Smart mothers know better than taking their young children to the grocery store on trips. The little ones tend to be vigorous about things that ultimately no one but the family dentist will benefit from. And they do a lot of research on things that mom may not want to discuss publicly.
Courtney Henggeler can speak with some authority on the subject. Not so long ago she was rolling her car through the supermarket when her 4 year old son Oscar asked aloud, "Why do we have so many houses?"
"People who listened must have thought we were very rich," said Ms. Henggeler, 42, who starred in the hit Netflix series Cobra Kai, a 1984 spin-off from The Karate Kid. (She also appeared as Sheldon's twin sister on "The Big Bang Theory," and played a recurring role in the first few seasons of "Mom.") "It's just that we move. I'm filming Cobra Kai in Atlanta, and we were in one house for three months a year, and the next year we were in another house. "
Oscar may be relieved to know that his family – until recently based in Los Angeles, also in a number of rental properties – are looking for permanent addresses. About a year ago, Ms. Henggeler, who grew up in Poconos and Seaford, Long Island, and her husband, Ross Kohn, a film producer who grew up in Westchester, decided to return to New York and settle down closer to Ms. Henggeler's sick mother.
The plan: rent for a few years and then build your dream home.
Courtney Henggeler, 42
Occupation: actor
In pink: “It was very important to me to have a delicate pink bedroom for my daughter. Poor child. She's probably saying, "I just want a blue wall, mom."
"I had been to a million weddings before my wedding, so I figured out what I wanted and didn't want for my own wedding," said Ms. Henggeler, who married Mr. Kohn in 2015 and had a second child, a daughter, Georgie almost two years. “I felt the same way with houses. I've lived in so many that I somehow knew what I wanted. "
What she wanted from a rental seemed kind of absurd, and my husband looked at me like I had five heads. But I said, "We'll find it."
They found it – and more – in the form of a brand new transitional colonial in Huntington, New York. It had four bedrooms. She would have been satisfied with two bathrooms, but got four and a half. A bright kitchen with a six-burner stove? Check. Crown strips? (In abundance.) Dark hardwood floors? (Shut up, her heart.)
"I never knew how important flooring was," she said. “My previous houses were made of orange wood. I stay up at night looking at hardwood floors on Instagram. "
The back yard is smaller than she'd like it to be, as is the only bathtub. Family baths, a popular routine, are now stopped. However, these shortcomings were compensated for by the practice room in the basement (“I thought: who am I with a gym in my house?”). the floors with radiant heat in the bathroom ("My children are now like" I can't live without underfloor heating, Mom "and I'm like" Me too "); the central vacuum system (" What a princess I've become; I can do without that not live now "); and the kitchen's instant hot water dispenser.
But Ms. Henggeler was practically senselessly impressed by the foyer, which she furnished with a bench and a pillow. "It's actually my favorite place in the house," she said. "At the house we left in Los Angeles, you walked in and were in the living room straight away, and that drove me crazy."
But wait! There's more: a mud room. "I always wanted one," she said. “I love what people do to them. A mudroom is a functional space, but you can have fun with it. "
Your idea of fun in this case revolves around baskets – on coat hooks, under the bench, with gloves, scarves and shopping bags. "I have a hard time saying no to a basket," she said. "It's probably what I bought the most for this house. My attitude is, let's make it beautiful."
Apparently, Mr. Kohn's outerwear does not meet this standard. "Ross wants to hang his jacket in the mud room and I tell him to put it in the closet," said Ms. Henggeler.
Another example of her different views on decor: He likes a modern look with clean lines, while she's interested in old houses and feminine touches. "I got into the relationship with a lot of sparkling things," she said.
Out of consideration for her husband's feelings, she has declared Georgie's room her “girl-girl outlet”, painted it as a blush rose and used it as a repository for treasures from her own childhood, including a mirror, some books and framed pictures. Ms. Henggeler sums it up well: "The room looks like my apartment would look like now if I hadn't married a man who doesn't want to live in a house with Rosa."
But she understands the appeal of a different palette. She loves how the slate gray walls in the dining room highlight the collection of Jim Marshall rock star photographs that she inherited from her godfather.
She says her aesthetic is evolving – though she's not entirely sure that she's headed for the Californian chic look embodied by designer Jenni Kayne.
She is considering purchasing a chaise longue for the living room. It will take over the place that until recently was filled with a mattress she and Mr. Kohn bought for the first house they shared. "We didn't want to bring it to the curb until the day the garbage was collected, so we put it here. But our kids loved jumping on it, and it stayed for another seven months," said Ms. Henggeler.
"Right now," she added, "I'm in the phase where there is no ceiling that cannot be fixed."
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