Interior designer, color consultant and Houzz contributor Jennifer Ott and her husband, Russell Poldrack, a professor of neuroscience, have moved a lot for Poldrack’s work over the years; Ott can do her design business anywhere, so she has always been game to pick up and relocate when needed. Plus, it has given her the chance to do what she loves best: fix up run-down houses. And the more run-down, the better. That’s because working on fixer-uppers hones her design skills and lets her inject her personality and love of bright, saturated color into a home. Also, in a place like San Francisco, where she and her husband moved in 2014 and where all-cash bidding wars are the norm, a home in need of lots of attention often goes unnoticed and unwanted, which is perfect for Ott. “I like fixer-uppers,” she says. “I’m a designer, so I like to do my own thing.” Her latest endeavor was a years-long renovation of an 1890s Victorian cottage that had seen much better days. The home — with its plastic adornments on a low-grade plywood exterior, abundance of black-and-white tiled interiors, and finished-out attic space with only a five-foot clearance and accessible only by a tight spiral staircase — attracted no offers to buy, except from Ott and her husband. “We knew this house needed a major renovation and it was not going to be for the faint of heart,” Ott says. “No one would want to flip it. There were a lot of things going against it, so there was no competition.” Today, though, is a much different story. The couple took the house almost to the ground and built it back up into a modern barn house-meets-Victorian home full of vibrant and charming blues, greens and yellows.

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