SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER - July 20, 2007

So it came to pass that the only house Linda Applewhite and her husband, Marshall, could afford was a 1950s piece of housing-tract effluvia on a Bay Area street named Clorinda.

It wasn't a pretty picture.

But with a little concentration and some hard-earned dollars, they turned it into a European-style country cottage.

The tale of that transformation is the back story of this book, in which Applewhite tells about a structure's "good bones" and how, with assistance from the temporal side of life, its "soul" can be revealed.

"By 'bones,' " she writes, "I mean architectural details such as beams, arches, niches, pitched ceilings, interesting windows and doors, beautiful moldings, distinctive fireplaces, columns or cabinetry." In short, a place with architectural characteristics that distinguish it from all others.

In Applewhite's case, however, these were the missing ingredients, and yet ...

The couple plunged in to create what had not been, while also living in the home's basement, without a kitchen or a bath.

And when they were finished, she says, "we had exposed her bones, making good use of her multiple peaks and hidden angles by pitching ceilings in the living room, dining room, master bedroom and new family room. We had added beams and lintels, a fat wall and arch, and niches in the kitchen. We had opened her up to the garden with wonderful old windows and doors and brought in light with six new skylights."

An antique mantel also was added. There was even a castaway column placed -- exclamation-pointlike -- where a wall once stood.

Indeed by the end of the exercise they had managed to anthropomorphize a soulful little creation to the point where they felt it necessary to christen it, and did -- "Clorinda."

Applewhite's book, however, is not just about Clorinda but aims to boost the possibilities available to readers hoping to etherealize all those other Ugly Ducklings.

"You say you don't have a big budget? Adding architectural interest can be as simple and inexpensive as buying a can of paint and using your imagination," she says.

For Applewhite, trained as she is in interior design, the Clorinda experience proved to be an epiphany that led her to what she came to define as "true interior design."

"The ability to pitch ceilings, knock down walls and create new openings for windows and doors was thrilling and had so much more impact than picking ball fringe for pillows," she says.

"I was hooked."'

-- Gordy Holt