There are many notable design features in the custom-built home outside Guelph, Ont., which its owners call Ash and Thorn Farm. But no matter how old you are, the key talking point is often the bright yellow slide in the middle of the house that spirals from the ground level down to the basement.
“In all of our other projects, I wasn’t as involved as I was with this one,” she said. The family moved into a two-bedroom granny flat above a garage on the property, spending about 18 months living there during construction. With construction of the house completed, work to improve the rest of the 38-acre property began.
“We don’t keep any horses. We have a neighbour down the road who runs an equine therapy program out of the stable,” she said. The program has run for about five years. In addition to keeping the horse barn heated and maintained, Ms. Waldow liked the idea of sharing her lands. “We wanted people to be able to use the farm, we wanted to feel like it wasn’t just a place we retreated to and no one ever got to see.”Home of the Week, 7679 6th Line, Elora, Ont.
To the right is the entrance into the kitchen, which extends across the back of this wing of the house, which is defined by a long window looking onto the new pool deck. This space has pale wide-plank wood floors, and the kitchen is separated from the open space by a long black-granite island countertop big enough to be its own continent.