Another Craftsman! This time from 1930. This one even came with a name, The Gale Cottage and we were gifted with a watercolor of the 1992 garden renovation plan of the property. As you can imagine, a depression era Craftsman isn’t as bells and whistles as its earlier counterparts, but this one had some elegance hiding behind its veil of dowdy gloom. This one needed love, lipstick and an attitude adjustment. The structure just kind os melted into its overgrown landscaping. Everything was dingy, dingy, dingy. We stripped off the carpeting and installed new lighter wood flooring throughout the house and ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. The living room was dominated by a huge dark brown red brick fireplace that had to be reined in. We tiled the front in a bright cheery tile and paneled the sides. The mantle was left its impressive self and painted to match the rest of the molding in the room. The kitchen had nice ten foot ceilings like the rest of the house, but the cabinetry was placed so low it looked caved in on itself. Instead of tearing it out, we built it up with customized shelving adding height (and hey, more storage!) and painted all the cabinetry a very nice lichen green so now everything soars upward. The bedrooms and bathrooms presented a difficult hurdle. All five rooms were interconnected through the two jack and jill bathrooms making the middle room into more of a public walkway, as it is also connected to the dining room. We decided to close off on of the bathrooms to that room, making it part of an ensuite primary bedroom. The two baths got new fixtures, tile and pizzazz. We fitted the back room of the house with three floor to ceiling windows and created a sun filled room that could serve as a family or breakfast room. It is now a happy home… and there’s no place like home!