Old House My House

Because our careers are in the animation industry, Kurt and I have been lucky to work every day with many amazing artists. What has been particularly fun for us during this remodel is being exposed to a whole new genre of artists—the men and women working to design and build our home. Instead of making art you look at, they make art you live in.

One of the fabulous craftsmen we've met is Alfonso Garcia, Home Front's plaster specialist. Alfonso has been responsible for re-creating one our home's most unique features—the "cat face" interior plaster texture. To create "cat face" texture, a plasterer (like the gentleman shown here) runs a trowel across the finish coat before it sets up, producing a pattern of both smooth and rough areas. A great deal of skill is required to make the finished product look even and natural. When we embarked on our remodel, Kurt and I worried that the plaster texture wouldn't be able to be re-created simply because that kind of workmanship seemed to be a lost art form. We joked that there was one 90-year old master craftsman out there who knew how to do it, then wondered  how in the world would we find him.

Fortunately for us, Home Front found Alfonso (who, by the way, is not 90 years old), the Michelangelo of plaster. Not only did Alfonso do an exceptional job of matching our original plasterwork, he also re-created the "cake decorating" plaster detail in all of our bedrooms. It is so nice to see that there are still people like Alfonso out there who have spent a lifetime learning and perfecting a specialized craft. His work could easily grace the walls of a museum.