Couple's signature projects put "wow" in renovated rambler

Patricia and Bobby Love get a kick out of the noises guests make in their bathroom.

They aren't the usual pretend-you-don't-hear-and-look-away sounds. Rather, the Loves hear people exclaim, "Oh, look at this!" "That's really cool!" punctuated by bursts of music.

That's what happens when guests enter "the theater," where local artist Colleen O'Grady reproduced an old-fashioned movie theater on all four walls, the ceiling and a ticket booth on the door.

The Loves don't think such projects are remarkable. This is a couple that dreams of building a "Star Trek" Enterprise starship to live in in Hawaii, has planted palm trees in their Bellevue front yard, and would like to install fiber-optic lights on their house's exterior so it changes color at night.

"We do the steps that a lot of times people want to do and wish to do, but just don't know how to do.

"Or maybe they all hate it, I don't know," said Patricia Love, laughing.

The bathroom was inspired by a trip to Memphis for Bobby Love's birthday, when the couple stayed at the Heartbreak Hotel.

They were considering a movie theme and Bobby Love adored the plush theater seats in a private projection room in their suite, so they created a theater in the bathroom.

Seated next to the toilet in red seats watching the end of a Warner Bros. film are the Jetsons family, Captain Kirk and Spock, and Batman and Batgirl; Mickey and Minnie Mouse snuggle in the back.

The Loves' two cats, Hula and Maui, play with spilled popcorn, while Shemen, their late cat, crouches beneath them.

If guests get bored looking at the walls, they can fiddle with a jukebox facing the toilet that Bobby Love found for $5.

The same quirky, personalized touch pervades the rest of the approximately 1,700-square-feet rambler. The Loves, who entertain frequently, enjoy the "wow factor."

"This particular (house) from the outside looks like a basic rambler," Patricia Love said. "Then you walk in, and it's not what you expected. We kind of like freaking people out."

Their kitchen, however, most likely elicits gasps because of its beauty, with stainless steel intersecting cherry wood in geometric shapes. The Loves saw a model at a home show and modified it for their kitchen.

The married real-estate agents benefit from seeing a variety of homes for work and can afford expenses like hiring a painter for the bathroom mural (cost: about $3,000).

But the Loves also aren't afraid of doing the work themselves. The house was so run down it had been on the market for a year when they bought it in 2002. They gutted most of the interior, and Bobby Love did the work putting it back together.

"We like to take a smaller space that has good potential and create even better spaces," Patricia Love said.

The Loves say they are similar in that they can visualize what they want and see the bigger picture. Bobby Love pre-wired a wall near the television so he could install Plexiglas with fiber-optics later for a flashy touch.

They hope to make an Enterprise starship out of foam that will emerge from a wall in the living room.

Patricia Love didn't like the look of a support beam in the entryway, so they designed the beam to accommodate a water fountain. Bobby Love already has cut copper tubing and welded it together so water will stream down a washboard.

"We like to invent stuff that hasn't been invented," Love said. The couple is like a Disney animation team, he said.

"I can practically see everything in black and white in my head," Bobby Love said. "She sees in color. ... She's got the flair."

And their fascination with "Star Trek" and outer space also influences their decorating philosophy as they embrace a belief in open-mindedness.

"It's a happy place," she said. "I think it creates positive energy. I think people are just afraid to do it themselves. I don't know why they're afraid."

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com

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