Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 21, 2010

11

Homes & Property

 Mountain Views News Saturday, August 21, 2010 

One Of A Kind: Featuring unique homes & gardens and the people who create them Story and Photos By Chris Bertrand


House of Blues ....and All That Jazz

This 1922-built Spanish style home, 
located in northern Sierra Madre, 
is somewhat hidden by the owners’ 
beloved cactus and succulent garden. 
Once inside, the music begins… 
literally. 

Dr. Phil Cabasso and his wife, Cheryl 
Barnes, are well known, not only for his 
internal medicine practice in Arcadia, 
but as a musical duo combining her 
vocals and his piano at LA music spots 
like The Baked Potato in Studio City, Pasadena’s Red White and 
Bluezz and Sierra Madre’s Café 322. Their collaboration combines 
Cheryl’s 3 ••• octave range of sultry and smoky to brilliant melodies 
with Phil’s dreamy harmonic and rhythmic explorations up and 
down the keyboard. A mesmerizing combination that draws the 
listener in slowly and surely.

How could I have asked for more? They performed one of my 
favorite tunes, “Fool on the Hill”, for me, as they will at A Taste of 
Sierra Madre on September 11. Later in September, they’ll return 
to Café 322 on Friday, the 17th. “We play and sing every day,” says 
Cheryl, “though it’s more intense when we’ve got new music for a 
gig or recording an album.”

When they’re not performing, music is one of two key threads 
woven throughout their home and life. The grand piano is Grand 
Central Station in the living room, a very personal space for playing 
and listening. Even if no one’s there, their music still hangs in the 
air. It’s only that they’ve taken a break between sets.

Collecting is their second passion, easily merged with the first. 
Their musical acquisitions start at quirky like a piano shaped radio 
and a piano shaped area rug in the family room; moves to notable 
sculptures in the musical genre to neon signs illuminating the word 
“Piano” when an at home concert begins. Much of it arranged 
around, above and even beneath the piano, a display space that 
unexpectedly works, especially because it’s at eye level for the seated 
audience during musical soirees.

Every item has a story. Every item has a history. No matter where 
we turned, the five foot high, vintage French posters, the Art Deco 
lighting, even the tile work has a resume. During my tour, the 
Cabassos commented that they’ve often collected items they knew 
were meant to be part of their lives and home, if yet unrevealed. 
Only years later would they be installed or incorporated into the 
home’s design. 

“All our friends know we love cobalt blue,” chuckles Cheryl. “Once 
we got a call that a local woodworking store, Rockler, was closing 
out cabinet handles in our favorite color. We didn’t know what we 
would use them for, but we had to have them. We didn’t even own 
the four poster steel bed where they’re now finials of a sort.”

They’ve haunted the “seconds” and overrun sales at Walker Zanger 
for unique tiles (often reflecting their passion for that cobalt blue) 
destined for a balcony, a kitchen backsplash, a seating wall or other 
installation they built years later. They’re 
regulars at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.

Price sometimes is and sometimes isn’t a 
factor. Blue glass plates embedded into the 
stucco in the back yard hardscape were 
from a Ross store, costing only a few dollars 
apiece. Simply a “must have” because of 
their deep blue color, sculptural impact 
and reflectivity. “We’re scavengers, really.” 
laughs Cheryl. “We look everywhere.”

The vintage, Art Deco dining room fixture 
is a prized heirloom shipped back from 
one of their sojourns into the markets of 
France, where Louis XIV furniture might 
be displayed next to a blanket with old 
dusty fixtures. The Cabassos regularly 
journey to the back roads of France, the 
home of many of Phil’s family. While there, 
they love to collect for the house, shipping 
back or hauling back their finds. Phil 
comments, “They know their market is for 
the Americans, really, so most times the 
fixtures have already been rewired for US 
electrical service.”

But the light bulbs on this favorite fixture 
are another story entirely. This one retains 
the original bayonet rather than thread 
style bulbs popular eighty years ago, and 
Phil can only special order these replicas 
on the internet at $15 a bulb. A rare case of 
“price no object”… well, almost.

The period breakfront in the dining room 
was one of those Rose Bowl Flea Market 
finds, mixed beautifully with graceful 
wrought iron dining table and displays 
of cobalt glass. Above the breakfront, the 
mirror and sconces were more Franco-
finds. 

Each room exudes their 
presence, investment 
and the love poured 
into creating their 
environment. And 
though it’s busy, with lots 
of elements, the whole 
house is permeated with 
the same calm that seeps 
from the couple’s music 
and their very pores. 

The Cabassos were 
driving down Pico near Helms Bakery, and 
noticed iron work out front of a business, 
and were blown away by this functional art 
form. They brought pictures of the angular 
Art Deco style wrought iron they wanted 
to use to decorate their arched doors. 

They’ve embarked successfully on many 
remodel and expansion projects, mostly 
because their first foray, the kitchen 
(accented in cobalt blue, of course) was 
such a success in 2006. “We were so 
emboldened by how easy our contractor 
made it for us,” Phil reflects.

“I spoke with a contractor patient, Mike 
Prunk, about our plans to 
remodel the kitchen. We’d 
already planned it out, down 
to the cobalt double sink and 
blue Viking stove and blue-
veined granite. He volunteered 
to bid the job, and the rest 
is history. The Cabasso still 
rave about Prunk’s work years 
later, after they also added 
an extensive balcony, added 
a master bedroom in what 
was the original carport on 
the walkout lower level of the 
home (including a killer shoe 
carousel), and created several 
outdoor living spaces in the 
back yard.

The back yard was inspired 
by chocolate. Well, actually, 
by the garden around the 
Ethel M Chocolate Factory 
in Henderson, Nevada. 
Apparently, tour buses make 
the place a regular tourist 
stop. They took photos of the six to twelve inch thick slabs of stone 
artfully arranged in the hardscape, knowing they just had to have 
some of this Arizona Red Rock at their home, filing the inspiration 
away in photographs and memories.

On a trip to Long Beach one day, they noticed the Lomita stone 
and rock yard. By incredible coincidence, the owner knew the 
installation in Henderson, completed by a friend. They talked more 
and exchanged contact information. Two weeks later, they were 
notified that two pallets of slabs arrived. Two thousand pounds of 
their “dream rock” was theirs.

The heavy slabs had to be rolled on pipes into the yard, where each 
was placed by hand, rather, by muscle. One sits at a jaunty angle, as 
a sculpture surrounded by smooth pebbles. Another enormous and 
thick slab creates the barbecue and seating table. The copper bucket, 
of course, was a “find.” stored away until they found the right use 
here as the outdoor kitchen’s sink. 

The balcony structure was so “overbuilt” that the Cabassos only 
half-jokingly say they’ll run out there in an earthquake. All sorts of 
collected tiles were embedded in the stucco walls and floors of the 
balcony, flowing like music along a staff. The balcony space expands 
the living spaces for indoor to outdoor entertaining, and becomes 
like a diving board for the eye to visually dive into the deep green 
pool of the yard below.

The Cabassos shared a few additional secret favorite haunts for local 
collecting: Pasadena Architectural Salvage for just about anything 
vintage up to the 1940’s, Hacienda on Colorado in Pasadena for 
rustic furniture, Arte De Mexico in North Hollywood for iron 
outdoor furniture and mosaic tile tables and Pasadena City College 
Flea Market for its potpourri of “treasures”. 

You’ll have a chance at a double dose of Barnes and Cabasso during 
A Taste of Sierra Madre. They will perform on that day, AND their 
cobalt blue accented kitchen will be on the “Coolest Kitchens Tour” 
Buy your Taste of Sierra Madre tickets at Savor the Flavor, Best Buy 
Drugs, Belle’s Nest and The Bottle Shop in downtown Sierra Madre. 
Visit www.CherylDBarnes.com for the couple’s full performance 
schedule.

Have an interesting home, garden or person who helps create them? 
Send the contact information to C.Bertrand@MtnViewsNews.com 
today!


Chris Bertrand


When you buy a home, or just make an offer, 
you will encounter the term “escrow account.” 
Like making a friendly bet and asking a third 
party to hold the wager money, the “escrow 
agent” is the neutral party that holdsfunds 
in the interest of the mortgage lender and the 
borrower.

When the terms of the purchase and loan 
agreements have been met, the money is 
released. When your application is approved 
and the loan takes effect, the lender will 
likely require money for property taxes and 
homeowner’s insurance also to be held in 
escrow. These funds are added to our monthly 
mortgage payment and disbursed when the 
tax and insurance bills are due.

This protects the lender by ensuring a lien isn’t 
placed against your property for non-payment 
of taxes, and your home (their collateral) is 
protected against catastrophe. But escrow 
also benefits borrowers by spreading the large 
annual payments for taxes and insurance over 
twelve months.

For example, if your taxes are $1,600 per year 
and your insurance is $800, you’re budgeting a 
reasonable $200 per month instead of making 
two big payments. Escrow accounts do not 
earn interest, so if you make a large enough 
downpayment, you may be able to avoid the 
monthly escrow and ay the bills directly. Ask 
your agent and your lender about the pros and 
cons.

Luther Tsinoglou has just been named the top producing 
sales agent in Dickson Podley Realtor’s Sierra Madre 
office for 2009, making the top 10% at the company 
overall. Luther has been licensed and practicing real 
estate since 1992. He specializes in residential and 
income property in Southern California. Luther can be 
reached at his direct line (626) 695-8650 or at luther@
tsinoglou.com. 

OPEN SUNDAY

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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com