A Personal Sanctuary

The first thing you notice when approaching the home of Faune Creaser and Alex Astbury is not the countless hours of painstaking labour that it took to remove decades’ worth of drab grey paint. The first thing you notice is the way it seems to beckon you and the alluring sense of welcome that it exudes.

A home renovator since 1980, Creaser has developed a strong philosophy of how a home should feel and function. A fail-safe recipe, her philosophy calls for equal parts light, strength and air with a liberal dose of functionality. “A house should be a functional work of art you really love coming home to every day,” Creaser muses — not surprising for a former administrator for the Halifax Regional School Board. Not surprising, and not bad advice for the rest of us either. One of the pillars of any design education is the motto “form follows function.” Luckily for Creaser and Astbury, they didn’t have to sacrifice one for the other in the conception and realization of their personal sanctuary.

As one of the original “hydrostone” homes built after the Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917, this north-end home immediately fit Creaser’s criteria for being strong. Planned and designed in the context of a “garden city,” hydrostone houses were to provide survivors of the Halifax Explosion with a form of shelter that could be built quickly and encourage a sense of security since the homes are resistant to fire. On the downside, the blocks contain channels that were never properly insulated and act like chimneys of cold air running through the walls of the houses. Hence many of the homes have been clad with sidings or various other finishes. “But we really wanted the true beauty of the hydrostone to shine through,” Creaser beams, and after hundreds of hours of labour, the house sparkles like a jewel in the sunlight due to its high quartz content.

A true artist at heart, Creaser found herself constantly sketching out new ideas for the renovation. In addition to her designs for the exterior pathways and patios of the house, one of her understated flourishes is evident in the concrete floor on the main level. Upon entering the house, gently undulating patterns in the floor lead your eye from room to room and direct your eye to take in expansive sightlines. “Because this is a smaller house, I wanted to create a sense of spaciousness, and being able to see through to the back garden from the front door provides that sense. People innately relate to the outdoors, and when they are entering a different environment for the first time, catching a glimpse of something familiar in the distance is comforting and welcoming,” shares Creaser.

Add to the mix a healthy dose of natural light: streaming in through generously sized windows, pouring in through a couple of solar tubes (refracting light from the roof level into the house) and flooding through glass block from one room to the next, and you have one very uplifting space.

Strategically placed recessed lighting illuminates traffic areas and carefully placed lamps light up what might otherwise be dark corners. Another of Creaser’s tricks for bouncing around as much light as possible are the mirrored transoms above the doors, each custom-fitted with a grill motif that repeats throughout the interior and exterior of the house. This repetition helps to bring a sense of familiarity to the home. The transoms also create visual height. Outside, low-voltage lighting softly lights the various pathways leading to the house.

One of Creaser’s key mentors and aides throughout the home renovating process over the last 14 years is a man she affectionately refers to as “The House Whisperer” but whose real name is Terry. Terry has been building and renovating homes for decades. “With all the tenacity of the rough and tumble fisherman that he is at heart, he will tackle any job. Terry always listens, and he always delivers,” praises Creaser. “All he has to do is to walk into a house and he can tell you whether or not it is ‘breathing’ properly.” Both agree that it is essential to the health of a home and the people living in it that it has proper airflow. One of Terry’s ingenious inventions for this house was a set of specially hinged baseboards, which allow for ventilation to the basement. “On a clear day I open these up and you wouldn’t believe the breeze that blows through here.” Terry also ensured that the attic was free of every last mote of coal dust and that the basement was as dry as a desert. The entire lot was re-graded to move rainwater away from the house and proper drainage was installed.

Careful planning has provided discretely screened parking spaces for three cars and ample room for outdoor lounging and dining. Creaser wanted this outdoor entertaining area to have a sense of privacy, but still invite passing glances or a conversation over the fence. “I know I love to look through other people’s backyards and I didn’t want to take that pleasure away from others.” Much of the garden design was about being good neighbours. A combination of natural stone walls and concrete pavers provide structure for a garden composed mostly of native Nova Scotian perennials that require low maintenance and there isn’t so much as a blade of grass that requires mowing, watering or fertilizing. While Creaser and Astbury enjoy a morning cup of coffee or entertain guests, the resident woodpecker, blue jays and nuthatches seem to tap and chirp out approval from the abundant canopy of branches provided by the gigantic mountain ash.

This same level of functionality has also been liberally applied to the interior of this charming home. During her career with the school board, Creaser worked on various school construction projects and saw firsthand the effect that a fully functioning environment can have on the activities that take place within its confines. “I saw teachers actually transform the way they taught when we designed the classrooms based on the curriculum we were using,” she recalls. That kind of functionality in her own home can’t help but put a smile on Creaser’s face. “Sometimes I’ll perform the simplest of tasks and think to myself — I can’t believe that works so well!”

Fond of the conservatories found in British row houses, the couple wanted to capture that aesthetic in their own home. Leading from the garden into the rear of the house is a set of large garden doors flanked by sidelights and a delightfully geometric arrangement of windows that all serve to bring the outdoors in, welcoming light and air into the main living space. To further enhance the sense of a conservatory, Creaser opted to carry the exterior stone inside, running it up the walls to the windowsills.

Here the visitor is greeted by a unique arrangement of what appear to be built-in sofas. “I had a really difficult time finding furniture that was suitable for a smaller space,” Creaser remarks. “It was such a treat to find streamlined furniture which can be customized to your home at Statement just over on Agricola Street.” Statement owner Ray Frizzell offered to provide an in-home consultation and Creaser was delighted with his suggestions for the space.                 
                                                         
A decision to create a door from the backyard to the basement left Creaser and Astbury with a rather awkward space in the living area, but Creaser used it to her advantage. By adding a covered mattress she created a comfortable day bed in this cozy little alcove — one that the couple uses all the time. “It’s great for reading or lounging around, and even though we don’t really watch TV, the room is set up so that future owners would be able to have stadium-style seating to watch a flat screen mounted beside the fireplace — one row here, comfortable armchairs directly beneath, and of course the sofa on the lower level.”

In the kitchen Creaser runs her hand over the Celtic Marble countertop. “Anyone who knows me knows that I love stone of any kind. It’s amazing to think about everything that goes into this piece of stone — it’s like a piece of history, solidified. It contains a bit of everything that we love”. A pilgrimage to Cape Breton allowed the couple to visit the quarry where the stone for counters and tiles for the washroom floors and tub surround were found. It was important to both Creaser and Astbury to use local materials that would seem much more at home in their personal environment. Also from Cape Breton are the gleaming hardwood floors, harvested in a sustainable manner.

Through a leaded glass door off the kitchen is Astbury’s office. A partner in Halifax’s hip new real estate company Red Door Realty, Astbury occasionally meets with clients at home. Access to his office just off the main entry maintains the distinction between the public and private areas of the home. If circumstances require an extra bedroom or in-law suite, the expense to create one would be minimal as a two-piece washroom in this area could easily be converted to a full bathroom since a rough-in for a shower sits just below the flooring.
Leading to the second floor is the original banister, retained and raised to code-required height. Upstairs a linen closet was moved to create room for a bathtub in the main bathroom. Not wanting to close in the small space they opted to install the tub in an ingenious configuration, which doesn’t require a space-enclosing shower curtain or glass door.

Initially Creaser didn’t think she could sleep in the room that is their bedroom, but now she absolutely loves it. A soffit over the head of the bed creates a sense of enclosure and provides a natural home for recessed lights for reading. Ample built-in storage eliminates the need for dressers and night tables that could otherwise clutter up the space. Astbury laughs, “This is the only house where I’ve had my clothes on the same floor as Faune’s.” He has two whole closets to himself, while Creaser enjoys a meticulously organized walk-in closet, which leads to a master ensuite. All closets are lit from within. Creaser jokes, “I spent 30 years dressing in the dark, and I vowed I wouldn’t do that here!”

It’s not just the bedroom that Creaser and Astbury love. “We couldn’t be happier. We love our neighbourhood, we can walk to almost everything, and of all the houses that we have worked on, this is the one that is most moulded to us and to our lifestyle.” It truly is a home that you love to return to, whether you live here as she does, or just have the occasional privilege of visiting.

Stuart Swing has worked with some of the top design firms in the country and is a regularly featured guest designer on HGTV’s Home to Go. •

 

Design Techniques 

In the bedroom

• A rich reddish tone on the wall above the bed adds warmth and provides a strong foundation for ever-changing artwork.  

• The horizontal lines of the headboard serve to widen the room.

• Suspended on either side of the bed, concealed shelves house eyeglasses and reading material.

In the kitchen

• A rotating steel brush is used to create the antique finish on the Celtic Marble kitchen island, smoothing away the softer veins in the marble, resulting in an almost time-worn finish that ripples gently as you pass your hand over it.

• Creaser’s built-in desk sits to the side of the kitchen and houses her personal computer. A flat-screen monitor on a flexible arm will allow the screen to be viewed from either the desk or the kitchen area.

In the living area
• Ray Frizzell of Statement Design suggested a multifunctional coffee table that raises and opens to become a dining table. “I can’t even begin to tell you how many ways we have configured that one table and three chairs!” Creaser laughs.  

• High ceilings lend a sense of spaciousness to what otherwise might feel like a very small room.

• An exposed wall of hydrostone block provides added texture in the living area.

Photographed by Colleen Dagnell and Bob Federer of ShooterBug Photography