Ozan and Brian are a married couple who have applied their building skills, crafting know-how, and wonderful eye for color and detail to a Charlottesville, Virginia, rental home that’s withstood generations of student living. Brian, who is in his second year of grad school at the University of Virginia’s architecture school, is a talented carpenter, welder, and artist. Despite her modesty and murmurs to the contrary, Ozan is an impressive seamstress, gardener, and collector of thrift. Together, they’ve been able to transform rag-tag student housing into something beautiful, while also improving the home in terms of energy efficiency and structural soundness. I chatted with Ozan about their history with their Charlottesville home, which they’ve lived in since Brian started graduate school.
Elka: How did you come to live in this house? What is its history?
Ozan: I found this house online through a college rental website. We were somewhat rushed to find housing, and I came across this. The house was not impressive but the yard was what convinced us to rent it. It has great space for the dogs. The inside of the house showed years of college rental abuse but that didn’t really deter us; we like to spruce things up.
E: What are some of your unique housing needs as related to your occupation/preoccupations/schooling?
O: I need space for work because I work from home. I have a desk and sometimes the couch. Brian needs a space for his schoolwork (as a graduate student in architecture) to include a space for his computer work, sketch work, and modeling, which can be spread around the house depending on the scale of the project. He also likes to weld and to humor my various requests for improvements around the house, so he has his tools and welders in the basement. I am a light crafter/sewer so I need a space to make things as well. We have an office, and my sewing area takes up half of it. Wherever we move to we need a dedicated space for Brian’s tools, because there are quite a few.
E: What changes or renovations did you make to the house?
O: We painted a lot. All of the built out closets are dark knotty pine tongue and groove, and we painted them in both rooms because we just couldn’t stand it. We fixed leaks in the ceiling (the house was rented as-is) and blew in insulation in the attic, which was reimbursed by our landlord. Brian added a pergola on the back porch for shade. We added shelving in the kitchen for space and added some Ikea cabinets in the dining room for dishes. Brian ripped up the terrible cracked and curled vinyl in the basement bathroom, leveled the floor with concrete, and added some 1×4 baseboard. We have insulated the ductwork, repainted the porch floor and swing, added contractor grade ceiling fans for greater air circulation, and switched out awful overhead lighting. We’ve also done some landscaping and added a garden.
E: Tell me a little about the joys and frustrations of living as renters here.
O: As with most of the places we rent, when we leave it will be in better shape then when we found it. It frustrates me that we don’t own something of our own but we can’t really afford it yet with a student in the family, and we really don’t know where we will end up next. We sit around and talk about what we would do if we owned it. We hate the upstairs bathroom intensely. It is right off the kitchen. The shower leaks and is a terrible plastic thing and despite Brian taking it apart and caulking everything and putting it back together again, it will not be tamed. I want to destroy it. Also I am not sure that the walls are very well insulated. And this house is sometimes crawling with spiders. But i love the yard and the trees behind our house and the front porch in the summer nights.
E: What kind of special storage solutions/office space considerations/etc.., have you had to come up with to accommodate your life?
O: The landlord purchased kitchen cabinets before we moved in, but didn’t feel like splurging on drawers, so we have fake drawer fronts. We had to find a system for our kitchen utensils. I am still searching for a good way to organize my piles of sewing projects. Brian turned one of the rooms in the basement into a studio space, because the office upstairs had no room. It’s kind of a cave but it works for him. I don’t need much space to work, and we try and keep the desk clear by fastening all of our computer infrastructure zip tied to a piece of peg board screwed to the side of the desk to keep it consolidated and tidy.
E: Where are your favorite places to pick up home decor items?
O: The thrift store, and Etsy. And also the husband.
E: What have been your favorite home finds?
O: If I had to say, it would be our dining room table, and the three yellow chairs. We found the table and stripped it, stained it with india ink, and French polished it. The yellow chairs were 3 for $15. Oh, also my outsider art lamp of Barbara Mandrell in a tube sock dress inherited from a family friend. I love her.
E: Tell me about some of the home decor things you’ve made, including art.
O: Brian made the stereo console, all of our coffee tables, the hall table, our bed, a chair, two lamps, and a bookcase. i would say that 80% of the art in the house is his. I’m not so much the maker as I am the collector of chingalera.
E: What are your plans for future projects or garden stuff?
O: I plan to be successful this year in the garden and grow delicious beets and tomatoes, and plant flowering vines everywhere. We also inherited a little camper that we want to fiddle with for a summer project.
E: What do you think your biggest challenges are living as a couple with two dogs in rental housing?
O: The space, the dog hair, and knowing we will move again.
E: Tell me a little about your design ideas.
O: I wish I could keep clean modern lines but really I am a collector of trinkets and can’t help but clutter up the walls. I have no design ideas. It just sort of happens.
E: Any advice to other couples who are crafting/working/building /welding/gardening/schooling out of their homes?
O: Always clean. Try and keep each function in its designated space.
