The Smiths enjoy family time with chalk and catching up with neighbors on their new stone stoop.

Renting in Oakland and commuting to San Francisco for work, The Smiths faced a big decision when they were ready to buy their first home: were they living to work or working to live?

Rosemary Smith, originally from Bolinas in west Marin County, CA, never thought she’d move back to Marin. But when many of her and her husband, Paul’s friends were moving to the same area in West Marin (Fairfax/Woodacre- including longtime friends Craig and Jess O’Connell), and with family nearby, the couple decided to move their family of four closer to those they loved as well as beautiful nature.

“We honed in on Fairfax because it’s got a vibrant neighborhood and downtown, and has some of the pieces we were leaving behind in Oakland,” says Rosemary. “There are people out and about, sitting outside at Más Masa and music everywhere -- it was so great to be able to retain that vibrancy. Plus, we can bike our kids to school, and that was really important to us.”

The Smiths purchased the home in March 2018 and moved in April 2019. They spent a year on the remodel, so they temporarily rented an apartment in Fairfax so their daughter could start school in the district and Rosemary could be close by while the project was underway. For the remodel, Rosemary and Paul turned to Craig and general contractor Spyder Petersen to bring this outdated ‘50s fixer-upper to life (as you can see from the dramatic before and after photos, the new house looks almost unrecognizable). The new design is airy, bright and minimal with stylish design features adding a mid-century modern, Mad Men-esque flair.

“The key design component was creating a new spacious and light-filled floorplan,” says Craig. “There were a series of chopped-up spaces, and three of them were unified to make the huge kitchen and dining area, one room flowing into the next. In this new open space, we placed a huge glass door to the rear yard and patio to flow to the outside and offer true indoor/outdoor California living.”

This feature, Rosemary says, has been a life-saver during Covid stay-at-home restrictions.

this large sliding glass door has been a ‘God-send’ during Covid to air out the house and let plenty of light in.

“We always knew we’d love the sliding glass door. I am realizing with Covid and the way the disease spreads, that we are really fortunate that we can open up the house so it’s safe to have an occasional friend over with the open floor plan and breeze flowing throughout.”

Rosemary also loves the giant island and open kitchen space so that when they do get to entertain again, whoever is cooking gets to be fully a part of the party.

The couple added a stone patio area out front with tables and chairs so they can ‘hang out on the stoop’, see neighbors and have the kids play with chalk, something they loved about their Oakland rental.

Pre-Covid, both Rosemary, who works in recruiting, and Paul, a lead designer at his firm, would commute to San Francisco for work, and Oakland’s BART train made it really simple to get in and out of the city. But moving to Marin is more about the beauty than the convenience, so driving or taking the bus would sometimes take up to 2 hours just to get home. Rosemary says she’s so happy they decided to go with Fairfax now, as they both currently work from home and when they do return to the office, it will only be part-time if at all.

Luckily, the upstairs “rumpus room” has a full bathroom, desk space and large, brand new windows that provides a beautiful home office. It also features a Murphy bed so it can double as a guest room. When school is being conducted at home, the kids work downstairs, which acts as the classroom/rec area. Usually Rosemary and Paul switch off so one works and the other is with the kids. Paul decided to put grass in the backyard so the family has an area to play and plenty of space to run around (another life-saver for Covid, says Rosemary).

BEFORE: dark dining area with little flow between rooms

AFTER: the spacious floor plan brings effortless flow from one room to the next and the backyard.

“When you come in through the front door and into the living room it all opens up -- you can see all the way across the room to the glass door that goes out to the backyard; that’s the feature piece to me,” says Craig. Craig also re-designed the master bathroom so it had a better layout and put in all new windows. Rosemary enjoyed wallpapering some rooms, such as the laundry room for a splash of color in the otherwise minimalist home.

BEFORE: tight kitchen left little room for cooking and mingling

AFTER: with a light and bright feeling throughout, this airy and spacious minimalist home with a mid-century flair is the type of place you’d wanna be ‘locked up in’

“Now with Covid, we were like, thank God we made the decision to move to Fairfax,” says Rosemary. She says they didn’t design the space with two people working from home in mind, but have managed to make it work with the upstairs office and large dining room table downstairs. And with the design and ‘open canvas’ feel, there’s plenty to be inspired by in this house.

This remodel is getting attention from the design press -- check it out in Marin Magazine, SPACES and in Houzz.