reality and hold it in an eternal moment.

Coventry is organized into three sections: six long-form, generally personal essays; four shorter essays that all circle around artistry and authorship, from Renaissance painting in the Italian town of Assisi to the contemporary creative writing workshop; and, finally, a miscellany of book reviews and introductions. It is a sturdy and worthwhile collection of previously published material, but it wont change anyones mind about Rachel Cusk. It will not convert any of the haters, nor will it leave any of her fans thinking that shes flown the coop. Thats not a bad thing for those in the pro-Cusk camp, who I assume will appreciate how the essays follow in the narrative and thematic footsteps of her most recent work. They approach their main topic obliquely, like the Outline trilogy, and yet they also offer moments of raw self-assessment (and occasionally condescending assessment of others) like A Lifes Work and Aftermath, her memoirs on motherhood and divorce.

In fact, Coventry might best be read as a publishers guidebook on Cusk Countrys dominant themes and narrative strategies something along the lines of the map of Yoknapatawpha that Malcolm Cowley requested for The Portable Faulkner. At the beginning of Lions on Leashes, Cusk does a little of this work herself, creating a laundry list of her recurring topics:

[T]he difficulties of continuing to create while bringing up two small children, the conflict between artistic and familial identity, the attempt to pursue your own truth while still honouring the truth of others, the practical and emotional complexities of motherhood and recently of divorce and single parenthood all these tensions were real, so real that sometimes their causes were difficult to locate.

The tension that colors every aspect of ones own identity and shared relationships but that is difficult to locate in language: that is the meat of Cusks most riveting work. Its true of the novels, which (as Merve Emre puts it) confront the mush of feelings and cast it into a hard, gleaming image for her readers to admire. And its true of the memoirs, which invoke previous literary treatments of bodily and familial transformation such as childbirth and divorce (in such disparate sources as Greek tragedy, the novels of Flaubert, and Dr. Spocks guide to dealing with colic) only to, like Cathers ideal novelist, burn down that whole tradition with her unblinking stare. If this is what you look for in Cusk, then Coventry delivers.

The essays exhibit a familiar rhetorical tic of her previous work, which is to lay out a counterintuitive claim only, in the next breath, to take the opposing position. But perhaps it isnt like that at all is one of Coventrys most characteristic phrases. In the opening essay, Driving as Metaphor, she uses the occasion of traffic jams in her rural town to ponder how the conflict between different drivers, as well as drivers and pedestrians and cyclists, exposes a peculiar difficulty in attaining objectivity. The essays use mundane topics like traffic, or airport security, or a home renovation to inquire into the nature of subjectivity, narrative, motherhood and daughterhood and authorhood. And the process of storytelling, of stringing together details to get from Point A to Point B without seriously maiming Person C, is the only available option for giving credence to multiple competing points of view to see through all of the windows, as James would have it.

Theres also plenty of the meticulous listening and subtly biting judgments of the Outline novels. On Rudeness, for example, hinges on several encounters with airport security (some told in the first person and others recounted from acquaintances) and closes by arguing for the place of politesse and manners when the uninhabitable earth reduces us to eating rats and tulip bulbs. A long, intricate passage in Lions on Leashes reads like the trilogy in miniature. It begins as a conversation among old friends about the ambiguous power imbalance between children and parents, who fight for control of their joint family narrative. As the children roll their eyes while the parents wax philosophic, the narrative abruptly shifts perspectives as Cusk takes over the language of her friend:

What is being controlled, she says, is the story. By disagreeing with it, you create the illusion of victimhood in those who have the capacity to be oppressors. From outside, the dissident is the victim, but the people inside the story cant attain that distance, for they are defending something whose relationship to truth has somewhere along the line been compromised. I dont doubt that my parents saw themselves as my hapless victims, as many parents of adolescents do (You have this lovely child, a friend of mine said, and then one day God replaces it with a monster), but to me at the time such an idea would have been unthinkable.

Part of the challenge and fun of reading Cusk is keeping track of who occupies the various yous and Is in passages like this one, where the lack of quotation marks makes it hard to tell where the different participants statements diverge. You have this lovely child really means I have this lovely child, but the I isnt the narrator; it might not even be the other person in the room with her. And, immediately after including the sentiment, she immediately refutes it, calling it unthinkable.

All of this is to say: Fans of Cusks prose and authorial perspective, her cutting wit and inimitable turns of phrase, will enjoy these essays. But those fans might be disappointed when they read Coventry because, chances are, theyve already read everything in it. An ungenerous reading might position Coventry as an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the now-complete novel sequence to extend the Cusk brand, as the marketing department might say. If so, fair enough, but for the reader looking for original material: be forewarned.

It is worth readingCoventrymore generously, though, andnot just because no one wants their own criticismalchemized, inCusks next novel, into a sublime portrait of their own limitations. Bringing these writingstogether under one roof, so to speak,showcases Cusk as one of the 21st centurys great novelist-essayists,which is no smalltask considering the proliferation of that category ofwriter.As many critics have noticed, the lastdecade saw a proliferation of W. G. Sebaldinfluencedessayistic novels, as well as a general embrace of the autobiographicalin literary fiction. TheOutlinetrilogy certainly fits that mold. Butthe same period also found a wide range of early-to-mid-careernovelists, such as Teju Cole, Ben Lerner, Chimamanda NgoziAdichie, Sheila Heti,and Uzodinma Iweala, who have embraced the essay as a genre with its ownhistory and expressivepossibilities separate from and even equal to the novel.WithCoventry,Cusk now clearly needsto be seen as a singular voice in thiscamp, too.

But this collection also makes some themes, such as the relationship between silence and narration, that travel in the lower registers of her fiction more apparent. In fact, in Coventry, silence emerges not as the opposite of narration but as an aggressive, and even maybe a uniquely feminine, kind of artistic gesture. Its there in the title essay: sending someone to Coventry, were told, is an English idiom for the silent treatment, and when her parents institute this punishment to her, as an adult, for the umpteenth time, she begins to understand it as a kind of cold war against her own version of their relationship: [W]ar is the end of point of view, where violence is welcomed as the final means of arriving at a common version of events. This leads her to see the variety of familial silences. Her husbands mumbling, a parent staring into the distance while her family walks ahead, her own parents cold shoulder, elderly couples eating silently at her local pub.

Initially this final silence terrified her, the thought that after all those years of joy and toil and creation, building a family story might end up running out of narrative steam: [N]othing or nothing palpable to look forward to. Thats silence as indifference to one another, as withdrawal from the common story. But, again with trademark circulation around an idea, she reconsiders: [P]erhaps what they represent is not the failure of narrative but its surpassing, not silence but peace. Its a rare hopeful moment in a collection and oeuvre to say nothing of the political and ecological season not particularly forthcoming with them.

But perhaps the most bracing and provocative version of silence arises when Cusk imagines it as a type of feminine creativity. In Shakespeares Sisters, an essay on Woolf, Chekhov, and Lessing, she hypothesizes about what womens writing (her scare quotes) would look like given the same support as men a room of ones own, total control of content and zero concern over domesticity, equal pay. Looking back at her favorite woman writers, as well as nonwoman writers who imagine female creativity, she sees that a woman writer [] is more likely to produce silence than what we would recognize as narrative. Which brings us back to that shared fiction of a house because, as Cusk tells it, those manicured, lifeless rooms of her childhood told me something about the person my mother who created them. A home is powered by a womans will and work, and [] a curious form of success could be measured in her ability to suggest the opposite. Its a vision of female writing that, as she says of Chekhovs representation of gendered silence (echoing Adrienne Richs conception of nonuniversal female writing), does not consider the female in terms of the male and hence does not expect womens writing to follow the same expressive outlets as mens writing. For Coventry to convey such resonances across its eclectic content is justification enough of its excellence. The rest is noise.

Donal Harris is an associate professor in the department of English and director of the Marcus Orr Center for the Humanities at the University of Memphis. He is the author of On Company Time: American Modernism in the Big Magazines.

Originally posted here:
Renovating the House of Fiction: On Rachel Cusk's Coventry - lareviewofbooks

In 2015, Ashley Moore and her husband traveled down a quaint street in a private neighborhood just outside of Tomball, Texas, northwest of Houston. Old oak trees lined the road creating a canopy above, sprinkling soft-dappled light below as the couple peered out at the gorgeous five-acre lots leading up to each of the four home sites in the idyllic countryside hamlet. When they pulled up to the classic Southern home, Ashley was immediately smitten with the large porch spanning the width of the faade. And although the interiors were dark and dated, Ashley saw beyond the ornate, old-school cosmetics to the fabulous bones beneath, and she felt a calling to breathe new life into this home through a renovation.

I have always loved to design and decorate, but this was my first house to remodel. I saw so much potential the first time we toured it. Thankfully, my husband trusted my vision for the home because we bought it! Two days after we closed on the house, we started the demo, Ashley says of the project that lead her to launch her dream business, Moore House Interiors.

I love how this room incorporates the brick from the exterior into the interiors through the traditional mantel, says Ashley. Image: Grace Laird

Ashley shiplapped the entire master bath and painted it white to make the space feel bigger. Image: Grace Laird

I love the soft gray cabinets; theyre a bit unexpected but add warmth to the room, says Ashley. Image: Grace Laird

Ashleys main goals were to update the interior and exterior, bringing to life her take on an upscale classic Texas farmhouse. When we moved in, my main objective was to transform the house into a home, says Ashley. We wanted to brighten up the house while creating a space that reflected our family.

RELATED:A Lake Martin Home Gets A Makeover

First, she knew that paint would completely transform the dark faux finishes in the master bedroom and dining room, as well as the red-painted walls and dark cabinets in the kitchen and breakfast room. She also had two other must-haves: hardwood floors throughout the first floor and new kitchen windows that opened up to the back of the property.

I just love the fact that our home really reflects us as a family. It combines my husbands love for rustic design, and my love for antiques, without being too fussy, says Ashley. I hope that everyone who enters it feels like they are at home, too. Image: Grace Laird

Our master bedroom catches my breath every time I step foot in it, says Ashley. Image: Grace Laird

Everyone says that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and ours really is, says Ashley of her favorite room in the house. Its where we spend the majority of our time, and it functions so well for our busy family. Image: Grace Laird

My husband thought I was crazy for wanting new windows since the kitchen already had decently sized windows in good shape, but I imagined washing dishes and watching the kids play in the backyard through counter-to-ceiling windows. The move paid off with a breathtaking wall of windows that brings the outside in. This spacious kitchens soothing palette sets the stage for relaxation and togetherness after long, busy days. Use the slider to check out the pre-renovation before photo to see what a stark contrast it offers! (Before: MooreHouse Interiors; After: Grace Laird)

The overall aesthetic is airy and sophisticated, an elegance that is beautiful, but not untouchable a Houston farmhouse renovation with an inviting ambiance that feels laid-back and comfy for both children and adults.

For example, just off the elegant kitchen an uber-functional and chic mudroom area doubles as a spot for dad and the kids to drop their day-to-day stuff at the door, while a built-in dog kennel offers respite for the pups below.

Nearby, the laundry and crafting room boasts neat little homework stations for the kids, just within earshot of the kitchen, so Mom and Dad can help if needed.

I love the functionality of this space, says Ashley of the hallway mudroom. We use it every single day its a place for the kids to store their backpacks, baseball gloves and shoes. Image: Grace Laird

The dog kennel is the perfect drop spot for my husband to unpack his pockets at the end of the day and a cozy space for our dog to sleep at night, says Ashley. Image: Grace Laird

We have tons of built-in storage in this room, and since it was so large, it made sense to convert it into a homework area for the kids, says Ashley. Image: Grace Laird

RELATED:This is NOT Your Typical Modern Farmhouse

The modern, family farmhouse features rustic beams, shiplap in several rooms, and reclaimed wood in the study. I like to describe my home as casual and collected, says Ashley of her layered design approach. I love new functional pieces, but my favorite items in our home are those that have been passed down to us or vintage pieces I discovered at local antique stores and flea markets.

The living room is a perfect example: a framed transom window, which was a treasure saved from her in-laws home remodel, doubles as meaningful art. My Paw-Paw put the frame on it so we could use it in our home, says Ashley. And the side table next to the couch is another heirloom that belonged to Ashleys husbands grandmother.

Our dining room table was made by a family friend, and the wood he used came from a barn in my mothers hometown, says Ashley. The dining room also houses her milk-glass collection and the familys heirloom piano. Image: Grace Laird

In the study, Ashley replaced a desk nook under the stairs with a reclaimed wood wall housing a secret built-in gun safe, a surprise for her husband on their fifth anniversary, and a fitting backdrop for his hunting trophies. Image: Grace Laird

The framed transom window was a treasure salvaged from her in-laws home remodeling project. It was the perfect addition to her Houston farmhouse renovation. Image: Grace Laird

Ashley loves the antiques she was able to incorporate into their living room. The side table next to the couch belonged to my husbands grandmother, she says. We stripped it down to the natural wood to blend it with our decor. Image: Grace Laird

As for found treasures, The living room chairs were actually $10 flea market finds! I loved the shape, so I refinished the wood before sending them off to my upholsterer, says Ashley, adding, Theyre definitely my favorite chairs in the house.

Ashleys favorite elements of the stunning great room are the vaulted tongue-and-groove ceiling layered with reclaimed beams, the Austin Stone fireplace, and all the natural light. Image: Grace Laird

This is the familys casual, everyday dining space. It features an antique farm table and big windows that are perfect for keeping an eye on the little ones while they ride bikes or play basketball, says Ashley. Image: Grace Laird

Though creating her dream home through this Houston farmhouse renovation felt like one huge, yet exhilarating risk, it offered an invaluable learning experience that provided a launchpad for Ashleys dream interior design business. She was also quick to credit the contractor from Stillwater Builders as a terrific teacher who also instilled great confidence in her as she brought new ideas to the table.

I loved every moment of designing this home I was in my element while remodeling this house, and the whole process lit a spark in me. I truly believe God used this home to guide me to the path Im on now. If it werent for this remodel, I think Moore House Interiors would still just be a dream, says Ashley. People often ask if I could do it all again, would I do anything differently with the design? And my answer is no I love this house. It just feels like us.

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Check Out This Beautiful Farmhouse Renovation - StyleBlueprint

When Somia Mourad first walked into the Kenwood home that she would buy, she saw dark-stained oak woodwork mixed with white woodwork on much of the main level. In the kitchen, three different wood finishes fragmented the space.

The house had clearly gone through a ton of renovations, Mourad said. Though the work had been done with care and had been maintained well, she wanted a more cohesive look. So even before she, her husband, Keith Bush, and their two daughters moved into the 1891 three-story, painters were summoned. The fireplace mantel, centerpiece of a gracious living room, went from a dark oak stain to white enameled paint so that it would match the shelves on either side, which were already white. Beams in the ceiling got the same treatment. Wood panels in the dining room, which is open to the living room, also got coats of white paint.

Like many of todays home buyers, Mourad and Bush prefer the sleek, clean look of white enameled woodwork. But their experience also speaks to the conundrum of sellers considering whether to paint their woodwork in order to sell a house more quickly. Many buyers are seeking a move-in-ready home that reflects the modern aesthetic of clean white woodwork. But some homes, especially Craftsmans and Victorians, can dazzle with stained wood.

Mourad said she fell for her house the moment they walked in and saw the wood door that led to an entryway with delicately detailed woodwork.

The entryway was so warm just stunning with intricate carvings on the wood banister at the staircase; I didnt want anyone to touch it, Mourad recalled. She kept that nod to the history of the home, even as the painters set to work on other parts of the house.

Sometimes a home shows best when it remains true to character. The oak beams and other wood accents of Craftsman-style bungalows, for example, help make those homes distinct.

You wouldnt change the color of a classic car, even if its a little funky, and sometimes you shouldnt paint the woodwork of a house, said Ruth Whitney Bowe, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Burnets Minneapolis Lakes office.

In midcentury modern homes, wood paneling and other details can warm up the clean lines. In Victorians, intricate woodwork can speak to the homes original era and can also be expensive to paint.

In addition to the style of the home, competition is another factor.

If a home is in an area surrounded by other homes with wood cabinets in the kitchens, there may be no need to turn the woodwork white, Bowe said. But most often, white woodwork helps a house sell.

Millennials love white

Jayne Morrison of Morrison Interiors in Plymouth is a designer and stager who helps people ready their homes for the marketplace.

Millennial buyers want white woodwork, she said. If we are staging for a young family in a neighborhood of young families, it is advisable to have woodwork painted white.

Thats especially so for owners of homes built in the 1980s with the golden oak woodwork that was popular during that era.

If you are in a 1980s house and you have a lot of that golden oak woodwork, [painting it white] will help sell your house faster, she said.

Morrison is seeing a generational shift as she works with homeowners on design.

Baby boomers love woodwork, she said. Millennial clients say they want an estimate for painting everything white. It is quite pricey, but often they go ahead and do it. They want that total white woodwork look.

Whether it is sellers or new homeowners hoping to create a space they adore, the decision to paint is often based on that bad word that starts with b: budget, Morrison said. When clients decide to do the painting themselves to save money, she suggests they start in one room and see how it goes before tackling the entire house.

Painted woodwork is a fresh look, she notes, and its been going strong since 2010. In recent years, she has seen the white warming up a bit, shifting to warm gray.

When Mourad got around to remodeling her kitchen and ridding the space of three different wood finishes, in fact, a designer suggested that she paint the center island gray to contrast with the white paint elsewhere in the kitchen and the home. Mourad declined, preferring to keep the look cohesive. Plus, she said, I knew I would never tire of white.

And she hasnt. Now when I walk into the house, I feel peaceful, uplifted, happy. There is a lightness and a calm, she said. It is amazing how much woodwork impacts the feel of a home.

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Tackling a controversial question: Should you paint the woodwork white? - Minneapolis Star Tribune