Marin Home / BACKSTORY
— by 300 square feet. “But it doesn’t seem
that big,” says Pauli, “because most of the
living is on two levels.”
Indeed, the Cur woods hang out mostly on
the main floor, which has an open, airy layout,
and the second, which has four bedrooms, one of
which Matt (a transplanted Australian who runs
a transportation company) uses as an office. The
bottom floor is mostly a place for their sons to
stay when they come home from college.
Though the house is fairly new, built in
1998, it has the feel of an older home, with
a gray-shingled exterior, paned glass win-
dows and built-in bookshelves, a contrast
the Curwoods appreciate. It also reflects
Kristine’s decorating style: she likes to blend
contemporary furnishings with family
heirlooms and flea-market finds. In the din-
ing room, the oval-shaped mahogany table
that belonged to her great-grandmother,
America Grant (who was married to the son of
Ulysses S. Grant), sits below a modern Cadiz
shell chandelier; on the wall hangs a mirror
Kristine found at a consignment store.
It’s questionable, though, how much time
anyone spends in the dining room, because
the kitchen is so phenomenal people are loath
to leave it. Designed for a serious cook, which
Kristine is, it features four ovens, a double
Wolf range, two walk-in pantries, and a black
leatherized granite island that’s just shy of
runway-length. Adjacent is a family room with
cushy white couches and huge windows looking out on expansive foliage.
With the centralized kitchen, they don’t
mind all the space. “In my old house, I’d be
cooking and hear the laughter in the din-
ing room, thinking, ‘Oh, I wish I was a part
of that,’ ” says Kristine. “But here, I’m in the
middle of everything.” m
WHEN KRISTINE AND Matt Cur wood sent their sec- ond of three children to college last August, their 1893 Victorian in San
Rafael’s Forbes neighborhood suddenly felt too
large. At 5,700 square feet, it was built on four
levels, with a lot of small rooms — too much for
the couple and their school-age daughter. “The
house had a lot of up and down,” says Kristine,
“and we wanted someplace where the three of
us would feel comfortable.”
They reached out to their realtor, Monica
Pauli, and told her they wanted to downsize.
On their list: more privacy, a secluded lot and
contemporary floor plan, and definitely less
square footage.
They got it all. Except the square foot-
age part. This house, a three-level set on a
private, wooded acre-and-a-half, is smaller
