Published in Caledon Living, Autumn 2006:
     From the outside, the little house close to the road doesn’t make a big impact.With large, imposing edifices and new mini mansions continuing to seduce the mass market for housing, smaller houses tend to be dismissible. Yet the house that Susan Davey of Alton has recently renovated is worth studying in detail. It’s a fine example of a not-so-big house that perfectly meets all needs.
     Susan did not so much choose the house as she accepted the responsibility for it. It has been in her family for four generations, and she talks about it now being her turn to care for it.
     “I inherited it from my mother, who inherited it from her mother, who inherited it from her mother in law,” she explains.
     The house was built in the 1930s by her grandfather, Wiley Houston, a prominent member of the Alton community, who married a daughter of the long-time local Algie family.
     Susan has a notebook of family history, which states “Wylie worked at The Alton Mill as a miller from 1911-1920. Wylie served as police commissioner, deputy reeve, and school trustee for SS#5 [now Alton Public School]. Wylie built the first cement tennis court in the district.”
     Once Susan accepted that the time had come for her to move back into her childhood home, she realized that some improvements would be necessary.
     “The whole renovation started with the kitchen,” she reveals. “It never worked. It was too small. If I was going to live here I would have to have a kitchen that’s workable.” Susan has a painting showing two relatives working in the kitchen with its previous layout.
     To plan and supervise the renovation, Susan searched on the Internet for an interior designer, and came upon the name of Elizabeth Bryan, a member of the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario, who happens to live in Alton in a building that was once occupied by one of Susan’s relatives.
     “It was meant to be,” says Susan.
     The vision for the renovation was that the house would be “warm, welcoming, gracious and comfortable, showing a diverse collection of art, furniture, collectibles in a simple, uncluttered way, with pleasing and interesting sight lines no matter the room or the place in the room” according to Susan’s records. The intention was also to use as many local trades people as possible.
     A doorway was relocated in the kitchen to improve traffic flow. Old wiring was replaced and properly grounded. A small granite-topped island with bar seating at one end was added. An apron-fronted farmer’s sink was put in, as were new stainless-steel appliances. New cupboards were installed with handles in the shape of frogs, chosen because the idea of blending the inside with the out was an important element of the design.
     The original plan of the house was a simple square, consisting of a living room, a “good” living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, with two small rooms upstairs.
     “The house was ahead of its time,” observes Susan. “There always was a bedroom and bathroom on the first floor.”
     Her parents had added a front entry way, which her father called “the pimple on the dimple,” in order to satisfy her mother, who didn’t want people to “leap into the living room,” as she saw it. A family room had also been added to the back of the house, with a small sunroom off it.
     Outside the family room was a small deck and patio with a garden bed. Susan had this area completely redone. Now, the space is a large deck with a swinging bench and planters with edges wide enough to sit on. Susan wanted enough space for an eating area, cooking area and a dancing area. She also kept the square garden bed.
     “It includes a burning bush,” she says. “The whole idea was to keep in sight of nature.”
     A long flight of steps goes down to the garden and the bank of Shaw’s Creek, which bends around the yard, offering river views from two sides of the house. New bay windows take great advantage of the setting.
     “I wanted an interesting view of the outside everywhere in the house,” explains Susan.
     Elizabeth suggested the former “good” living room should become the dining room. Separated from it by new bevelled glass doors is a new library. Two features stand out in this room.
     A treasured family painting hangs in a specially created space, and contains colours that Elizabeth, without seeing it, had already chosen for the house. This is another of many happy “accidents” that occurred during the renovation.
     A large oak cabinet fits against one wall. Originally from the Spode Canada office in Toronto, where Susan’s father worked, it formerly stored china patterns. Today, its square card drawers happen to be the perfect size for CDs.
     The floors in the dining room and library are original oak and were refinished. A new cork floor was laid in the kitchen.
     Between the kitchen and the bedroom is a renewed three-piece bathroom. A large shower is almost invisible thanks to its glass walls. The corner sink sits in a washstand that has been converted from a small dresser that her father had refinished.
     The bedroom’s closet has been outfitted with Space Age Shelving to maximize storage.
     Off the kitchen, toward the rear of the house, the family room was redone with wainscoting for a country feeling. A new gas fireplace from Caledon Fireplace was installed.
     “Going with gas was a tough decision,” says Susan. “I love the smell of wood burning.” She explains that the appeal of low maintenance won out.
     The sun room’s existing wood panelling was repainted to lighten the space for the small table and chairs that provide seating to overlook the garden and creek.
     “There’s a real mixture of my mother, grandmother, my father’s family and me in the house,” notes Susan.
     Upstairs, two small rooms with sloping ceilings have been transformed into comfortable guest quarters consisting of a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. A narrow linen cupboard at the top of the stairs shows how every bit of space in the house has been well used.
     Another guest room was added in 1998 in the basement, in an area that previously was a workroom for Susan’s father. Now it offers a large bed, bar fridge and natural gas stove to take off any dampness or chill. There is also a door to an outside patio with table and chairs that also look on the river.
     Gardens now slope down from the house to the river bank, replacing lawn. Susan had the property landscaped with a goal of being low maintenance.
     “I have not inherited a low of gardening,” she confides, adding that she wanted the yard to look as natural as possible. Yet masses of perennials make an impressive display, and Susan reveals that she gets a little help with the gardening. The only annuals are 24 flats worth of impatiens that ring trees and provide spots of colour. An irrigation system has been installed that runs on a well.
     Large, 200-year-old cedars on the river bank appear to be coming to the end of their lives, two having recently needed to be cut down, and Susan feels their loss tremendously.
     “It’s like losing a member of the family,” she adds. She’s wondering what to replace them with, as they served to screen a busy road.
     Hidden among some cedars at the water’s edge is a screened-in gazebo that her mother had built there. Not far from the house, it gives the sensation of being miles away, as comfortable lounge chairs invite lingering and listening to the soothing rush of the creek over rocks. Susan mentions that a friend always chooses to sleep there.
     Speaking of the work that has recently been done, Susan declares “This house renewal would not have been possible for me to achieve without Elizabeth. She brought unfailing good humour, energy, commitment to my vision, and practical yet very creative suggestions on every detail, from colour schemes, lighting, window coverings, furniture placement, to the hanging of my pictures. She never lost sight of my budget. Many people finish up with a house which has been the designer’s concept. Not so with Elizabeth. She truly created a home with me, one in which my vision has been made real and which reflects my lifestyle and personality.”
By Gloria Hildebrandt