Inside this 1907 house, two men have immersed themselves in the world of renovation. In just over two years, Rick Fox and Owen Sharman have repaired, refinished and repainted almost every square foot of their Colonial Revival home at 3600 Seminary Ave.

Their attention to detail is evident from the moment you step through the front door. A spacious foyer leads to their world of art and collectibles. The focal point is a broad stairway that begins with a curling mahogany banister and then pauses at a landing with a built-in window seat before rising to the third level.

Original oak and mahogany floors gleam. Sturdy fluted, ionic columns and woodwork throughout the house are painted glossy white.

"We had to do a lot of work to the ceilings and, in an older house like this, everything sags," Fox says. "It took us weeks to paint [the entryway] . . . we used a laser line to make sure we had a straight line and marked it with pencil, then taped it to create the pattern."

The diamond-pattern faux finish on the wall, in shades of taupe and beige, extends to the second level.

Sharman and Fox bought their 4,500-square-foot home in April 2005 and moved in a month earlier than they expected to because their Fan house sold so quickly. "We had no hot water for almost a month, so we roughed it for a little while. We were literally living out of boxes while the kitchen was being renovated," Fox recalled.

But when David Clark, a contractor with Richmond Rebuilders, finished remodeling the kitchen, the result was a modern space with granite countertops, diamond-pattern tumbled marble backsplash, cherry cabinets and an island work area with burgundy pendulum lights overhead.

The cabinets were custom designed by Owen Sharman's cousin and their stainless steel knobs resemble the finish of the professional-grade appliances.

Fox likes to do most of the cooking. He confesses that he does occasionally watch "Jamie at Home" on the Food Network. Now that he has a six-burner gas Wolf range, convection oven and Sub-Zero refrigerator, it makes entertaining a breeze.

Between the kitchen and the den, the owners designed a wine storage area complete with leaded-glass cabinets and a diamond pattern on the backsplash. A period glass light fixture hangs from the high stamped-copper ceiling. Two eclectic paintings by artist Erich Asperschlager are displayed in the wine pantry "Vegetarian Non-smoker" and "Laocoon."

At the back of the kitchen, near the back door, is a butler's pantry where Fox and Sharman were able to place a glass-front cabinet and a copper sink that were original to the house. Both inside and out, the owners tried to reuse and repurpose whatever they could when renovating the house and landscaping the yard.

The comfortable den at the front of the house is a place where they can relax. Chocolate brown walls ("Bittersweet Chocolate" by Benjamin Moore) provide a rich backdrop for a collection of "spy prints" depicting political humor from Vanity Fair magazine.

A large painting by D.C. artist Brett Busang, "North of Brook Road," occupies one wall of the room. Fox and Sharman have collected several of Busang's paintings.

When they were looking for artwork, Fox and Sharman stumbled across a painting Busang completed in 2003 of a foyer in an old Ginter Park house. When they took a closer look at the painting, they realized it was the entryway at 3600 Seminary Ave.

Fox had taken a photograph from the very same angle when he was walking through the old house before their purchase in 2005. The painting now proudly hangs between the living room and dining room of their home.

Two small Lori Brazier garden scenes may be found in the living room, along with a painting over the fireplace of the Chemung River in Corning, N.Y., by Artist Tom Gardiner. Corning is Fox's hometown, and two additional paintings from this region of the country also hang in the foyer.

A majestic painting of the old Mayo Bridge in downtown Richmond is the focal point of the dining room. It's also by Busang. Other pieces of art here relate to the theme of bridges, so they call the dining room their "Bridge Room." The walls appear to be an ocean-like gray-green color, but the owners say they're really painted a light blue.

The dining room features a table and chairs by Baker. An Edwardian sideboard was purchased at auction and the Empire server was a family piece. A mismatched silver tea service and Victorian-era cruet set that belonged to Fox's great-grandmother seem poised for entertaining.

Luxurious floor-to-ceiling silk drapes, sewn with an inverted pleat, hang in the formal rooms on the main floor. Many of the windows have intricate diamond-shaped glass panes. Sidelights and transoms over the larger windows and main doorway feature diamond-and-circle molding that forms a broken ogee "Westover" window crown.

Outside, the owners brought in two dump truck loads of fill dirt to even out the backyard. An alee of lavender crape myrtle and boxwood were planted along the sidewalk that leads to the garage.

A winding oyster shell pathway leads to the newly replanted perennial bed. Established boxwood, azaleas and mature hardwood trees accent garden areas.

A large male Ginkgo tree shades much of the front yard with its fan-shaped foliage that turns a luminescent gold in the fall. It's believed that Ginkgos grew over most of the earth some 200 million years ago, during the era of dinosaurs.

Several of these resilient trees were near the blast center when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. They survived the blast without major deformations and may still be seen today, earning the Ginkgo's the nickname, "bearer of hope."

Now that much of the renovation work at their home is completed, Fox and Sharman hope they can pause and enjoy the fruits of their labors.