It is orchid watering day at Diana Hadl’s home.  The kitchen sink is jam packed with phalaenopsis, oncidium and cymbidium orchids, which Diana babies in her solarium off of the kitchen.  They are interspersed throughout the house and just one of the many items Diana seems to be drawn to and therefore collects.  The home of Diana and John Hadl is more of a trip through time, a journey to distant lands and ancient beliefs.  The bedrock of Diana’s interior scheme is the fascinating and intrinsically beautiful Buddha’s that she and her late husband Jerri hand-selected through their years of marriage and blithe traveling adventures.

Diana greets me in her atrium, her short brazen hair is shades of red and chestnut and her smile is as big and inviting as her home state of Texas.  But what is most noticeable are her piercing jade green eyes, the exact color of the King Rama, a Thai king who is always depicted in emerald tones, that sits in her kitchen eating area.  The enormous crystal and iron chandelier that greets guests into the home is reflecting rainbows from the blazing November sun.  The rainbows dance in a frenzy off of the buttery, grass-cloth wallpaper and around Diana’s head, playing with the two antique wooden Balinese dancers that are perched upon an ornate buffet table in the entryway.

The dining room is adjacent to the foyer and lures the eye; it is a rhapsody in reds.  The walls are a deep burgundy as are the dining chairs.  The ceiling has been painted in shimmering gold tones that look almost like worn leather.  But the piece de resistance to this formal table in the round is a 14-foot long pair of Kabuki Theatre Pants, framed and hanging on the wall in a glass case.  “We found those in Singapore in a little antique shop.”  Diana beams, “The pants are over 200 years old.  In Kabuki Theatre they wear stilts which is why they are so long.”

The Hadl’s four bedroom home is a voyage to Southeast Asia.  Diana has trekked through antique shops and specialty boutiques in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia all a handful of times and it shows.  This is a footpath through the memories of distant lands.  Most of her treasured pieces are antiques brimming over with bravado and history.  But their home is not stuffy and pretentious; in fact the Border collie, Jazzy, follows us from room to room with a ratty old puffy toy hanging from his jowls.  In reality, he may rule the roost.

The living room is home to Diana’s favorite piece.  A Burmese Buddha made out of

Paper-Mache that dates back over 200 years, he sits, with his golden hands adorned by jewels looking over the inhabitants of the home.  Created in a small farming community this Buddha somehow found his way to Singapore where Diana discovered him and although he is made of paper his weight and girth are substantial and grounding.

The Buddha has help guide Diana through some rough patches in the road, she say’s, “I like the peacefulness of the Buddha, the serene feeling I get when I gaze upon him, his soft eyes seem to say, ‘Tell me what you’re thinking and we can overcome any problem together, nothing is impossible.’”

Because of that can-do spirit the Hadl residence is a shining example of what life can hold if you don’t let anything squelch your ambitions and deter you from achieving everything you can today, instead of waiting for tomorrow.  This is particularly true in the memorabilia room that is currently under renovations.  But even through the controlled chaos, number 21’s jerseys from various teams lay lovingly on the floor.  John was a famed quarterback for many years with the San Diego Chargers, Greenbay Packers, and a slew of other professional teams that he either played or coached for.  There are trophies and statues, metals and certificates it is a menagerie of a Kansas Jayhawk’s memories of a game he clearly mastered.

Diana does not just appreciate the old artisans and their creations.  She commissioned Stephen Nettles an artist from Topeka to hand-paint the fireplace and built-in bookshelves that frame the mantel.  He mirrored the image from an antique armoire located in the dining room, an outdoor scene of bonsai trees, pagodas and petite bridges.  If you look closely there is even a small putting green flag with the letters ‘KU’ etched into his painting, an ode to John’s love of the University of Kansas and his other favorite sport, golf.

John and Diana’s domicile is a portrait of their lives, a memoir emblazoned around every corner with artifacts that tell a story, a story of people they have met, places they have seen, dreams accomplished and the impassioned life well lived.