Flavia, Harold and Coco "in Utah this week"

On July 21, 2006 Kim Burgess interviewed us for an article on our home that appeared in the August 3, 2006 issue of "in Utah this week" magazine. The original online edition of the article (different from the print edition) can be found here.

(The following is a stripped down copy of the online version---which is different from the print edition---in case the original link disappears.)

HAPPY COINCIDENCE GUIDES COUPLE TO DREAM HOME

Home Tour by Kim Burgess

Synchronicity is not only the name of a great Police song, but a real-life experience that sometimes guides people to exactly what they need.

If you don't believe me, ask Harold Carr and Flavia Cervino-Wood. Two years ago, the couple were looking to expand from a 980 square-foot house to something bigger. They searched Emigration Canyon, but decided they were too far from nightlife and high-speed Internet. Luckily, the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars.

On a casual drive, Cervino-Wood spotted a lovely old bungalow and was immediately drawn to it. Ironically, it was the same home that Carr had admired for years on bike rides. "I would look up and see the porch and think that it looked great," Carr said.

That porch is now where they spend much of their time, reading and "staring at nothing." Inside, the walls are bright and filled with art they've collected from festivals and Cervino-Wood's native Chile. The living room doubles as practice space for folk band Blue Haiku, where Carr plays bass and Cervino-Wood is on violin. Angel figurines peek out from corners. Buddha statues meditate in nearly every room.

"We're comfortable here," Carr said. "We were comfortable here from the start." The couple are so happy with their home, it's almost like it was meant to be.

WEDDING PICTURE

"When I met Flavia, she was wearing a white plaster mask and playing the violin. We were in the same show in San Francisco. It was a performance art show - the Windolls Theatre of Images. It combined dance and live music with projected [art]. The second week, the show went to Hong Kong. We fell in love on that trip." -- Carr

MASK

"My grandmother gave me that mask. It is from Chile. I think it is strong and beautiful, so she always has a power position in our house. My best friend is terrified of it, but I love it." --- Cervino-Wood

RECLINING STATUE

"This [statue] is called the procrastinator. It's me thinking of what to do around the house that I'm not doing." ---Carr

LIVNG ROOM WALL COLOR

"[When we got the house] these walls were dark gray. It was a rat color. It was horrible." --Cervino-Wood

"Flavia chose the new color. I think it's one shade too bright during the day, but I love it at night. It keeps the room warm and bright." --Carr

BUDDHA

"This Buddha, it is set up the same way that my friend in Chile has hers set up in the sand. I look at it and I think about her." -- Cervino-Wood

WOLF/VIOLINIST PAINTING

"This was done by Willa Marie, a well-known Utah painter. She had seen a photo of Blue Haiku in the paper and done a painting based on the arrangement. We didn't know her, but she started doing all these paintings of a wolf and a violinist. At the time, we had a hybrid wolf as a pet, and Flavia is a violinist. She lives across the street from us now. There were all these strange connections between her and us." --Carr

GUATEMALA PAINTING

"This is a corn harvest. It's an amazing picture. You can fall into it." --Flavia

"We don't frame paintings because we can't imagine frames that would do justice to them." --Carr

COCO

"Our dog's name is Coco. It's short for cocodrillo, Spanish for crocodile. We named him that because he gives love bites. I'll be walking past him and he'll bite my butt." -- Cervino-Wood

CARR'S OFFICE

"This room has a great view. It gets really hot in the summer. I work from home, so I'm in there all the time." --Carr

CERVINO-WOOD'S OFFICE

"We have a lot of family photos in here, and I have the things for my work [as a social worker]." --Cervino-Wood

KITCHEN MURAL

"The person who owned the house before us painted that. It goes all the way around the kitchen. We thought about painting over it, but we decided we liked it." --Carr

TOY RABBIT

"This was Flavia's first toy. If you look at the feet, you can see she sucked on them." --Carr

SON'S PAINTING

"This is a painting my son did. I think it's so cute. It's him peeing. I'm in there with the blue head." -- Cervino-Wood

BEDROOM

"We don't put anything on the wall of our bedroom so it's a calm place. And green is a very healing color." -- Cervino-Wood

SON'S PHOTO

"My son is professional extreme skier. He does those jumps down 100-foot cliffs. I tell him not to tell me when he's going to do it. If he told me, I'd just be nervous the whole day." --Carr

BATHROOM TILES

"These are the original tiles in this bathroom. The previous owners of the house owned a tile store. They had tiles everywhere. When I am in the garden digging, I sometimes find pieces of tiles." -- Cervino-Wood

© 2006 In Utah This Week

And here are (small) scans of the paper version to give you a flavor: