My House Beautiful
Groat Estates home gets a loving facelift
Cosy, character home celebrates centennial with major facelift.
It was a surprise to find Faith Farthing living in such conditions.
We worked together years ago. I was the weekend assignment editor at the Edmonton Journal. Faith worked part time on the support staff.
On weekends, she answered phones. So that’s where memory left her — as a university student, working part-time.
So yes, it was a bit of a shock when I first visited this historic, grand house of hers in tony Groat Estates. A shock, at least, to a longtime journalist living in a wee downtown condo.
Yet Faith earned every square foot of this home. While I was out golfing, or practising guitar — perhaps napping — she was working, building up a successful communications firm.
The timing is perfect for her home reveal. Faith sunk considerable money into the place these last few months.
Why? The house was built in 1912. A 100th birthday demands to be celebrated.
New hardwood floors were installed on the main floor. Most of the home was repainted and the light fixtures replaced.
The home’s facelift wasn’t its first, though. The previous owners did a significant update to the home. They also added a front garage and topped it with a gorgeous loft space.
In fact, it was the bonus room above the garage that sold Faith on the house.
She was looking in 2004 for a home that could double as an office for her communications business.
She wandered into this house, saw the upstairs room and was hooked.
The bonus room, with its angled ceiling, fireplace, wood floors and ample, natural light is spacious, yet warm and cosy.
But it was the luxurious, sofa-like window seat that closed the deal. Faith pictured herself with a hot mug of tea, lounging by the window and reading manuscripts or editing documents — something she’s done many times since.
The house is 1,800 square feet. The basement is partially finished. Out front is a lovely enclosed porch, with room enough for a small party.
Inside, the feel is more formal. The living room is open to the dining area, which is open to the kitchen, tucked behind a serving counter.
With the old-style hotwater radiators, gas fireplace and traditional decor — including her grandfather’s 130-year-old piano — the main floor evokes a sense of warmth and welcome.
Upstairs is the aforementioned office/loft, as well as a guest room, master bedroom and loo, with a vintage, claw-foot tub.
When Faith bought the home she researched it in city archives. She learned it was first owned by a Sir Edmund Trowbridge.
The Trowbridge home, she also learned, was equipped in 1918 with one of those newfangled communications devices, a telephone.
Now it is equipped with digital technology and owned by a woman who parlayed a gift for communication’s nitpickery into a successful business.
Faith Farthing is one hell of a proofreader and editor. She tells the story of driving one day in town and suddenly feeling a bit antsy. Something was bothering her. She looked around and discovered the cause: A typo on a portable sign. She can spot mistakes in her peripheral vision.
“It’s a gift, though some people might see it as a curse,” says Faith with a laugh.
Her company, FinalEyes Communications, became a going concern on Faith’s talent and work ethic. It was nothing for Faith to still be working late on a Friday or Saturday evening.
When she took a break, it was to travel to some far-off place she’d never been.
That particular list is diminishing. To date, she’s visited 300 cities in 26 countries.
A recent passion is book publishing. Faith has published three books and has four in the works under her publishing business, Roadie Books.
She works tirelessly to promote her authors. I know this because she’s picked my brain and twisted my arm on their behalf.
Returning the favour, I demanded to write about her and her home.
She agreed, mostly because she loves the old house.
“It’s cosy and it’s got character,” says Faith.
Yet she’s not done with the facelift. She’s built a patio along one side of the house. Now she plans to install garden doors to open up to that patio from the dining room.
Man, that looks like a lot of work.
Apparently, not to Faith.