Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
ELIZABETH BETTENDORFA couple prove that you don't have to get your Victorian bloomers in a bunch trying to have it all: charm, openness and modern conveniences.
RIVERVIEW - When Sondra and Jerry Davis built their dream house high on an oak-scattered acre next to a Hillsborough County nature preserve, they didn't want the exterior to look new.
They wanted a truly romantic house complete with gables, old-fashioned turrets and a generous front porch.
A playful ribbon of picket fence would be nice, too, Sondra thought. So would some nubby fish-scale trim and lots of bay windows.
The couple also wanted to stay in Riverview, where they had lived for years and where their three daughters - two of them teenagers - were in school.
"We wanted to live in a place surrounded by nature and large open areas," says Sondra, Awho grew up in 1970s Brandon "riding horses bareback to the 7-Eleven."
They got all those things and then some.
The Davises, both licensed contractors, own Romantic Custom homes, which builds traditional homes primarily in eastern Hillsborough County.
Their 3,800-square-foot home, in Shadow Run off McMullen Road, looks on the outside as if it might have been imported from the last century. They managed to incorporate all the fanciful Victorian exterior details perfectly, from trim to turrets.
What's more interesting, though, is how thoroughly modern the house is inside: pest-control tubes in the walls, dual-paned argon gas-filled windows, exterior walls insulated to repel moisture and heat, and a big remote-control gas fireplace in the family room.
"We spent a long time developing the design and thinking through the details," says Sondra, who studied interior design while in college in San Diego. Although she leans toward an ultrafeminine, graceful style of decorating (her favorite magazines include Romantic Homes and the late Victoria) she likes a layout that is airy and spacious.
"When I mention to people that we built a Victorian, you can tell they picture small, tightly arranged rooms and not a lot of storage," she says. "They don't realize that a Victorian can be designed and built with contemporary, open spaces and all the new technology."
Sondra also paid attention to things like molding - oversized and luxurious in the downstairs bathroom - and built-in, ornate wall brackets instead of the more traditional and ubiquitous columns.
An accomplished bargain shopper, she decorated the interior in an imaginative melding of old-fashioned and playful. In the front hallway, a ruby-red purse trimmed in faux fur is actually a lamp. In the "parlor," the pretty, great-room-style space adjacent to the kitchen, she jokes that "no one under 30 is allowed to enter." Sondra incorporates lots of comfortable, creamy white upholstered furniture fringed at the bottom.
"My poor husband," she says. "He's surrounded by girls."
But the look has paid off. Jerry is frequently flagged down by prospective customers who see him driving his silver GMC king cab pickup festooned with their company name.
Sondra's decorating style sweeps the decades, incorporating antiques with new furniture and family heirlooms. In the breakfast room, wrought-iron chairs from Pier One simply appear old. Hanging on an old lamp base is a long, gauzy white dress and '30s style hat. A cotillion dance card from 1913, a gift from her grandmother, is prominently displayed, as are several letters from World War II.
"I don't just collect to collect. I like things that are of sentimental value," she says.
Coaxing a home's interior from run-of-the-mill to romantic isn't hard. Tips from Romantic Homes magazine include draping throws over sofas, incorporating plush pillows and replacing heavy window treatments with sheer, flowing drapes. The magazine also recommends lightening up rooms by repainting in colors free of depressing brown and gray undertones.
More advice: Paint trim white. Use those lovely old things your grandmother left you. Fill china bowls with pinecones, silver water pitchers with flowers from the garden (or the nearest grocery store). Bring outdoor furniture and accessories inside, including trellises and pretty birdhouses. Use birds' nests, twigs, moss, acorns and shells as accents. Down comforters (in the winter months) and high-thread-count sheets add to the look.
When Sondra looked at a clunky old hand-me-down dresser, she saw something much more delicate: she wallpapered the top in an English floral, then removed some of the center drawers and installed glass shelves. In the bedroom where her 7-year-old daughter, Hannah sleeps, she made a canopy from strips of pale pink tulle and tied it all together with a silvery crown she cut out from a hatbox. She then trimmed the crown in pink fur.
Hannah asked for more.
"How many 7-year-olds do you know who want a chandelier for their bedrooms?" Sondra asks.
She made Hannah one from a basic, no-frills chandelier she bought at Lowe's. She bought miniature white lamp shades, hot-glued them with beaded crystal fringe and fitted them over the bulbs. She jazzed up an old bed by painting it white and asking an artist friend to embellish it with flowers.
The result? A heavenly retreat for a little girl.
"We wanted the upstairs to be a place for the girls," Sondra says.
She designed the upstairs bedroom area as a totally kid-friendly space at the top of the stairs, decked out with a computer station and a giant gumball machine shaped like an old gas pump. It came from Sondra's father's grocery store in California.
The couple intentionally built the master bedroom on the first floor to overlook the lanai and pool area.
The views from the interior of the house - both front and back - were also designed to maximize the natural surroundings. From almost every angle the family can enjoy oaks and pines, and sometimes owls, wild peacocks and bobcats. Rumors abound about fox dens, but they haven't spotted one yet.
"I love living in the country. It's a gentler way of life in hard times and a good place to raise children," Sondra says.
As development pushes closer, she adds, the family may have to move farther out.
To an even more romantic spot, of course.
"This is our dream house," she says. "But we're ready to build another one."