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The first time Amy Piazza saw the North Chattanooga house she now calls home, she turned up her nose. A dingy gray on the exterior, it lacked grass and bushes and had no curb appeal. “I didn’t even want to look at it,” Ms. Piazza said she told her aunt, a Realtor.
Today, six months after she bought it, the 1920s-era frame house is painted a light olive with white trim and olive shutters.
The front porch has been centered, grass covers the area between the house and street, and bushes in front give the rolling lot a nicely landscaped look.
Inside, every inch of the formerly gray walls was painted, wainscoting was added to the kitchen and two bathrooms, light fixtures were replaced, fans and faux wood blinds were put up, shoe molding was put down, and a deck was added off the kitchen.
Ms. Piazza, 33, said family and friends helped her take care of the painting, and her brother-in-law, Jamie McBryer of McBryer and Son, served as contractor and deck builder.
She based the color scheme of the 1,200-square-foot home around the olive living room couch — which has throw pillows with orange and dark red designs.
With that start, and the knowledge that most of the wood furniture would be dark, Ms. Piazza painted the walls creamy gold and the door, window trim and base molding white.
Family and friends contributed most of the furniture, she said.
“I’ve been very lucky,” said Ms. Piazza, a speech pathologist with the Hamilton County Schools.
The living room contains a hand-medown retro console television that sits on a raised brick area that once held a freestanding wood stove.
Accents such as a piece of Roseville pottery and metalwork wall sculpture from Mississippi add character to the room, which has a view of Missionary Ridge.
In her bedroom, Ms. Piazza toned down the effects of a favorite floral bedspread and the dark wood furniture by painting the walls a light olive green.
Her father found the three-piece guest bedroom set and the weathered, dark English pine dining room table at auctions.
Her grandmother downsized, so Ms. Piazza received such items as the guest-room rocker and white kitchen table and chairs.
What Ms. Piazza believes was a 1950s addition to the home contains a kitchen, bedroom and bath.
When she moved in, she bought all white kitchen appliances (except the refrigerator, which remained) and curtained off the washer and dryer.
Ms. Piazza painted the back bedroom, which she uses as a dressing area, a deep apricot.
“I love this room,” she said, noting the convenience of the adjacent bath and walk-in closet. “It’s great to come in here and get ready for work.”
The pressure-treated pine deck, which wraps around two sides of the house, is Ms. Piazza’s favorite spot in mild weather. In summer, it is shaded by two massive oaks.
Faux copper post caps, rock-filled steps and flower beds give the area character, and a Mexican chiminea provides both interest and warmth.
When Ms. Piazza bought the house, the sloping backyard was so overgrown with brush she couldn’t see the homes behind her. Now, thanks to her father’s work, she can see her neighbors and even dreams of having a driveway into the area from the rear alley.
The fact that Ms. Piazza even can dream about a driveway was not always a given. In 2007, she was diagnosed with cancer for a second time. Breast cancer, first diagnosed and treated in 2002, had metastasized.
“The prognosis was not very good,” she said.
However, after treatment, Ms. Piazza’s stage 4 cancer went into remission, and she felt it was time to move on.
“(Buying the house) is a big step for me, now that I’m OK,” she said. “I’m very, very lucky to find this and to do the things to it I’ve been able to do.”
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