When Brandon Ebel and Sarah Jio began planning a life together, they couldn’t miss the parallels between their own families and a certain television show.
“We have a ‘Brady Bunch’ situation going on,” said Mr. Ebel, 51, who has two daughters and a son from his previous marriage, while Ms. Jio, 43, has three sons from her previous marriage.
“We had actually met each other in the ’90s, when she was dating the lead singer of one of my punk rock bands,” said Mr. Ebel, the founder of Tooth & Nail Records and Solid State Records, and an owner of the coffee company Caffe Vita. “Then we both ended up getting divorced and met each other online again, 20 years later.”
author whose latest novel, “With Love from London,” is out this week. But after getting engaged in December 2017, they realized that neither home was large enough to hold their combined entourage, including six children who now range in age from 10 to 17.
GO’C, put Ms. Jio’s concerns to rest when they presented their design for the 5,500-square-foot house. “I loved it immediately, and I didn’t expect that — it actually shocked me,” Ms. Jio said. “It was a modern home of such warmth.”
The couple had given Mr. Gentry and Ms. O’Carroll a detailed wish list for their new home, and the architects had seemingly ticked every box. “Brandon said he didn’t want to give all the kids huge bedrooms where they would just go and hide out,” Ms. O’Carroll said. “So we created a communal space for the kids to hang out in and smaller bedrooms that encourage people to be together.”
The result is a series of six compact bedrooms of roughly 80 square feet apiece, clustered around a dedicated children’s living room with communal desks, on the top level of the three-story home. “I call them ship’s cabins,” Ms. Jio said. “They have their privacy and autonomy, but then they can come out and be brothers and sisters.”