< Previous60 COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018Jennifer Lawrence watches her husband, Jason, prepare bami, a family favorite, in the kitchen of their Dickinson home. COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018 61Counter Culture‘We have a lot of company’At this Dickinson home, everyone gathers in the sea-inspired kitchenStory by Sue Mayfield Geiger Photos by Jennifer ReynoldsJennifer Lawrence’s newly remod-eled kitchen in her Dickinson home has many functional components — a 12-foot-long island, KitchenAid stainless steel appliances, Fisher & Paykel six-burner gas range top, Hoshizaki ice mak-er, nifty coffee bar and two-tone beechwood cabinets with 66 doors.But it’s the family component that’s much more meaningful to Lawrence, who is a wife and mother, and the busy president of Chemic Engineers & Constructors in Hitch-cock.“We call our house the Lawrence Haci-enda,” she said. “We have a lot of company that comes to visit, plus my two teenagers have friends over, and the kitchen is the best place to hang due to its size and openness.”Lawrence particularly likes her new coffee bar, which is accessible to guests no matter how early they rise or how late they sleep.“It’s a self-serve area with coffee and tea choices, and a Bialetti ceramic kettle — something I first saw while visiting England,” Lawrence said.No matter how many guests might be congregating in the house, they always wind up in the kitchen, she said.“You can get a big group of people in here doing all sorts of things,” Lawrence said. “At one time, we had my daughter and niece baking cookies in one area, my hus-band cooking on the stove, me visiting with guests, and others just mingling.”All the new windows bring in light from 62 COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018Counter Culturethe outside, she said.“And since we’re surrounded by trees on our 2.5 acres, we have a nature-inspired view,” she said.Lawrence’s husband, Jason, does 50 percent of the cooking, and is known to whip up a pot of gumbo, red beans and rice, crawfish étouffée or fire up the outside grill. He particularly likes to wow guests with bami, an Asian noodle dish.The bright, Caribbean theme of the kitchen-dining area reflects this family’s love of the sea and scuba diving, and no doubt played a role when bringing it up to speed.“We’d only lived here for eight months when Hurricane Harvey flooded the house with 2 feet of water last year, but we were able to grab our dining room table, bench and chairs, and move them upstairs,” Law-rence said. “They cleaned up well and look really nice under our new rustic bronze chandelier. I have this weird, eclectic, mod-ern, tropical thing going on.”The new buffet, with tin sliding distressed doors and distressed wood from StarFine Furniture in Dickinson, is a perfect match for the salvaged table.The former kitchen cabinets couldn’t be saved, so Lawrence changed the configura-tion of the new ones, added drawers for pots and pans, special pull-out spice racks and lots of open shelving. Remarkably, all the hardware from the old cabinets and drawers fit beautifully on the new ones.Quartzite stone replaced granite counter-tops and an oyster white mini-brick pattern backsplash resembles the inside of a sea-shell, Lawrence said.Lawrence’s colorful collection of Fiesta- ware stands out, as well as other treasures, including vintage red and gold barware from her great aunt and uncle, highball glasses with matching ice bucket, and a little metal guitar man that she played with as a child.Although she’s quite proud of her new kitchen, she likes to spend time on the back porch, which provides easy access to the dining room.“We eat out there a lot, weather permit-ting,” she said. “The deer wander up while we’re cooking on the grill, and in the winter, we’re all around the fire pit. In the summer and fall, we do Pizza by the Pool on Friday nights, but switch to Saturday nights when Gator football season starts.” (Clockwise from above) When Jennifer and Jason Lawrence remodeled their Dickinson kitchen, they put in a coffee bar where a built-in desk had been. The couple was able to save the dinning room table, chairs and bench from Hurricane Harvey’s floodwa-ters. The newly remodeled kitchen features a built-in wine rack and glass holder. COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018 63BAMIAdapted from a recipe from Jerry and Donna Ramdhani, who are friends of the Lawrence family.INGREDIENTS11⁄2 to 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or chicken breast)8 to 12 ounces Thai rice noodles1 (15-ounce) can bean sprouts5 tablespoons dark soy sauce5 tablespoons light soy sauce3 tablespoons sweet soy sauceSalt and black pepperDry red pepper flakes (or cay-enne pepper)1⁄2 teaspoon ground coriander1⁄2 teaspoon Garlic powder (or fresh garlic)1-2 stalks celery, chopped3⁄4 white onion, chopped2 stalks green onion, slicedDIRECTIONSboil chicken in water with 1 tablespoon dark soy, 2 table-spoons light soy, 2 teaspoons black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon dry red pepper flakes. When cooked, remove from water and tear (or cut) chicken into small pieces. Using stock from chicken, boil the noo-dles until they’re al dente. Drain noodles, but save water they were cooked in.mix noodles with 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce.In large wok, sauté the white onion and celery. Add the chicken pieces, bean sprouts, 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 3 tablespoons light soy sauce, 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce, pinch of dry red pepper flakes, 1⁄2 teaspoon coriander, 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.mix in the noodles. If too dry, add more noodle water. mix well and top with green onions. Serve with sriracha (or other preferred chili sauce).(From left) Sliding spice cabinets make seasoning a recipe easy as Jason Lawrence cooks bami. The kitchen features KitchenAid stainless steel double ovens.64 COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018www.prepaidfunerals.texas.govFUNERAL HOME AND CEMETERY LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE GREATER HOUSTON AREA, INCLUDING:FOREST PARK EASTFuneral Home & Cemetery WEBSTER > 281-332-3111 DignityHouston.com <WHY PRE-PLAN YOUR MEMORIAL? 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We’re with you at each step, from determining which loan program is right for you to closing on your new home. 713-521-0413 Matt.hawkes@nflp.coM | nflp.coM/Matthawkes2211 norfolk st. #910, houston, tX 77098RESTORING THEAMERICANDREAM66 COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018 COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018 67Homeport‘A distinct personality’Once on an affluent island street, 1891 cottage settles into life by the seaStory by Marsha Canright Photos by Jennifer ReynoldsIn Virginia Lee Burton’s classic children’s tale, “The Little House,” a well-loved family home fades as time passes and the modern world engulfs it. Finally, it sits vacant and lonely.Just when it seems the once happy house will be lost forever, a family rescues it and moves it to the country-side where it once again watches the sun rise in the morning and set again in the evening.Such is the true-life tale of the classic gabled Galveston cottage built (Above) The gabled 1891 cottage on Settegast Road in Galveston started life as an elegant house in the 2700 block of Broadway. (Opposite page) Bricks used for the fireplaces are said to be from the Nottingham Lace Factory, a residential suburb that connected the city of Galveston to the island’s West End.68 COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018Homeportin 1891 at 2716 Broadway. Before 1900, the city’s central artery was an affluent residen-tial street and this cottage was elegant and upscale. The Moody Mansion is on the next block, although the cottage preceded its construction by four years.“This house has a distinct personality,” Kathleen Weathers, the home’s owner, said. “You can feel its warmth and its history.”A house that has survived so many de-cades in Galveston and has seen the turn of two centuries becomes a part of the city’s fabric. Still, in the 1970s, the future of the cottage was by no means secure, as many historic homes were torn down or not maintained. Broadway had become a mostly commercial street and the house was long vacant and used for storage by the neighbor-ing flower shop.“I remember the house from my childhood in the late 1940s and 1950s because of the wonderful people who lived there,” said John Maisel, proprietor of J. Maisel Mainland Floral, whose family started the business in 1935.At that time, the cottage belonged to Eliz-abeth McCarthy, who was universally known as “Mama Mac.”“Mama Mac was an inspiration on the piano playing amazing ragtime music like Scott Joplin; it was revolutionary,” Maisel said. “People would come and sit in the front yard and listen to her play. It was wonderful.”When McCarthy left in 1963, the Maisel family bought the property, and in 1983, they sold it to Harold Vanderpool, a pro-fessor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and his wife Nathalie, who is credit-ed with its careful restoration.The couple definitely rescued the house, moving it to its new permanent address, 13330 Settegast Road, where it overlooks Eckert Bayou near the nature sanctuary at Lafitte’s Cove.“I recall that they had to take off the roof to move it, and the house was divided into two parts,” Maisel said. “Still, it was so sturdy and well-built that there was not a single bit of damage.”(Above) The inlaid tile entry is original to the home. (Opposite page, from top) At the center of the cottage is an octagonal room. The cottage features three full bathrooms. The master bedroom on the first floor is bright and airy. COASTMONTHLY.COM / November 2018 69Next >