Glenn and Heather Comtois first volunteered for the Hollywood Home Tour seven years ago.
“We volunteer every year,” Heather says. “That’s how we met all our friends.”
Their two-bedroom Tudor revival on Cordova is something of a party house, and it’s that way by design.
About six years ago, they gutted their 1930s kitchen, with its flecked Formica countertops, mint green cabinets and hemmed-in breakfast nook.
It took about five months of eating out and shuffling a mini fridge from one corner to another. But the Comtoises created a wide kitchen that flows from the dining room to a patio and lush backyard.
Glenn is an architect and artist, and his backyard studio is on the White Rock Artists Studio Tour every year.
But the Comtoises will put their entire house on display April 30-May 1 during the Hollywood Home Tour.
In addition to the kitchen, they renovated the master bath, which also opens to the backyard patio. That might sound weird, but the Comtoises say it’s nice to open the door in nice weather when they’re drinking coffee and getting ready for work.
The master bath features a spa-type step-up shower with a wood floor and blue glass tile that evokes a water wall. That tile was one of the most expensive materials they used in the updates.
Many of the materials seem high-end or custom made, but few things are, aside from Glenn’s artwork, which is displayed throughout the house.
Before the kitchen was renovated, they bought two big buffets from the now-defunct Legacy Trading Co., and Glenn redesigned the kitchen around them.
“My grandmother told me that in the old days, in the era of this house, you didn’t have built-in kitchen counters,” he says. “You had furniture, and you could move it around. So we wanted the kitchen to have furniture rather than fixtures.”
They installed new crown molding throughout the house, and they kept the guest bathroom as close to 1932 as possible.
An outdoor sink, which has a drain but no running water, is a Mexican import they bought at the Dallas Farmers Market.
“We like to buy local. But a lot of our stuff comes from Home Depot and places like that,” Heather says.
They switched out French doors that separated the living and dining rooms with rolling wood doors. They stained doors from Home Depot a dark brown. And Glenn ordered the rustic-looking hardware, including barn-door rollers, from betterbarns.com. That design is copied in the master bath.
A fireplace in the living room had been painted white, and Glenn retiled the façade in a basket-weave design with inexpensive tile from Lowe’s. The design mimics original tile in the hearth.
When they needed a console/bookcase for their living room, Glenn designed and built one inspired by Piet Mondrian’s geometric paintings.
Alas, not everyone’s husband is an artist/architect. They’re handy when you can find them.
“Nothing in here is high-end,” Heather says. “Nothing is custom, except the stuff he made.”
