Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Exquisite Piedmont Mediterranean

Monday, March 12, 2018
Debbi DiMaggio

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Exquisite Piedmont Mediterranean

This stately Piedmont home has been lovingly maintained and updated throughout the years. This marvelous home boasts a central floor plan, a grand formal living room with built in armoires, a wood-burning fireplace, hardwood floors, and floor to ceiling windows. The adjacent family room with wrap around windows lead out through double doors to an expansive back deck, ideal for garden parties or lounging with friends and family. The galley kitchen boasts top of the line stainless appliances and extends to a cozy and cheerful breakfast room with banquet, and to the front of the home boasts the gracious dining room with a large picture window which looks out to lush gardens making entertaining a delight.

A bedroom and beautifully appointed bath, recently updated with Carrara marble and stainless finishes makes an ideal guest room or home office.

The lower level includes a laundry room and folding table which leads to the perfect teen room for late night movies and sleep overs. Ample storage behind the wall of doors will house all of your family treasures and more.

Consistent with a traditional floor plan, four bedrooms and three full baths complete the upper level. A large master suite, a private bedroom suite and the other two bedrooms share a bathroom, a Jack and Jill set up.

Hardwood floors, beautiful moldings and details, a wood burning fireplace, gorgeous landscaped grounds and a bedroom bath on the main level, are a few highlights of this lovely home.

Stop by and see for yourself.

308 Sea View Avenue is situated on one of Piedmont’s most sought after streets, and is home to Piedmont’s top-rated schools, K-12. Also convenient to the Montclair Village shops, restaurants and boutiques and just across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco.

Come With Us Down Under

Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Debbi DiMaggio

Adobe Spark(11)

Never Take Yourself Too Seriously

Laugh At Yourself, It’s Healing

Debbi DiMaggio

Check out my latest post at LuxeLife-Daily

Follow my Guest In The City Series. Fly with me Down Under to Sydney Australia.

Three generations, my 76 year old mom aka grandma, my daughter, Bianca, a recent college graduate of CU Boulder, age 22 and myself, I’ll leave my age undisclosed, toured three beautiful destinations and stayed at the most luxurious resorts. Click and Come with us, Down Under.

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IMG_0227I tried to scuba, to no avail.

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I just couldn’t keep myself under without feeling claustrophobic. But I did continue to smile and laugh about it. Bianca did go off or should I say down, without me and our instructor.

Great Barrier Reef, One and Only Hayman Island off of Hamilton Island ( by way of a private yacht. ) Nice!

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Top Photo:

Being silly with my daughter at The One & Only Hayman Island.

Playing around in the swimming pool, directly outside of our one bedroom suite with access from one of two private decks.

Reinventing Our Lives after the Empty Nest

Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Quentin Bacon

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Real Estate is obviously a passion of mine.

From helping our clients to redesigning homes, I just love it! So when it came to making our move after the children flew the coup I knew exactly what I wanted.

It started with a vision. I knew I wanted low maintenance with a loft like open floor plan. I envisioned freedom and space and lots of white.

When our son left for his Freshman year at CU Boulder following in his sister’s footsteps I began to re upholster the furniture one piece at a time. Before I knew it all our dark furniture was pink! Or some shade of pink. I researched textiles, fabrics, wallpaper, re-upholstery providers and more. I leafed through magazines and immersed myself in Pinterest. The ideas were rampant.

By the time Chase returned home for Thanksgiving break his home had evolved. Tired of the things from our Scottsdale home — all of the oversized and brown furnishings….  pink and white and gold began to take over.

And by the time he was gearing up to head back to CU for his Sophomore year we were moving out of Piedmont ( where I had lived my entire life, except for a few interruptions ) to the home we visualized, discussed and successfully found. We shipped all of Chase’s favorite furniture to Boulder for him and his 5 other roommates to enjoy, while we kept ‘our’, rather, ‘my’ favorite things. Since I loved the style and design of the remaining pieces I re-purposed everything I chose to keep. I found a great re-upholstery tradesman and fabrics I fell in love with! From bench seat cushions and a sofa to ottomans and chairs, I recovered and re-purposed it all!  Reuse, re-purpose, recycle.

Beyond the furnishings, the interior renovation was next. It was nice to have so much time before actually moving in so I was able to have all the furniture re-upholstered and ready for placement when our new home was complete, rather then moving in and starting from scratch.

I had it all planned, every last detail.

I had visualized everything over and over again — had all the pieces ready, so once we completed the renovation and remodel everything was ready for placement!

The walls of the townhouse were awful — puffy, popcorn textured walls which took two weeks to sand, flatten and paint. It was a dust bowl!

Removing the wall to wall carpet was next.

Since I had everything pinned on my Pinterest Boards I knew exactly what I wanted. All I needed to do was hire the team and begin the work.

Creating Our Desired Look

Wide plank bleached white hardwood floors replaced the carpet on the first two levels which included an entry way, hallway and two bedrooms on the main level plus the main staircase, living, dining, kitchen; and powder room on the master bedroom level. The biggest impact came, as we worked to create our new look from Traditional to Modern Contemporary, was by removing all handrails and banisters. By removing the banisters and handrails the home opened up nicely and created a much more open and spacial feeling. The dramatic vaulted ceilings didn’t hurt either.

Eventually we will be adding lucite or acrylic hand-railings and a glass banister which will line and divide the stairwell from the living room.

Our son really wanted a plush carpet in the bedrooms. So I had our carpet guy, Felix, drop off sample after sample until we found the most plush, most comfortable, softest thick pile carpet. Nirvana!

The carpet was installed – last – in our master bedroom as well as in our wall-to-wall lined mirrored closet and in the third floor loft. We knew that would be where Chase would hang out while home from college.

The loft, with it’s stupendous San Francisco Bay Views and large picture window, a huge flat screen TV plus his two favorite cushy bean bags, he’s had since childhood, quickly became the perfect spot to relax and recline. We have had those furry brown bean bags for over 10 years no doubt — when he was ten and now at 20, he and his friends still play video games and watch TV immersed in those two bags of fluff today. Such wonderful memories and good times.

 Once the space was opened up, painted and new floors installed the kitchen and bathrooms were next.

For now we are going to live with the current kitchen configuration but we did replace the counters with Carrara marble and once our contractor frees up some time ( I have him pretty busy working on all of our listings for our clients ) will be back to install the shaker cabinet doors to match the newly installed shaker doors we added throughout – swapping out the original Traditional doors, baseboards and moldings to create our new, more modern look.

We remodeled two bathrooms with our master bath to follow once we gain a second wind.

Resources & Inspiration

Our tile came from Siena Tile and Stone in Danville and my ideas inspired by scrolling through multiple Pinterest Boards.

Restoration Hardware sink in the powder room, Toto toilets in all three bathrooms and Carrara marble and 9 x 36 porcelain tile from Siena Tile and Stone adorned respective bathroom floors.

First Floor Full Bath: Cabinet and Sink by Duravit, plumbing fixtures from Rubenstein Plumbing in Oakland.

Built-in lighted shelves discovered on Pinterest implemented by my trusty tradesman Jose and team.

My favorite – Z Gallerie – spherical chandelier appoints the dining room while sparkling crystal lighting from Lamps Plus complement the foyer and upper hallway.

When Your Kids Move On, Life Changes

so having a project really helped me during this transition. And it was really quite exciting to watch my vision become reality.

I just love our new home — it’s everything I’d imagined.

For those experiencing the empty nest, although life is different, you still do see your kids. And if you are anything like us you visit often, no matter where they venture.

Whether visiting Bianca in Australia or in Florence, Italy or meeting up with Chase during family weekend or on the road to catch a lacrosse game in Scottsdale, Arizona, Newport Beach or Boulder, Colorado or joining them for a ski weekend in Vail.

We are there!

Or as things go, this week…  Adam departs SFO to Tokyo to visit our daughter in Japan!!

So I guess the “Empty Nest” isn’t so bad after all.

XOXOX!

For suggestions, questions, resources or inspiration email me at debbidimaggio@gmail.com

Happy Designing!

and share your empty nest stories with us too.

Highland Before and After

Saturday, August 27, 2016
Debbi DiMaggio

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Before and After photographs of the historic Ghirardelli Mansion in Piedmont.

Piedmont is certainly home to top-rated schools, K-12 but more then that, anyone who resides in Piedmont knows Piedmont is more then a town, it’s a small community with spirit and passion. When you buy into Piedmont not only do you have the luxury of private fire and police departments dedicated to its citizens but you will come to enjoy a lifetime of connections and experiences.

Begin your legacy here just as we have.

a mother’s intuition // the backside of the empty nest

Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Debbi DiMaggio

 

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A Mother’s Intuition

Lacrosse bag & sticks, snowboards & boots, multiple shoes and sweatshirts all lined the entry, now gone. Simply vanished as if they were never there.

The kids are gone.

A few Coronas are left in the refrigerator.

[Read More..]

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