Cate and Doug Sheehan's home in the San Fernando Valley is unpretentious, warm, comfortable. When they bought it five years ago, the small, two-bedroom house wasn't the prime attraction; it was the location, its large lot and a huge California live oak tree in the front yard. "And it's zoned for animals, so we can raise game birds and keep horses here if we want to," Doug adds.
"Our friends thought we were crazy to buy a place that needed so much work," Cate says, "but we knew what we were in for. We've made lots of improvements inside and out, including landscaping, and up to now we have done virtually all of it ourselves."
Despite Doug's busy career--a long run on the daytime soap "General Hospital," his current role as Ben Gibson on "Knots Landing" and high visibility as the new Aramis man--he's found time to hone his handyman skills, building on to and remodeling parts of both the Valley house and their rural San Diego County hideaway. And although Cate's done less of the heavy work, she's contributed to the projects as much as Doug.
"We both have strong opinions," Cate says, "and neither of us has difficulty expressing them. But as far as decorating our houses goes, we seem to have similar likes and dislikes, so what you see here is our taste, not his and hers ."
