The Two-year Tune-up

You may have seen him at the Tipperary or Garden Café, or perhaps just enjoying himself on a walk around the neighborhood. And if you missed him, you definitely wouldn’t miss his two sidekicks — Shelby and Kapers — two massively huge-but-docile Great Danes that accompany Kris Hobson pretty much wherever he goes. 

Being able to get out and enjoy his locale was a must when Hobson was house hunting more than two years ago. That’s one reason he settled on his century-old home in Junius Heights .

“I moved from Charlotte , where it’s very green, you have a lot of old houses and great landscaping,” Hobson says. “This was the only neighborhood like that  — where you can walk everywhere — to Starbucks, the grocery store. And all the houses here have a lot of personality.”

But one thing wasn’t so perfect.

“When I bought the house, it was in very bad disrepair. The foundation was screwed up, the walls were cracked, someone had cut holes in the wooden floors, the ceilings had actually been lowered — it needed updating badly,” he says.

The first order of business was the kitchen. Hobson knew he wanted to open the space up a bit, so he had a wall knocked out. Inside, he discovered the original chimney for a potbelly stove.

“We decided to build the whole kitchen around that,” he says.

With that inspiration, Hobson chose to design a kitchen that encompassed the older feel of the home, while at the same time including modern elements. Industrial steel cabinets and an iridescent slate floor offset Old-World fixtures such as the brick chimney and wooden ceiling. A stone bar lines one side of the open room — the place where his friends always end up congregating, says Hobson.

Although diving into work on the home started quickly enough, it was only the beginning of a list of problems. He went through two contractors, had to move out for six months in the winter while a second story was added, and endured a huge mess when the ceilings were raised.

“It was two years of hell,” Hobson says.

Luckily he finally found a contractor who worked out, and his partner, Erik Byers, moved in and began helping out with the remodeling.

After all the big projects were finished, Hobson and Byers began decorating.

“We knew we wanted an eclectic look,” says Hobson, admitting that their tastes in design weren’t always compatible — especially when it came to color scheme.

“We definitely had to compromise. The only thing we totally agreed on was the periwinkle blue in the master bedroom.”

Hobson says they wanted that room to feel like a summer home in Cape Cod . After adding white wooden floors (the original hardwoods couldn’t be salvaged) and coloring the walls in that deep periwinkle blue, the room is light and airy, especially with the openness created by having several windows looking onto the backyard.

As for the rest of the downstairs, the couple spilt decorating duties. Hobson took the dining room and Byers took charge of the living room and guest bedroom.

“We call the dining room our ‘over the top room,’” laughs Hobson, pointing out his use of deep purples and reds, which make the dining room vibrant and colorful. The room’s centerpiece is a chandelier that Hobson’s uncle brought home from Venice during World War II. The chandelier was given to Hobson’s mother, who left it to him in her will.

The living room is more traditional, with original bookshelves lining one wall and a muted color scheme.

The second floor addition includes an office and a TV-watching area where the couple relax and hang out. There is one surprise, however: the “Tiffany Bathroom,” based on the mother of all jewelry stores. Complete with Tiffany teal green walls, various sized sacks from the store itself and shiny silver plated square pieces, the bathroom is whimsical fun.

Once the inside was complete, Hobson started work on the home’s exterior, adding a brick path and brick detail to the wood columns on the porch. As for the color of the home — that took some legwork — literally.

“I kept driving by this house on Skillman, and I loved the red color. So I walked up to the front door one day and asked the owner. Of course, I had to explain to him that my home isn’t near his home. But I found out the exact color, and that’s what I used,” Hobson says.

Now that the couple has finished their home, they have been busy having guests over to see the results.

“We’ve had a birthday party for both of us, and we do about two dinners a month,” Hobson says. “It’s so wonderful to finally have the whole thing done, and everything just seemed to come together at once.”