MID-CITY Soon after moving into her new home last year, Pam Barnett was welcomed to the neighborhood by Aziz Farnam with an interesting greeting.
“You are very lucky,” Farnam said to his new neighbor at the time.
“Why,” Barnett asked. “You get to wake up every morning and see my house,” he replied.
It’s an amusing story that Barnett likes to tell whenever she has company. Friends and other visitors often inquire about the marvelous home that sits directly across the street from her residence.
On the corner of 26th Street and California Avenue is a remarkable home covered in mosaic tiles and beads, a colorful explosion that forces drivers and pedestrians to stop in their tracks.
“I always say I’m across the street from the tile house,” Barnett said on Friday, alluding to how she uses the home as a point of reference when giving directions.
The ever so diverse architectural landscape of Santa Monica includes historic homes, beautiful mansions, small beach cottages, multi-story mixed-use complexes and of course, warped houses that look as though they were modeled after crumpled pieces of paper.
But regardless of architectural styles, homes are personalized by its owners, whether it’s planting a rose garden or painting the columns.
Some go a little farther than others. Elaine Golden-Gealer has lived in a one-story house on 20th Street near Wilshire Boulevard since 1988.
For the past 20 years, Golden-Gealer has done her best to turn the house into her personal stash of clocks as well as Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse and The Wizard of Oz figurines and collectibles. Her collection includes more than 170 clocks, the silence of the house disrupted by the sounds of ticking time pieces.
But perhaps what makes Golden- Gealer’s property so recognizable to the rest of her neighborhood is not what’s inside of her house, but what sit outside on the lawn.
Secured behind a small white picket fence are statues, lots and lots of statues.
“When I looked at the original landscape, it was horrible,” she said. “I saw a blank canvas.”
Golden-Gealer doesn’t consider herself to be an artist, by trade or by hobby. In fact, she’s the senior director for Coldwell Banker’s Condominium Division.
It all happened years ago when Golden- Gealer was driving on Colorado Avenue and saw a statue on the lawn.
“Gee, I wish my yard looked like that,” she thought at the time.
First came a giant cow statue, then another cow, followed by a wizard, a policeman, a knight in shining armor and then a pirate.
She’ tried to incorporate some of the statues so that it flows freely with the existing landscape, such as a large figurine of a dog urinating on the grass, and a swimmer taking a dip in the “pool,” which in this case would be the lawn.
Some of the statues were found in a store in Marina del Rey, others purchased on the Internet.
What she first considered to be an eyesore is now a personal treasure chest.
“I just like doing it for the heck of it and the neighbors love it,” Golden-Gealer said. “I get constantly asked if (a stranger) can take a picture.”
It started innocently. Louise Farnam was lending a helping hand during an art project in her son’s class at Franklin Elementary School. The task was to create a mosaic.
Farnam was intrigued, it was the first time she had ever tried mosaic art.
Curious, she came home and started breaking rose-patterned plates, gluing the pieces onto a lamp. She was happy with the result.
Then one day, Farnam’s son asked if his parents could spice up the façade of the house, add a little mosaic, spruce things up a bit.
That was six years ago, before the obsession began.
Over the years, Louise and her husband, Aziz, began adding more and more tiles to the exterior of the house, creating a mosaic tree and a mosaic killer whale to name but a few.
They covered the walkway with tiles, the stairs, the doors, the walls and even the chimney.
Each section of the house is dated, reminding the homeowners of when that certain portion of the project began. It takes anywhere from a few months to several years to finish a portion of the home.
It all begins with an idea, which is then transferred into a sketch. Then begins the time consuming process of finding the right pieces of the puzzle, hitting up flea markets and thrift stores. Sometimes, friends will stop by with glasses broken by their children. Nothing is wasted, Louise Farnam said.
The obsession extends inside — the columns of the house covered in broken mirrors, tiles adorning lamp shades, coffee tables and even picture frames.
Louise and Aziz Farnam have become so adept at the art of mosaics, they have started a business, aptly called “Custom Mosaic Art,” launching a Web site by the same name.
The house has been featured in news articles and television shows, including a segment on a HGTV program.
“Everyone said we were crazy with what we were doing here,” Louise said. “When we were finished, everyone said it was nice and encouraged us to continue.”
The effect on the value of a home that screams “personal touch” really depends on the challenge the new homeowners would face in transforming the place into something they would like, said Paul Skikne, owner of Santa Monica Real Estate.
In other words, if the Farnam ever decided to sell their home, the value could depend on the cost for a potential homeowner to remove the tiles.
But in a city like Santa Monica, with a competitive real estate market, it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to sell such a home, Skikne said.
“I don’t think it would enhance the value, unless you find the buyer that absolutely loves something that personalized,” Skikne said. “However I don’t think it would necessarily take too much from the value.”
What could affect the home is its marketability, whether or not anyone would even be interested in taking a look.
“Houses like that could potentially take longer to sell because the average buyer may not want to deal,” he said. “I don’t think in Santa Monica, it could have a significantly negative impact on value.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 2, 2007. Read the original PDF.