A Northern California Couple Renovate a Condo With a Home Office for $464,000

Eric Waldman and Judy Tyrus’s journey to a life together began a long time ago. They both grew up in Northern California, attending high school in Richmond, where they knew each other but weren’t close. After graduation, Eric got a degree in environmental design at UC Berkeley, then worked in Silicon Valley. Judy’s path took her to New York City as a ballerina and principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem for many years before she returned home to the Bay Area. She and Eric reconnected through mutual friends, fell in love, and are now partners in life and business. Together they started the nonprofit ChromaDiverse, which "helps performing arts organizations preserve, protect, and present their historical legacy online," Judy says. "This type of archival support, particularly in dance, is necessary to tell their important stories and prevent cultural erasure."

Looking for more space and a refuge from San Francisco, Eric bought a condo in a Sebastopol complex called the Florence Lofts for $725,000. The concept of the 2008 development, designed by Steven Sheldon, was to create sustainable yet stylish live/work units, each having 900 square feet of living quarters and more than 600 square feet of office space. But the unit was showing its age, so the couple tapped Tama and Lauren Bell of Tama Bell Design for a refresh within a budget of about $500,000 for architectural work and furnishings. "The goal was to modernize, lighten, and brighten the space," says Tama.