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Storied Spaces S04E03
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00:01houses are more than shelter the second we walked through the threshold of the
00:09door we both looked up looked at each other this is it yeah this is the space
00:15we wanted to live in the light and we wanted to live in the landscape for us
00:23it was a way to sort of connect my roots and expose our children and continue
00:28that legacy from our parents we sort of fell in love with the place and each other at the same
00:36time
00:38this building it's a real landmark around here it's an unconventional house but it's pretty fun
00:48the fact is that houses are dreams they're an expression of who we are and what we believe in
01:04cornwall has its own identity and you really feel that when you're here it's a really special place
01:11and we're very lucky to live in this beautiful Georgian house you have a sea view out of practically every
01:19single room the light on the water changes throughout the day you're just drawn to the view
01:33my name is Bianca Fincham I live with my husband Nick and with my two children Benny and Maud and
01:39our dog Basil Pembroke Lodge is a classic Georgian house built in the 1790s the kids love this house
01:48it's very special to them Maudie was born here Benny's grown up here it's a real magical place for them
01:56this house has a very large entrance hall a large living room we have a kitchen playroom upstairs we have
02:05three bedrooms on the next floor we have a further two large bedrooms and then one bed guest house it
02:13used to be a double garage Bianca's from Cornwall when I and I just fell in love with the area
02:24when we
02:26moved in with no heating racks and mice in the kitchen yeah there was lots of tea towels in holes
02:33in the
02:34walls to stop the mice as you come into the driveway from behind the house the first thing you see
02:42is
02:42this gorgeous view and the seat conceived Newland Pier and they've just repainted it so it's bright white with
02:52the red top and then in the middle the crowning feature sent Michael's Mount which is the beautiful castle
03:00in the island the house would have been perfectly symmetrical but the last owner actually added an art studio to
03:07the
03:08side it has gorgeous Georgian windows they're so big and beautiful a historian actually come recently and said to
03:18us it's so rare to see a Georgian house this close to the sea when you enter the house you
03:25come into a large
03:26hallway which doubles as a dining room for special occasions and that's the view when we first saw the
03:34view it had a real impact on us it was quite magical it was very much yeah yeah really just
03:40you know took our
03:43breath away so lovely in the morning you can see the little fishing boats going out window seat is such
03:48a
03:48great position to sit and look out and it was such a wow factor when we came here we just
03:55couldn't get
03:55over that this could have been our house so we fell in love with it and we followed our heart
03:59when we
04:01bought the house all the windows and very very dark teak and we painted them all white which just lifted
04:07everything and we have these kind of cascading roses that makes everything look really beautiful and
04:12very english from the hallway to the right is the family kitchen and you're greeted by these very large
04:23windows we inherited this big skylight and there was some kind of big picture window actually it wasn't
04:30very in keeping with the house and it felt a bit kind of 80s so we put these doors on
04:36to match the
04:36georgia windows of the main house it's so nice to swing open these doors of an evening sit out
04:42there with the fire pit it's nice to see the kids sitting in front of it because it's been most
04:46of the
04:46time sitting in front of ipad so it's quite nice to think that they're beating their brain in a in
04:57another way
05:01this area is called west penwith you've got the great outdoors you've got beaches beautiful walks
05:09i think people are quite down to earth here and it's nice to have the pace of cornwall which is
05:13a
05:13little bit slower and a bit more relaxed it's really important for kids
05:17all right here we go ready growing up by the sea i need to be near bodies of water
05:29now that's sort of kind of passing on to our family as well
05:34the room before it was a kitchen was all wood paneled that quite orangey pine
05:40and the kitchen was at the back and we decided to move the kitchen into here as it's the lightest
05:45room it's the brightest room yeah and everyone loves the cornish granite wall as well it's quite
05:50nice that we managed to keep this bit you know and just by painting it white makes it feel a
05:55bit more
05:56natural there was an artist here called walter langley who had rented the house on two separate
06:02occasions in the 1800s he was very inspired by the local people and the light that we have down
06:09in this part of west cornwall walter langley painted his most famous artwork the sunny south from this
06:17position looking out
06:22and so on this floor we have benny's bedroom it's got these big striped curtains that we made
06:29and it's got a lovely window seat the bedroom next door has the lovely views out to the bay
06:35you can see more of st michael's mount
06:40and the rooms get much brighter and lighter the style of the bedroom is kind of english country
06:46house style but of clashing prints a bit of maximalism it all started with this botanical
06:52rule paper bringing the outside in the sea and the colors of the grass and the plants and then the
06:59window frame we decided not to paint because that kind of looks more classic arts and crafts
07:03i think we want the house to feel really welcoming and you know homely and i think that kind of
07:08english
07:09country house style makes everything look so warm and inviting as you come up to the attic bedrooms
07:18the views get bigger and you can see more of cornwall
07:25i always feel at home here you know i feel instantly relaxed when i come in benny is the pizza
07:34expert
07:35the kids are always so comfortable here as well
07:39as you might put them hot i never really thought you could love a house as much as i love
07:46this house
07:47i'll divorce it before i have to sell this house
07:53oh yummy
08:00it's the house that you know our kids call home
08:03it's where we come back to it's where everyone congregates
08:07and cornwall holds a lot of memories for our family
08:10daddy you touched the fire
08:13oh no
08:14i think it's a magical place for the kids and i hope it's creating
08:19childhood memories that are going to bring them back to cornwall forever and
08:24keep them rooted in this area
08:47so we live in nags head north carolina which is part of the outer banks uh which is a small
08:52skinny
08:53sandbar on the eastern eastern part of north carolina
09:01our beach house is a two-bed one and a half bath house it's about 940 square feet on the
09:10inside
09:11and then we have 340 square feet of covered deck
09:17i live here with my husband lewis and then we have two kids felix and reese and they are
09:23five and seven the family puppy colper
09:28felix breakfast hun it's our full-time residence you know it's not a vacation house
09:34we spend our whole life here there's little pockets of the outer banks that we really really
09:39like to spend time in and the street was always one of them we kind of walked into a really
09:45good
09:45situation at the right time we bought a little 1960s house and it came with an empty lot and so
09:52that
09:52house was only 660 square feet um it was before we had kids so we lived in that while we
09:58made plans
09:58to build this house
10:04all right come on
10:05oh it's looking good look at that
10:17so my husband and i grew up here we left for college we came back because it's always been home
10:22it was a great childhood you know spending your days in the ocean as much as you can you gotta
10:27collect shells for a sculpture the build a life you don't need a vacation from yeah it was sort of
10:32our
10:32like motto i love that my kids will get to experience what i experienced
10:41this was the first time we ever built a house so we started just like sketching out little plans on
10:45graph paper and just drew yeah this like tiny little 1 000 square foot house
10:52we come right into a tiny tiny little entryway when you live in a small house you're trying to make
11:02use of every square inch we have the the built-in dining bench i would say like when we drew
11:10those
11:10first couple house plans out on the graph paper it was pretty much like how can we make this house
11:15really smart so like doing the eden dine-in bench backing up to the kitchen you're kind of taking
11:21one piece of furniture and giving it like two purposes
11:26so then you walk right into the living room
11:32i take a lot of pictures like one of the the nicest days at the end of the summer last
11:37year the
11:38kids had gone back to school and we took them out for a day because the beach was just like
11:42perfect
11:45beautiful water surfed all day
11:52well the hallway basically goes to everything else that's in the house
11:58our bedroom i wanted like cozy warm bedroom so i built these last year um more of like a hack
12:07but i just got these like rubbermaid closet systems and then kind of built out and added trim
12:13and built them in it's such a small bedroom having a mirror in here does kind of help gives it
12:18more
12:18depth i made the frame it was kind of just like a picture frame and then i traced a
12:24an edge on it and then with the jigsaw just kind of cut it out
12:31i do have some squiggles throughout the house i like rounded edges
12:38and then this is the kids play room art room whatever they need it to be i'm gonna try to
12:46put
12:47it right here yay then i added in the the squiggles for fun because it is a kid's room and
12:54the first
12:54round the colors were just a little bit off in a couple places um but then we did some color
12:59correcting
13:00and the kids came in one day after school and they were just like we love it oh my gosh
13:04so then
13:05i had to keep it they're really good about being into whatever project i'm into and being like we
13:10love it my friend miles and me reese were having a play date miles built this this is the kids
13:22bunk room
13:23we built the bunk beds it was a big project i think with small spaces you have to get creative
13:29i'll throw out a fun idea and then he'll kind of like puzzle out the in between and then we'll
13:35work
13:35together as far as like the actual building of it goes i taped three paint brushes together and then
13:42just like scribbled on the kids wall and then that ended up being like one of my favorite things in
13:46one of
13:47the rooms paint's paint you can always paint over it so i try a lot of different things
13:56it's kind of like picking one room at a time and what can we do in this space that would
13:59be fun
14:00and give character to it
14:04i think a lot of the paint colors have a similar tone to them and i think that helps you
14:09know they're
14:10not one's dusty muted and one's super bright in your face i think they all kind of are cohesive in
14:15that
14:18manner
14:19and then this leads us out to the porch come on pop up oh you're a good boy when we
14:26drew those
14:27first couple house plans we were like we want a porch you know we love being outside we wanted to
14:31be able to have a covered porch on the porch we have about 340 square feet which is crazy that's
14:36basically a third of the house
14:46the outside shower i would say we probably use it six to eight times every day in the summer
14:52one of the benefits of a house at the beach being on stilts is that it gives you this like
14:56bonus layer
14:58down stairs so this was a storage room that was just studs and foundation it's like half workout
15:06for lewis and i and then half play area for the kids
15:19so we're water people we've always just done what we can to make a life here i mean it does
15:26look kind
15:26of fun though right you know our summer days are built out of packing up and going to the beach
15:32for you know four or six hours and we go to work at night so lewis and i own a
15:37restaurant and it's a
15:38pizza restaurant and i said pizza we are only open at night and that is solely so that we can
15:43go to the
15:43beach during the day as a family let me know if you want me to take the doggy the salty
15:51ocean air
15:53smell is like quintessentially home to me they get to live a beach in this house they get to be
15:59outside
15:59they get to do the childhood things that i think a lot of us want for kids honestly that's one
16:06of the
16:06biggest reasons like why i wanted to stay here and have a family and have the boys see where the
16:13sun's
16:13setting it's getting even more bright orange it's really exciting to see them have that opportunity
16:20look at the birds out there you could probably walk out to them it can't get any better
16:36some people have beach cottages just their vacation home but we benefit double because
16:42we live in our beach cottage it just feels a little bit wilder than a lot of the bay area
16:53that feeling of peace is always at home with us
17:00i love hiking here so finding a place where i could you know walk out of the front door and
17:06be on the trails in 10 minutes was so important
17:14this is our monterra beach cottage it's about 1200 square feet we're on a 50 foot by 100 foot lot
17:23and
17:24our home is two bedrooms one and a half bathrooms to get here from san francisco you're kind of like
17:32winding down the coast you're on the cliffs you feel like you're in a totally different place
17:40there's just a whole system of interconnecting trails here you can jump down to the beach or you can go
17:46all
17:46the way up to the top of monterey mountain
17:53i'm an architect doing like civic buildings and large multi-family housing projects this was the
18:00first residential project i ever worked on when we first saw the lot it had a couple bushy trees on
18:07it
18:08i definitely felt like i was the client and most of the dark um which i benefited from like there
18:15were so many decisions that if i didn't care he could pick something which was really helpful when
18:21we started the design i really always wanted to put wood siding on the outside we were really after that
18:28natural wood look ipe it's a brazilian hardwood that people often use for their decks it performs
18:35better than almost all wood in the face of fire it's also something that i think should be used ethically
18:44and this is a really special part about the ipe is it ages over time
18:58so this is the main living space and it's open concept got the kitchen the dining room the living room
19:08it's pretty compact
19:13my brother made these light fixtures these three above the island and then the two
19:18above the living space he and i collaborated on the sort of like design of the pottery
19:26in the morning the sun comes through like right behind here because it's east
19:31east a little bit southeast facing you can read here and then naomi will come and snuggle too
20:01about a third of the way into the project we came down here and
20:06went for a walk in the woods and i proposed to danya we got married during the process of construction
20:12and we had a kid so we were racing to the finish line to try to get the house done
20:19before our
20:20daughter naomi was born i would like come to the construction site and like show my valley and try
20:27to like get the construction workers to hurry things along but yeah we were able to bring her home from
20:33the hospital to this house we got it in time
20:46this was like most sketch of our house um from
20:52i think before we even applied for building permit
20:56i mean i just felt scary to take the leap of building a house like when we came to the
21:02site
21:02and they had framed the house it was like oh my gosh you can walk around in it it really
21:08feels like
21:08a home and then that felt so exciting and we were like okay this is great this is all worth
21:13it
21:14so this is our room it's small it's simple but it's a really kind of special and relaxing place when
21:23we
21:23were doing the floor plans for the house we were thinking about how to make the house as compact as
21:28possible and i remember like putting a queen bed into the drawing of our bedroom and like room
21:33for a closet and we're like done like it doesn't need to be any bigger than that i think small
21:39homes
21:39just really work for some people and it doesn't have to be where you live on your way to something
21:44bigger
21:45that can just be where you live and be wonderful
21:55so this is naomi's room it's actually one of my favorite rooms in the house because when your kid
22:02is young you spend so much time in their room rocking them to sleep or like up at night with
22:07them
22:07and you want it to be like a really peaceful and home space um
22:18you're gonna do pretend sleep
22:29hey naomi
22:31you know even though we're in the cold part of california we like to throw these doors open
22:48most of the time
22:49hello
22:49hello
22:51we've been bearing wine and bread
22:53oh thank you
22:58you know naomi's not ready for it yet but when she's a little bit older i would feel totally fine
23:04and sending her out on these trails by herself because she knows them so well
23:11i mean i picture her just having this really outdoor childhood
23:16but i hope that she really appreciates the landscape here you know i didn't grow up by the ocean and
23:24i
23:25never imagined that i would live by the ocean and it's wild to me to think that this is just
23:30gonna be her normal
23:35just i think i hope that the place instills like a deep peace inside of her
23:42i think it'll be good for her to grow up in a place like this
23:48i think it'll be good for her to grow up in a place like this
23:54to do
23:54i think it's just
23:54again
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