Cool Homes: Westwood house has 'good bones'
"The smallest thing in the house is really what inspired all of it," Barrett Evans said.
"It" is the hint of nautical in the decor of the Westwood home he shares with husband Kevin DiNarda and their two dogs. "The smallest thing" is a circle of ivory with the faded image of a ship on the circa 1897 American Foursquare's newel post.
The circle is a mortgage button, and lore has it that one would be placed on the post to signify that a home's mortgage had been paid off. Whether or not that myth stems from truth, the small button has served a purpose for Evans and DiNarda, giving them a theme to hint at when choosing home accents.
On the porch of the Werk Road home, a circa 1950s carved mermaid, found at a flea market, greets visitors. In the foyer – through the leaded glass door, which the couple restored and painted the yellow of their favorite champagne bottle – an antique chandelier was chosen for its resemblance to an octopus (though if you look closer, it's actually a hot air balloon). Coral and octopuses fill shelves near the stairs.
The naval theme doesn't define the whole house. There are hints, to be sure, but you might not notice them if you weren't looking for them. In a hutch in the front room, among the antique cameras and soap from the M. Werk Co. (Michael Werk, who owned the company and lived in Westwood, gave the home's street its name), is a clock from a Russian submarine. In the living room hangs an early 1900s Colombian Navy merchant flag.
Evans and DiNarda moved into the home, which sits on three-quarters of an acre, a little more than a year ago. The Macy's employees (Evans works in HR, DiNarda as a visual designer for the furniture galleries in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Kansas and Missouri) had been looking for an older home with charm on which they could put their stamp.
When they found out they could be part of the Westwood Home Tour back in April, they sped up their timetable on projects around the home.
"Our three-year list became our three-month list," Evans joked.
Luckily, the house had, as they say, "good bones," with its high ceilings and original hardwood floors. And the open kitchen, with its original brick and stainless steel appliances, was remodeled eight or 10 years ago, as were the side-by-side full bathrooms on the second floor. Evans and DiNarda just had to make it their own.
They've done that with fresh color in every room, like the sparrow gray (to mesh with the home's exterior color) used in much of the house. Then there are the bold accent colors: navy blue in the guest room. Almost black in the master bedroom. Purple (Evans favorite color) in the formal dining room, with its 1920s dining table and 1930s sideboard.
They've also added their stamp with accents and furnishings beyond their nautical hints. They've blended old and new – a contemporary couch in the living room with an antique mission chair, for example.
And they've added pieces that have meaning to them. Some represent places with significance to them: Commemorative tomato soup cans and other Andy Warhol accents from when they lived in Pittsburgh. Images by Charley Harper in the living room and prints of Music Hall, Carew Tower, and the Roebling bridge in the dining room showcase Cincinnati, their home of five years. (Both men are Ohio natives: Evans is from Columbus, DiNarda, Cleveland. They met while in rival fraternities at Bowling Green State University.) A dressing room is modeled after their favorite men's store in Toronto, where they were married in 2008.
Then there are other quirky accents: A piece of pottery featured on one of their favorite TV shows, "The New Normal." Vintage projectors in the living room that they use to watch old movies on the wall. A bright red rotary house phone that they keep under glass (they call it "the Bat phone"). A hand-crank record player, with records that date to 1908. A desk from Andy Griffith's Mount Airy, North Carolina, elementary school.
"The goal was just to have a mixture of things that all felt like they went together," DiNarda said. "If it speaks to us, we get it."
While they've added a lot of themselves, they've also made efforts to keep or restore the 2,800-square-foot home's historical features.
They didn't replace the old, high-tank toilet (complete with a pull chain) in the first-floor powder room, despite the fact that plumbers don't quite know how to service it. Instead, they played up the room's vintage feel by papering it with historic local newspapers – an 1830 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, an 1860 Cincinnati Daily Press and a 1906 Cincinnati Enquirer are among them.
When neighbors told them their house had a "butler's bell" in the dining room, they practically ran home to see if they did, too. Under the dining room rug, they found a spot covered with wood putty where the doorbell-like bell would have allowed the home's owners to ring for the next course. Downstairs, they found the broken mechanism for the old bell, which DiNarda replaced with a new buzzer.
"After Kevin restored it, I keep ringing it ... but no one comes!" Evans joked.
In the attic, they found a 19th century map showing the country's railroad lines. Though it crumbled in their hands, they were able to save the part that shows Cincinnati to Baltimore (Delhi had the closest stop to the home).
They've done enough research to know that John Marckworth, an attorney, built the home. The June 1900 census notes that the people living in the house included the family’s servant, Lizzie, who was likely the person heeding that butler's bell.
They've also located a poem Marckworth wrote in, of all places, the meeting minutes of the Westwood Civic Association. He read the poem at the Jan. 25, 1915, meeting, expressing his love of where he lived:
"It’s a long ride, way out to Westwood,
It’s a long way to go
But when you get there, you want to stay there,
‘Tis the sweetest burg we know.
Good-bye Cincinnati,
Farewell, Fountain Square,
It’s a long, long ride in stuffy street cars,
But my heart’s out there."