A masterful remodel on Pershing

At home with Sharon and Larry Wasserman

By Tom Shess

Larry Wasserman came to California from Vancouver, Canada as a teenager. He attended UCLA, from which he has a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Fine Arts. During that time, the revival of the Arts & Crafts movement was prevalent and greatly influenced Larry’s work.  He taught ceramics at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa and UC Irvine, retiring after 33 years. A few years ago, at the behest of his wife, he took some cabinet-making and furniture design classes, preparing to involve himself in home remodeling projects.
Sharon Wasserman was born in Oregon and graduated from UC  Berkeley, but has spent most of her life in Southern California. She is a marriage and family therapist with practices in Orange County and San Diego. With no formal background in fine arts, she has been, nevertheless, in charge of the interior design details of their homes. The craftsman style of architecture has always been aesthetically pleasing to both of them, so when the opportunity to remodel a North Park property arose, they relished the challenge.

Q. Right off we’d like to say the recent remodel of your Pershing Avenue Craftsman bungalow is one of the finest we’ve seen anywhere. Why did you insist on such rigorous standards for yourselves?  What motivated you to stay so true to the architectural heritage of your home?
A. We both like attention to detail and appreciate the historical integrity of the homes we’ve lived in or remodeled. Also, our architect, Bob Bollus, was a stickler for the fine details of craftsman design.

Q. What  is the history of your home? Master builder? Are you finished with the remodel?
A. We don’t know much, but the house was originally designed and built in 1923 by builder J.A. Robinson for homeowner Roy S. G. Horton. A Google search says he was in the military. We are finished with the remodel, except for minor adjustments here and there.

Q. What’s the square footage?  Before? After? What did you add?  Subtract?
A. Before the remodel the square footage was 1,200, after 1,856 plus garage and work rooms of 819 for a total of 2,665 square feet. We kept the front portion of the house, including the living room, dining room and old master bedroom, which we opened to the living room and converted into a den/TV room.  The rest was razed and replaced with new guest bedroom and bath, laundry room, kitchen and master suite. The garage and driveway were removed and replaced with a patio and covered outdoor entertainment area.

Q. San Diego is lucky to have so many terrific bungalow neighborhoods. What attracted you to North Park?
A. Larry wanted to work on a Craftsman and this was the best of those available at the time.

Q. What hidden treasures did you discover in prepping the home for the remodel?
A. The beautiful gumwood that appeared in all its splendor after lots of sanding and oiling by Larry.

Q. Describe the major “redo’s” to the home.
A. The fireplace, which was not so great, had to be completely rebuilt.  Larry, being a ceramic artist, was a natural for hand-making all the beautiful tiles appropriate for a Craftsman home.

Q. Larry, with your experience in working with wood, name some of the craftsman, who assisted you? How much did you do yourself?
A. For the most part, I did all the work based on our research and preferences. I did all the interior work, from the tiles for the fireplace to all the cabinetry. The remodel was done by an architect and builder and the floors and patio by local companies.

Q. What are your favorite accomplishments in the  remodel inside the home and out?
A. The see-through built-in buffet from the dining room to the kitchen, which originally backed up to a wall, the fireplace and the display case/room divider in the kitchen for our collection of pre-Columbian art. Also, we enjoy the large kitchen, which, although contemporary, stays in tune with the Craftsman theme.

Q. Who did the interior décor?
A. Sharon.

Q. Where did you obtain most of your furnishings and accessories (favorite pieces)?
A. Just things we have accumulated over the years. The Victorian pieces, including the bed in the master bedroom, are heirlooms from Sharon’s family. The bed was reconfigured from a full to king by Steve at Steve’s Wood Working in National City. One of our favorite finds was an original claw-footed bathtub, in horrible shape, covered in decals from the ‘70s, but salvageable.  It’s in our master bathroom.

Q. As a couple, what do you find enjoyable about North Park?
A. Its diversity, not only in population, but also as individualism shows up in each of the homes that has managed to exist for the last 80-90 years.
Pershing Avenue is also special because of the First Friday potluck dinners hosted at various homes on our street. Walking to many new restaurants and galleries and the park are wonderful too.

Q. What are your favorite restaurants?
A. The Mission, Alexander’s, Urban Solace, the Japanese restaurant at 30th and Upas.

Q. What was your last book read?  Movie watched?
A. Sharon: “The Lacuna” by Barbara Kingsolver.  Larry:  Construction manual for a hand-made kayak, a Christmas gift from their kids.
Last night we watched “Lolita” (the original, with James Mason, Peter Sellers and Shelly Winters) from Netflix.

Q. What would you like to see happen in North Park?
A. With an improving economy, we’d like to see our area become designated as a historical area, as well as continued homeowner property improvement. We’re excited every time we see new landscaping or construction with these old homes, with fingers crossed that the work will enhance the original designs. We’d also like to see a more active neighborhood watch, not just the helicopters overhead.

By Ann Jarmusch

Warm the hearts and hearths of those you love this holiday season with gifts that belong in a bungalow. Several area shops specialize in Arts and Crafts books, artwork, furniture and handmade decorative objects, such as art pottery and tiles.
You can find everything from Craftsman-style letter-press cards and calendars at The Grove in South Park to a roomful of Mission-style oak furniture complete with rugs and plein-air paintings at Craftsman Revival in Solana Beach.
The newest shop to join the club is Save Our Heritage Organisation’s charming outlet in the carriage house of the historic George W. Marston House and Gardens on Seventh Avenue in Balboa Park. In fact, SOHO members have nicknamed the cozy shop “The Arts and Crafts Club” because they enjoying stopping by and hanging out in its comfy chairs while browsing architecture and design books and publications on regional history.
The 1905 carriage house’s rustic Douglas fir walls make a handsome backdrop for an imaginative array of gifts for home and garden, such as art pottery vases ($150-$175) and jardinières ($325) by Door Pottery. Fragrant baskets ($30-$85) made of white willow, pine needles and other natural materials woven by native Kumiai families of Baja California are here, along with a variety of Motawi art tiles – pictorial or with mottos – artistically framed in oak by North Park Craftsman ($150). Woodblock landscape prints by Leon Loughridge of Dry Creek Art Press are a steal at $60: he’s raised his prices, but SOHO hasn’t.
Watch for exclusive SOHO items now in the works, such as baskets woven from the Marston House Canary Island Pine needles and products bearing carvings of eucalyptus leaves that architect William Templeton Johnson created for the Marstons’ formal garden.
On the other side of Balboa Park, at The Grove in South Park, there’s a Celtic saying about gathering knowledge stenciled prominently on the wall. Co-owner Anne Mery carries Arts and Crafts books and merchandise as a reflection of the historic neighborhood as well as her own interests. Since opening this collective boutique six years ago, she has moved her home from North County into a South Park bungalow.
You’ll find visual treats here: lovely note cards and journals in the Arts and Crafts style, books on Craftsman and “green” architecture and home decor, and 2010 wall calendars splashed with florid William Morris textile designs or vintage bungalow portraits ($13-$35). In addition, The Grove carries tiles and plaques by Laird Plumleigh, one of San Diego County’s best known Arts and Crafts tile artists. “I hand pick the tiles that I like,” said Mery, “and hope that others will, too.”
Craftsman Revival, the area’s largest store for contemporary Arts and Crafts furnishings,  carries pieces by well-known makers of furniture (Warren Hile Studio, Anthony Lauren) pottery (Ephraim Faience, Door Pottery) and limited edition prints (Anita Munman, Kathleen West).  Janet Ontko’s popular glazed ceramic animals ($75-$115) can live indoors or out.
Owner Tom Gerardy suggested another kind of handmade gift that speaks to the holidays and the warm art of entertaining: handcrafted, carved candles ($42-$72) by Moon Alley. These pillar-style candles are imaginative little jewels, depicting colorful birds, flowers and landscapes, including one called “California.” The interior of the candle burns, not the artistic outer layer.
If your bungalow cries out for Monterey or Spanish Revival furnishings, check out the treasures large and small in The Bungalow Store in Little Italy. Rare early Monterey furniture on hand during a recent visit included a magnificent massive rancho club chair ($5,850) that came out of a historic Cuyamaca cabin that later burned in the wildfires and twin beds ($2,200 for the pair). The beds, which are adorned with red and blue flowers as brilliant as the day they were painted, could be converted to a king-size bed, said co-owner Catherine Chester.
Her husband, Peter Chester, who also restores antiques at the back of the shop, has started a line of locally made iron furniture and lighting called La Casa California. These designs blend beautifully with the originals he said are increasingly hard to find. He fashions vintage tiles into table tops with iron bases ($485 and up) or marries Bauer or Catalina pottery vessels to lighting fixtures ($65-$295).  And if you’re looking for faithfully copied Spanish Revival curtain rods holders or wrought iron shelves, look to La Casa California.
“Purveyors of the Unusual” reads The Bungalow Store’s window and once inside you won’t be disappointed. Colorful Mexican folk art pigs fill a glass jar. Small artworks line the walls, depicting old California, old Mexico and desert scenes at affordable prices. And if you’ve always wanted a California State Bear to guard your garden, The Bungalow Store has chalkware reproductions in brown or black ($65).
Guardians of a different sort inhabit Vintage Religion, where peace on Earth actually exists under one roof. Inspired by the major religions of the world, this North Park shop features objects of devotion that are well suited to the home and garden, whether or not you have an altar or sacred space. Art and artifacts from around the world for Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims fill this eclectic store to overflowing at holiday time. Devotees of Frida Kahlo and the Virgin of Guadalupe also feel at home here.
A handsome holy water font from Italy ($42) caught our eye as it hung on a wall of crucifixes, milagros and sacred hearts. It’s a small ceramic plaque with the image of the Virgin and Child hand-painted in blue on a white background.  Owner Philip Shirk also stocks holy water in small vials or a communal dispenser, courtesy of a local parish priest.
Saints and devils, Buddha and Ganesh coexist here, appearing on refrigerator magnets,  jewelry and t-shirts as well as paintings and statuary. “There’s something for the devout, something for the irreverent and something in between,” said Shirk, whose company car is a white hearse, usually parked out front.

GUIDE TO SHOPS
The Bungalow Store, 2317 India St., San Diego. (619) 234-7383. Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and by appointment. thebungalowstore.com
Craftsman Revival, 985-A Lomas Santa Fe Drive (Lomas Santa Fe Plaza and Gardens), Solana Beach. (858) 259-5811. Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday 10a.m. -5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m-4 p.m., closed Monday.
The Grove, 3010 Juniper St., San Diego. (619) 284-7684. Tues.-Saturday 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Sunday noon-5 p.m., closed Monday. thegrovesandiego.com
SOHO Museum Shop at the Marston House (carriage house), 3525 Seventh Ave., San Diego. (619) 298-3142. Friday-Sunday 10 a.m. -5 p.m. sohosandiego.org
Vintage Religion, 3821 32nd St., San Diego. (619) 280-8408. Open daily 10 a.m.-7 p.m. http://VintageReligion.com