Welcome to Casa Neverlandia

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A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
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A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
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A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
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James Talbot and Kay Pils brought their playful spirits into the home they renovated.
James Talbot and Kay Pils brought their playful spirits into the home they renovated.
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A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
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The built-in sofas provide a comfortable place for Talbot, Kay, and pets to relax within well-insulated walls. Talbot did the plaster work in this room, keeping the couple’s expenses as low as possible.
The built-in sofas provide a comfortable place for Talbot, Kay, and pets to relax within well-insulated walls. Talbot did the plaster work in this room, keeping the couple’s expenses as low as possible.
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Architect-designer and homeowner James Talbot builds children’s playscapes and creates beautiful beaded artwork in his studio.
Architect-designer and homeowner James Talbot builds children’s playscapes and creates beautiful beaded artwork in his studio.
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In the “Elvis in Las Vegas” room, the floors are covered with white tiger-skin patterned carpet, and the dreamy purple walls are offset with bright-red round columns and beams. Overhead, billowing sheer white curtains hang below tiny blue starlike lights and a skylight to let in moonlight.
In the “Elvis in Las Vegas” room, the floors are covered with white tiger-skin patterned carpet, and the dreamy purple walls are offset with bright-red round columns and beams. Overhead, billowing sheer white curtains hang below tiny blue starlike lights and a skylight to let in moonlight.
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The fire altar is one of four in the house ­representing the cardinal elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Lights from the glowing flame dance on the ceiling, a mosaic of broken glass that Kay designed.
The fire altar is one of four in the house ­representing the cardinal elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Lights from the glowing flame dance on the ceiling, a mosaic of broken glass that Kay designed.
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In the second-floor Bali room, standard reed fencing and bamboo covers the pitched walls all the way to the roof peak.
In the second-floor Bali room, standard reed fencing and bamboo covers the pitched walls all the way to the roof peak.
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A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
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Talbot created the earth altar in the home’s entryway using some of his late father’s ashes mixed into the brick mortar.
Talbot created the earth altar in the home’s entryway using some of his late father’s ashes mixed into the brick mortar.
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In the front upstairs balcony, a garage-sale chair with a small side table completes a private outside reading nook, shaded in the summer but viable through many of Austin’s relatively temperate winter months.
In the front upstairs balcony, a garage-sale chair with a small side table completes a private outside reading nook, shaded in the summer but viable through many of Austin’s relatively temperate winter months.
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A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.
A downtown Austin, Texas, eco-remodel brings storybook delight and charm into real-life scale.

With all the advances in green building technology, it might come as a surprise to hear about a house renovation project done the old-fashioned way: through resourcefulness and conservation. But architect-designer James Talbot and artist Kay Pils are full of surprises. And so is their two-bedroom home in downtown Austin, Texas, known as Casa Neverlandia–a colorful, undulating wonderland outfitted with solar panels, rainwater collection, fire poles, an elevated footbridge, talk tubes, nooks, and hideaways that is as much a nod to Dr. Seuss and Peter Pan as it is to Buckminster Fuller and Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí.

These days the house looks nothing like it did in 1979, when Talbot bought the single-story 1917 bungalow for the very reasonable price of $13,000 (reasonable because, well, it’s a good price for a house, but also because two-bedroom homes in the sought-after Bouldin Creek neighborhood now sell for close to $200,000). Transformed from its humble origins, the three-story limestone and brick Austrian chalet captures some of the flair of architectural styles of Goa, India, and Oaxaca, Mexico, by way of Las Vegas (circa 1963). “I grew up in the military, which meant I grew up around the world,” says Talbot, an architect and artist who builds children’s playscapes. “A lot of what you see here was inspired from the various places I’ve lived like Morocco, Turkey, London, and Venezuela.”

After he bought the house, Talbot added a Rumford-style fireplace and a sunken lounge to the main living area. But the big renovation didn’t take off until Kay, an artist and interior designer, moved in during 1996. Kay had homesteaded for sixteen years on twenty-two acres in the Texas Hill Country in a five-sided cabin she built herself for $1,000, so she was no stranger to a challenging project — or the uprooting that comes with a major house renovation. The couple topped the first story with a giant A-frame and sectioned it off into the second and third floors. Then they added a backyard artist’s studio, a four-story lookout tower, and many elaborate balconies and playthings.

Both during and after construction, Talbot and Kay paid careful attention to how much they would effect the natural environment. Many of the materials they used were salvaged from brick- and steelyards, bought from reuse stores, or simply donated from friends and family. In addition to the sixteen solar panels attached to the lookout tower, Talbot and Kay added a rainwater collection system on the studio and funneled graywater from the washing machine and bath to planting islands out back.

Conservation pays

  • Published on Jan 1, 2004
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