Paris Renfroe in real scale.

I had Paris and Lisa Renfroe over for lunch last weekend and it was so interesting. We were talking about my house and Paris was available to come see it. It was built in 1929 and was one of the early houses placed for the view from the East Bay Hills. The rooms are small as it was made before cantilevering was known. My house is colonial style and "quaint" and frankly I'm bored with it. He asked me what I couldn't live without and helped narrow down my desire for modern touches. I had a BLAST!
He and Lisa are a great team. She is beautiful and a software designer who runs her own company.   I served white wine, bread and cheese, and squash soup.Then pumkin pie. It was a Fallish day in the Bay area and I felt like Martha Stewart!
I showed them my Gottschalk house, MH1, and the hexagonal Eagle 1950's house. We talked about the growth of the mini design world and how great the DWR event was.

He has an interesting story about his name as he has a Greek heritage. Do you know who Paris was in Greek mythology? He was the greatest judge of beauty in the world. Good name for an artist.. He also started the Trojan War, but that's another chapter. He said it is wild being named Paris with Paris Hilton in the news all the time.
Then he said the most amazing thing. He and Lisa had a view of the East Bay Hills when they lived in San Francisco. They used to watch the setting sun reflect off the windows of the east bay houses in the evening.
 He said my view was a miniature, that the feeling one gets from a view is the same we get from looking at mini scenes. He said his favorite character growing up was Gulliver. He said he could see stepping into my view and being gigantic and walking aound! I had never thought of it that way before.
I said I had been taught Bonkai when I was a little child living in Yokahama, Japan. It is the art of making scenery from clay then coloring it with colored sand. I remember making waves in the ocean was my favorite because even a small child could drop white sand on the blue in wavery lines and it looked real. I thought that was my beginning with miniature scenes.
He said it was interesting to see how people reacted when people they respect or admire took mini design seriously. I showed him my collection on Flickr but his soul is firmly rooted in modern design.
Thank you Paris and Lisa for visiting. I  look forward to the next time you are in the Bay area. C