White Picker fences, window shutters and orange trees -- Scott (Ryan, THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS) and Melissa (Jennifer, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) Reeves have designed and created their own piece of suburban heaven for themselves and baby Emily.
~SOAP OPERA UPDATE: April 20, 1993~
White Picker fences, window shutters and orange trees -- Scott (Ryan, THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS) and Melissa (Jennifer, DAYS OF OUR LIVES) Reeves have designed and created their own piece of suburban heaven for themselves and baby Emily.
On March 23, the couple celebrated their third anniversary. Two-and-a-half of those years have been spent with a hammer in one hand and a paintbrush in the other. "We moved in and then we gutted the whole house," remembers Missy with a sigh. "Then we moved out and lived with my in-laws for six months. It got to be where it was so hard to live here with all of the wood and sawdust everywhere."
"We ripped the entire insides of the house out. Every square inch," says Scott with the zest of Tim Allen on HOME IMPROVEMENT. "We both had the same ideas about what we wanted to do. We both wanted white carpet, white wood, white tile. It's a big white house. Friends said that we were crazy to do everything in white with the animals and a baby, but we love it. The house looks bigger and lighter, and it makes you feel good when you walk in."
The couple designed the house as a mixture between country and southwestern, keeping all the woods very light, and utilizing dried flowers and terra cotta accents to give their home a comfortable cottage feeling. Exposed ceiling beams stained a dark orange may have presented a design problem for anyone else, but Scott put his skills as a former picture-framer to work and wrapped the beams in whitewashed pine, mitering the edges to make them look like new.
Besides being a framer, Scott picked up some carpentry tips when be dated someone whose father owned apartments, and he helped out with some of the finishing carpentry. The actor had a variety of interesting jobs before becoming an actor, appearing years ago for a brief period on DAYS. Starting out as a movie usher ("I found more money under the seats than I was getting paid"), Scott went on to fry taco shells at Taco Bell, and then delivered and installed waterbeds (he jokes about one delivery which resulted in an offer to star in an adult video -- he declined).
Scott and Missy did most of the remodeling themselves, falling back on contractors for tilework and the installation of the new kitchen. The centerpiece in the kitchen is a giant industrial stove which they both like to use when trying out new recipes. "We have a bunch of cookbooks and I like just pulling one out and experimenting," says Scott, who fancies himself a whiz in the kitchen. Now that the house is complete, the couple has hosted a few family holiday dinners (his family lives nearby, while hers lives in New Jersey), but Missy still seems uncertain about her culinary skills: "I'm okay, I guess. But we'll probably just run to McDonald's later."
No one can blame them for not wanting or having the energy to spend time slaving over a hot stove. Both actors have been involved in front-burner storylines for months on their respective shows, keeping each of them busy and on erratic schedules. Besides working, Scott is also an active surfer and guitarist. He recently started up lessons on the classical guitar and found that he had to grow out his nails to play the instrument. He even had to get an acrylic nail for his thumb when he broke his own nail off!
While both Missy and Scott are very busy, nothing takes a higher priority for them than spending quality time with their baby. In June, Emily (who gets called Em, Emmy, and even B.M. by a playful uncle) turns one and has had a full year of dealing with the press, photographers and a legion of celebrity fans created when she became a regular fixture behind the scenes at both DAYS and Y&R.
Emily's room, which her proud papa says "changes constantly," is filled with the requisite stuffed animals, plus giant baby items from the store Think Big. Her room carries on the same theme as the rest of the house by using whitewashed baby furniture. When Emily gets big enough, she'll have a gorgeous bathroom right off her bedroom. Scott and Missy started from scratch in that room and (of course) made it very white, using antique replica fixtures, such as an old water-closet toilet invented by a man named Crapper. The free-standing tub, accented with claw feet, is like something that you would see in the old west. "That was a booger to get in here," Scott says, pointing at the much narrower bathroom door. "We had been doing this house for so long, there would be things that I just wanted to get done, but no one would be available to help me. I'm very impatient when it comes to that."
Missy has gotten used to constantly being busy and on the go. "There is not one moment of quiet in this house," the actress says seriously, but with a warm smile hinting that she's used to it. "As soon as it gets nice and quiet, Pepe starts singing a little song." Pepe is the parrot that Scott has had for over five years that lives in the dining room. He chatters incessantly, cackles and laughs demonically, but does a wonderful interpretation of the Woody Woodpecker theme. Pepe and Missy are not friends but have learned to co-exist. "He was singing opera this morning, so loud. I said, 'Honey, you have to shoot the bird.'
"When Emily was born, I was hoping that she would hate the bird so I would have an excuse to get rid of it.
Unfortunately they love each other," says Missy. Besides Pepe, the Reeves's household includes Missy's four Chihuahuas and three cats. The cats don't belong to them, but have made their home a friendly place to permanently visit. "There are certain times when every single animal in this house is going," Scott says. "A siren will go by and the dogs will start howling and then the cats will chime in."
"It's a madhouse," adds Missy.
"It's an animal house," Scott realizes.
"Out of all of them, Emily is the easiest to take care of," realizes Missy. "I predicted it before I had Emily. I said, 'Honey, this baby cannot be as hard to take care of as this menagerie.' She's way easier. Even if the baby wakes us up in the middle of the night, it doesn't matter because we have to wake up three times a night anyway when the dogs start howling at the stupid sirens."
Even with four dogs, three cats, two very active adults, a bird and a baby, the couple is able to keep their home immaculately clean -- and the whites white! Part of the reason is Scott's need for order and cleanliness. "We'll have people over and Scott will follow them, picking up after them." Missy jokes. "I'll get up and leave a glass on the table and when I turn around, he's putting it in the dishwasher. It's a little anal retentive." Maybe, but there are plenty of women who would probably love to have Scott as a house husband!