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The Gearys’ skills and labor extended to the patio where they installed saltillo floors with talavera tile inserts. Steve Geary handcrafted a brick pool to capture the fountain water.

By Diane S. Morales, Caller-Times

September 04, 2005

Eddie Seal/Caller-Times

In the master bath, Steve Geary tiled around the garden tub to match the tan tiled shower. The pine wainscoting mimics the wainscoting in the kitchen, which Geary also crafted.

KINGSVILLE — Specks of yellow peek through a web of mesquite trees off west Farm-to-Market Road 1355. The flashes of color and a caliche road hint of Karla and Steve Geary’s secluded home, a far cry from the metal warehouse where the couple once lived.

“We had a welding business in a 900-square-foot warehouse where we lived, too,” said Steve Geary, 48. “It was right next to a railroad track and we just got immune to (the noise). We had to get used to the quiet out here.”

Relishing the peace of the Kingsville countryside didn’t come easy. It took nine months of countless decisions, revisions and plenty of sore muscles to build their 2,012-square-foot stucco home featuring a metal roof three years ago.

“It was going to be a 1,200-square-foot home, then it just grew,” Steve Geary said. “That was the advantage of being our own contractors. If we wanted to change something, dadgummit, we did.”

Steve, an employee at Celanese in Bishop, combined his woodworking and can-do-anything talents with Karla’s flair for challenging decorative ideas to create a Mexican-inspired country home shaped by their own hands.

Eddie Seal/Caller-Times

Copper pots hang from a black wrought iron chandelier in the kitchen, adding a bit of shimmer to the scene. Steve Geary built sample cabinets from ash and other woods before deciding on pine.

Lots of DIY

The empty nesters collected ideas from magazines and from each other to design their three-bedroom, two-bathroom home. They credit Lionel Garcia from their hometown in Kingsville for doing the framework, but the Gearys get most of the credit for the rest of the home’s design and interior work.

To tackle their home building projects, Steve first built a barn or workshop on the home’s two-acre lot where he constructed cabinets for the entire home, an entertainment center for the living room, trim for a the kitchen’s copper vent hood and countless other projects.

Eddie Seal/Caller-Times

A set of skeleton keys hang on a closet door near the kitchen. Karla Geary said she bought them at a Country Peddler Show several years ago.

The couple labored side-by-side painting, installing crown molding in their 12-foot living room ceiling, staining decorative concrete flooring, installing tile and designing concrete counters in the kitchen.

“We bonded so much because we shared ideas, thoughts,” said Karla, 50.

Let’s get cooking

The Gearys wanted an open, comfortable space that centered on the kitchen where friends and family would always be part of or in view of the cooking action.

Pale yellow walls shade the living, dining and the kitchen contrasted by wood furniture and Steve’s handcrafted woodwork. The rooms overlook a covered patio through two sets of French doors where a stone water fountain takes center court.

Glossy golden brown concrete floors add a rustic richness throughout the home, but the couple agrees the kitchen is their pride and joy.

Eddie Seal/Caller-Times

Colorful place settings with talavera dishware and red, green and yellow stemware glow atop Karla Geary’s parents’ 50-year-old dining table. ‘It was a special occasion table when we were growing up,’ Geary said. ‘Now we use it whenever we want.’

“We spend most of our time in the kitchen. A lot of shared ideas went into it,” Karla said.

Steve’s woodworking skill is most evident in the pine cabinetry dominating the kitchen. The couple distressed the wood by beating it with chains and nails.

To cut the cost of expensive countertop material, the Gearys chose concrete, which Steve and his friends poured and shaped. The peachy pink counters are complemented with blue glass accessories, a few beaded glass cabinets and a tumbled tile back-splash with talavera tile accents.

“She (Karla) came home with a pile of plates and asked if I could do something with them in the kitchen,” Steve said. “And I said, ‘OK.’”

The plates were set in the back-splash above the sink and above the stainless steel gas stovetop.

Touches of history

Eddie Seal/Caller-Times

With 12-foot ceilings in the living area, Karla Geary was able to use large accessories, such as the rustic wall crosses, to decorate without overwhelming the space. The TV armoire was one of the first pieces Steve Geary made.

Bits of family mementos create an evolving history in the Geary’s home. In a hall bathroom near the living room, rustic tile work crafted by Karla’s late father surrounds a Mexican floral sink bowl on a vanity. In the dining room, Karla’s parents’ dining table with black wrought iron accents overlooks the patio.

Karla, a former hairstylist who still serves a few clients in a personal make-up/salon room, displays her grandmother’s antique hair crimpers on a wall.

Next to the salon is the master suite where mauve and purple floral bedding lightens the massive wood framed bed and matching furniture pieces.

An impressionist art piece of a countryside home hangs on one wall, while French doors that overlook the patio shed light into the bedroom from the opposite wall.

“I told Sag (Steve’s nickname) to build me a house like that,” Karla said, pointing to the artwork.

And by the looks of things, he did; or rather they did, together.

“Never in my wildest dreams I thought we’d have something like this. It meets all of our expectations, our dreams,” Karla said.