Artwork in progress

"The kitchen was very 1980s, but since we couldn't redesign it at this time, we wanted to make it pretty, fun and functional," Mary Landavere said.

Hanging cabinets from the ceiling, along with a counter unit, separate the kitchen space from a family room. The couple hope to remove the cabinets and counter and restore the space to the one large room it once was. In the meantime, Mary Landavere dealt with the claustrophobic appearance by removing the cabinet doors and painting the dark laminate in soft shades of green for a cool, tropical effect.

In contrast, the living room presents a warm, sunny ambience with walls painted lemon yellow and red linen draperies at the window. An eclectic mix of furniture includes an old church pew in oak and a large, leather club chair.

The Venetian-style plaster walls so admired by Mary Landavere in older homes became part of her life in the upstairs master bedroom, where she meticulously fashioned that look along with an exotic feel in a Moroccan-style heavy oak headboard on a king-size bed.

"The walls speak for themselves," she said. "The walls are the art."

Mike Landavere is proud of his wife's decorative accomplishments while summing up a continuing relationship with the house.

"We didn't walk into this house and say, 'This is our dream home'," he said. "We're in the process of making it that way. And it's always evolving."