DENVER POST

Precast stone kitchen hoods, like this one made of synthetic limestone, are among the hottest stone elements home improvers are asking for today. (Nostalgic Stone)

Much to my husband, Dan's, dismay, I'm always looking for something else to do to the house. To me it's one huge unfinished canvas, but to him it's Finished, with a capital "F."

Where I see a wall or ceiling that needs embellishing — some crown molding, a few ceiling beams, a cornice here, a decorative ledge there — he sees a surface that's perfectly functional, sufficient and does not need "money sunk into it." As a result, over the years we've developed names for each other: Never- Enough Marni and Forget-About-It Dan.

The urge to embellish often strikes after I've visited a beautiful home or hotel. Lately I've done both, which makes me want to fill a giant luge with rich architectural details and send it down a track aimed directly into my humble home.

Instead, I float a few suggestions by Dan: "We really need a medallion around this light fixture, some precast molding around this archway, and some French-inspired ceiling tiles in the master. Don't you think?"

"Forget about it." (Don't ever tell Dan this, but a cheap husband is all that stands between me and the fact that my house doesn't look like a wedding cake.) After a large internal struggle, where I'm torn between listening to him and doing what I want, a struggle harder than wrangling a greased hog to the ground, I realize that if I want to pay for the kids' schooling and stay married, I'll have to put my decorating desires on ice, and get my design fix another way.

So this week I got that vicarious fix at Nostalgic Stone, a Denver company that makes the kind of precast architectural elements I'm pining for.

After driving by three times, I finally spot the unremarkable door behind assorted concrete cast-offs. Inside, the place is covered in masonry dust, and makes me feel a little like Indiana Jones, on the verge of scoring a treasure amid some peril. It's my kind of place.

Cody Bathauer, senior project manager, takes me around the shop

Cody Bathauer of Nostalgic Stone holds a small resin statue he picked up at a hobby store for $20 and shows the larger-than- life mold his company's computer generated from it. From that, he can create a stone element cast in plaster, cement or syn- thetic limestone. (Marni Jameson)and through the boneyard outside, where we step over pieces of mantels, balusters and the occasional gargoyle.

The grounds look a bit like Tara after the war. I envision all these illustrious applications once gracing homes much grander than mine. It's so romantic.

I return home armed with a cellphone full of pictures, which I exuberantly show Dan.

"Look! They're not as expensive as you think!"

"Forget about it."

Syndicated columnist Marni Jameson is the author of the just released "House of Havoc," and "The House Always Wins" (Da Capo Press). Contact her through marnijameson.com.