More mixing than matching in home design

Larry and Jackie Umphlet's bi-level home in North Wales doesn't resemble one of those everything-matches rooms you often see in furniture advertisements.

And that's just fine with Jackie.

In the Umphlets' living room, an antique dictionary stand is positioned beneath a portrait of a Sixties flower child, which is near the large sideboard her father made so many years ago.

A wooden crate serves as an end table, near the handsome coffee table that sits in front of the newly purchased couch. And the couch is just a few feet from a flat-screen TV - of which there are many in this house, built in 1966.

"We are not the J.C. Penney-catalog, matching-end-tables" kind, says Jackie, 72. Her taste is eclectic - "unusual," to use her description.

There are few, if any, rules she follows as a decorator. But, she says, "I don't like to spend money if you can find another way to do it."

"Another way" being the creative way. "Creativity is what sparks people's interest," she says.

Jackie and husband Larry, 63, an IT specialist, are passionate bridge players - if you Google their names, you can see how good they are.

They also don't shy away from home-renovation challenges. Much of the work on the house they have done themselves, with help from friends and neighbors.

For example, they transformed the exterior of the house using fiber cement board siding.

"We piled in the insulation," says Jackie, not to mention replacing windows.

Larry installed French doors that open out to a second-floor deck, and a bay window in the kitchen that looks out over the Umphlets' extensive backyard.

When the time came for a face-lift in the kitchen, the couple decided not to tear out the existing cabinets. Instead, Jackie says, they replaced some of the door panels with glass, to give them a fresh look. They repainted the rest in a finish that looks like cherry, smooth and evenly toned.

New linoleum tile for the floor cost just $150; new dark-gray laminate countertop, $100. A Campbell's Kids clock keeps time.

"If you can make [something] look good and it doesn't have to be top-of-the-line, it's OK with me," says Jackie, who grew up in Norristown and worked as a secretary before retiring.

Of course, other parts of the house got their tender, prudent care. Jackie particularly loves the new closets.

Neighbors had moved from their homes because closet space was so lacking. Larry Umphlet found the solution.

He took the existing doors, turned them outward, and built a header. Then, he put hinges on the doors - so that they now appear to be walk-in closets.

Each closet gained about a third more space, Jackie says. Shoe bags on the doors make even more storage possible.

The Umphlets' creative touches are all around the house. In the bedrooms, Jackie shows off the curtains she has made. In the laundry room are the cubbies Larry made to store clothes that need ironing, and the ironing-board cover Jackie fashioned from an old dress.

The hub of much of their restoration effort is Larry's workshop - which before its own transformation was the attached garage. (They built a large two-car garage a few feet from the house.)

The workshop is home to a huge table saw, neatly labeled drawers containing the smaller accoutrements of his work, and myriad other tools that, to the untrained eye, look quite intimidating.

The Umphlets are longtime believers in energy conservation. So during the Carter administration, they built a sunroom with a wall of casement windows, where they start seeds for their garden.

And what a garden: blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, peppers, and much more.

Jackie makes lots of jam and cans the peppers. She has a grapevine and grinds the grapes for their seeds, which have a high concentration of vitamin E. They often donate some of the fresh fruit.

When they're not working on the house or in the garden, the Umphlets spend a great deal of time at the bridge table.

"Last week, I played bridge five times," Jackie says. "We rent a building - the North Penn Duplicate Bridge Club." Larry is a bridge director.

It seems only natural that the couple would have a large game room at home, too. It includes a pool table, another of Larry's passions. (He loves reading science fiction, too, while Jackie is a soap-opera fan.)

One of their current projects is a lively endeavor: training their pit bull, Jill, to be a therapy dog. She was found on the streets of Philadelphia, pregnant and starving.

Ultimately, Jackie hopes to travel to local schools with the dog, to help children who are having emotional issues.

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