Rose Nhem: Eureka, California, is known for its distinguished Victorian houses, but that's not all there is to this town's structural landscape.

Take a look at the different neighborhoods or even right down your street, and you'll notice an impressive variety of houses that represent notable design eras.

From craftsman to deco to contemporary and everything in between.

We'll meet with the homeowners to find out what's inside these architectural gems.

Come along as we take you "Beyond Victorian."

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [chiming] [dog barking] Rose: This modest house will delight you with its charm.

Its natural features, open floor plan, and front porch are just part of its inviting nature.

Let's go inside to learn more about this cozy home.

Rose: Tom, Jenna, thank you for inviting us to your home.

Jenna Catsos: Our pleasure.

Rose: What about this house appealed to you?

Tom Wheeler: I think that we had a couple of things on our list that were kind of must-haves, and you can't change the location of a house and so that was fundamentally, I think, one of the most important ones, was that we-- like the neighborhood.

What else was there?

Jenna: We also wanted a porch and we really loved the porch on this house, and then we really loved the floors and they're the original Douglas fir floors and they're so warm and red, like a really nice red tone, and then we really loved the fireplace and most of the other things we realized we could change and we could really make something that we loved and so those were the things that really drew us in originally.

Rose: Are there parts of the house that you don't find very exciting or are not one of your favorites?

Tom: We've griped about the lack of storage space before.

Jenna: Oh yeah.

Tom: You know, there aren't--there aren't closets besides the bedroom closets.

♪♪♪ Rose: So, Jenna, tell us a little bit more about this room.

Jenna: So this is our primary bedroom, and I really love it.

I think it's very small, by a lot of standards, but it's enough space and one of my favorite things is the window, so a lot of the house has the original windows still, and they have this awesome hardware that's like, you know, the brass, and I had never seen windows like this.

It took me a while to figure out how they open.

They, like, they swing out.

But they just--they're so interesting, they let in an incredible amount of light.

And I will never put in modern windows.

Rose: Well, it's interesting too because I've seen older houses with windows like this but they're painted shut, and you can't open them up anymore, so.

Jenna: Yeah, we were really lucky that these are all, I don't wanna say they're in great shape, but they all function which is really nice.

♪♪♪ Rose: I know with homes like these, they have built-in features.

How do you feel about those?

Do you utilize those built-in features?

Tom: Actually, one of the projects that we're working on right now is we're trying to do a built-in bar in the dining room area.

We've just added some wainscoting in the dining room.

We're trying to bring back the features of a craftsman that were missing from kind of a cheap renovation in the '90s.

♪♪♪ Jenna: This is the dining room and this was our most recent project.

We wanted to do something with this space that worked in the craftsman period of the home and really helped define it and make it unique and so we added the paneling.

Rose: Oh, I see.

Jenna: The architectural detail in this space is actually brand new but we wanted it to look like it belonged in the home.

Rose: Right, yeah.

Jenna: It was a little rough when we first bought it.

It had been a rental for years and it had a lot of quirks but underneath everything we saw that there was so much good character and so we've changed a lot and we've done a lot.

It's been a really fun time trying to turn it into a place that we love and that really reflects who we are but also still speaks to the character of the house and kind of makes sense in this space.

We renovated the kitchen last winter and that was a really big project.

When we bought the house there was an Ikea kitchen in that we assume had gone in maybe in, like, the early '90s and so we wanted to kind of bring it back to something that made more sense in a craftsman house from this era.

Rose: I love how open this area is currently.

Was this also another project that you two did?

Jenna: Yes, this was.

So we took down the wall that was above here and there had been a doorway and a passthrough and so we created this more open space 'cause it worked better for how we use the home.

We really wanted it to feel open all the way through and inviting.

We thought a long time about how we use the kitchen and how we wanted to make it work, while also keeping a really classic look.

And so we looked at a lot of shaker kitchen designs and kind of that--those clean lines with the little details.

Tom does most of the cooking and so he really got a big say in how the kitchen worked for him.

Rose: Could you show us a little bit more what's behind that door?

Jenna: I would love to.

♪♪♪ Jenna: It's been a lot of fun to work on the house.

Rose: What are some of the favorite parts of your home?

Tom: I would have to say our front porch on a sunny afternoon.

It just grabs all the sunshine and it is a wonderful place to sit and look out on our neighborhood.

It's a nice quiet block and a lot of people walk so it's fun to sit out there and get to meet the dogs and their walkers and all the humans in strollers that pass by.

Rose: I just really love this kind of openness of this part of the house.

And plus the fireplace makes it cozy even though it's--there's an open area.

Jenna: Yeah, yeah, and I think it's kind of that balance of, like, small spaces that feel cozy, but also they feel open and not constricting.

In the winter, we usually turn the couch so it faces the fireplace and also to make room for our Christmas tree which we put in this corner.

And it's just--it's nice 'cause we're just around the fireplace a lot more and that orientation is just a little bit cozier and warmer.

Rose: Do you two think that this house has a personality?

Jenna: I just think that it really matches and kind of mimics our personalities in a lot of ways, and I think that that's the best thing about a home when you step into someone's home and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I see so much of you in this space."

I think that there's something magical about it because it's, like, you want your home to be a space for you to be comfortable in and a space that makes sense for you and so I think that it's kind of the best of both worlds of that.

Like, there's a lot of us in this home but there's also a lot of this home in us.

Rose: How did you make this house your home?

Jenna: I feel like it's been a process of, you know, yes, we've done a ton of projects and I think that's a big part of it, but I would say, overall, just the living that has happened in this space has really made it feel like our home and the memories and the Christmases and the parties and kind of all those--all the living that has happened here.

You always hear people talk about, like, a starter home and then your forever home and this idea that you have so many homes during your life and this is the first house that we ever bought and I can't imagine wanting anything different.

Rose: Jenna, Tom, thank you so much for inviting us into your home and telling your story about what it's like to live here.

Tom: Well, thank you.

Jenna: Thanks.

♪♪♪ Rose: Our next home looks like a typical mid-century modern building, but was built in 1948.

You can see the futuristic look of that era in the butterfly roof and pole support next to the front door, which give the house a modern angled look that is light and not weighted to the ground.

Let's take a look inside and meet the owners, Leah and Casey.

Rose: Casey, Leah, thank you so much for allowing us in your space.

Casey Vaughn: You're welcome.

It's a pleasure.

We're excited to show off our house.

Rose: What is it about this place in particular that caught your eye?

Leah: When we walked into this house, we immediately fell in love with it.

It just is-- Casey: The idea of it.

Leah: Yeah, for sure.

We love a good project which this house definitely is.

It had great bones and a great vibe to it that we just really wanted to bring back to life.

Rose: Is there a favorite part of the house for each of you?

Casey: This space is the space that makes you fall in love with the house and it's my favorite place.

You know, I spend a lot of time at my desk, working, but also, you know, this is a nice room to, like, sit back and play guitar, watch your kids make a giant mess and destroy everything.

I think this house is sort of impractical in lots of ways but if you're only looking for practicality, then you're gonna get, you know, a ticky-tacky builder house that you can put on a cul-de-sac in some towns maybe farther north of here, if you want something really practical, but it's like--so the feature, I think, I'm agreeing with Leah here, the feature's just sort of like the experience of being here and being allowed to-- 'cause we like to design things and we like to be creative and we have an eclectic taste and, you know, like anything from that era, it's sort of an empty chalice, if you will, that can hold any sort of ideas or design so it doesn't have to be mid-century.

Can be whatever you want, 'cause there's--like, we have a lot of, like, stuff to put on walls and we never had places to put it.

That is--there is no lack of wall space in this house.

So instead of storage, there's lots of wall space so we can put--we can buy all the décor we want and we will never run out of places to put it, right?

So that's sort of the feature I like is that you can make it whatever you want it to be.

Rose: Now, is there anything about this house that you find especially inconvenient and is your least favorite?

Casey: I would say the under of the house because I'm the one who has to go in there anytime we want to run a water line or electrical or really, just even figure out what is going on under there, because there wasn't--there is a crawl space but at some point someone had forced heat put in the house.

Leah: Which is awesome.

Casey: Which is awesome.

Great, we have a heater, but that means there's all these ducts and I have to go under there, like, fully suited up with a mask and, like, dig with my trowel to get under things.

So if I could change anything it would be someone would come and add an extra, like, foot under the house and put a vapor barrier down.

And sometimes, I'm just like, "Not worth it," you know?

It has to be, like, a--I'm gonna have to accomplish a lot down there if I'm gonna go under there and army crawl and, like--but I bought walkie talkies recently and she's like, "Why do you need those?"

I'm like--and as soon as I got 'em, right afterwards, my dad and I did some work and we were able to walkie talkie from under the house instead of, like, yelling and going, "Where are you?"

Boom, boom, boom, boom, so.

Leah: I would definitely say right now the kitchen is my least favorite.

The space is lovely.

It's a great space and it has a lot of potential for something, but we love to cook.

We like to entertain.

Rose: I love these windows.

Leah: Yes.

Rose: Nice and wide, definitely lets a lot of light in.

Leah: Right.

Rose: Another striking thing that I've noticed in this room is this really long light fixture going across the kitchen.

Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

Leah: Well, it's--it definitely fits with the space so it's just a pretty cool feature.

Some people come in and they're like, "What is with this light?"

But we really like it and think it's super-cool and we are hoping to schnazz it, like, bring it back to life a little bit too with some new chains and maybe face it with some raw wood.

Casey: I considered rebuilding it so that it could be like-- Leah: Exactly the same.

Casey: Exactly the same so that it could be, like, fresh wood that's, like, sealed all perfect.

I've even--and then I was, like, "Maybe we could buy a bunch of, like, thin tin-thickness brass and brass cover it."

And she's like, "How much money are you gonna spend on there?"

I'm like, "I don't know, but how cool would it look?"

Rose: And I notice--so, the kitchen counters, the stove, the cabinets, are they from the era that you're thinking about?

Leah: Definitely not.

I believe it was remodeled in the '90s.

At some point in time, and whoever thought it was a good idea to put tile on countertops, I'm really angry with them.

Casey: I mean, that super '90s--with the tile.

♪♪♪ Casey: I mean, there's always projects like we need to build a little section of fence in the back, we need to build some steps outside.

You know, we need to finish this place and put in a drawer, so living here is a constant project.

It's always a project.

Leah: Which we love.

Casey: Which we like, yeah.

Leah: That's why we bought this house.

Casey: Well, we knew that if it was a fixer-upper, we can also afford it.

So, that's another thing, yeah.

Rose: When you first moved into the home, was there anything that surprised you?

Leah: I mean, we're always finding surprises every time we open up a wall or start a new project.

Casey: Leah wanted me to hang a shelf and then she was like, "Oh, the wall's peeling," and then just started ripping the wall off.

The next thing you know I had to remodel the room so this was, you know, the exterior of the home on this wall is concrete block and what I had to do was pull it all down and clean it all up and furr it out so this is all sheetrock so, like, it was our first experience working in this home.

But then we had to kind of figure out what was going on up here.

Rose: All right, yeah, there's a lot of light going through and there's like a hollow space there, interesting.

Casey: What it does is it lets the light from the clear story windows from that side of the butterfly roof come through.

Sometimes, when the light hits just perfect, it lights this room up like you're like, "Whoa, like, how do I capture that year round?"

Rose: Does this house have a certain character or personality for you?

Casey: It also has that vibe of that time where, you know, like, you're gonna come in and you're gonna get yourself, you know, a Manhattan or an Old-Fashioned and you're gonna, you know, put on your records and kind of have a classic good time.

But it's definitely not stuffy.

It's definitely a place to let loose and have fun.

Casey: You don't get a house like this 'cause you don't think it looks cool.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Rose: Casey, Leah, it's been interesting to learn more about your home.

Thank you for having us.

Casey: You're welcome.

Leah: You're so welcome.

We're glad that you guys wanted to come check out our house.

Rose: It's a pretty great house, I have to say.

I love the lines and the geometry.

Casey: I mean, we love living in it.

We're kind of fond of it.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Rose: This striking architecture is not your usual Humboldt design.

Surrounded by redwoods, concrete and steel come together to bring a style of monolithic proportions.

Let's see what it's like to call it home.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Rose: Patrick, thank you for allowing us in this awesome rad space.

Before we begin the interview, could we have a quick tour of the house?

Patrick Griego: Absolutely, c'mon.

Rose: Awesome.

Patrick: This is the primary bedroom.

Rose: Primary bedroom, awesome.

I've noticed all these, like, wooden accents here, but another thing that I've noticed is that there are no curtains.

What is it about the no curtains?

Patrick: I like the light that it provides and I don't really like window coverings, so.

Rose: It's a little harder to clean as well.

Patrick: Yes, but it seems to work here.

You have enough privacy with the forest.

Rose: Yeah, and then you literally have a redwood curtain.

Patrick: You do.

Rose: Perfect.

I've also noticed these, like, nice little lights right along the edge here, gives it a different kind of feel.

What kind of atmosphere are you going for in here?

Patrick: I think it's sort of like, reminiscent of a ship, like, if you're on anything, these are sort of ship lights and that's--you have the curved ceiling.

It kind of adds to that, that ambience.

Rose: Definitely opens up the ceiling as well with that curve.

With any primary, there's a ensuite bathroom.

Patrick: There is.

Rose: So the curved ceiling is very distinguishable in this room.

Is it in any other part of the house?

Patrick: No, this is the only part of the house that has a curved ceiling.

Everything else is flat concrete.

Rose: Nice and flat concrete, wow.

Speaking of the rest of the house, can you show us the living room?

Patrick: Yeah, come with me.

♪♪♪ Rose: Patrick, thank you for the quick tour.

It was nice to see all the different little features of the house.

Patrick: Yeah.

Rose: What was it about the house that spoke to you?

Patrick: I've always liked the modern industrial and the stark look.

I used to always get "Dwell" magazines when I was in college and just flip through those and this--obviously, there aren't many places like this in Humboldt so when I found one, this was kind of my dream home.

Rose: Right.

What is it about this style that makes you feel comfortable?

Patrick: The openness.

The feeling that it's very easy to clean, very easy to maintain.

It just doesn't feel stuffy.

I really feel comfortable in a big open concrete house.

Rose: So what's this house like throughout the seasons?

Patrick: It's a perfect summer house.

It's just like the exact right temperature and you can have the doors open, it's nice.

Or closed.

It has radiant heat floors but it just still doesn't really warm it up enough in the winter, with this--yeah.

Rose: Especially with the concrete floors, it's kind of hard to have that heat, radiant heat, come right up, right?

Patrick: Yeah, so, that's the only thing.

It's a little--definitely a little cool in the winters, yeah.

The main thing that I did is I put that fireplace in the corner and tried to find a fireplace that fit within the kind of feeling of the house.

So it took a while to find a, you know, that modern industrial-looking fireplace.

And, of course, putting it in here was a little difficult because this house is filled with rebar, the walls.

So we had to hire a local contractor with a diamond blade that could come in and cut just a little hole through the rebar to put the fireplace in.

And that was--probably that was the main thing.

It is really a house that I liked the way they did everything, and chose not to try to change much.

Rose: So this architecture is very rare for Humboldt.

What makes this house unique, aside from the architecture, from the other houses in Humboldt and the other houses in Europe?

Patrick: It certainly, yeah, the gray concrete structure is brutalism, I guess is the style.

But the wood accents, I think, really help.

They--I mean, I do like just stark--that kind of industrial architecture but that would be a little too much if you didn't warm it up, so I think all the wood and the--and also all the reclaimed features.

I think the people put a lot of time into reclaimed doors and steel, et cetera, that kind of give it a little more character.

Rose: Yeah, recycling and reusing and just making everything kind of unified.

Unifying these features together into this home, right?

Do you feel like this house has a personality?

Patrick: Yeah, it does.

It's just, again, very sort of stark and not for everybody.

I certainly--it's one of those houses that people come in and they're, you know, have to be polite: "This is exactly what I want," and "It's a dream house," and people--other people say, "How in the world could you live here?

This is not very cozy, not great," but I think it's the personality is just open, easy, you're not worrying if you spill anything.

It's just--it's forgiving.

Rose: Right, a forgiving home, yes.

Are there any other additions that you want to add to the house to make it more perfect?

Patrick: I would love to have a deck out in the back, looking at the redwoods.

I mean, suppose one of the only faults that I had with whoever designed it was that the decks are all looking out at the street level where it seems ideally, if you had a deck that you were just looking out at the redwood forest, it would be perfect.

Rose: What is it about the simplicity of this house that you like?

Patrick: You know, ideally, I don't wanna spend a lot of time doing house maintenance.

I wanna just be at home enjoying myself, and this house speaks to that.

There are other houses I've lived in and you're spending time, especially on the weekends, doing cleaning and not a lot of things and you just feel at this place you just sit and have fun or play games.

Rose: Right, so what's the square footage and how big is your lot?

Patrick: I think this is about 2300 square feet, which is mainly just one room, for the most part.

There's a--the two sort of smaller bedrooms off of it.

The lot itself I think is probably less than maybe an eighth of an acre.

It seems larger than it is but it just goes down into a gulley, so the property line stops here.

But because you're in a greenbelt, it makes it seem larger.

Rose: Right, well, Patrick, thank you so much for taking the time.

We really appreciate it.

It's a rad space.

I love the way it sounds and just the modern--the modern brutalist style that it has.

And it's very unique to Humboldt County, which you would not have thought that this place existed here.

It's awesome.

Thank you so much.

Patrick: Thanks, yeah, it's fun.

♪♪♪ Rose: We hope you enjoyed visiting these houses with us.

The next time you're out and about, take a moment to appreciate the rich mosaic of architectural vision and builds that make Humboldt County so interesting.

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