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AUGUST | PAGE 26 | 2014 Custis. I had seen the hyphen there and loved it. It's always tricky to add on to existing roof lines, and I was thrilled with Dillon's solution. So what started as a kitchen and bathroom remodel with a closet add-on resulted in a full-on face lift for the entire house, and we took it down to the studs. I moved out for 13 months, and the result was indeed a very happy one. COLOR. My house is a traditional square Federal box. When it came time to decorate, I wanted to speak to the traditional while still having it echo my Mexican roots and love of travel and, of course, have a wink of fun. My friends call it "Monte Vernon," a Mexican Mount Vernon/Monticello. One of my all-time favorite rooms is the entry hall at Monticello, where Thomas Jefferson displays his maps and travel artifacts from Lewis and Clark. I love a bright pop of color in rooms. Not only are they fun rooms to inhabit, but there is historical precedence. Some of my favorites include George Washington's dining room, which is a bright green; Deyrolle, my favorite spot for taxidermy in Paris, which has wacky bright walls; and the Bachelor's Dining Room at Bayou Bend. SCALING BACK. I'm very interested in scale and how spaces work. One of my favorite classes in graduate school was garden theory and the study of spaces. I am not one to judge (well…), but I do not understand the American way of supersizing everything. Whenever I travel outside the country and come back to the States, there's a reentry adjustment to the sheer size of everything — homes, food portions, cars — and the general impression that more is better. Unfortunately, this supersizing has been applied by architects and builders to the American house — does anybody really need a mini- fridge in their bedroom? I struggle with huge houses crammed onto small lots, having zero lot line and leaving no space for yard or garden. It feels a little like architectural gluttony and comes back around to how important scale is in design. Bigger is not always better. LOCAL FAVORITES. My personal garden took some time. ("The cobbler's kids have not shoes.") For my own garden, I used all my favorite plants, which are a palette that I seem to use over and over: agave, boxwood, olive trees, camellias, gardenias, succulents, sweet pea tee-peas, climbing roses, potted shaped topiary and potted citrus. I love to have fresh garden flowers in the house — hence, I have cutting-flower beds lining my front walkway. I'm a real swimmer, so the idea of putting in that tiny pool felt funny, but I love it. It's what we call a cocktail pool, and it turns colors à la Turrell. The pool can be awfully fun for parties, I set it to shark-bite-blood red for Halloween. FROM WORK … TO POOL. I am an avid swimmer and swim on the Rice Masters swim team at Rice University. I love open-water swimming; we have a group on my team that travels together to open- water races such as the Brooklyn Bridge crossing (where I won my age group one year — thank God for the currents being in my favor!) and Alcatraz, and I just got back from a great trip to open-water swim camp in Montenegro and Croatia. I addictively record my swim mileage on the United States Master Swim website and try to swim 300 miles a year. GIVING BACK. I'm involved with the restoration of the Houston Hospice gardens through the Garden Club of Houston. Houston is a relatively young city, and we don't have much in the way of garden history; it's important to preserve what we can. The gardens were designed around a lovely parterre that Pat Fleming designed in the '40s. Our goal is to restore the gardens to his original vision while providing hospice-care residents accessibility to the gardens. FAVORITE GARDENS AROUND THE WORLD. Lotusland in Santa Barbara: Crazy shells and cactus … Château Vaux-le-Vicomte, outside of Paris: Its creation is filled with great lore and intrigue… Thomas Jefferson's Monticello: I adore the house and gardens … Paleis Het Loo in Holland: Dutch order at its best … Levens Hall: Outrageous topiary gardens. FINAL THOUGHTS. Running one's own business does indeed have its challenges as anyone who owns one will tell you. And being a service provider means keeping lots of people happy all at once and making sure all your balls stay in the air. On the days when they drop, I head straight for the pool. In the kitchen, custom window serves as a porthole to greenery. The color-changing tub and hardware are from Hollywood Builders Hardware. The tile is encaustic cement made in Santo Domingo, purchased from Architectural Design Resource. The laundry room is painted Benjamin Moore WU12-11 from Southwestern Paint, with a Kohler farmhouse sink, Carrara marble on the walls and stainless-steel countertops. Custom window. Chandelier is vintage toile from Round Top Antiques Fair. French doors swing open to the back garden. Vintage table from Urban Market. The open kitchen is framed by the library walls painted Benjamin Moore Peacock Blue, echoed by a vivid-hued Schonbek chandelier.