Elegant Olentangy home
Cribs
By David Lewis |
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As we sat drinking Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc from tastefully numbered, stemless wine glasses on the luxurious patio next to the pool, I couldn't help but wonder how Andy Haines could ever leave to go to work.
Chad Carpenter, left, and Andy Haines, right, at home with their whippets.
Photo: Christopher Atwood
Our gracious host, choreographer for the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus, arranges his home as meticulously as he coordinates dancers, and as intentionally. Every inch of the 200-year-old Federalist-style home is organized with bold and purposeful attention to the space. Even the resident pair of whippets, Kensington and Charleston, add an elegant element to the beautifully decorated home and its surrounding grounds.
Haines and his partner, Chad Carpenter, have been living on the property for seven years, and have put seven years of work into it...and it shows.
"At times, it's hard for me to appreciate it, because it's really a lot of work," said Carpenter with a laugh.
Haines has been a choreographer for 28 years, and he has learned about placement.
"Most people push their stuff against the walls," he said. "I like to pull everything back into the middle."
Haines said that he has recently begun freelancing as an interior choreographer.
"I go into people's homes and choreograph what's inside," noting that his function (and fee) is less intimidating than that of a designer, who is going to try to sell you items. Haines said he asks clients to bring everything out of the closets and up from the basement, and he just pulls from the items that are already there, rather than replace them with new things.
His own home is choreographed with a blend of modern art, antiques, and found objects, such as signs and old building materials. One striking sculpture, by an Indiana artist, portrays the fragility of life with slender tree limbs reaching skyward from a granite base, cradling a petrified goose egg. Some of the other artwork appears to be ancient. Much of it is local, and the placement never feels forced, as you traverse the wood floor, or mount the creak-less stairs, still possessed of the original wood planks.
Photo: Christopher Atwood
Carpenter, is a self-described "Anglophile," a lover of all things British; his favorite piece is the stately and austere grandfather clock, built in 1760.
"We bought it two weeks before 9/11, while we were in England," he said. "We had it shipped here and never expected to see it, because it was in this long wooden crate, looked like a coffin, and it had all this packing material."
The 2,650-square-foot "salt box" style home was built in 1826, and has seen a variety of owners. Originally built to house the farm owner and a workman, there is now only one door in the facade.
The main house is only one part of the total package for the property, of course. With a new garden house (the most glamorous tool shed in Columbus), a pool house, and a rustic fire-pit area located thirty feet below in the ravine, Haines has a versatile home perfect for social occasions, and one that adapts to the seasons.
While the pool area is perfect for late spring and summer, the fire area has an earthy and pagan quality ideal for autumn gatherings, and the house itself changes decor with each season.
"We have a lot of dinner parties," he said. "We use the property in a lot of different ways."
Originally Published: June 1, 2009
