Monthly Archives: November 2020

‘The Language of the Heart’

People

Photography by Sally Kolar

A Jones Creek couple celebrates the spirit of the season with string instruments, song and the occasional surprise at their annual Christmas party.
When people move from one city to another, it’s customary to pack up their belongings and bring them to their new place. Then there are Evans residents Monica and Paul Dainer.

Each time they have moved through the years, they have taken their annual Christmas party, featuring live music, with them. Last year the Dainers, who live in Jones Creek, held their 38th annual party.

“It’s something we’ve always done,” says Monica. “It always comes together.”

Unfortunately, they had to change their tune this year and cancel the party because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, they still might find a way to strike the right note for the times.

“We’re so disappointed that we can’t have the party, but we may do something virtually,” says Paul. “And we hope to have the party again next year.”

Traveling Show
Paul started the Christmas party tradition in the late 1970s when he was single, serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in San Diego. In 1979 Paul, a hematologist and oncologist at Georgia Cancer Center, was transferred to the naval hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, where he first met Monica and told her about the party.

“I thought it sounded like a lot of fun to celebrate the season with live music,” she says.

Paul, who also played viola for the Charleston Symphony, enlisted some of his symphony colleagues and the organist/pianist from St. John’s Lutheran Church to play with him at the party. He also had bought a new baby grand piano just in time for the occasion, so he couldn’t let that purchase go to waste.

He made an even better family addition when he and Monica married shortly after the second party.

They took their party with them when they moved to Bethesda, Maryland and Jacksonville, Florida, where Paul played in their symphonies.

In Maryland, Monica says, “We attracted musicians from local orchestras and had already begun adding vocalists to the parties.”

They held two parties in Jacksonville with fellow members of the Jacksonville Symphony and other local musicians. “The first chair of the second violins delayed her Christmas vacation a day just to play first violin in a piano quintet with us,” Monica says.

From Jacksonville, the Dainers moved to Greenville, North Carolina, where their daughters, Erin and Caroline, started singing and performing on the piano and violin, respectively, during the four parties they had there. Monica began singing at the parties as well.

The Dainers settled in Evans in 1992, and they started hosting their annual Christmas party here the following year. Until this December, they had skipped the party only three times – the years they moved to Evans and Greenville and in 2009 when they had to cancel it after Paul had an accident a couple of days before the event. In 1982, the party was subdued after Monica had a miscarriage the night before and a heavy snow fell on the day of the party.

“We couldn’t reach everyone to cancel the event. In spite of the snow, a few people arrived, only about 10. We couldn’t turn them away,” Monica says. “It was a quieter and somewhat somber evening. However, we did manage to sing some favorite Christmas carols.”

Strings Attached
The black tie-optional party is a Christmas highlight for many of the Dainers’ friends, and the guest list has grown through the years.

“We started out with about 30 guests and have increased to over 70. We never know who will come because many of our friends have family commitments or have travel plans formulated months before the invitations have been sent,” says Monica.

Several years ago, more than 100 guests attended the party during a three- or four-hour time period. Some people stay for the entire evening; others drop in.

No wonder the party, which includes Christmas, religious, classical and popular music, is one that people don’t want to miss. With their ties to the local arts community, the Dainers can invite any number of talented musicians and vocalists to perform.

Paul, who plays viola for Aiken Civic Orchestra (and played with Augusta Symphony for 15 years) has enlisted many of his fellow musicians to appear at their parties.

Monica, a former nurse who now presents programs at the USC Aiken DuPont Planetarium, also has been active with Augusta Players as a performer and board member. “Through my connections with that organization, we have invited a number of very talented singers over the years,” she says. “And we always like to invite children and young people as guests and performers.”

Last year, for instance, Laura Doss, organist at Christ Church, Presbyterian and accompanist for Augusta Youth Chorale, played the piano and was accompanied by her three sons (ages 15, 10 and 9 at the time) on the violin and cello. The played “Good Christian Men, Rejoice” and “See Amid the Winter‘s Snow,” both arranged by Kristen Campbell.

Other performances included a piano solo by Moscow native and Columbus State University adjunct faculty member Ksenia Kurenysheva, who also accompanied Taiwan native Sho Ane Seaton as she sang the arias “Ombra Mai Fu” by Handel and “O Mio Babbino Caro” by Puccini.

Melissa Schultz, a voice and piano teacher who has performed throughout the United States and Canada, sang “Gesu Bambino” by Pietro Yon and Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum (k.339).” Members of the Christ the King Lutheran Church choir sang “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

Mark Dickens, who has played the piano and organ in many area churches, and Stacy Reynolds, who has played piano for local musical theater groups and contemporary Christian music for churches for decades, also played the piano at last year’s party.

The Dainers pulled double duty as hosts and entertainers for the festivities. Monica sang with her choir from Christ the King, and she sang an Austrian Christmas carol, “Es wird scho glei dumpa,” with their daughter, Caroline Dainer Osburn, in Austrian-German dialect. Paul played the viola both as a soloist and in a chamber group.

He played Hoffmeister’s “Viola Concerto in D major”, third movement (Rondo) with Mark Dickens on piano. He performed “String Quintet No.4 in G Minor” (k.516) by Mozart with Adam and Andrew DePriest on violin, Janis Krauss on viola and Robert Gibson on cello.

He also played the fourth movement (Minuet) by Dittersdorf, a duet for a viola and string bass, with Adam DePriest. Finally, Paul played Christmas carols, arranged by Stan Pylant for three violas and the audience, with Stan and with Carl Purdy.

The program offered plenty of levity as well. Steven Hansen – a local actor, Greenbrier High School music and theater teacher, and Christ the King choir director – brought some fun to the occasion by singing “We Need a Little Christmas” and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

Tyler Cook, a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance graduate of Augusta University who has won numerous state, regional and national musical theater competitions, sang the Christmas folk song, “River,” by Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, and “She Used to Be Mine” from the musical, Waitress.

Rabbi David Sirull of Adas Yeshurun Synagogue in Augusta, another performer at last year’s party, received classical training in the art of Eastern European Chazanut and Yiddish folk music. However, he sang several “redneck” songs from his collection, some of which can be found on YouTube.

The guests got into the act as well. After the scheduled performances, they joined in singing Christmas carols.

Expect the Unexpected
The Dainers never know what to expect at their party, except that it will be one for the ages – all ages, in fact. Last year, three babies were in attendance, which Monica says is unusual.

“They ranged in age from 5 weeks to 8 months, and they were perfect angels. We never heard them cry,” says Monica. “I guess they were mesmerized by the music.”

One year Paul’s 93-year-old father came to the party shortly after losing his wife. However, the music lifted his spirits. “He even was inspired to play some familiar songs on our piano as the party concluded,” Monica says.

On occasion, the Dainers have been surprised by the people they have found on their front porch. About 15 years ago, the doorbell rang during the party and they opened the door to a group of about eight college students singing Christmas carols. Naturally, the Dainers invited them inside to sing.

The couple loves to share the joy of the holiday season, and some aspects of the evening are entirely predictable. For instance, fellowship with good friends and good food from Silver Palm Catering Company – plus sweets, cookies, cakes and other treats made by Monica – are the perfect accompaniments to the party.

Still, the music is the star of the evening.

“Music transcends spoken language and has the power to bring people from diverse backgrounds together,” says Caroline. “You don’t have to sing or play an instrument to understand this language, because music is the language of the heart.”

By Sarah James

Programming Note

People

Augusta Symphony’s Holiday Pops! concert will take a different form from holidays past.
The holidays certainly may look out of the ordinary this year. However, if Augusta Symphony has anything to say – or play – about it, the holidays won’t sound any different.

This season the annual Holiday Pops! concert will be digital.

The first concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, December 3. The performances will be available until Sunday, December 27, and the video production can be watched on demand.

The symphony will play perennial favorites such as Winter Wonderland, Let It Snow, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Nutcracker Suite, Sounds of Hanukkah and Sleigh Ride.

Tickets are $10 per household, and they will be emailed three days before the concert. Subscribers to the 2020-21 season will have access to the performance as part of their subscription.

So dress up, or dress down. Just don’t miss the chance to enjoy these classic holiday songs.

Seeing the Light

People

Photos courtesy of Mike Carter and Kirstyn Harris

Two Martinez neighbors collaborate to create a Christmas light show and synchronize it to music, and the display gets bigger every year.
Santa’s elves don’t have anything on Martinez resident Mike Carter. The man likes to stay busy – and to spread Christmas cheer. Only he doesn’t spend all year making toys for good little girls and boys.

When he isn’t working, renovating houses or running bowling leagues, he spends time building an outdoor Christmas lights display at his house and setting it to music.

In fact, his enthusiasm is so infectious that his friend, Kirstyn Harris, wanted to get in on the act. They originally met in a bowling league, and now they live across the street from each other on Whisperwood Drive in Shadowmoor.

The lights display at their houses in the neighborhood, located at the corner of Columbia and Belair roads, runs from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve. The hours are 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Between their two homes, they have put up 82,050 lights with 384 channels and 816 extension cords totaling 10,906 feet this year. A channel is a unit of lights that can be controlled individually, and all of the lights in a channel work as a single unit. For example, a single bush with one set of lights draped over it can be a channel. Each channel controls one color of one element in the light show.

This year will mark Mike’s fifth show and the fourth show that he and Kirstyn have done together. He started out in 2016 with 6,600 lights, 32 channels and 64 extension cords totaling 834 feet.

Getting With the Program
Mike first got interested in creating a lights show from one of his favorite movies, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. He also was inspired to synchronize Christmas lights to music by “The Osborne Family Spectacle Of Dancing Lights,” a display of Christmas lights and decorations at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. He went to the Disney display during the holidays every year from 2003 until 2015. (It was discontinued in early January of 2016.)

On the day after New Year’s Day in 2016, Mike was walking through a big box store when he saw that Christmas lights were on sale for 40 cents a box.

“I decided to buy $50 worth of lights, and I put them in my garage,” he says.

Mike, a former computer programmer, bought Light-O-Rama software and controllers in August 2016 so he could synchronize a lights show to Christmas music. He had four songs for the initial display, and it took him four weeks to program the first song. He got faster as he went along, however, dropping a week from the programming time with each successive song.

To put up the 6,600 lights, he worked from 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day until 2 a.m. the following morning.

“I turned it on, and it worked flawlessly,” says Mike. “We have expanded the show every year since.”

They use red, green, blue and purple lights, and they zip-tie the various colors together so they don’t have to put up separate strands of lights. That technique not only makes their work easier.

“The display looks cleaner when the lights are zip-tied together,” says Kirstyn, a graduate student in the medical illustration master’s program at the Medical College of Georgia.

This year, Mike and Kirstyn have added 18,050 lights to the display. “We added lights to two sides of the houses because of the spots where people stop to view the show. We want them to have something to see,” he says.

They have constructed 5-foot and 10-foot Christmas trees out of tomato cages and wrapped them with strands of lights, and they crafted wooden stars for the tops of the trees. Wooden snowflakes go on the roof, and arches are lined up in the yards. They also made a wreath out of wire mesh.

“The lights display helps me with the medical illustration program,” says Kirstyn. “It helps me learn about color and design and how lighting is different.”

Each extension cord is labeled with a channel ID. A transmitter on each side of the street sends and receives data, and the light show is transmitted across the street wirelessly. Mike has one control box in his garage, and they have 24 control boxes in various places in their yards.

Feeling the Beat
Mike has created a map of each house in the computer program, and he identifies every channel with lights and analyzes the music. “It doesn’t have to be perfect,” he says. “You just have to be able to see what’s going on.”

The software tells how much power to send to each channel and controls the intensity of the lights. The program can set the intensity at 100%, 50%, etc., and increase the intensity by going from dim to 100%.

Every second is divided into 20 segments, so the program tells each channel what to do every 1/20 of a second.

“You can break the songs down into different parts,” says Mike. “Each part of the song can be represented by a different element like a trumpet or a drumbeat sound in the background.”

Flashing along to the beat of the music, the lights build up the show visually with the addition of more lights as the song continues. The lights can turn on or off, fade in or out, twinkle or shimmer.

“I don’t match colors to the songs, but I try to represent each part of the music,” Mike says. “I match the beat in the background. I represent each part of the song with an element on the house.”

The music is broadcast over an FM frequency, and a transmitter sends the signal across the FM channel for a quarter-mile. “That’s as far as it can go without a Federal Communications Commission license,” says Mike.

A sign posted in Mike’s yard tells people viewing the lights to tune into FM radio 90.5 to hear the music.

“You have to choose a frequency you can hear that won’t get overrun by a powerful radio station,” says Mike. “You don’t coordinate with a particular station. I scan the radio and pick the frequency that has the least amount of noise.”

This year they will play seven songs for the 21-minute show. The songs include the 45-second “THX Intro” for movies; “A Mad Russian’s Christmas,” “Christmas Eve,” “Wizards In Winter” and “Christmas Canon” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra; “Carol of the Bells” by David Foster and Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.”

“We try to add songs to the show every year,” says Mike. “This year we added so many lights that we didn’t have to add songs.”

One thing that doesn’t increase with the show – not by much, anyway – is their electric bills.

“For each house, it adds about $50 to $75 to the power bill,” says Mike. “The lights aren’t on all the time, and the show only runs four hours per day.”

Timing is Everything
In 2018, Mike timed their efforts to put up the display. With the two of them working together almost the entire time, it took them 26 1/2 hours to put everything in place over several nights and two full days.

It took them 16 hours to take everything down and carefully pack it away in labeled storage boxes that they keep in Mike’s garage.

After all, timing is everything. Their well-synched collaboration began when Mike was working on his lights program at the bowling alley when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Any free time I had, I worked on the program,” Mike says. “Kirstyn came up to me and said, ‘What are you doing? I want to learn how to do it.’”

The next day he got a text from a number he didn’t recognize, but he quickly figured out it was from Kirstyn. They have been working together ever since.

And yes, they’re already plotting how to add to next year’s display. They plan to include songs from Frozen and add white lights to complement the music.

“We will probably double the songs for next year, but we don’t have to build anything new,” says Kirstyn. “I like learning the art that is involved in creating the show.”

As much as they love putting the lights display together, however, they get just as much joy from seeing families appreciate their efforts.

“I think it helps increase people’s ability to do family things together,” says Kirstyn. “Families are trying to find holiday traditions, and driving around to see Christmas lights is a good tradition. It’s also a good way for people to get in the holiday mood.”

Mike agrees.

“People can come out with their families and enjoy the show,” he says. “Children love it. They’re fascinated by the flashes of light. It will be especially good this year because people can be six feet apart.”

By Leigh Howard

Looking Good

People

Evans and Augusta each win national accolades for being great places to live
As you, no doubt, know by now, Money magazine has discovered something we knew all along. Evans is a great place to live. In its October issue, Money ranked Evans No. 1 on its annual list of 50 Best Places to Live in the nation.

To create its list, the magazine looked at cities and towns with a population of at least 25,000. It eliminated any place that had more than double the national crime risk, a median income level lower than 85% of its state’s median, or little to no ethnic diversity.

However, the magazine primarily emphasized cost of living. Of all the U.S. towns and cities Money looked at this year, Evans had the lowest cost of living of any place with similarly high income levels.

In addition, despite the pandemic, unemployment in the area was just 5.2% in June, which was below the 7.6% average for Georgia and less than half the national average of 11.1%.

The county Parks, Recreation and Events Department has scored an accolade as well. The National Alliance for Youth Sports has designated it as a Better Sports for Kids Quality Program Provider.

Augusta also has been designated as the “Most Neighborly City in America” by Neighbor.com.

To determine the top neighborly cities, the website created a scorecard based on criteria such as charitable giving, volunteering and whether or not residents feel happy, safe and proud of their communities.

www.neighbor.com/storage-blog/most-neighborly-cities-america/

PAC GM Named

People

Matt Jameson recently was named general venue manager for Columbia County’s new Performing Arts Center.

In addition to working with iNNOVATiON Arts & Entertainment, the booking consultant and theatrical series presenter for the center, he will oversee all administrative, marketing, financial and back-of-house functions.

Jameson, an Aiken, South Carolina native, previously spent more than 10 years with Clearwing Productions in Phoenix, Arizona in management and operation roles.

The PAC, which anchors the new Plaza development, is scheduled to open early 2021.

Garlic Roasted Green Beans with Almonds

Side Dishes

12 ounces raw green beans, ends trimmed
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place beans and mushrooms in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and gently toss to coat. Lightly season with salt and pepper and toss again. Spread on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven and top with minced garlic and sliced almonds. Toss again and return to a single layer. Bake 5 minutes more or until beans are cooked through and garlic and almonds are lightly golden. Makes 4 servings.

A Little Fitness, a Lot of Fashion

Community Groups in Action

Photos courtesy of Emma Kohtanen, @emmakohtanen

A local Instagram influencer has built a loyal following with her savvy sense of style and creative content.
At first glance, a flair for fashion, a penchant for walls and a tiny dormitory mailbox would seem to have little in common.

Well, not so fast. The unlikely combination has played a role in the success of Instagram influencer Emma Kohtanen of Grovetown.

An Instagram influencer is someone who creates content about a particular topic (say fashion, food or travel) to share on the visually driven social media platform and builds a community around that niche.

In the last five years, Emma. a 23-year-old Augusta University graduate who works as a marketing coordinator in Evans, has built an Instagram following of 20,000-plus and counting. Her content, like any good influencer, reflects her passions – a little fitness, a lot of fashion.

She uses the social media platform to promote clothing brands and to provide her followers with a source of inspiration for quick outfit ideas.

“I have clothing crises a lot,” says Emma. “I don’t know what to wear sometimes, and I want to eliminate that problem for other people.”

Sense of Style
Emma got her start as a fashion blogger as an 18-year-old when she wrote her first post about her personal style while sitting on her parents’ living room couch.

“I really love clothing and pulling pieces together,” she says.

She always has had an interest in fashion, but her style has evolved in the past several years.

The native of Finland, who moved to Georgia 10 years ago with her family because of her father’s job, used to wear a lot of simple black, white and gray clothing. Her tastes have changed, however, after living in the American South.

“My style is simplistic. It’s a mix of Southern and European,” Emma says. “I like florals, bright colors and girly clothes.”

She has shifted her social media preference as well. Once she started posting photos on Instagram, she never looked back. “Nowadays, people don’t feel like reading long blog posts,” says Emma.

One thing that has never varied, however, is her love of shoes – especially statement heels.

“I like simplistic outfits, but I like to wear shoes that bring the look altogether,” she says. “Accessories can dress an outfit up or down.”

Win-Win-Win
It took Emma about six months to get her first Instagram collaboration, which was with HandPicked, a jewelry store in Augusta. “I styled outfits with their jewelry and got to keep a piece,” she says.

(For the uninitiated, a collaboration is when one Instagram user teams up with another for promotional purposes to increase their audiences or reach in a mutually beneficial arrangement. It can be paid or unpaid.)

To find collaborators, Emma exchanges emails with companies and constantly posts photos to attract the interest of clothiers. About 80 percent of time, however, retailers contact her first to see if she would like to wear their outfits in her posts. Companies pay her to model their clothing.

In addition, she says, “I get to keep the clothes, which is a nice bonus.”

Emma typically tags the products in her photos and links the outfits or accessories she wears to the LIKEtoKNOW.it app, where people can shop the looks of influencers, stylists and celebrities. She gets a commission when someone buys a piece of clothing from that app.

The collaboration is a win-win-win. The retailer makes a sale; the influencer gets a cut of the profits; and the followers gets access to items they otherwise may not have known about.

“There are so many online boutiques,” says Emma. “The clothing companies give me discount codes, and my followers can use them.”

She usually takes photos on weekends, and she tries to post something two or three times a week. Her younger brother, Eemeli, and her fiancé, Brent Pruitt, are her photographers.

“When I first started, I didn’t know anybody. They’ve been a huge help. I just go with it, and they click the button,” says Emma, who was interested in modeling when she was younger but has no formal experience.

They do photo shoots at random locations such as business buildings, Augusta Mall and downtown Augusta. However, the settings typically have one element in common.

“Wherever I see a wall,” says Emma. “I like the whole urban look with no trees.”

Relatability & Authenticity
Emma first realized she was on to something when she was a freshman in college at Kennesaw State University in 2017. Since tiny dormitory mailboxes can’t really accommodate large packages, she had the clothing from her collaborators mailed to her parents’ house.

“I would get 20 packages a day, so I realized I had to move back home,” says Emma, who transferred to AU.

Her influencer status also gave Emma a leg up on her education. “When I was taking marketing classes in college, especially digital and social media classes, I already knew 70 percent of the material,” she says.

Now that she has graduated and joined the work force, her side gig helps her in her marketing coordinator position as well.

Her Instagram audience is made up primarily of college coeds and clothing shoppers on a budget, and they can interact with her by sending her direct messages or commenting on her posts.

“I want to be relatable,” says Emma. “I don’t post $200 shirts. I post $20 clothes.”

She also has found a foolproof way to build her social media community.

“You have to be yourself and have a passion for whatever you do,” Emma says. “Followers can tell if you’re authentic.”

She posts Instagram stories nearly every day as well.

“I try to post something in live time to keep it relevant,” she says. “I’ll post things from my daily life like walking my dog or going to the gym. I want my followers to know that I’m not only about fashion.”

While free clothing has been a tangible benefit of being an influencer for Emma, she has enjoyed intangible perks as well.

“I get to be creative,” she says. “If I have an idea, I don’t have to run it by somebody else.”

She hopes to build on her success as an Instagram influencer in the future.

“I definitely want to have my own clothing boutique one day,” says Emma. “I would want to make the experience at the boutique relate back to my blogging and integrate my experience into the boutique.”

In the meantime, though, expect to see more of Emma and her fashion sense on Instagram. After all, she says, “My stories and posts have been good to me.”

By Leigh Howard

Living Large

In The Home

Photography by Sally Kolar

Contemporary, colorful, versatile and fun – this Jones Creek Plantation home is designed for entertaining.
The Jones Creek Plantation home of Michael Siewert and Justin Resley is so strategically laid out that it’s hard to imagine it any other way. However, the sitting room once was the dining room, the living room became the dining room, the kitchen used to be a porch and the small foyer to the master bedroom started out as a bath.

And that fabulous shoe wall in the master bedroom closet? Well, it didn’t even exist when they moved into the Evans house in 2005.

Michael, who owns Signature Interiors & Gifts, and Justin, a cardiovascular perfusionist at University Hospital, have done extensive renovations to the house where they like to unwind after work or entertain with ease.

Employing his construction and design talents, Michael, who created and did many of the renovations himself, approaches the interior décor of their home the same way he does the house of a client.

“I like for my clients to show me a space and tell me how they’re going to use it, and then I can fix the problem,” he says.

Raise the Bar
A stroll down the main corridor of the home offers a nod to their travels, where Chinese terracotta soldiers stand guard, a Cirque du Soleil-inspired half bath adds whimsy and entry into a Louisville bourbon bar beckons.

Michael also put his building skills to work in the hallway, where he constructed individual wall niches for the terracotta soldiers. They purchased the figures on a trip to Xian, China, where the famed warriors are interred, before traveling on to Thailand several years ago when Justin gave a medical presentation there.

For the half bath, they adopted a Cirque du Soleil theme, featuring a funky chandelier and black-and-white wallpaper, after seeing a show by the high-flying performers in Las Vegas.

The Louisville bourbon bar, formerly the laundry room, features memorabilia that pays homage to Michael’s Kentucky hometown. Although he has a preference for white walls, the red walls in the bar create a different vibe.

“I wanted a dark, smoky bar,” says Michael, who once worked in a bar in Louisville.

Colorful giclée prints of Muhammad Ali and the Kentucky Derby hang on one wall. On the opposite wall, four black and white prints depict a map of Kentucky and three Louisville landmarks – the Belle of Louisville steamboat, the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge, which crosses the Ohio River into Jeffersonville, Indiana.

The wet bar also features a granite countertop, a hammered brass sink, a wine fridge and an icemaker.

Pops of Color
Steps just beyond the bar lead down to the sunken living room, which features white walls. “As a designer, I enjoy having white walls. It gives me a neutral palette to work off of,” says Michael. “I like clean, white walls from one room to the next because they reflect the light. I’m all about light reflecting in room to room, whether I’m working with fabrics or furniture.”

He calls a trio of abstract prints, which are spotlighted by wall-mounted lamps, “the inspiration for the room.”

“I love this artwork,” says Michael. “I liked the variety of colors that I could play with. It was simple to create a palette around that artwork. It’s black and white with pops of color.”

The colorful palette in the living room includes a pair of orange lacquered tables behind white leather couches with footrests and headrests, which create a theater-like experience to watch movies.

A remote controlled-screen lowers down in front of a large silverleaf fiberglass sculpture that hangs in a lighted wall nook. To enhance the movie viewing experience, Michael made blackout window treatments, featuring sequined fabric, for the living room as well.

Upholstered chairs with zebra-print backs and hot pink cushions surround a table, which is great for playing cards, in a corner of the room. A faux Chihuly blown-glass chandelier hangs above the table, and the seating area includes a small TV as well.

“It’s a perfect Masters house because there are lots of little gathering spaces,” says Justin.

Another nice Masters rental feature is the addition of a pool house that includes private living quarters with a full kitchen and bath. Connected to the main house, the addition also houses the laundry room, a sewing room and an “outdoor room” that shares a see-through, wood-burning fireplace with the pool.

“We spend a lot of time out here in the winter,” Justin says of the outdoor room. “It’s nice with the see-through fireplace.”

Suite Spot
As part of the renovations, they also created a buffer between the master bedroom and the main corridor. The room originally opened directly into the hallway, but they turned the adjoining bath into a small foyer that leads into the master suite instead.

In the master bedroom, Justin says, the bed did not fit properly between the two windows. To solve that dilemma, Michael made hotel-style blackout draperies to cover the wall.

The bedroom also features hardwood flooring with an ebony stain. The stars of the suite, however, are the expanded walk-in closet and the new master bath. As part of the renovations, Michael broke out the openings to the spaces and did the door framing himself.

For entry into the spacious closet, they took out a small single door and replaced it with double doors into the space that resembles an upscale clothing boutique. Belts hang tidily from hooks on one side, and ties hang just as neatly on the other side. Their dressers are in the closet, and Michael’s collection of shoes is lined up on shelves along the back wall.

In fact, Michael calls the closet his favorite spot in the house.

“I say that because of my shoe wall,” he says. “I had shoes from the Salvation Army when I was growing up. When I look at 100 pairs of designer shoes, it just sends a message to me that I’m OK.”

In the master bath, they built a water closet in the space that the shower occupied and replaced a garden tub with a new tile, walk-around shower. A Japanese soaking tub is situated in front of the shower.

The bath also features a two-story trey ceiling, porcelain tile flooring and chandeliers above the vanities.

The Kitchen is Open
The kitchen underwent major renovations as well. Originally, the house had a galley kitchen. For two people who love to entertain, however, a much bigger space was in order, so they enlarged the kitchen and extended the space to the pool.

“I wanted this look in the kitchen, but we were never going to get it with the footprint we had,” says Justin. “The whole idea behind the addition was to have a gourmet kitchen and to connect our pool use to our main house so we would have one contiguous space.”

The kitchen features a galley sink with accessories that include solid cutting boards, a board with a hole cut for a colander and a drain rack. “We can do all the cooking in one space,” Justin says.

The room also has a full dishwasher and a drawer dishwasher (there’s a third dishwasher in the pool house), a vegetable sink, a microwave with a warming drawer underneath, spice rack pullouts by the stovetop, a pot filler, a tile backsplash with a basketweave pattern and open shelving.

“We wanted a restaurant feel with open shelving,” Justin says.

To add versatility to the adjoining breakfast area, the space includes two rounds tables that can crank up to double as cocktail tables and built-in, upholstered banquette seating.

“It’s a great place for people to gather whether it’s just the two of us or we’re having a fundraiser for 200 people,” says Michael.

Overlooking the pool, three sets of full-length windows were designed to look like doors.

Neutral Territory
The adjoining dining room features a stacked stone fireplace, and Michael put up all of the stone himself. Built-ins flank either side of the fireplace, and oversized blue and white ginger jars and vases line the top shelves. White columns extend above the fireplace to the two-story ceiling, where a beaded chandelier hangs above the large, round pedestal table.

“The table was mahogany, but we refinished it to be a little more neutral in that space,” says Michael. “With all the color in the living room, we wanted the dining room to be neutral. It allows you to pop color in certain rooms, and it draws your eye into that space.”

In front of each upholstered chair sits a quirky, colorful canvas featuring an animal such as a cat, dog, pig, deer, chipmunk or squirrel. A porcelain animal sculpture candelabra serves as the centerpiece.

“So many dining rooms can get boring and stuffy,” Michael says. “I wanted something fun.”

Featuring gray walls, the neutral dining room highlights the silver lamps in the living room as well.

“With neutrals, you can pull in metallics. They reflect light and color,” says Michael. “I think it brightens up a room.”

The sitting room furnishings include a studded couch, a round wicker coffee table with a glass top and cube-shaped end tables with mirrored tops. Michael made the silk draperies for the window and the arched entryway into the room. On a pagoda etagere, they have an engraving of the Great Wall of China, which they visited during their trip.

Another memento on display is a photo of Michael, who once owned the world’s largest collection of Judy Garland memorabilia, with the late Karl Slover, one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Slover was a guest at their home several years ago when he was 92 years old.

In Good Hands
Justin has a passion for growing things, an interest that blossomed during his childhood weekends and summers at his grandparents’ farm and ranch near his hometown of El Paso, Texas. And it shows in the Evans home.

He planted all of the trees, including the palm trees in the front yard and in the pool area, and the creeping fig on the garage and the front steps. He also planted a row of fast-growing, disease-resistant Green Giant arborvitae trees alongside the pool area.

“My favorite part of living here is that our home is very private,” says Justin, who also plays the cello for Augusta Symphony.

He started playing the instrument in the fifth grade, thanks to those music education company types that visit elementary schools. Both of his grandmothers played the fiddler, so he had his heart set on playing the violin. However, no one had selected the cello, and the observant music representative recruited Justin to play it.

Michael designed the pool, which includes a sun shelf for lounge chairs, hot tub and stamped concrete surround, with a resort ambiance in mind. He also designed the balustrade around the area. An Atlanta company made the cement pieces, and they brought them back by U-Haul and put them together themselves.

Justin’s green thumb also is on full display in the Charleston courtyard, where staghorn ferns and bromeliads fill orchid boxes mounted on the brick walls of the house and the garage.

“The staghorn ferns and bromeliads are epiphytes, or air plants. They’re don’t need soil to live. They’re spread by spores,” Justin says.

An open-air porch between the pool and the courtyard features an overhang ceiling with wood paneling.

“The builder originally wanted the house to be a Charleston home with a narrow side porch,” says Justin. “If the side porch is open, it means ‘We’re accepting visitors.’ If it’s closed, we’re not.”

Suffice it to say, no wonder the side porch at this house is open permanently by design.

By Betsy Gilliland