Handcrafted home

EAST COUNTY — Pat Ringley and Ann Corbett-Brown’s black-and-white wooden home wasn’t always the warm, inviting cottage it is today.

What was once a “rundown house” plastered with orange, brown and floral wallpaper that peeled off the walls, Ringley gutted the house from the floor up to make the building a home for his family in the 1980s, he said.

“I make environments,” Ringley said. 

Ringley, a former musician and cabinetmaker of 35 years, has invested more than 600 hours in home renovations including decorations and even crafting the floorboards.

He spent late nights after his children went to bed laying eight to 10 panels of pine each night in the garage to transform it into a bedroom for his son, Casey. And he refinished the ceiling until his arms fell numb and forced him to break from his “one-man factory approach” at remodeling his home.

After 28 years in the home, Ringley is running low on renovation projects to occupy his attention. 

 “I’ve put a lot of hours into this place,” Ringley said. “I literally built most of it with my own hands.”

The house

The home was constructed in 1972, before Lakewood Ranch was built. It was home to wild hogs and other animals, Pat Ringley said. The 2,150-square-foot home sits on 2.5 acres, hidden from view at the end of an extensive grassy path and a forest of 90 palm, pine and oak trees. The trees throughout the yard inspired and became the base of furniture found inside the home.

The Living room

Ringley wanted “a killer living room” that was large enough to house family nights in, and was also warm and inviting for quiet nights painting or listening to music. He expanded the room by 16 feet and added a bay window that looks out onto the expansive wooded front yard. Ringley spent 30 hours on the window, and estimates he has hammered 20 feet of nails throughout the house.

Nostalgic photos

Among the only decorations in the home not made by Ringley or his family are rows of postcard-sized posters that line a wall in the dining area. Ringley acquired the $1 pieces of artwork of Chicago landmarks, such as a lighthouse in Evanston, Ill., and landscapes of fall foliage, during a trip to the Windy City in the 1990s. The wooden frames are worth more than the photos, but Ringley won’t part with the nostalgic mementos of a family vacation with his children.

Hand-Painted Art

Ringley splattered, brushed and swept acrylic and spray paints on canvases that line the hallways in the home. Cutting the grass in his backyard and other everyday activities spark ideas for the nearly 30 abstract pieces hanging throughout the home. This painting is the only one Ringley won’t sell.

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].