I am an unabashed fan of modern architecture,* so whenever I get to interview homeowners who live in modern houses, there’s always some envy involved. And I always admire how the best architects like David Webber are able to marry an artist’s eye and an engineer’s brain to conceive such a beautiful, functional result.

That said, though, whenever I see a sleek, minimal line of kitchen cabinets, it makes me wonder where the homeowners keep all their paper towels and bottled water when they come back from Costco (especially if their garage is really just an enclosed carport).

As someone who owns at least seven separate sets of 12 glasses for cocktails and wine — copper mugs, coupes, highballs, hurricanes, Old Fashioneds, red wine glasses, champagne flutes — I am not ashamed of asking the homeowners things like, “But where do you keep all your stuff?” (Poets may have poetic license, but I’ve got freedom of the press.) I imagine that sometimes after an interview, they get off their phones and give each other a look like, “Who the Gladys Kravitz hell did we just talk to?”

Luckily, the Shaheens were gracious enough to entertain such questions (and their seasonal outdoor inflatables are stored in a hallway closet, BTW). And the architect wrote me a lovely email that I am keeping for eternity, thanking me for writing an article that “captures the spirit of the house. It makes me fall in love with the whole process all over again.” Sometimes I think getting paid for doing this is really just a bonus.
(I still charge by the word, though.)

* I once described my ideal house as “gray brick, looming and rectangular — like a prison, but with lots of windows.”

Dorado magazine, March/April 2017 (HTML version of article here)

Download the PDF version of the article here.