Building a home just like Dad did
‘It connects me to my childhood,’ says woman who, with her brother, recreated their 1960s Seattle house
Even if author Thomas Wolfe is right, and you can’t go home again, can a home be reimagined?
Allison Ainslie and her family are living that hypothesis of reminiscence — architecturally, geographically and emotionally. Early results are lovely on many levels.
As children, Allison and her brother Neill Ainslie lived with their parents and brother Bruce in a Madison Park home built in 1967 by their father, Hugh Ainslie.
Now, Allison and Neill are business partners at AinslieDavis Construction, and they have used their historic homestead to inform a new home they designed and built. It’s a mere five blocks away, and it was built for Allison and her modern-day family: husband John Martynovych, daughter Aleksandra and Blitz the dog; son Nicholas is grown and on his own.
“This is a redo of our childhood home,” says Neill. “It seems like, in the last 10 years, a lot of people are gravitating toward remodelling midcentury-modern houses. We had this property. How much better could it be to build a new midcentury-modern the way my dad did?”
Quite a bit better, as it turns out.
“We’re kind of a nostalgic family. My dad is nostalgic, too,” says Allison. “It connects me to my childhood in general ... I’m still in Madison Park. My daughter went to McGilvra (Elementary School), and I went to McGilvra. It’s the small town I grew up in, and I’m raising my kids in that small town.”
It’s not exactly the same home. But it is inspired by the original.
“I visited the (previous) house and had it in my head,” says Allison. “I introduced myself to the lady living in the house and told her I wanted to build this house. They walked us around. I came back and drew up the plan view and elevations with some tweaks, and went to ‘Uncle Mick’ (uncle/architect Bruce Michael O’Neill), who drew it up on CAD.”
The floor plan of her updated home is “basically the same,” Allison says, as are some features and materials:
Daughter Aleksandra’s room is in the same location as younger Allison’s. “When we were doing the back bedroom, I’d get real nostalgic,” says Neill. “Those were our middle-school days. We’d crack the window and sneak out while our parents were upstairs.”
“That particular house was really built around the indoor/ outdoor connection,” says Allison — as is this one, with a central, glassed-in courtyard.
“Neill and I do a lot of midcentury-modern, with massive fireplaces as a focal point and mahogany trim,” she says. Here, Allison’s husband, “a stone guy” with Lambert Marble & Tile, built the impressive Canadian limestone fireplace. “It’s very similar,” Allison says, “and the floating hearth is very midcentury.”
“The siding is reminiscent — cedar — and the colour is the same,” she says.
Meanwhile, time, taste and basic reality necessitated the few design tweaks:
“My lot is a little bit skinnier,” says Allison. “That house had a floating staircase, and we couldn’t fit it on here without modifications.”
“Then, all the floors were oak,” Allison says. “My husband installed porcelain tile floors, because of the dog.”
A 400-square-foot detached dwelling unit over the garage, which is rented out. “That’s how you afford to live in Seattle now,” Allison says.
This redo honours family history, and generations.
“I’m really happy,” says Allison.
“And Dad just thinks it’s the greatest thing in the world. He just thinks it’s awesome. ‘I want to copy you, Dad.’ What better form of flattery?”